Mark O'Connell
Mark works as PR & Online Manager at The Creative Assembly, running the Total War and company websites. When he isn’t playing the latest game releases, Mark spends his time continuing his mission to watch every film in existence (twice).Hailing from Southampton, Mark has a degree in traditional 2D animation, an unlimited cinema pass and an inexplicable fondness for Jaffa cakes.
He was bitten by the travel bug after spending a year living in Los Angeles, and places on his must-visit list currently include Hawaii, Egypt, Japan, Australia and Loch Ness - because Nessie is still out there.
Since joining CA in September 2006, Mark has absorbed himself in all things Total War in a cunning attempt to improve his win/loss record in Medieval II's multiplayer mode.
When he isn't reporting on the latest Total War news or cooking up new features for the websites, Mark likes to get CA's BAFTA out of the display cabinet and practise his Oscar-worthy acceptance speech.
Biggest achievement to date; "Seeing five films in a row at the cinema, or possibly the time I received a funny audio message from Hulk Hogan!"
Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/mocfilms
Posts by Mark O'Connell
Blog the Second – by Mike Simpson
One common complaint we get from the community is that so long as there are defects in Empire: Total War, we shouldn’t be working on any new products. If there was just one of us, or all of us could work on any issue that would make sense. As it is, we’ve had Empire: Total [...]
[Read More] Blogging for Quality – by Mike Simpson
Well, I’ve finally given in and decided to start blogging. It’s something I’ve tried to resist over the years. I’ve also not posted directly on the forums, and it’s mainly because it takes so much time. Many of the issues discussed on the forums are deep and complex, and the arguments well put and compelling. [...]
[Read More]Update 1.3 Features List
Hi guys, Update 1.3 will be released for Empire: Total War on 22nd June 2009. Ahead of its release, here are the major features coming to the update: We’ve worked on implementing the multi-threading in the game for multi-core processors and made many optimisations that will also help increase performance on single core machines. Players [...]
[Read More]Empire: Total War Strategy Guide!
Hi guys, 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 [...]
[Read More] Update 1.2 Released!
Hi guys, Update 1.2 for Empire: Total War is available to download now via Steam. Below is a list of all the major fixes included with the release. CRASH FIXES – Fixed crash when disbanding generals unit. – Fix for crash on trying to merge ships from port into ships next to port. – Fixed [...]
[Read More] The Music of Empire: Total War
Hi guys, 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 [...]
[Read More] Empire: Total War Team Q&A
With Empire: Total War currently flying off shelves around the world, we spoke to several members of the team to get their thoughts on the game and spill the beans on their winning tactics! Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about your role on Empire: Total War? Mike Brunton – My name is [...]
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Empire: Total War Modding System
Hi All, Since the mod community seems to be moving full speed ahead and you’ve already got some basic mods up and running I thought I’d explain the way the Empire modding system is intended to work. This should enable you to work with it, not against it, and hopefully avoid breaking things released by [...]
[Read More] Special Units Guide
Hi guys, For those of you that have got your hands on either a pre-order exclusive unit or the Empire: Total War Special Forces edition, here is a guide on how the requirements for getting them in-game. Pre-Order 1 Deaths Head Hussars: Unique unit for Prussia, recruited from Imperial Palace in Brandenburg region. Pre-Order 2 USS Constitution: Unique [...]
[Read More] Empire Total War – Graphics Work Shop
Tuning your Graphics Settings ETW is built on a brand new rendering engine, internally code-named “Warscape”. The Engine is DirectX9-based, supporting both Shader Model 2 and Shader Model 3 graphics hardware. Supporting Shader Model 2 hardware has proven to be very challenging, requiring scalable content, SM2-optimized alternate shader paths, and a host of careful optimizations [...]
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