Category: Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Is Free To Play… Until This Sunday

November 1st, 2012 · By Vic · 2 Comments

Aspiring terrorist hunters, assemble! Have this year’s Halloween preparations left you without enough pennies to continue with your terrorist hunter training? Well, I bring you good news, for thanks to the wonders of Steam’s free weekends, Valve’s latest game – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, released little over two months ago, is now free to play for the entirety of this coming weekend, until Sunday at precisely 1 PM PST (roughly 9 PM GMT).

This free weekend is set to coincide with the 2012 Electronic Sports World Cup international tournament, taking place in Paris. The first matches will be starting tomorrow, at 1:30 AM PST (roughly 9:30 AM GMT). You will, of course, be able to watch them from the official ESWC website; but since Global Offensive is free for everyone, this means anyone can spectate the matches directly in-game through the newly implemented GOTV spectating client, developed using feedback from the teams competing at the ESWC. It isn’t anywhere nearly as sophisticated as Dota 2′s spectating client (there isn’t any direct menu integration at all, and you have to manually input an address through the dev console, which isn’t exactly user-friendly), but it’s the best Valve has made available, so far.

This is a pretty significant tournament, so half of the CS:GO team have travelled to Paris to watch the games, and talk to the competing players. Consider checking at least a couple of the matches out, if you have the time. Valve will offer direct GOTV links to the matches right from the game’s main menu, and I’ll definitely be watching them from there. Also be sure to tuned to the official CS:GO Twitter page, as well as the official CS:GO website, for updates and images from the event.

But in any case… CS:GO is free! Do you have what it takes to kill lots of angry men, while bombing random places with lots of boxes in them? If so, then check your Steam Library, as the game has been automatically added to your games list for the duration of the free weekend. If it’s not there, just restart your Steam client. Be warned – while there are no hats, Valve have instead included dangerously awesome in-game ranks. So if you see a Legendary Eagle Master in-game, then you might as well instantly quit the game, because that’s a goddamned Legendary Eagle Master.

Tomorrow, Change Is Coming To CS: Global Offensive

September 30th, 2012 · By Vic · 13 Comments

This coming Monday, on the 1st of October, Valve will release a shiny new update for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive; featuring a revised matchmaking system for Classic Competitive mode (it looks to be based off Team Fortress 2′s new matchmaking system, introduced with the Mann vs Machine update this past August): check out this fancy sneak peek at what it’ll look like in-game!

The update will also include two new game maps: the old-school DE_Vertigo from version 1.1 of Counter-Strike, originally created by Chris “Narby” Auty way back in 2001. Vertigo takes place on the top floors of a high-rise skyscraper under construction, and it will most likely be a Classic mode map. Valve have also released a screenshot of the map, so do check it out.

The second map will be a brand new map titled AR_Monastery, for use in the Arms Race game mode. We don’t know much about it, but Valve have released a small sneak peek at what it will look like, and since it is an Arms Race map, we can probably expect to see a symmetrical, uniform layout, much like AR_Baggage and AR_Shoots. I’m just glad we’re getting another Arms Race map – that mode has only featured those two aforementioned maps since the beta period, and that can really bog down the whole game mode.

Valve says we can also expect to see “a ton of bug fixes based on community feedback“, which sounds pretty promising – let’s hope we see some solid balancing and/or gameplay changes as well! Looking forward to seeing that changelog.

A History of Counter-Strike

August 26th, 2012 · By Vic · 18 Comments

This started out as a part of my upcoming review of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but I have decided to release it on its own, as a sort of prelude or companion piece, to the aforementioned review. I would like to thank my awesome colleagues here at LambdaGen: Erebus; Flamov; and Mimaz, for their invaluable assistance and input, during the creation of this article.

In order to properly discuss Global Offensive, we must first delve deep into the dark (okay, maybe not dark – slightly poorly lit) history of Counter-Strike, as a whole!

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Is Live!

