The recently released Empire : Total War is definitely one of the best PC games to be released in quite a while. The game’s huge popularity has given birth to an active modding community just like in previous Total War games. This article features three cool mods currently available for ETW – The Blood Mod, The Smoke Mod and the Sound mod. With these mods enabled you’ll get to play Empire Total War with extra sound effects, enhanced blood and gore animations and better fire and explosion effects.

We’ve summarized the features and download links for each mod below. Improvements made in various version upgrades have been integrated to the features list. Note that all of these mods were created by Mech_Donald of Total War Center Forums – full credit goes to him.

Blood Mod v1.1

Features

• IMPROVED : Musket hit blood effects reworked (smaller, darker, more realistic)
• Blood for infantry, hit by cannonball roundshots
• Blood for infantry, hit by musket bullets!

Download

[Click Here] to download Blood Mod 1.1 from FileFront

Battlefield Smoke Mod Full Version 2.6

Features

• IMPROVED : better musket hit blood effects (smaller, darker, more realistic)
• IMPROVED : better explosions of explosive frag grenades (no more fiery sparks, explosion flash added)
• IMPROVED : ship onboard fire reworked
• IMPROVED : smoke of ship on fire reworked
• better musket fire
• better musket smoke effects
• long-lasting, ascending battlefield smoke
• better cannon fire effects
• better ground hit effects for cannonball and explosive ammunition
• ship cannon fire effects much improved
• blood effects enabled for roundshot hits

Download

[Click Here] to download Smoke Mod 2.6 Full version from FileFront

Battlefield Sound Mod

Features

1. 7 different marching fifes and drums songs
2. musket sounds with more bass
3. cannon fire sounds with more bass
4. puckle gun sounds with more bass

Download

[Click Here] to download Sound Mod from FileFront

The original TWCF thread on this topic can be found here. Lite versions of some of the mods and alternative download links along with latest updates and user experiences can be found on this thread.

How to enable the mods in Empire Total War

Now that you’ve downloaded the mods, you might be wondering how to import them into the game. Simply place them in your ETW data folder in Steam client directory:

1. Remove any older versions of Smoke mod, Blood mod or Sound mod if you have them installed.
2. Download the files. UnRAR them using WinRAR or Winzip 11+
3. Exacted files will have the .pack extension – you need to place these in the Steam data folder for ETW. Default is C:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\empire total war\data 

Related Articles

• Empire :Total War All Factions Unlocker
• Empire : Total War Money Trainer by RazorDox – Download
• Solutions for Empire : Total War sound problems, crashes, display issues & errors
• Empire : Total War cracked update patch released by RazorDox
• Pirates crack Empire : Total War steam protection

Read the rest of this article...

Several hours ago we reported about the leaking of Empire : Total War on BitTorrent. Although the game is undoubtedly a great hit, it isn’t without its share of issues. A lot of people who are using the pirated (cracked) version of the game by Razor1911 seem to be having problems. Those who actually purchased the game on Steam have reportedly run into a few problems as well. Given below are some of the issues reported by users of both the cracked and legitimate versions of Empire : Total War.

UPDATE: An update patch has been released for this game. Before you try any of the fixes mentioned in this article, update your game to the latest build and check if the problems are fixed. If you are using the pirated version, a cracked patch has been released by RazorDox – read all about it here.

Note that you may not encounter none, some or all of the problems mentioned below – user experience seem to vary from each installation. Also, not that some of these problems may exist in the legitimate version of the game as well. We cannot guarantee that the fixes mentioned in the article will solve all your problems – sometimes they will and sometimes they won’t.

Sound issues, missing sounds and other audio related problems

Problem: Missing sound effects. You may encounter missing or no sound effects with Empire : Total War. For example, when you give the command for a unit to march, you may not hear the corresponding sound effect. Some have reported missing sounds from horses, swords, cannons, etc as well.

UPDATE 8/03 (Working Solution): Search TPB for "etw_sounds_sfx.pack", download it and replace the sounds_sfx.pack file in the game's installation folder.

Solution 1 (Untested): Note that I have not tested this solution myself. Backup all replaced files before testing his method.

1. Download the Empire : Total War Demo and install it (It’s a free Steam download).
2. In the Demo installation directory, locate the file demo3.pack. Rename the file to sounds_sfx.pack
3. Browse to the installation directory of the full game (not the demo). Replace the sounds_sfx.pack file located in the full install dir using the renamed filed created at step 2.
4. Run the game

Solution 2 (New/Updated) : Download the “Empire: Total War sound fix for all releases” which can be found on public BitTorrent trackers.

Problem: Missing voice acting and missing/skipping advisor messages

Solution: See solution 2 for Missing sound effects problem (above)

Crash to desktop (CTD), freezes, installer issues and hangs

Problem: Some users (both pirated and legitimate) have experienced crashes with the game when trying to start a new campaign (for example when trying to start the road to independence campaign) while some have reported crashes after the first battle. Some others have experienced the game crashing or freezing at the loading screen or just randomly.

Solution: No direct solution yet. Keep in mind that updating DirectX, Microsoft .NET Framework and your system drivers will always help at least minimize the chances of random crashes.

