Counter-Strike: Source

Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S)
Developer(s)	Valve Corporation Turtle Rock Studios
Publisher(s)	Valve Corporation
Engine	Source engine
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	October 7, 2004
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Counter-Strike:Source (CS:S) is a team based first-person shooter, which is an upgraded version of the original Counter-Strike mod for Half-Life using the Source engine that was used in Half-Life 2. The game was originally a total conversion mod made in the GoldSrc engine. All the Counter-Strike games pit a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in rounds of competition won by completing an objective or eliminating the opposing team. A more in-depth explanation on the rules and gameplay of CS:S can be found on the Counter-Strike page.

History

In 2004, original Counter-Strike developers Minh Le and Jess Cliffe, along with members of Valve and the Day of Defeat team, brought Counter-Strike into the Source engine as an obvious choice for the multiplayer component of Half-Life 2. Following a period when the game was available to select "beta" testers, the game went gold on October 7, 2004.

Counter-Strike: Source(CS:S) was released to ATI Radeon Voucher holders, in Half-Life 2 bundles available on Steam, and with the boxed retail version of the game. Changes include the improvements inherent to the Source engine (such as better graphics and physics) as well as updated models, animations, maps, sounds, and some small gameplay changes.

Changes and additional features

The updated Counter-Strike came with a few changes. Some welcomed these changes, while others questioned them. The riot shield introduced in 1.6 is gone, and dead players now drop grenades just like other weapons (as was introduced in Condition-Zero). The popular maps, such as de dust, de aztec and cs office, have approximately the same layouts and size, but are revamped with many aesthetic additions such as glass bottles and 50-gallon drums. Other maps such as de inferno and cs assault are noticeably different in layout and size.

As of this writing, Valve hasn't given the ability to make assassination maps (prefix "as_"), however, a group of fans have created a server plugin, allowing players to play the VIP maps on Counter-Strike: Source.

Counter Strike: Source includes the "Official Counter-Strike Bot" for both online and offline gameplay. The bot offers 4 difficulty levels, from "Easy", through "Normal", "Hard", and "Expert". Keyboard commands enable the user to fine-tune the level of difficulty by adjusting reaction times, accuracy and tactical play, but for most casual players the "Normal" setting will offer an adequately challenging game. Offline maps can be played with up to 32 bots.

Additionally, holstered weapons and grenades are visible on player models when not in use. This is a useful addition as a player can scope out what his team mates are carrying during the initial seconds of the game as most players "rush" with small arms, knives or grenades and their primary firearms are attached to their back, or vice versa; to see what kind of weapons the opposing team is carrying. This new feature enables players to consider strategies and plan accordingly.

Dynamic weapon pricing was introduced to the game in early November 2006, where weapon prices vary on a weekly basis, according to the popularity of a particular weapon. For example, if the Desert Eagle is very popular one week, the price of that weapon will increase the next, and vice versa. This is an attempt to discourage players buying the same weapons repeatedly, also allowing them to expand their skills to different areas of weaponry. Another point of the system was to give weaker players a boost but ended up having the opposite effect (as you get money from kills the better players gain more cash to buy better weapons increasing the skill gap). Still, many people rejected the system, and it was turned off in a large number of servers in order to play with traditional prices, putting the phrase "No DWP" (No Dynamic Weapon Pricing) in their server name. Many players felt this system robbed they of the best weapons (some took it as an attempt by Valve to lower the skill of some players) and forced to use the less accurate and weaker weapons thus slowing the game down. Another major complaint was that armor was included in the DWP market; and since almost every player buys it at the beginning of a round the price instantly went up. The system also became ineffective when people got fed up with guns that just couldn't accomplish their goals they reverted to using the better guns forcing prices up and creating extremely high price that stayed constant.

In early December 2006, the prices for the Desert Eagle with the game's dynamic pricing had soared past the $12,000 mark (three-quarters of the maximum amount of money a player can hold at one time). This prompted Valve to increase the damage done by the ES57, Compact 226, and Dual Elite pistols on December 11, 2006 in order to increase the popularity of those pistols. All pistol prices were reset to default values at this time as well.

Havok physics

File:Counter Strike Source2.png

A screenshot of a typical firefight scene in a multiplayer server on the map cs_office. Pictured is the GIGN skin along with the SEAL Team SIX and 'Phoenix Connexion' Terrorist skin. The weapons seen, are a TMP, xm1014, AK-47, and the Desert Eagle.

The implementation of the Source engine and the promise of Havok physics in CS:S led to much speculation about the increased tactical opportunities that would be opened up by the use of moveable objects. For instance, in the map cs office, the Terrorist players could "camp" in a room and barricade the doors with cabinets or chairs. However, the manipulation of them is hindered by coding which causes players to 'bounce' off any physical items and the inability to pick up any objects (as a player could in Half-Life 2).

There is a limited server side command, sv_turbophysics, which allows minor manipulation of the physics, however players can only 'punt' objects, that is throw them around by running into them, rather than pick them up. Objects that can be manipulated in this way include barrels, boxes, and bottles and so on, some of which can be destroyed entirely or thrown very far with explosives. Object manipulation is not fully implemented because of the need to reduce network traffic between server and clients. This limits how much information can be sent about the current state of a map's objects. Also, the complex computations required when several people interact simultaneously with the same object place a heavy load on the server.

Despite this, some hardcore fans have managed to create some novel maps, such as de_soccer1_knives, which places Ts and CTs on opposite sides of the field and they use knives to "kick" a soccer ball into goals. The team who scores causes the opposing team to be subjected to a series of instantaneous deaths. The Havok engine has also been useful in the making of the semi-popular "glass" maps, where most of the battlegrounds are made of breakable glass. Such maps may have objects such as walls that can be tipped over, causing all the glass layers underneath to break under their weight (and causing players unlucky enough to be standing on that glass to fall to their deaths).

