You could win an Alienware M17x high performance gaming laptop and a copy of Empire: Total War Special Forces Edition! We’re also giving out 5 copies of Empire: Total War Special Forces edition, so even if you don’t win the big prize, you could still walk away with a great game.

The contest is open to all US and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec and Puerto Rico) aged 13 and up. The contest closes this Friday, March 12th. If you haven’t entered yet, get over to the contest page and get your name in the hat. See the official rules.

Best of luck!

It’s here! The long awaited and much anticipated Multiplayer Beta for Empire: Total War is now available! The Multiplayer Beta will allow two players to go head to head or cooperative against the AI on the full campaign map of Empire: Total War, including all 3 theaters of war.

Key Multiplayer Beta Features:
* Play on the entire Empire campaign map (All 3 theatres) against another player.
* Fight against far improved AI nations, overhauled by update 1.5.
* Work together or in competition to dominate the entire Empire campaign map.
* Play via LAN or the Internet through Steam.
* Engage in diplomacy with AI factions and another player.
* Betray or cooperate with a friend or enemy, the choice is yours.
* Fight real-time battles against the AI together, or have a friend take the AI’s place in battle for the ultimate tactical challenge!

The Empire Multiplayer Beta is only available for owners of Empire Total War and can be redeemed across the Total War website. Head on over to secure your key today!

It’s time again for Free Stuff Friday on Twitter! We’ve got some hot items lined up for you this week, including some extremely rare SEGA gear. In fact, we’re so excited to show you what we’re giving away that we decided to make a video to show it all off. If you’re more of a photo-type though, don’t fret… I’ve still got photos for you further down the way.

If you’re new to Free Stuff Friday, I’ve got a primer for you at the bottom of this entry. Brush up on your Twitter skills, make sure everything is in order, and get ready to win fun stuff!

I filmed Clumsyorchid and RubyEclipse talking about this week’s giveaway, so without further ado…

If you like the video and want us to keep doing them, please let us know! We thought it would be fun to try, and we hope you like it.

On the Block

Item 1: SEGA Baseball Shirt

This is a 3/4 sleeve length dark & light blue baseball-style shirt with SEGA on the front. As mentioned in the video, this is from the personal collection of Clumsyorchid. Everyone is eligible to win this prize.

Congrats to our winner, @@watermelon64!

Item 2: Virtua Tennis tennis balls

This is a set of 3 tennis balls branded with the Virtua Tennis 2009  logo. There is also a SEGA logo on the lid. Everyone is eligible to win this prize.

Congrats to our winner, @edlago!

Item 3: SEGA Sweatshirt

This red sweatshirt with the SEGA logo on it is a size S, and also from the personal collection of Clumsyorchid. Everyone is eligible to win this prize!

Congrats to our winner @thexboxfan!

Item 4: The Conduit (Wii)

Hot off the presses and straight to you! The Conduit was released this week, and we’ve got a copy to give to one lucky fan! It’s for the Wii (obviously), and sorry — this one is limited to people in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Latin America (NTSC region).

Congrats to our winner @wargamer!

Item 5: Empire: Total War

Empire: Total War just had an update this past week along with some sweet DLC. If you haven’t given this RTS a chance yet, this could be your lucky day! It’s for the PC and everyone in the US, Canada, Mexico and Latin America (NTSC) is eligible.

Congrats to our winner, @KenWicklein!

Item 6: Virtua Tennis 2009

Need some Virtua Tennis on your PS3? Here’s your chance! Everyone in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Latin America (NTSC) is eligible.

Congrats to our winner, @GenDV138!

Item 7: Let’s Tap

Let’s Tap is getting some great reviews! If you win this game, you’re in for a tappin’ good time! Available to all in US, Canada, Mexico and Latin America (NTSC).

Congrats to our winner, @Volcynika!

How it Works

1. You must be following us on Twitter to be eligible. (If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can create one by going to http://www.twitter.com and click the green “get started — join!” button in the center of the page.)
2. At random times on Friday, we will announce the prize we are giving away, and what number of response you need to be to win. Send us a direct message (DM) via Twitter and be that number to win the prize. (@ replies do not count as entries!)
3. All followers are eligible to win all prizes, unless a restriction is noted. Restrictions are usually due to the prize being region-locked. For example, US games that won’t work on UK gaming systems. There may also be age restrictions due to the rating of the game.
4. We will announce the winner on our Twitter feed once eligibility is confirmed.