UPDATED Alternative Solution: Here is something you can try to avoid the crash at road to independence campaign as well as maybe installer crashes. This is for the pirated version of the game. No guarantee that this’ll work – worth a shot anyways.

1. Uninstall the game if you have already installed it. Delete all copied cracks or any other modified files.
2. Create a new folder for the game to be installed. Copy all modified/cracked files to this location before installing the game.
3. Install the game to the folder created at step 2. When the installer prompts for files on disk 2, point to them in the following order: 1. _0.sid 2. _1.sid 3. _2.sid 4. _2.sid
4. Rename and Replace the sounds_sfx file with the one in demo as per instructions given in the sound issues section above.

Problem: Installer crashes before completion. If you are using Windows 7 Beta (and even on Vista and XP in some instances), you might experience crashes with the ETW installer, specially at the end of disk1 or disk2 installation.

Solution: When the installer prompts you for the installation disk, make sure you type the full path (Ex- X:\Empire Total War_disk1_0.sid). If you press the browse button or type and incomplete path, the installer will crash. May or may not work for OS versions other than Windows 7 as well. Keep in mind that the installer may take a long time to complete – this is normal.

Steam related errors and issues

It’s not only pirates who are suffering from ETW glitches. Legitimate buyers who downloaded the game from Steam have had their share of problems as well.

Problem: Missing textures, cannot launch the game from Steam, error messages ‘empire.exe caused an error….’, etc

Solution: The above problems may have something to do with Steam not downloading all of the game files correctly. Launch Steam, Right click on Empire: Total War, go to properties. Open the ‘local files’ tab and verify the integrity of game cache. Re-Download any files if required.

Performance enhancements and software/drivers for error free Empire : Total War game experience

Make sure you have the following software installed on your system for optimal game experience

NVIDIA Drivers: NVIDIA have released 182.08 drivers which are recommended from Empire : Total War. Direct download links are given below:

• Windows Vista 32-bit
• Windows Vista 64-bit
• Windows XP 32-bit
• Windows XP 64-bit

ATI Drivers: Download the latest ATI Catalyst 9.2 drivers from this link: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

Motherboard and sound card drivers: [Click Here] to download 3DP Chip for Windows Vista/XP – This program will automatically detect your hardware (video card, sound card and motherboard) and find available driver updates.

Latest Microsoft .NET Framework: Download the latest .NET Framework from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/default.aspx

Latest Microsoft DirectX Runtime: This is very important if you are using Windows XP, download the latest DirectX runtimes from this link.

Related Articles

• Pirates crack Empire : Total War steam protection

Read the rest of this article...

RazorDox, have come up with a cracked update for the recently released Empire : Total War. RazorDox is a sub division of Razor1911 which is responsible for releasing trainers, add-ons and cracked update patches for PC games. Anyways the release of ETW update should be welcome news for those who pirated the game as cracked versions were prone to various issues. Also note that this update seems to fix the missing sound effects issue that was present in almost all pirated versions of Empire : Total War.

The following is quoted from Razor1911 NFO:

You need a clean installation of our release!

If you modified , replaced or renamed any files of the game while attempting to fix the bugs, it’s always better to uninstall, run a registry cleaner, reinstall and then attempt to run the update patch on the new installation.

Given below are a set of issues address by the update patch (applies to both pirated and legitimate versions):

• Fixed Alt-Tab issue which prevents players from switching away from a full screen window
• Fixed text rendering for certain resolutions
• Fixed localized font overrun issues.
• Fixed a variety of crash and memory leak issues
• Fixed a variety of multiplayer client lock
• Fixed trade nodes for those nations with resource in home region which caused unprofitable trade theatre routes eg: Sweden and Marathas.

Do not post download or torrent links for cracks, cracked patches, key generators or anything of that sort here.

Related Articles

• Empire :Total War All Factions Unlocker
• Empire : Total War Money Trainer by RazorDox – Download
• Solutions for Empire : Total War sound problems, crashes, display issues & errors
• Pirates crack Empire : Total War steam protection

Read the rest of this article...

About a day ago Razor1911 cracked and released the highly anticipated Empire : Total War for the PC. The DOX division of Razor1911 (RazorDoX) have come up with a money trainer for the game. When run in background, this trainer adds $10000 money to your empire every time the user presses the F1 key. Note that using trainers with games such as Empire : Total War can really kill the gameplay value.

Below are the install notes from RazorDox NFO:

Install Notes

1. Unpack
2. Start the game and run the trainer
3. Use this key: F1 - Add 10000$ to money

Download

This small 335KB file can be downloaded from MegaShare.

[Click Here] to download Empire Total War Money Trainer

Related Articles

• Pirates crack Empire : Total War steam protection
• Solutions for Empire : Total War sound problems, crashes, display issues & errors

Read the rest of this article...

Year 2008 could be termed as an year when SecuROM DRM got pwned at the hands of scene and p2p groups. It looks as if year 2009 will be the year that Steam got raped. One of the most anticipated games of this year, Creative Assembly’s Empire : Total War has been cracked by veteran scene group Razor1911 and leaked on the internet right on the game’s North American release date. It looks as if the leaked version is the Special Force Edition of the game which has some additional elite units not present in the regular Empire : Total War.
Update: Those having sound, crashing, missing textures and other problems with the game, read this article.

