By John Walker on September 22nd, 2011 at 9:16 am.
Valve are a canny bunch. They know that remaking Counter-Strike is sure to be met by cries of “THIS PIXEL IS ONE NANOMETRE TOO FAR TO THE LEFT!” So it makes good sense for them to look at the best mods that have created the largest audiences, and work them into the new version of the game. So it is that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will feature an “Arsenal Mode”, based on the CS: Source mod, Gun Game. Oh, and we have nine brand new images of the game.
These will exist in the form of Arsenal: Arms Race, and Arsenal: Demolition, and be played across eight new maps.
But this being Valve, they’re not doing it on their own. Instead they’re working with the modders who created Gun Game. As the mod’s lead developer, Michael Barr, said in true press release style,
“We are excited that Valve reached out and is working with us to ensure Arsenal Mode is the best version of Gun Game.”
And now, please to enjoy nine new CS:GO images. Like me, they get bigger when you click on them.
22/09/2011 at 09:19 Bull0 says:
Codblops had a mode based on gun game too.
I really like the new terrorist skins, but I’d like to see something approaching a new level. This all looks very familiar.
22/09/2011 at 09:25 Gnoupi says:
At least they don’t buy their shirts in bulk anymore, apparently.
22/09/2011 at 09:35 Bull0 says:
Yeah, I just hope they haven’t replaced “Four different skins” with “Three phoenix connection skins with different shirts and a couple of militia skins”
22/09/2011 at 09:40 El_MUERkO says:
They maybe associating certain skins with individual maps like CoD. That way you get a more consistent art style and less texture load.
22/09/2011 at 09:45 Alexander Norris says:
Sadly the blops one is gungame and not the far superior reverse gun game.
Hope CS:GO has the latter. :(
22/09/2011 at 09:56 Bull0 says:
Sounds and looks as though you’re probably right, Muerko. I don’t know how far I’d welcome that change – I always quite enjoyed looking incongruous in my arctic warfare gear turfing around italy
22/09/2011 at 10:35 frenz0rz says:
Will nobody spare a thought for Gungame Turbo?
22/09/2011 at 10:37 BooleanBob says:
Reverse gun game is how me + pals used to run it, too. Much more fun for all involved as you’re not left hoping that one team doesn’t get left behind on pistols while the other go on to dominate with shotguns, then SMGs, then rifles.
Maintaining your lead as you get into the crappier weapons feels like a real achievement, whereas being behind you always feel you have a shot of catching up.
22/09/2011 at 10:55 Magnetude says:
True that, reverse gun game is the only gun game for me. The Blops version was pretty unsatisfying, on account of being normal mode, with a limited weapons set and short games, so if you couldn’t get a pistol kill in the first minute you were boned.
The feeling of a killstreak is awesome in gungame, especially if you imagine it from the point of view of someone observing – a maniac walks around a small building, pulling a series of increasingly ridiculous weapons out of his pockets and shooting people in the face with them. Felt badass.
22/09/2011 at 11:24 Bull0 says:
I dunno, I really enjoyed it in Blops. The weapons set was really diverse, it wasn’t just “series of pistols, series of shotguns, series of SMGs, series of rifles, here’s a sniper rifle”. I don’t think “limited” is fair when it covers everything from pistols to rocket launchers, throwing knives, and crossbows, quite the opposite in fact. And the matches weren’t much shorter than CS, anyway. I don’t know what “on account of being normal mode” means either – the rules were the same as gungame, not standard CoD free-for-all deathmatch, so I don’t know what you’re talking about there I’m afraid
But I’ve got to say if we’re hating Call of Duty to the extent that we’re even hating on the things it’s borrowed from better games now, then I’m at a loss – we’ve transcended objective criticism and hit fan hate factor 5, and it’s only 11.30 in the morning
22/09/2011 at 11:26 Williz says:
Turbo is no fun, I really stuggle to find a decent rounds based Gungame server these days :l
22/09/2011 at 12:35 SaturnineTenshi says:
I play reverse gungame with rounds here: 216.52.148.31:27015. Nice group of folk. Gets kicking around 7PM EST.
22/09/2011 at 16:14 Shooop says:
@ Alexander Norris:
Since it’s a Valve game rest assured if they don’t have it built in, someone will have a mod for that.
25/09/2011 at 18:39 Bobic says:
It’s funny, and a bit sad, that the people who made gun game first are going to be called out for copying Black ops.