Make Sure We’re Following You on Twitter

If you are currently following us on Twitter, please be sure that we are following you as well. You can do this by making sure that SEGA is in your “followers” list, or by going to DoesFollow and typing SEGA in the first blank, your Twitter username in the second, and pressing the “check” button. You can reverse this to be sure that you are following us. If you are following us, but we’re not following you, please send a message to @SEGA and we will follow you. This is important, because only people we follow can send us direct messages (DMs), and DMs are the only way to enter the giveaways.

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

There are a few ways to send us a Direct Message on Twitter. The easiest way is to go to our Twitter page and select “message” under the “Actions” heading in the side bar. If you do not see “message”, this means that we are not following you. Please send a message to @sega to let us know, and we will follow you. When you click “message” you will be taken to a window where you can type a message and press send.

You may also select the “direct messages” tab from your Twitter homepage, and select SEGA from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Again, if you don’t see our name there, it’s probably because we’re not following you. Let us know, and we’ll follow you.

There are also many Twitter clients that you can use instead of using the website. These include TweetDeck, Twitteriffic, Tweetie, and Twhirl. Each of these programs works differently, so you’ll want to figure out how to send a direct message on the program you use. If you want to send us a test message, we’ll let you know if we received it or not.

The first downloadable content for Empire: Total War is available today via Steam for $3.49. Elite Units of the West
Features 14 new unit types for different playable factions, this downloadable content will add an extra layer to the already in-depth offering that is Empire: Total War.

In addition to the DLC, we’ve also released a new patch for the game, bringing us to version 1.3. The update includes the implementation of multi-threading, which will significantly benefit players that use multi-core processors. In addition to this, the update greatly improves performance on single core machines. For the full list of updates and features in 1.3, go to the Total War blog.

It’s time again for Free Stuff Friday on Twitter! As you can see, we have some great stuff to give away this week. Read on for details about each item, including eligibility requirements (for the games). If you need a refresher on how to enter via Twitter, details are at the bottom of the post.

On the Block This Week

Item 1: Empire: Total War

Brand new, in the plastic copy of Empire: Total War for PC. Only people in the US, Canada and Mexico are eligible to win this prize due to region locking of the game. Please note the technical requirements for the game, including Steam activation.

Congrats to @iluvrobot for winning this prize!

Item 2: PictoImage for Nintendo DS

Brand new copy of PictoImage for Nintendo DS. Only people in the US, Canada, Latin America and Mexico are eligible to win this prize.

Congrats to our winner, @robby1051!

Item 3: MADWORLD Wii Decals

Skin your Nintendo Wii up with these Madworld-themed decals. They look pretty sweet. All regions are eligible to win.

Item 4: Sonic Chronicles Strategy Guide and Sonic Pen

Check out this brand-new strategy guide for Sonic Chronicles. With it, you get a Sonic-topped pen, from the personal collection of RubyEclipse! Our forums members voted on which pen to give away, and Sonic won! All regions are eligible to win.

Congrats to @konkonkon!

Item 5: SEGA shirt

This is a black button-front shirt (buttons all the way down) with an embroidered SEGA logo on the upper left side. It is a size small. These shirts were worn by SEGA staff a few years ago at E3, and now you can have one! Don’t worry, it’s brand new (tag still on). All regions are eligible to win.

Congrats to @reinaurre!

Item 6: Golden Axe Beast Rider Art Book

This is a new art book for Golden Axe Beast Rider. All regions are eligible to win.

Congrats to @ksarart!

How it Works

1. You must be following us on Twitter to be eligible. (If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can create one by going to http://www.twitter.com and click the green “get started — join!” button in the center of the page.)
2. At random times on Friday, we will announce the prize we are giving away, and what number of response you need to be to win. Send us a direct message (DM) via Twitter and be that number to win the prize. (@ replies do not count as entries!)
3. All followers are eligible to win all prizes, unless a restriction is noted. Restrictions are usually due to the prize being region-locked. For example, US games that won’t work on UK gaming systems.  There may also be age restrictions due to the rating of the game.
4. We will announce the winner on our Twitter feed once eligibility is confirmed.

Make Sure We’re Following You on Twitter

If you are currently following us on Twitter, please be sure that we are following you as well. You can do this by making sure that SEGA is in your “followers” list, or by going to DoesFollow and typing SEGA in the first blank, your Twitter username in the second, and pressing the “check” button. You can reverse this to be sure that you are following us. If you are following us, but we’re not following  you, please send a message to @SEGA and we will follow you. This is important, because only people we follow can send us direct messages (DMs), and DMs are the only way to enter the giveaways.

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

There are a few ways to send us a Direct Message on Twitter. The easiest way is to go to our Twitter page and select “message” under the “Actions” heading in the side bar. If you do not see “message”, this means that we are not following you. Please send a message to @sega to let us know, and we will follow you. When you click “message” you will be taken to a window where you can type a message and press send.

