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4 months ago
The beta for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s shiny new UI, Panorama, is now available to players who fancy a preview. Valve is touting it as “the most substantial change to the look and feel of CS:GO since the game was released in 2012.” Every part of the UI has been updated, so it might take a bit of time to get used to.
1 year ago
A new mod for Dark Souls mixes the brutal action-RPG with Counter-Strike's mod Gun Game (or CS:GO's Arms Race mode, if you'd rather). Much as Gun Game rewards Counter-Strikers with new weapons for killing other players, the DaS_GG mod gives the Chosen Undead levels and fancier weapons for whacking folks. Oh, but it takes them away as you get hit. Even if you know Lordran…
Though Half-Life [official site] is almost nineteen years old and its sanctioned fan remake Black Mesa is nearing completion, Valve have launched a wee patch for their pretty okay or whatever vintage FPS. The patch fixes a few crashes and exploits, and hit other Half-Life engine games too, such as classic Counter-Strike. Given how much of modern PC games history connects to Half-Life and its…
2 years ago
Feature: Dedicated to you
I've been a member of many games communities over the years - clans, guilds, forums - but the one I remember most fondly was a server.
Feature: Tracing back Tracer, among others
Developers imitate each other, as do writers, musicians and artists, and Blizzard are the best in the business at it. No other company is so good at distilling the sweat of another’s brow and refining it into pure, unadulterated joy. Yet, while it’s easy to see in Overwatch the objective-based gameplay of Team Fortress 2, the team dynamics of League of Legends or the creative…
Happy 20th birthday, Valve! Yesterday. Happy 20th yesterday. Sorry, I only just saw the Facebook notification. On August 24th, 1996, ex-Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington made a beautiful baby who was mighty eye-opening. In the dreamy game of "What if...?" one curious hypothetical is: what if Valve never existed? There can't be many companies who've had nearly as much impact. Steam (eventually) revolutionised…
3 years ago
Feature:
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every weekday of the year, perhaps for all time. Not the original mod. Not Global Offensive or Condition Zero. I'm talking about Counter-Strike: Source, the remake that brought terrorists and counter-terrorists to the Half-Life 2 engine - and for some reason, was never fully embraced by the audience.
American media conglomerate Turner Broadcasting and talent agency WME/IMG plans to show 20 live Counter-Strike: Global Offensive [official site] events on US television next year as part of a league series after brokering a successful deal with Valve.
Feature: The original, that is
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. Not Global Offensive. Not Source. I'm talking the original Counter-Strike. The Half-Life mod; the game that was more popular than its online competitors combined; the game that in many ways pioneered both games as services and games as playable alphas; the game that…
Feature: RPS Chat v0.86
Early Access games are here to stay, but is that cause for concern or celebration? We gathered to discuss whether early access benefits developers or players in its current state, and how we'd make it better. Along the way, we discussed the best alpha examples, paying for unfinished games, our love of regularly updated mods, Minecraft and the untapped potential of digital stores.
Feature: Pop Flash #2
In Pop Flash, a series of insights into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive [official site], Emily Richardson looks past the amazing clutches and crushing defeats to understand the culture and meta of Valve’s everlasting competitive FPS. This week, I’ll be discussing abuse and toxic behaviour in the CS:GO community. Before we get to it, let me reiterate that I am madly in love with Counter-Strike. It’s simply…
4 years ago
If I close my eyes and think of childhood memories and the spaces that contain them, my mind might touch upon a bedroom, a school playground or a muddy playing field, but it might just as easily come to rest upon Q2DM1, Q3DM17 or de_prodigy. The angles and textures and travel times of certain multiplayer maps are seared into my brain through repetition, their tiny…
Feature: Valve demands heavy ransom
A recent study by the PEW Internet Project exposed the blindingly obvious hypocrisy of most people's attitudes towards online services. We don't want our privacy compromised, we don't think big companies can be trusted with our data, and the power of corporations like Google makes us uncomfortable. But despite all these deeply-held and very serious fears, billions of people still use the products involved. So…
And in "Well this is a nice idea but it would involve me not playing Jason Derulo on repeat while headshotting Ben so you can count me out" news: there are now Counter-Strike: Global Offensive music kits. What that means is when you have a music kit equipped it replaces the in-game music with music from your kit. That covers *deep breath* the main menu,…
Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies is a weird thing. A zombified free-to-play version of dear old CS 1.6 made by not-Valve always would be but gosh, this video game! I've inadvertently played a good five hours since Nexon launched it into open beta on Tuesday. I'm baffled but fascinated. It feels like a cover-disc collection of mods passed through a portal from a world where Valve released…
One mode in the free-to-play Counter-Strike Online 2 sees players turn into a deadly cartoon pig. Another gives terrorists cloaking devices, and of course the game does zombies too. The original CS Online has an event starring giant bug men. In Japanese arcades, Counter-Strike Neo had sexy cyberbabes. The straight-faced man-shooter lives a fabulous double-life thanks to Valve licensing it to Asian developers, who rebuild…
How long is it before everyone copies Valve's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update structure? The latest addition to the venerable multiplayer shooter is called Operation Breakout, and it adds six new maps for everyone to play for free. For those willing and able to pay $6, you then get a now-familiar bundle of upgrades including access to mission drops with the chance to unlock "45 exclusive…
5 years ago
This information is coming to me via a blurry video and Google Translate, so I make only a slight claim of accuracy on this. I'm fact, I'm going to create a pseudonym to deliver it. Look over there while I change my clothes. No peeking, now! I'm shy. Right! Ready! Hello, I am Graham Journalism: Games Journalist. I used to host the late night Channel…
6 years ago
Counter-Strike will probably outlive us all. It will also probably keep bunny-hopping onward long after we've disposed of all terrorism and achieved glorious grievance-free utopia. There will be no counters or strikes. Only Counter-Strike. So it's exciting to hear that the implausibly enduring formula's original creator has decided to revisit it, and the fact that his new game, Tactical Intervention, is actually gonna be playable is pretty neat…
Feature: Click, Boom
"A People's History" is a three part essay series that argues for a long-standing but suppressed tradition of non-industry involvement in the first person genre. This is part three. [Part one. Part two.]
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