Vista - Empire Total War Demo

Well I downloaded this twice due to problems the first time round, thinking that it may have been a bad download, I tried again, but the problems are still there

Crackling sound, like static behind units, no marching sounds, infact if I was honest the sounds in all are pretty lame, when you compare to Medieval 2 the sounds in that for gunpowder units were simply terrific, but in Empire they seem somewhat poor, anyone else tried the demo and feels the same?

I hope that this is only down to it being a demo, some on official forums have said that Steam did cock up some of the files, how true this is I don't know, again it is all just guessing from people, until official word comes out, we won't know, but to say I am disappointed is an understatement, such a shame as I had really high hopes for this game, I'll still buy it but hope that these things can be addressed.

Also no blood effects, and for a war game its poor, again maybe a demo thing? if they have gone down that route then its not good at all

But my main concerns are that and the sounds, long load times don't particularly bother me, but I also had a crash trying to play the Brandywine battle, so things are a bit touch and go with this

Just hope it gets sorted that's all, or that it is as I have said down to it being a demo, only thing that makes me doubt this, is I think the demo for Medieval 2 was much better and no problems, I am worried, anyone else?

Jekyll and Hyde

Got the excact same problem myself. I actually made Dell come and repair my speakers because i thought they were the problem. Got the same problem with Medieval actually. Those static noices.
I'm gonna wait until i get the full version and check if i have the same problem. Got the problem with long loading screens as well. Guessing it's the demo that's not as good as it should be? Anyone else experiencing the same problems?

Hi Buzz,

Welcome to the forums

I have done an awful amount of reading since the demo and found a comment by a CA person that said that the demo lacked some sound files and was a very old build, so I feel much re-assured that things will be fine come the day the game arrives, so I wouldn't worry too much, the full game is said to be fantastic and with IGN review giving it 95 and many others around 90 and some at 10 out of ten it really is looking most impressive

I for one cannot wait till I get it in my sweaty hands!! LOL

I was worried that there would be no blood effects, but again someone said that that his father bought a computer mag and in it it said that the puffs of blood were nicely done, so whilst I feel a bit relieved, I want to resist my excitement a little until I see it for myself, not that I am a vampire or anything, but it is a war game afterall

Sorry to hear you get crackling and also in Medieval 2, I don't thankfully, but it is awful when sound is affected by something, what soundcard do you have btw, I have onboard sound, so not sure I could help you with it though, and after reading what you said I hope that the CA employee was right and that the crackling won't be in the full game, if it is, I'll go nuts, if I am not already lol

Jekyll and Hyde

Ahh, that's surely a relief. Hope the guy's right. The problem is not that big in medieval, but it was extreme in the demo. But if he says it's an old build i believe him. Hope so...

I must say i second that emotion. Counting down from 20 hours until release now. Or, so steam says! Hope the download rate is good enough as well.. i hope they take in consideration that is has to be thousands who want to download it at the same time :P

My audiocard is a Sigmatel HD CODEC, brand new.. so it should really not be the problem. And if the problem is still there in the full version, i will most likely go inasne myself

Aaand thanks for the warm welcome!

Hmm, I know nothing about that sound card you have I'm afraid, sorry better to be honest than try to tell you to download something and it makes matters worse, I've been caught out by that myself, though not here I am happy to say

By reading your post I take it you are buying it from Steam? I hope it all goes well for you!! I have got the Special Forces Edition coming from Play.com, so should have it come Wednesday, although it has been known to arrive a day early, but in this case there is little point as it won't activate until Wednesday lol

Oh and btw, if when and when you have played the Single Player to death, if you fancy trying out the multi with anyone, then I might like to give it a whirl, if so just pm me if you like, with that being said, I can only do it if you can save in Multi and I don't know about that

And your welcome

Jekyll and Hyde

Lol, i am now sitting and waiting for the Steam servers to cool down. Steam litteraly crashed when i tried to start the download sequence... steam f a i l. Hope they'll fix it soon.

I hope you get to play it soon, yes it must be the only game to have had this almost mass hysteria about it.

I myself have had a gut full of the installation and only now have I done it and defragged and am ready to play, but before I do a word to the wise for anyone that is installing a boxed version, if you find as I did that the install seems to take an age on "creating local file cache" and you hear no disk activity, do the following:

Come out of it, go to my computer and right click your cd or dvd drive then one with the disk in and then right click on it and choose open, then look for the Steam setup icon (it will say Steam autorun setup) and right click it and choose run as administrator, bingo the game now installs

Hope this might help anyone having that problem

Right time to go into the game proper, hope all goes well and I don't have to come back and complain about something, I refuse to got to any of the Total War sites to post as they are all such horrible people, hardly reply to me and when they do they come across as just plain rude and ignorant, I will not waste my time with idiots

Anyway rant over, sorry about that, but I just almost had a run in with a piece of......on one of those forums and had to stop myself, was not easy to say the least, but put it this way, when people tell me what to do in a dictating sort of way I see blood