You may also select the “direct messages” tab from your Twitter homepage, and select SEGA from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Again, if you don’t see our name there, it’s probably because we’re not following you. Let us know, and we’ll follow you.

There are also many Twitter clients that you can use instead of using the website. These include TweetDeck, Twitteriffic, Tweetie, and Twhirl. Each of these programs works differently, so you’ll want to figure out how to send a direct message on the program you use. If you want to send us a test message, we’ll let you know if we received it or not.

To help you in your quest for world domination, the Empire: Total War team has put together a list of tips to give you the upper hand in battle!

Naval Battles

Maintain station! - Grouped ships will try to maintain relative positions and follow the lead ship around. So, if you group your ships in a line they will then move in a line around the map.

Fire! - The stern is the weakest part of the ship, so concentrating fire on this weak spot will deal the greatest damage to an enemy ship. But conversely, this is the weakest point on your own ship and must be protected at all times.

Chain Shot! - Using Chain shot to take out the sails of the first ship in an enemy line will slow down the whole line as they regroup.

Beware the Broadside! - Try to keep your fleet to the stern or the bow of enemy ships, all their fire power rests in their broadsides.

Boarding! - Don’t board a ship until you are absolutely sure that it is no longer a threat. Also, make sure that you have taken care of any other threats from the enemy before beginning the boarding process.

Concentrate Fire! - By holding down the Alt key and clicking on an enemy ship you can order any ships you currently have selected to concentrate all their fire on that one ship.

Divide and Conquer! - When commanding a large naval force it is advisable to split it into three separate groups; one to approach the enemy fleet’s port side, one to approach from starboard and a third to cover any gaps which may appear.

Stay upwind! - Always try to keep your ships upwind of the enemy. It will give you the upper-hand and allow you to maneuver into position much quicker than your enemy.

A Whiff of Grapeshot! - After dealing some damage to an enemy ship’s hull with regular shot, draw in close and use grapeshot for maximum damage. The holes created in the hull expose the crew to incoming fire.

Lay alongside! - When firing grape shot, line your ship no more than a ship’s width away from the enemy hull. This will allow the shot to spread effectively and dispatch the maximum amount of enemy troops.

Come about! - When using line astern make a conscious effort to turn ships around periodically, in an attempt to distribute hull damage equally. If one side is allowed to take the bulk of the damage, the ship will go down.

Land Battles

As one! - When you group units they remember the relative position of each other so, when you give them a move order, they will reform in the same positions at your chosen destination This, in combination with the new rotate/move buttons on the HUD, allows you to quickly and easily move groups and even to break off parts of a formation into a new group.

At Ease! – Hitting the enter key deselects all the troops you currently have selected.

Flanking Fire! - Forming a horseshoe around enemy units will give your men maximum coverage and increase enemy casualties. Positioning Light infantry in trees to the left and right of your main force will give them the opportunity to get a couple of rounds off before the enemy even knows they’re there.

Form Line! - Drawing your men out into long thin lines will increase the area of battlefield covered by their field of fire. So, no matter where the enemy comes from you will have men covering it (unless they outflank you!)

Deploy defenses! – When defending an area which has limited routes in and out, it is often best to deploy chevaux de frise, followed by a line of earth works. This will protect your army from cavalry and infantry and create an easily defendable position.

Hold it! Hold it! FIRE! - Canister shot is an excellent shot type to use in close range combat. Taking your cannons off fire at will when this shot type is selected will allow you to hold your men until the last minute and release the canister shot just as the enemy reaches you for maximum effect.

To the last man! - When presented with the choice to end the battle or continue, it is often better to continue and wipe out the entire army to prevent them reappearing on the campaign map. Cavalry are particularly effective in this mopping up role.

Skirmishers! - When confronted by a complex enemy formation use Light Infantry to lure enemy units out. Once this is achieved, your light infantry can skirmish away from the attackers, leaving supporting units to deal with them piecemeal.

To me men! - If your men are losing their resolve and routing from the field, send your General and his Bodyguard unit to boast their moral and bring them back to the cause.

Dig in! - Earthworks are particularly effective against an enemy which is heavy on Line Infantry. Your men will be safer from the barrage of bullets.

Dragoons! Flanking Manoeuvre! - Dragoons provide an excellent opportunity to outflank an enemy. Ride your dragoons around the back of the enemy and once there, dismount and begin firing into his rear.

Take Cover! - Deploying your men behind walls will provide essential cover from enemy bullets.

Form Square! - Square formation is particularly effective against Dragoons and other cavalry units.

