In 1998, mod team Akimbo Team Productions released Action Quake 2, a Quake II multiplayer mod created in their spare time. The landscape of first-person shooters has changed vastly since then, but one group of dedicated fans have never moved on.
Seventeen years later, the game’s Finnish community are still dedicated to the lightning-paced, bullet-showering, Hong Kong movie-style spectacle. I spoke to some of the most dedicated players about why they still play, meet and reminisce regularly about a game where you’re as likely to perish courtesy of an airborne throwing dagger as you are to be tossed from a rooftop, plunging three stories to your doom.
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.
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 too. But when? And how? Turns out, the answers are a) this month and b) on the very personal computing device (presumably) sitting before you. The greatest anti-terror weapon of all, however, isn’t guns or drones or bombs disguised to look like good ol’ freshly made American apple pie. It’s knowledge, and you’ll find tons more of it after the break.
Despite having originally released all the way back in the year 2,000 Anno Domini, CounterStrike is still – still! – the number one game being played on Steam right now. That’s not even taking into account CounterStrike Source. It’s an astonishing achievement, and CounterStrike’s continued popularity is reason enough to pay attention to the new game from co-creator, Minh Le. That new game is Tactical Intervention, and it’s a project he quit his job at Valve to pursue. I sat down for a chat with him, and this is what ensued:Read the rest of this entry »