Some critics have noted that the muted physics in the standard configuration of CS:S was causing player death animations to be limited and predictable, affecting the immersion of the player in the game. The March 1 update to CS:S's ragdoll physics resulted in more random death postures.

Criticism

There are a number of CS 1.6 fans that feel that the new incarnation is too different, buggy, and/or incomplete. One common argument leveled against the game is that its gameplay lacks the challenge of the original. For instance, the hitboxes in the head region are slightly bigger than those used in previous games of the series, allowing for easier "headshots". This favors players who 'spray' instead of aiming for the head, thus increasing the element of chance in the game and making it easier for new players. This is significant because a "headshot" deals considerably more damage than shots to other parts of an enemy's body and is often an instant kill.

The Magnum Sniper Rifle, or commonly referred to as AWP, is widely criticised because of its one-hit kill ability anywhere above the waist area, making it an effective weapon even for inexperienced players. Some servers ban this weapon for this reason.

The Desert Eagle, AK-47, and sniper rifles will still kill with one hit to the head, except from extremely long (50m+) distances, not found in the official maps, or if being shot through a wall. Calibers such as the .50AE from the game's now iconic representation of the Desert Eagle pistol will be effectively stopped by a helmet from mid to long ranges, although the player would be left with little health. The helmet is usually bought to avoid being killed by an enemy in an "eco round" (in competitive play where funds are limited at the start of a round), where they will most likely face weapons loaded with 9mm ammunition (Glock, MP5) or the .45ACP of the USP pistol, the latter being lethal against an unprotected target close-up.

The demanding hardware requirements of the Source engine have kept many players of the original Counter-Strike from upgrading to Counter-Strike: Source. The original CS remains popular, as the GoldSrc engine runs very well on older hardware.

Competitive gaming

Main articles: Clan (computer gaming) and eSports

Community terms

There are hundreds of popular abbreviations and terms used in the CSS community these include, but ar enot limited to:

Doing a g1lly: Leaving the game early because of stress or lack of skill

Customization

Because of the large fanbase that Counter-Strike:Source has accumulated, there are a wide variety of different customizations and addons that can be used with the game. Two well-known websites which hold addons for the customization of CS:S are AddonDB and FPSBanana.

There is a large fanbase for the game that creates customised sounds, textures, weapon skins and player skins. However, under the rules of Valve Anti-Cheat, models for objects within maps and player models cannot be edited, so that a player using a different model other than the standard does not have an advantage over another person.

Player-Created Maps

File:CSStexturecity.jpg

Aim_ag_texturecity, an example of a fan-built custom map for CS:S.

Maps are frequently made by players for the game, and the easy-to-access Valve Hammer Editor allows virtually anybody to create their own. The number and types of custom maps for the game is constantly rising, which means that most people can find something to their taste. To the left is a thumbnail of a custom map, aim_ag_texturecity. The texture (or lack thereof) in this map is distinctive of the aptly-named "texture" maps which are gaining great popularity in CSS.

Popular Gameplay Modifications

Like many other modern first-person shooter games, Counter-Strike: Source has been heavily modded by its developer community.

Zombie Mod

The Zombie Mod is a popular complete modification for Counter Strike: Source. In every zombie game one player is infected with the undead virus and becomes a zombie. Zombies are given increased speed and night vision, as well as a very large amount of health. Any player stabbed by a zombie becomes one himself. After a zombie is finally killed he re-spawns as a human but with no weapons (except for the starting pistol) The remaining humans must avoid the zombies; this is often accomplished by creating chokepoints through which to repel attacks or finding easily-defensible positions in which to camp for the round. Strageties for this includes shooting filing cabinets or vending machines (the zombie mod maps [abbreviated zm_] to block doors and entrance routes (this is done with modified physics). Players of this mod prefer weapons that pack a punch to knock the zombies further away (the zombies are "pushed" away when shot thanks to modified physics) such as the auto-snipers, auto-shotgun, the various SMGs, the M249 SAW, and assault rifles are occasionally used. The fast-paced action and uniqueness of zombie games has led to its sudden rise in popularity, with many dedicated servers supporting the mod.

Gungame Mod

The Gungame Mod is another popular modification for Counter Strike: Source. The objective of the game is to upgrade one's weapon by killing the opposing team members with the current weapon. Killing with the knife not only automatically progresses the killer to the next weapon, but downgrades the victim's weapon. Progression for a player to the next weapon can either happen instantaneously after that player makes a kill (known as "Turbo") or at the end of each round where a kill was made, depending on server settings. There is also a deathmatch mode in which players will automatically respawn after death. Players traditionally get progressively more valuable weapons as they get more kills; they start with pistols and progress through shotguns, submachine guns, rifles, the HE grenade, and then the knife, though the reverse order is also popular and keeps games more competitive. After a player gets a knife kill when on the knife level, that player is declared the winner and play starts on a new map.

Deathmatch

Counter-Strike Source Deathmatch (commonly CSSDM) is a gameplay modification that changes the gameplay from round-based objective play to typical deathmatch gameplay, with near-instant respawn and no objectives besides killing. Instead of purchasing weapons, players can choose any weapon they wish (providing the server hasn't restricted it) from a menu. Both team deathmatch and free-for-all are supported, but most servers hosting the mod use team deathmatch.

See also

• Counter-Strike
• Counter-Strike maps
• Counter-Strike culture

External links

• Gaming News and Reviews: MadGamers.net. Gaming News, Reviews; an active community forum and gaming giveaway's.
• Official Steam site
• Turtle Rock Studios — Developers of remodelled maps for CS:S.
• SourceJunky — European CS:S news site.