22/09/2011 at 09:21 orta says:
I’m with Bull0, it looks like Counter Strike, and I’m a real happy bunny for that.
22/09/2011 at 09:27 cqdemal says:
Isn’t Arsenal Mode one where you sell all the best weapons you have, buy unproven new ones and knockoffs at the last minute, then try to survive a mob of 60,000 angry people in rounds that last 9 months each?
22/09/2011 at 09:36 Bull0 says:
I’d play that. Sounds awesome.
22/09/2011 at 10:00 4026 says:
A foot-to-ball joke? On my RPS? Surely not.
22/09/2011 at 10:47 AlonePlusEasyTarget says:
So you play as rapper-shagging Frenchman in this mode?
INSTANT BUY.
22/09/2011 at 11:06 Richard Beer says:
And always insisting on walking the bomb into the bomb-site even when it’s not the best tactic.
22/09/2011 at 11:29 Bull0 says:
That’s the trouble with Arsenal, alright
22/09/2011 at 12:31 BooleanBob says:
Arsenal mode: every round is econ round.
That said, most of the other good teams are using money hax.
(If you want to stretch the analogy all the way out you have to invoke the short-lived period where CS:S had global demand-based pricing and a deagle routinely cost more than an AWP.)
22/09/2011 at 09:28 CaspianRoach says:
This is very pretty. Too bad it’ll probably have the jerky incoherent player character movement animation of every Source game ever made.
Yeah, if you look on the 3rd screenshot you’ll notice that the lower body is moving independently from the upper body. Humans don’t walk like that.
22/09/2011 at 15:39 jerkstoresup says:
Oh no!
22/09/2011 at 19:50 sharkh20 says:
So you are telling me that you can’t run forward and aim a gun to the side at the same time? I mean, I can do that.
22/09/2011 at 09:28 Mist says:
Nice, I think I prefer gungame over the normal gameplay (probably because I suck). Hope it defaults to the inverted kind though – start with the awesome weapons, end with pistols.
22/09/2011 at 09:30 BrendanJB says:
3rd screenshot down shows a case of extreme duckfoot
i like what im seeing though
i remain cautiously optimistic
22/09/2011 at 13:07 Savage Henry says:
Haters gonna hate, apparently.
22/09/2011 at 09:31 Skie says:
Oh man, I really loved GunGame. It makes you appreciate every weapon and can actually help you in the normal mode too when your team is utterly skint and you have to run around with pistols.
But I worry that with all the added detail they are adding, the visuals will get in the way of the gameplay. I dont want to be getting caught on props when backpeddling during a firefight, or not be able to see people because the things around them are so busy. But valve know what they are doing most of the time.
22/09/2011 at 09:35 Corrupt_Tiki says:
Oh Gungame! I liked that, sadface about no official surf_ mode :/ I liked that the most.
22/09/2011 at 12:27 MadTinkerer says:
Um… perhaps because you don’t need an official Surf mode? As long as the surfing physics “bug” is unofficially supported by Valve, there will be Surf maps.
Plus, although Surf is fun, it’s friggin’ goofy compared to how the game is intended to be played. Even in TF2.
22/09/2011 at 09:37 abigbat says:
Gosh it’s looking pretty.
Cannot wait.
22/09/2011 at 09:42 Serge says:
Sorry, MW3, the crown of “The most outdated looks in a new game” is not yours anymore.
I love how they put one lamp on every screenshot to make it look they’ve got dynamic shadow system with self shadowing instead of old shadow maps from HL2. (See second and last screenshot)
I think I’ll be playing BF3 anyway.
22/09/2011 at 09:55 CaspianRoach says:
I love how clear a shadow this lamp gives in the second screenshot. Apparently the lamp is 1 pixel wide.
22/09/2011 at 10:00 Riotpoll says:
I love how the gunplay is exactly the same in CS, CoD and BF.
22/09/2011 at 11:13 Serge says:
No I mean this:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/11/sept/csg/csg2b.jpg
Look at the sharp dynamic shadow on the left from env_projectedtexture entity(I’ve been modding HL2 since long time ago I know what I’m talking about) and the “normal” Source engine shadow underneath. All blurry and ugly.
The same effect was used in Portal 2. Though it was at least used in a clever way.
Here they even using the same default flashlight texture from EP2 for that lamp.
