Launch Problems

[gunjin]

I have been playing ETW since launch day. I have had the CTD issues and many of the other issues that has been talked about in the forums. I expect problems from any new game, its par for the course with regard to PC Gaming. It is good to see that the developers of this game are serious about resolving the various issues buy providing a frequent patching program.

However I find it unacceptable when a new patch is applied and you are not able to launch the game at all. When I try to launch the game all I get is a message "Steam is preparing to launch the game" (As per Pre patch) and nothing happens. Ive tried disabling my firewall to see if this was the problem but I still got the same message (with no game launched).

Whats going on? Why will Steam not launch my game?

[Valbruch]

I had exactly the same problem. After some time I realised that it was because I applied the fix for the stuttering in game intros. The fix is replace the bink32.dll in empire folder withone from another game.

And while it worked for me pre-patch, after the new update the game simply did not launch with the Steam is preparing to launch line appearing for a second. But after I repaced the bink32.dll with the original one Empire finally launches.

So you could try to remove any mods and fixes you have and it might work.

[gunjin]

Ahhh....I did the same as you and replaced the bink32.dll file when i had the stuttering problem. Does this mean that we have to suffer the stuttering again post patch?

[Valbruch]

Ahhh....I did the same as you and replaced the bink32.dll file when i had the stuttering problem. Does this mean that we have to suffer the stuttering again post patch?

Unfortunately yes

[gunjin]

This is most frustrating, why cant CA resolve the stuttering problem in there patch updates with the bink32.dll file that we found works. I have spoken to a lot of people that play this game and they had the same stuttering problem but was prepared to put up with it because it didnt affect gameplay, just in game video?

[Wheellug]

If for some reason you had deleted the old binkw32.dll (instead of changing to .old) when you replaced it.. you can try a System Restore to prior the .dll file change.