Empire : Total War is distributed exclusively via Steam, the digital content distribution platform which was once thought ‘uncrackable’ by many.  Razor1911’s release includes a full DVD Image of the game (2 DVDs – 11.8GB), a custom installer as well as a cracked exe which either bypasses or removes the Steam protection altogether.

Razor1911’s release was leaked from scene topsites into private torrent trackers just a few minutes after it was pre’d:

[ Empire_Total_War_Special_Forces_Edition-Razor1911 15 ] [ Uploaded first @ ScT 13m 21s after pre, followed by RBy, ScR, ScL, TV, PTM, TD, TGB, ACE, ST] ]

Source: Torrent-Racers IRC Channel

The release has now spread to public BitTorrent trackers, one click hosting sites such as RapidShare, public FTP servers and so on.

Personally, I’ve been dying to get my hands on this game ever since it was announced several months ago. If you think turn based strategy games are not your thing, just give this one a go – chances are that you’ll get addicted to it. Highly recommended title for any PC gamer folks (watch the trailers here)!

Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP/Vista
• Processor: Pentium 4 @ 2.4 GHz
• Memory: 1 GB
• Hard Drive: 15 GB Free
• Video Memory: 256 MB (Shader Model 2.0)
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
• DirectX: 9.0c
• Keyboard & Mouse
• DVD Rom Drive

An article addressing various problems and errors you may encounter with the game (non crack related) will also be published. Keep checking the homepage.

Related Articles

• SeedGames – PC and Console games torrent tracker – Signups open

Read the rest of this article...

Well what do you know? Another Total War game has hit the gaming scene. Those of you who played Empire : Total War, must be eyeing this game with a little skepticism. Although it became a hit, ETW by no means was a perfect game. It felt a little unpolished and there were plenty of bugs present during the game’s initial release - some of those remain unresolved to date, even after 9 update patches. However, the story with Napoleon Total War is different – the game is seemingly free of showstopper bugs, has improved AI and is better than ETW in most technical aspects. So far, we didn’t get a lot of queries from our readers to post a dedicated troubleshooting article but here are some possible fixes for a common problem some of you seem to be having with the game.

Napoleon Total War is distributed via Valve’s Steam content distribution platform. Sometimes you may encounter a steam_api.dll not found error and game will crash upon launch. There are three possible workarounds that may alleviate this problem:

1. If you are launching the game from a desktop or quick launch shortcut, try running the game directly. Browse to the game’s installation folder and double click on the game executable.
2. Reinstall – reinstalling both the game and the Stream client may fix this problem. It’s a possibility that the initial installation somehow got messed up without all required dll files being copied to your hard drive.
3. Copy the missing dll files from a full installation of Empire – Total War. If you are a TW fan chances are high that you already have ETW installed. Browse to the game installation dir, search for the missing dll, when found make a copy of the dll file and copy it to appropriate folder in NTW.'

I will add more fixes/post a separate article if any more issues are reported. Feel free to post the problems you are facing as comments.

Read the rest of this article...

I’m pretty impressed with the speed NVIDIA releases new driver updates. Whenever a major PC title hits the market, they release a new set of drivers that are aimed at minimizing problems with the latest release. Just after Empire:Total War was released, NVIDIA have released ForceWare drivers v182.08 (release 182) to the public. If you are playing ETW or any other new PC game, upgrading to 182.08 is recommended.

I’ve installed these drivers and tried playing Empire:Total War but I could not observe a noticeable performance gain over 182.06 drivers. Release notes for this version are given below:

New in Release 182.08:

• Added support for GeForce GTS 250.
• Added SLI profile support for some newly released games.
• Additional information on specific bug fixes can be found in the release documentation notes.
• Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver.

So maybe 182.08 does not include any performance enhancements over 182.06 at all? Only way to decide which version to keep is to try several drivers with a new PC title (that is optimized) and observe the results.

Download

Direct download links for v182.08 are given below. All links point to official NVIDIA servers – no 3rd party links have been provided.

• Windows Vista 32-bit
• Windows Vista 64-bit
• Windows XP 32-bit
• Windows XP 64-bit

Read the rest of this article...

After group RELOADED cracked and released the standalone expansion for Red Alert 3 (Red Alert 3 : Uprising) yesterday, Dox division of Razor1911 have today come up with a trainer for the game. This trainer has four options (PLUS 4) : Unlimited energy, a credits hack to add 10k credits, max threat meter and add a security point. This is the second trainer released by RazorDox in recent times, previous one being a money trainer for Empire : Total War.

How to use the trainer:

1. UnRAR the file rzr-cct4 using WinRAR

2. Start the game

3. Start the trainer

4. Press any of the following key combinations for corresponding effect:

• Ctrl + F1 – Unlimited energy [Off]
• Ctrl + F2 – Add 10000 credits
• Ctrl + F3 – Max. threat meter [Off]
• Ctrl + F 4 = Add 1 security point

Download

Links Removed

Read the rest of this article...