Cannon fodder - If you’re willing to lose men for the greater good, send your militia or a similar unit down the centre of a battlefield to draw enemy fire. Then bring your better troops around the sides to deal a devastating blow to the enemy front ranks whilst they’re engaged.

The General has fallen! - Killing an enemy general will decrease the moral of any remaining troops, making them more likely to rout.

Up close and personal - Press the Insert key with a unit selected to get a first-person view of the battlefield!

Campaign Map

Raiding trade routes - Raiding an enemies’ trade route will cripple their economy. If a trade route is shared by an enemy and an ally you will only raid enemy ships and never those of your allies or countries you are not at war with.

Foreign policy - If your Rake succeeds in an act of sabotage, the faction you attack will automatically blame their greatest enemy and the relationship between those two nations will suffer as a result.

Clamor for reform - Enlightenment technologies naturally lead to a more enlightened populace. However, an enlightened people often chafe against the bonds of their lot in life, leading to unrest. In order to restore order in regions affected by such dissatisfaction it may be necessary to increase your military presence, or even destroy educational buildings.

A nation of Trenchermen - Not using a character to his full potential will result in them gaining a negative trait. If you have a 9 star general but leave him to fester in some back water province he will gather negative traits and slowly slide into obscurity. Making sure your best generals and agents are in constant use will see them improve and result in a much more effective character.

Money makes the world go round - So, when offering any diplomatic proposals, sweeten the deal with a little cash incentive.

History repeats itself - Saving your campaign before beginning a battle will allow you to replay the battle, should you be displeased by the outcome. It also gives you the opportunity to try out a variety of tactics on the same battlefield to discover what works best for you.

Quick reference – For those wondering what happened to double right-click zoom-to camera functionality, this has now moved to double mouse-wheel-click.

White gold - Trade is an essential aspect of a successful campaign. By sending trade ships to the various trade theaters around the world you will significantly increase your country’s economy. The best strategy to adopt in relation to trade theaters, is monopolization. It is much better to have a single ship in each of the Trade Posts in a theater, rather than having three ships on a single post.

Thanks to Mark O’Connell and the Empire: Total War team for this information!

The voting has begun! The 27th Annual Golden Joystick Awards are here, and SEGA has a strong presence in just about every category out there.

To vote, just click here, pick your entries and submit! I voted earlier today – here’s what my list looked like:

Yeah, I voted for Valkyria in every category I could. (You should too. ) MadWorld and Headstrong games (Who created Overkill) were also easy choices for me.

If everyone votes together, there’s a great chance that a number of SEGA hits could end up winning. Above all though, just vote for the ones you want and make sure to get your votes in, then spread the word  - I’m looking at you, Valkyria Fans!

Finally, here’s the full list of SEGA games or entries:

—
FAMILY GAME OF THE YEAR
Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Beijing Olympics 2008 — The Official Videogame
Iron Man
Samba de Amigo
Sonic and the Black Knight
Sonic The Hedgehog
Sonic Unleashed
The Incredible Hulk
Valkyria Chronicles

HANDHELD GAME OF THE YEAR
Bleach: Dark Souls
Football Manager handheld 2009
Iron Man
Phantasy Star Portable
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
The Incredible Hulk

MOBILE GAME OF THE YEAR
Samba de Amigo
Sega Columns Deluxe
The Incredible Hulk

MULTIPLAYER GAME OF THE YEAR
Beijing 2008
Football Manager handheld 2009
Football Manager Live
Madworld
Samba de Amigo
Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection

NINTENDO GAME OF THE YEAR
Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Bleach: Dark Souls
Earthworm Jim
Ecco Jr
Iron Man
Madworld
Samba de Amigo
Sonic and the Black Knight
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Sonic The Hedgehog
Sonic Unleashed

THE ONE TO WATCH
Aliens vs. Predator
Aliens: Colonial Marines
Bayonetta
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
The Conduit
Vancouver 2010: The Official Videogame
Virtua Tennis 2009

ONLINE GAME OF THE YEAR
Empire: Total War
Football Manager 2009
Football Manager Live

PC GAME OF THE YEAR
Empire: Total War
Football Manager 2009
Football Manager Live
Incredible Hulk

PLAYSTATION GAME OF THE YEAR
Beijing 2008
Football Manager Handheld 2009
Golden Axe
Golden Axe: Beast Rider
Incredible Hulk
Iron Man
OutRun Arcade
Phantasy Star Portable
Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection
Sega Superstars Tennis
Sonic Unleashed
The Incredible Hulk
Valkyria Chronicles
Yakuza 2

PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR
Sega

SOUNDTRACK OF THE YEAR
Empire: Total War
Madworld
Samba de Amigo
SEGA Megadrive Ultimate Collection
Sonic Unleashed
Valkyria Chronicles

ULTIMATE GAME OF THE YEAR
Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Alpha Protocol
Beijing 2008
Earthworm Jim
Ecco Jr
Empire: Total War
Football Manager 2009
Football Manager Handheld 2009
Football Manager Live
Golden Axe: Beast Rider
Iron Man
Madworld
OutRun Arcade
Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection
Sega Superstars Tennis
Sonic and the Black Knight
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Sonic The Hedgehog
Sonic Unleashed
Space Siege
The Incredible Hulk
Valkyria Chronicles
Yakuza 2

XBOX GAME OF THE YEAR
Alpha Protocol
Beijing 2008
Golden Axe: Beast Rider
Incredible Hulk
Iron Man
Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection

We are happy to report that a patch update has been produced which should resolve the issues with crashing in the grand campaign as well as other issues you may have encountered with clicking units and the like. This update is scheduled to release today and will do so automatically through Steam once you are connected. It is advised that you have updated your video drivers and other system drivers as necessary.

Patch details for this will be available for review in Steam by clicking on the “My Games” tab and then right-clicking on your Empire: Total War game and selecting “View update news”. Here is the complete list of fixes and corrections which will be included in the patch:

CRASH FIXES

- Fixed crash when disbanding generals unit.

- Fix for crash on trying to merge ships from port into ships next to port.

- Fixed rare crash relating to boarding.

- Fixed crash to do with reinforcing armies.

- Fixed crash on revolution video attempting to play.

- Fixed crash for double clicking on sinking ship on campaign map.

- Fix for crash on merging units but moving into fort before army arrives.

- Fixed several crashes related to rakes.

- Fixed crashes relating to battles when running Czech or German versions of the game.

- Fixed crash on moving army into region of faction player has military access and then cancelling military access.

- Fixed crash on trying to exchange ships between 2 fleets.

- Fixed crash on spamming move orders to puckle guns locked in melee combat.

- Fixed hard lock on inviting host to their own MP game.

- Fix to prevent loading of mod causing crash post patch.

- Various end turn crash bugs fixed.

- Fixes to crash bugs relating to completion of revolutions.

- Some fixes relating to merging and disbanding.

- Fix for several crashes in land battles.

- Several crashes relating to attacking cities fixed.

- Several load save game crashes fixed.

CAMPAIGN

- Armies now placed correctly on battlefields in relation to campaign.

- Fix for nearby ships sometimes not being included as reinforcements for battles.

- Fix for incorrect numbers sometimes showing on trade routes.

- Units with limits on how many can be recruited now show how many are available.

- Various fixes relating to rakes and infiltrating.

- Fixes relating to problems moving armies/merging into army’s right next to settlements.

- Various trade bug fixes.

- Fix for moving agent from settlement moving army instead of agent.

- Fix for several bugs relating to military access and armies being in regions.

- Fix for tattered flags appearing on fleet/armies even when at full strength/fully repaired.

- Fix for sallying out armies breaking siege at times even when losing the battle.

- Fix for bugs relating to capturing ships on returning to campaign map from naval battle.

LAND BATTLE

- Improvements to path finding have been made.

- Some fixes to units not garrisoning buildings.

- Fort gate ownership made clearer with faction flags appearing at the gatehouse.

- Fix for problem relating to artillery unlimbering after being ordered to limber.

- Fix for puckle guns moving on their own in some circumstances.

- Fix for big slowdown in unit movement on some battle maps in the Road to Independence episodes.

- Fix for missile cavalry not reloading when out of combat.

- Jaegers now have muskets instead of incorrect rifles, Prussian Jaegers keep rifles.

- Quebec episodic land battle fixed ground type in deployment area

- Fix for unrealistic numbers when ending a land battle by quitting on the battle results screen.

NAVAL BATTLE

- Several fixes for ships clipping into each other.

- Improvements to boarding have been made. Crew is more fluid in attack and more resolute in defence. Men survive long fall and officers join in the boarding attack.

- Crew uniforms improved to make identification of the crew type and faction easier.

- Defending ship is not allowed to fire cannons anymore during boarding procedure.

- Improved naval grouping UI and group movement made.

- Improvements made to ship collisions to reduce chance of ships getting stuck.

- Fix for sail damage not being shown when volumetric effects turned on.

MULTIPLAYER

- Various fixes for joining games/game lobby issues.

- Fixes for problems relating to spectators being kicked/locking up on other players joining games in certain instances.

- Long riflemen and winged hussars removed from early era battles.

