LAGWAR | GAMING'S BEST IN TOP NOTCH MEDIOCRITY

Recently Steam had a sale offering Empire Total War for 50% off the $49.99 MSRP. Being a fan of the Total War series, I decided to go ahead and purchase the game, especially since it was half price. As many of you probably already know the game is incredible. It’s one of, if not the most, visually stunning Real Time Strategy games every released. Holding true to the Total War franchise, Empire Total War continues to remain historically accurate and offers very large scale battles.

But enough about that. I don’t want this to turn into a review of the game, I’m actually writing this to hopefully help out other ETW players and maybe help myself out as well. Those of you who have or are currently playing ETW have probably noticed a bug or three. The game is incredible, but it is not without it’s faults. Most of these are probably due to Sega not beta testing the game as extensively as they should have. The game has been patched up to version 1.3 and this has helped the in-game performance as well as resolved several crash related issues but many problems still remain.

In my Road to Independence campaign, I am currently stuck on turn 183. Even if I start from an earlier save point or restart the campaign altogether, the game will crash somewhere around turn 180. This is extremely frustrating. Basically, I’ve gotten to play just enough of the game to be entirely addicted but have now been cut off. Believe me when I say it’s extremely addictive. Yesterday I was almost going into fits over not being able to play the game. Patch 1.3 was released only a few days ago so it’s probably going to be another month before we see the next patch.

What’s an 18th century conqueror to do? Hopefully by building a small compilation of tweaks and fixes, figure out a way around the bugs. I managed to find a short list of bugs and potential fixes at GamingNewsLink.com. If anyone knows of any tips, tricks, tweaks, or fixes to help build a list please post them in the comments thread below.

I had been running Empire Total War on Windows XP 32-bit since I was unsuccessful in my attempt to run the demo on Windows 7 64-bit RC version 7100. But since I’ve hit the brick wall with XP 32-bit, I have found many posters stating that they are able to run the full version of Empire Total War on Windows 7 64-bit RC version 7100 just fine. So I will be attempting that in the next couple hours. I will report my results in the comments thread shortly after.

Until then, here is a list of bugs and potential fixes from GamingNewsLink.com. Please feel free to post any bugs, crashes, suggestions, tips, tricks, tweaks, or fixes you’ve found in the comments thread.

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Problem #1 : The game hangs after a few minutes of playing minutes of playing Empire Total War”. Rebooted my PC but then got the error message “failed to run install script” (as posted by deConteville)

Solutions : Reinstall the game or redownload the game from Steam if you bought it from Steam. If you bought the game from a vendor, reinstall Steam.

Problem #2 : Empire Total War BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) when launched

Solution A: Update your video card drivers to the latest version.
Solution B: Try solution to Problem #1
Solution C: A lot of people seem to get this problem. Wait for a late-zero day patch for Empire Total War.

Problem #3 : Bought Empire Total War game from Steam, Downloaded the game and Steam automatically updated. But the game wont start

Solutions : the percentage is not correct…….DONT restart steam and don’t click launch game because you’ll have to start again…. ( as posted by mr_mega_drive)

Problem #4 : When I go to install it(Click “install empire: total war” I get Steamservice.exe – Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or, file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item. (I click OK)
Setup Error- Failed to start install script
I have Steam installed up-to-date and running, also, steamservice.exe is a file on the disc. (as posted by Dragon239)

Solutions : Good ol’ restart. And I was able to install Empire Total War. (as posted by Dragon239)

Problem #5 : Empire Total War (CTD) crashes to desktop. Crash error message is something like “Problem signature: Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: Empire.exe “

Solution: Try playing Empire Total War in Windows XP SP2 compatibility.
Solution: Try running the Empires executable in the Empire Total War steamapps directory

Problem #6 : Empire Total War white screen error. Im using an integrated Intel graphics card to play Empire Total War

Solution: Updating the drivers from Intel.com MIGHT get the game running, albeit slowly. The game requires a dedicated graphics card to run properly/at all. (As posted by DarKTW)

Problem #7 : Empire Total War wont start, “This Game is Currently Unavailable” error message from Steam.

Solution A: Restart Steam
Solution B: Change the Steam download location, restart Steam and try again. (as posted by DarkKtw)

Problem #8 : Empire Total War sound errors (stuttering, no sounds. etc)
Solution : No known solutions as of this posting.