August 21st, 2012 · By Vic · 19 Comments

Today, on the 21st of August, Anno Domini 2012, Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment released Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, from its closed beta prison, and let it loose onto the unsuspecting gaming masses. It’s the first FPS Valve has released since 2009′s Left 4 Dead 2, and Valve’s first new game since Portal 2 in April 2011. It’s currently out and about on Steam, but it will only be released on the PlayStation Network later today; and some time tomorrow morning on Xbox Live.

However, this is obviously not the end of development for CS:GO – only an important milestone in its ongoing evolution. Just as Counter-Strike: Source started out as a rather mediocre release in mid-2004 and grew over the course of 2-3 years, so will CS:GO.

The previous beta build has been completely carried forward into the launch version of the game, and as a matter of fact, the game application itself is a renamed version of the beta game application in your Steam Library. As a result, all stats and achievements that beta testers have attained have been carried forward into the full game, and all active community and Valve servers remain active, and in good shape.

Apparently, there are currently no plans for a launch-day game update. However, we can expect Valve and HPE to start pushing out significant post-release patches over the next couple of days, in order to further optimize the game; fix bugs; and add missing features.

Relatively soon, you will also get to read my text review of CS:GO – it’s been too long since I’ve written a proper “Vic’s Thoughts” piece for you guys. Well, rest easy, for it is on the way!

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Cinematic Launch Trailer

August 18th, 2012 · By Vic · 20 Comments

Originally partly revealed on GameTrailers TV’s Valve-centric episode (which we’ll have in-depth coverage on shortly), here is the full-length CS:GO promotional short!

CS: Global Offensive Open Beta Goes Live For Pre-Purchasers

August 15th, 2012 · By Vic · 8 Comments

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is now a week away from release on the 21st. And so, Valve are gearing up for its launch in style!

CS: Global Offensive To Be Released On 21st Of August, Will Cost $15

June 4th, 2012 · By Vic · 26 Comments

Valve have just announced that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the latest installment in the long-running CS series, is set to be released on the 21st of August, in just two and a half months from now. It will only be available for release on Steam, the PlayStation Network, and XBox Live, and it will cost approximately $15 on all platforms.

In addition, Valve have stated that the game will be playable in both the Sony and Microsoft E3 booths, running an apparently all-new build that Valve have been working on for several weeks. Hopefully it’ll feature some impressive stuff – we’ll let you know what we dig up. Aside from that, the pricepoint they’ve decided on… is great. A high-profile release like Counter-Strike, costing just $15 on launch? That is exceptional, and that is the Valve that I know and love, doing what they do best.

But I’m not pleased about the relatively short release window. I think CS:GO could use a bit more time – but I suppose Valve knows best. Let’s just hope they stick to their guns and follow community feedback as well as they have already. The game is pretty damn fun as it is, so all sins are forgiven. Bring it on, Valve!

CS: Global Offensive Beta Update Adds 15v15 Support, And More

May 23rd, 2012 · By Vic · 4 Comments

Yet another… ever so slightly late update for the CS:GO beta – and what a lovely update indeed. All official maps have been updated with support for 15v15 play, although it would seem that actual in-game functionality for that is yet to come, as I haven’t encountered any servers with support for anything beyond 5v5 as of yet. Significant improvements have been made towards gunplay, spread and recoil patterns; and the general consensus is that Valve have now got the overall gun combat spot-on (some even say it’s currently better than 1.6′s gunplay, and I can’t blame them). And, as always, Valve have released new batches of CS:GO beta invites to all those who applied using the official beta survey. So if you’ve been invited, get playing - and if you find me in-game, do call me out!

Also, CS:GO’s controversial bullet tracers have also been extensively tuned for better playing experience, and that’s also an excellent change. In addition… for whatever reason, Valve have decided to add chickens to DE_Inferno. Coincidence… or vicious intent? Check out Marphy Black’s “Hostage-Strike“ to find out the grim truth. And for more not-so-grim truths, check out Cadred’s community-driven interview with Chet Faliszek. Do check out the update’s official blog post for more info.

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