This has been addressed as an issue here in the forums but no fix has been suggested.
I'm using Windows Vista Home premium and the console won't pull up. I've search google I don't know how many times using every word combination I could think of, and searched all over planetvampire, but only found some information about vista users disabling some USB driver in device manager which doesn't work as I don't have that driver (eHome Infared Devices)
things i have tried so far::
-console is outside the "quotes" and in target section not in "start in"
I've tried adding -game both before and after -console
I've tried both caps and lowercase, with the whole word and first letter
I've tried disabling UAC
I've tried every competipility option available with combination of above.
I've tried running it as an administrator with combination of above.
I have not played the game for too long but there are no other game issues. it just seems the console wont appear.
Please help.

I too am having this problem. Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Console should work fine though, but maybe the key mappings changed for some oddball reason. Try hitting some random keys and see if it doesn't pop up. Also check the target in your shortcut. Mine is:

G:\Games\VtM Redemption\Vampire.exe -console

But there is another solution I havent tried but I heard it works:

1) go to start, control panel, system maintenance
2) go to device manager and click on Universal Serial Bus Controllers
3) Click on eHome infrared Recievers, click driver (at the top) and click disable.

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I hope this is the solution to your problem --
Dont forget to mark it as the answer if it really helps.

When I tried adding the -console after the .exe" on the shortcut, it comes up as "specified in the Target box is not valid. Make sure the path and file name are correct.