- Fix for insufficient funds always showing on unit cards even when enough money is available.

- Player name is now displayed on unit tooltips.

- Team chat is now displayed in a different colour.

AI

- Basic fix for AI being unable to move army by fleet.

- Aggression of factions in campaign improved, as well as tweaks to diplomacy.

- Improvements to campaign AI relating to its waging of wars, recruitment and movement of armies.

- Improvements made to battle AI to make it more reactive, use buildings better as well as squares and rakes.

- Siege battle AI improvements made.

- Improvements to naval AI to make it bunch up less, its use of galleys and long range units such as bomb ketches.

MISCELLANEOUS

- Delete save game button added to save game list.

- View replays button added to single player Play Battle menu.

- Various sound fixes and improvements.

- Various incorrect text messages fixed.

- Fixes to various graphical glitches with display of walls.

- Fixes made for stuttering videos.

- Fix for several game option settings not being saved correctly, including settings such as floating flags.

- Fix for unit voices/attack confirmation being heard for all units in an alliance instead of just for the player’s army.

- Armor and shield values are now added into melee defense value shown on unit cards.

- Lots of other small and minor bug fixes.

BALANCING

- Land unit recruitment cost in campaign has been increased, with higher cost on higher difficulty level.

- Ship recruitment and upkeep costs have been increased in campaign.

- Various balancing and cost adjustments to improve multiplayer land battle balance.

- Ship costing improvements made for both campaign and multiplayer.

- Economic tweaks have been made to campaign to reduce amount of money made in later part of campaign.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

- We are aware of an issue with community created maps that results in a crash when someone without the map tries to join the game. This crash will be fixed in the next patch.

- Further work is being done on improving AI Naval invasion behavior and this will be included in the next upgrade patch.

- Some users may have difficulty accessing some of the older game save files. Should an older save not load after the patch it is advised by the development team that the campaign should be restarted.

Once your game has updated, you will want to make sure that your system drivers (video and sound cards) are updated to their latest versions. If you encounter any issues with the game after the update, you will want to contact Sega Customer Support by going to http://help.sega.com/, logging in using your Sega Pass account and then sending an inquiry using the following format as an example:

Subject: [Empire: Total War] – [Specific Issue or Error Description] (i.e. Crashing in RTI, cannot load saved game, graphical corruption in map, etc)

In the body of the e-mail, please provide a quick synopsis regarding the error you are having as well as the steps you take prior to getting that result. You will also want to include your latest system information using the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (start >run > type ‘dxdiag’ >ENTER) so that the support team then knows what your current system configuration looks like.

We recently had the chance to interview Richard Beddow at The Creative Assembly to find out more about the music of Empire: Total War!

Q:  When did the composing for Empire start?

Composing stated in the summer of 2008 and was completed towards the end of November in time for us to meet the deadlines to record our score live with the orchestra.

Q:  What were the main challenges in the music production for Empire?

We approached the music in a somewhat ‘Hollywood’ fashion, that is, we decided early on to feature orchestra, have an epic cinematic score to really get across the sense of size and scale of a game as large as Empire and to support the battles with the necessary level of might within the music.  So, with that in mind the most important thing then lay in getting these qualities in to all the music including those of the other cultures.  While this is fine for western sounding music, it can be more tricky to get the right level of fusion when dealing with other cultures, for instance fusing western orchestral music with eastern instruments and scales and still maintaining the overall drive and sound that we’re after from the music.  It was important to incorporate as much ethnic material as possible to give the right cultural flavour but while still retaining the orchestral and ‘Hollywood’ feel.

The above approach was applied to each music track and once these were complete the next challenge was to prepare all the music from the MIDI mock-ups in to a format for us to record the music with a live orchestra.  Prepared MIDI files were created and then sent to the orchestrator in order to get the printed parts ready for the musicians.

Q:  During the composing process do you write to in-game footage, FMV or storyboards?

A combination.  The in-game footage helps to give you a sense of the games atmosphere and also allows you to try your music against the visuals to perfect the style.  The storyboards were used essentially for the movie sequences in the game, mostly for the Road To Independence missions.  The graphics and final renders for these movies were not complete when we needed to start the composing process, so due to the fact that we had internal deadlines and those with the orchestra and I needed to approve the music as soon as possible, get it to our orchestrator and printed before the recording, so we had to use static storyboard movies with placeholder voice over to write the music to.  Far from ideal but doable.  The shorter movie sequences such as the win and lose movies were almost fully complete visually so these were used to compose to in their case.

Q: What are the main differences between writing music for cutscenes and writing for the in game battles and what are the challenges faced with each?