I do understand this is not Valve but a different people, still funny how they want to make it look not like a game from 2004 with HD model pack downloaded from some site.
Look. This is a game from 2007 which looks as “good” plus full dynamic lighting system. But features more effects. Funny because its modified Quake 3 engine.
http://i.imgur.com/Lz31G.jpg
22/09/2011 at 12:53 SaturnineTenshi says:
Herp. These graphics do not impress me. Not buying ’cause no pretty pictures.
22/09/2011 at 16:24 Serge says:
@SaturnineTenshi
Ironically, the graphics are the only thing what Valve is able to change not causing the massive public outcry(Read: “fanboy QQ”).
So If I don’t really care about graphics, why bother switching from CSS?
In fact, Episode 2+ engine which is used here proved to be much more demanding.
The day they updated CSS to this engine(Why?) forums were flooded by people not being able to properly run the game they were playing for years straight.
Why? Because Valve wanted achievements and avatars in scoreboard!
*golf clap*
22/09/2011 at 16:34 Shooop says:
Right, because pretty, pretty pictures make buying spyware preferable!
25/09/2011 at 21:31 nyck says:
Its funny because you are comparing a $60+ game with one that (i believe) isnt going to reach 35 or even less (i hope)
Notice that there are graphicaly awful games, more than MW. But they aren’t AAA
22/09/2011 at 10:34 CaLe says:
The models are nice.. wish I could say the same about the animations.
22/09/2011 at 11:32 Williz says:
Needs offcial Surf mode
Offcial Zombie horde mode to compete with CoC would be interesting too.
22/09/2011 at 11:56 LionsPhil says:
*clicks repeatedly on John Walker*
22/09/2011 at 12:00 AlonePlusEasyTarget says:
*embiggen**embiggen**embiggen*
22/09/2011 at 15:06 fiddlesticks says:
Please help me, RPS. I’ve been clicking on my John Walker repeatedly, but he doesn’t seem to get any bigger. What am I doing wrong?
(I didn’t realize how dirty this sounds until I actually typed it out.)
22/09/2011 at 13:29 Vanderdecken says:
Is that the Source engine? If it is, it looks like it’s finally showing its limits… as much as I love Source, these screenshots are giving me a little nagging thought that it might be time for Valve to build a new engine from the ground up.
22/09/2011 at 14:15 LionsPhil says:
Throwing away your existing work and restarting from scratch is one of the most stupid things you can do in software development.
23/09/2011 at 04:16 12kill4 says:
It would certainly be one of the most expensive things you could do… but stupid? I’d say that really depends on how well written your previous material is…
22/09/2011 at 13:50 Stijn says:
Look, the terrorist is a black hiphop man.
22/09/2011 at 16:32 Stupoider says:
I was thinking Somalian pirate.
22/09/2011 at 14:17 Forceflow says:
That guy is bleeding through his backpack.
Ouch.
22/09/2011 at 16:28 menderslan says:
So should I assume we’re still sticking with the old “women don’t exist in the military” position and having only male skins/voices in the game, then? Ok.
22/09/2011 at 18:11 Ataraktika says:
I must say, the first screens of this new incarnation had me in a state of severe grief for at least a couple of days (I’ve played Counter-Strike 1.6 practically my whole life). This batch surprised me in a good way, though, and I find myself looking forward to release. When is that by the way?
But Counter-Strike has more or less always been about, or been judged in terms of, gameplay and ‘feel’. I hope they succeed.
22/09/2011 at 22:41 rakbanan says:
I have to say I’m very skeptical about this, especially how it’s supposedly going to unite the player base. The graphics aren’t that big of an improvement over CS:S, and the gameplay, judging by what information we have and the fact that it’s Valve, will probably not be as good as 1.6.
The player models do look nice, though. I like them a lot.
23/09/2011 at 01:53 Ataraktika says:
Well, the purpose of the game has never been a clear one, let alone intended to unite the Counter-Strike community by any means. From what I’ve heard, everything points to that it’s just another game, properly bland and meh before Valve decides to actually do something about the franchise. If anything, it will fragment the already broken community further. It’s like watching your brother die or something.
23/09/2011 at 09:03 oatmeal says:
Give us some gameplay footage. :P
23/09/2011 at 17:05 RegisteredUser says:
So if I bought CS:S, will I get this one free?