how do you open the dev console? I am pulling my hair out. it should be simple

If your on Windows 7 open the start menu and type Device Manager, open that and drop down Human Interface Devices, you should see eHome Infrared Transceiver (among other things) right click it and choose to uninstall, if done correctly when you're in-game and you press the "~" key the HUD should disappear, the game should freeze, and you'll be able to put in a command, when you're done press "~" to exit the console and continue playing.

This is probably the most likely cause for your problems. It took me awhile to figure out that I needed to do that.

really? this is something I have never had to do before. But it has been a long time since I attempted a mod.

well it worked thanks for the info. What is this infared doohickey that I just uninstalled?

IIRC, mine was for a remote control that I never even had.

It's for controllers and all that jazz. Don't worry about it being uninstalled, it reinstalls automatically when you start your computer.

I just put the game in , started it up and pressed the tilde key.