Well, the cutscenes are miniature movies so we’ll obtain digital videos or storyboards as mentioned above and write to them as if its a film.  We’ll contour the tempo, dynamics and melodic shape to fit perfectly to the onscreen drama.  With in-game music, you obviously have no ‘locked’ visuals to synchronize the music to as it is constantly changing, so effectively what you end up writing is music that gives a mood for the battle but is not restricted by the visuals.  Additionally with in-game music, due to the amount of repetition the music will undergo you have to play it a little safer in terms of how melodic you make it as the more thematic you make the material the more chance it has of grating on the end user over extended play.  With the cutscenes, they will be viewed only once in a while or maybe only once so you can be very thematic but you have to keep in mind fitting it to the dialogue if it is present and not overpowering it.  Much in-game music also has to be designed to loop, for instance battle music.  We have to make sure that the material in the printed score around the looping areas works both musically and in terms of dynamics to get a smooth match when it loops.  Other than that, we will actually want to create as much unity as possible with material used in-game with that in the cutscenes so where possible we will re-use or adapt our themes/styles where appropriate.

Q:  Where do you being the composing process with a project as large as Empire?

Before we can start the composing process we need to know where music will feature in the game, what styles we’ll require and how and when they will be played in the game.  So we simply start by answering those questions.

The basic idea for the campaign music looked back to how music was used in the original Total War game Shogun. In Shogun, campaign music was almost used as a sound effect, providing flourishes of musical color on various oriental instruments, effectively small melodic music phrases or effects.  This approach allowed plenty of breathing space when playing on the campaign map which could literally last days.  In those types of circumstances the last thing you want is a looping background track to irritate the player.  The Shogun approach allowed music to be used in an almost relaxing and calming manner.  So, for Empire we decided to revisit the method used in Shogun and expand upon it a little.  Firstly, as Empire is a game which stretches across continents not just Japan we had to look to record instruments which covered all the core cultures featured in the game – in essences instruments to represent Western, Indian, Arabic and Tribal cultures.  Secondly we would look to record all of the instruments live to maintain a consistently high listening experience.  Thirdly we would develop a playback system in the game that would not only play music from the appropriate culture when you position the camera over the part of the map that the culture originates but would also pick at random phrases of music to play for that culture in order to keep the listening experience interesting.  For instance you could position the camera over an Arabic settlement and you could be listening to the haunting melodies of a Duduk, then shortly followed by phrases performed on a Lauto.

Recording all of this material provided us with approx. 70 minutes of material just for the campaign map alone.

The other large area of game play is the in-game battles, which in the case of Empire are featured on both land and sea.  This area of the game requires a lot of music too, in the order of 60 mins.  Much like in the campaign the music was divided in to the same cultural sets with a slight addition in that naval battles have their own music styles to differentiate them from the other music.

The basic idea with the music system for the battles is that when a battle is initiated on the campaign map, depending where you initiate the battle in the world, the music that will play during the battle will be based on the originating culture for that area i.e. if you start a battle in London you will hear Western battle music.  Each actual battle consists of two pieces of music, the deployment (or tension) music and the battle (or attack) music.  As you start to deploy your army the tension music will start, it will continue until the game detects that the battle state has been initiated.  Once this state is reached the music will slowly crossfade from the tension music in to the battle music which will loop for the duration of the battle.

The final area of music usage in the game is with the in-game movies.  Here again as with the rest of the game we have cultural variants of music to match the visual variants of the videos, but in addition Empire features the Road To Independence quest which also required a variety of cinematic sequences and musical accompaniment, this time building an American flavour in the music.

Q:  A new feature is that units have musicians on the battlefield, can you tell us a little more about this?

One of the important roles of musicians on the battlefield was to relay orders to their unit.  It was this aspect specifically that we chose to focus on.  So, I spent some time with one of our designers Jamie Ferguson discussing what types of orders they’d need to relay in the game and once I had the list I quickly notated some ‘musical orders’ together such as Halt, Fire At Will, March for both the snare drummers and the buglers.  I then brought in the talents of some live musicians to record the audio for these orders and the outcome was fantastic as once the orders were integrated in to the game it transformed the level of realism in the battles.  While we did not stick to authentic musical phrases for the orders, the effect is the same in the game nonetheless.  In the game hearing the enemy orders can be an important clue as to what an enemy is doing!

Q:  Empire’s score features music performed with a Symphony Orchestra and also digital samples.  Can you tell us a little bit about this?

We recorded approx. 60 minutes of the score live and we had about 20+ minutes remain completely as digital.  In addition, some tracks were enhanced with additional digital samples, most notably the Indian, Arabic and Tribal battles which featured a lot of sampled ethnic melodic and percussive instruments.

Q: How do you know the tracks will work properly in the game before you record the orchestra?

We simply create electronic MIDI mock-up versions of each track.  This is actually a very important process because these tracks are fully orchestrated so it allows us the ability to hear very accurately the music and make any decision on changes before we record any notes live.  It also allows us the opportunity to try out concepts in the game and refine the style.

Q:  When realizing the score with an orchestra, does this alter the composing process as opposed to just using digital samples for the music?

The composing process itself largely stays the same, what alters is the amount of editing you’ll do to create a realistic MIDI mock-up if using the samples alone in the final mix.  Mock-ups can be very big demanding jobs, and often due to the limits of using samples you’ll sometimes find yourself having to layer many articulations, adding lots of volume shaping, tweaking reverb settings to simulate a hall environment or other such procedures in order to make the music sound more realistic when played back with samples.

Q:  Where/when did you record the live orchestral score?

We recorded the orchestral music with THE SLOVAK NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA . It was recorded by sound engineer Peter Fuchs at the Slovak Radio Concert Hall, in Bratislava during the first week of December 2008.

Q: Can you tell us a little about the recording process.

The Slovak Radio Concert Hall was huge, it a created a lovely lush sound with the orchestra.

To capture this engineer Peter Fuchs used 46 microphones strategically placed around the hall, between and in front of the players.  The close string mics were fed into a Yamaha DM 2000, the remaining microphones were fed into Grace Design 802R, Millennia HV-3D, ASP-008 and Digidesign PRE pre-amps and recorded in to a ProTools HD rig via Apogee converters.

Each piece of music had a click track that would be fed via headphones to each musician and the conductor to ensure accurate timing in the music.  This was important because we needed to add a fair amount of digital samples back to some of the tracks later in the mixing.  Then one by one we’d work our way through each piece of music until we had recorded everything we needed.

The score was recorded over 2 days after which we began preparation for mixing the music.

Peter then flew back to the UK to join me in our in-house studio to mix the music.  We then spent 3 days mixing, again using a ProTools HD rig.

Q: What was the most enjoyable part of the music production?

I always enjoy the collaborative process, working with other musicians, composers and the rest of the orchestral team who helped us put together and record the score.  There are so many cogs in the process and each one helps make the finished recording what it is.

Without doubt though, the single most enjoyable aspect is when you hear the music come alive through the orchestra.  When you have spent months writing, listening and working with the music in MIDI format, to then go and listen to it live with 80 musicians giving it their all is truly a moving experience.

Q:  Are there any plans for a Soundtrack release, a lot of reviews have commented on the strength of the music?

Actually there is, we have been very pleased with the response to the music and I’m sure Total War fans will be happy to hear that we are planning a commercial soundtrack release from the game which should be available in the not too distant future.

Thanks to Mark O’Connell, who originally posted this interview on the Total War blog.

If you read my earlier blog post this week, then you know that this Saturday and Sunday SEGA is going to be present at the Cherry Blossom Festival here in Japantown, San Francisco.

I mentioned that we had some swag to give away and that we were going to have a Trivia contest… Since then, we’ve finalized our plans and dug deep into hidden rooms here at the SEGA office to find the coolest stuff possible.

Now, it’s time for all of you not attending this weekend to turn hedgehog blue with envy – and for all of you who are making the trip – or anyone on the fence – we’ve got 300+ good reasons to look forward to it.

It’s going to be a very cool weekend.

I want you to focus on breathing normally now. Deep breaths in and out – now pinch yourself once. You aren’t dreaming.

Sunday at 3 PM is our SEGA Trivia Contest at the SEGA Booth, and whichever one of you knows your SEGA stuff the best is going to be rewarded for it – and seriously so. The Grand Prize is a stack of TEN newly released SEGA games, AND the exclusive Sonic T-shirt we found the other week in the Box of Awesome. The winner gets everything you see here:

To the winner go the spoils… and a really cool T-shirt.

The games will be given out at specific times during the day, so feel free to visit our booth and ask when the next giveaway will be. Oh, and if you do something to really show off your SEGA love – like wearing a SEGA/Sonic shirt or cosplaying as a SEGA video game character, we’ll see to it you get rewarded for your efforts with some of the rare merch shown above. (JSRF Soundtracks, NiGHTS Pillowcases, etc) Special bonus points if you cosplay as anyone from Valkyria Chronicles, since our DLC is coming out next Thursday!

We hope all of you attending this weekend are as excited as we are – of course, you can also be the first to play Let’s Tap! and Bleach: Third Phantom before they come out later this year, but we imagine what you guys really want is the free stuff.

We’ll see you there!