Counterstrike,

November 9, 2000 9:13 AM

Counterstrike, the most popular networked first person shooter in the world, went gold today. If you have Half-life this mod is well worth the download.
posted by capt.crackpipe (16 comments total)

Oooh, cool, gaming news on MeFi. That's spectacular. :)

*pissed because Q3: Team Arena isn't out yet*
posted by pnevares at 9:18 AM on November 9, 2000

Counterstrike is a really nice mod. I picked up Half-Life real cheap ($20 CDN) and I just got into it... It's considerably more tactical than the usual non-stop rapid-fire action of Q3 Arena.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 9:31 AM on November 9, 2000

I have *one* problem with Counterstrike; the damn grenades are ludicrously underpowered. Pop off a grenade at your feet, and you aren't killed. A real frag grenade would have killed everyone within ten yards of the blast. Take a real grenade, set it off in the middle of a football field, and a man standing at the goal line can get killed by shrapnel.

...of course, we wouldn't want quite that level of power in CS -- but if I throw a grenade at your FEET, you'd damn well better die!

Grr.
(OK, yes, I'm nitpicky.)
posted by aramaic at 10:08 AM on November 9, 2000

Well, for all intents and purposes, if you get a grenade going off at your feet in Counterstrike, you might as well consider yourself toast considering that you'll be disoriented and the next bullet that hits you definitely will kill you.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 10:53 AM on November 9, 2000

Mmm...

TRIBES comes with a tactical experience out of the box :)
posted by Ptrin at 11:55 AM on November 9, 2000

LOL, tribes doesn't even begin to compare to CounterStrike
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 12:07 PM on November 9, 2000

Of course Tribes doesn't compare to CS -- it's a completely different type of game.

...however, Tribes is possibly my favorite game of all time. Mostly because my tactical ability can overpower punk kids with their superior reflexes. Reflexes ain't jack if I can snipe you from 2Km away, out of midair.

My all-time fav Tribes moment was when I hit an incoming scout that was trying to make an aerial flag grab on us . . . with my mortar. A mid-air mortar kill; direct hit. I think I taunted the guy for five solid minutes.

Hmm, I think I'm geeking out here, so I'll just stop.
posted by aramaic at 12:25 PM on November 9, 2000

Played UT. Couldn’t stand a second of it. Q3A rated lower than UT for me.

Here's the kick though: as far as online FPSs go, I think CS beats Tribes in nearly every way. In midair. With an awp.

I loved Tribes (free review copy, suckers), played it til I got motion sick, but it got too repetitive. No staying power. CS lasts mostly because of the one life per round rule. Slowing the game down was a stroke of genius. Tribes’ voice communication was superior, the jet pack was a wonderful touch, but after time, it didn’t add up to much.

As for weapon strength, I read on the cs forums that the p90 used to be unstoppable. They had to raise the price, drop the accuracy and bullet strength. That gun IRL is incredible.

Anyway, i 0wn j00 4ll!!! n3 t1m3 l00seRs!!!!#@

Have you guys had trouble dling the update? I keep getting timeouts and 404s. I need my fix man. I gotta see the new ct weapon.

rock out with your geek out.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 1:28 PM on November 9, 2000

I still think the best team game is Team Fortress. But CS is an extremely nice mod with more realism and excellent gameplay built around that realism. TF/TFC goes for more of a game feel; nevertheless, for me, any kind of teamplay beats the pants off of deathmatch.

Then again, I'm lousy at deathmatch ...
posted by dhartung at 1:33 PM on November 9, 2000

Counterstrike isn't bad, but my heart belongs to Weapon's Factory.
posted by john at 2:32 PM on November 9, 2000

Q1 Teamfortress! SIFN'T OWNED!

posted by aki at 3:49 PM on November 9, 2000

My vote goes in for CS also. Used to play Quake and UT at work - a different work than the current work - with 3 or 4 other guys, and they were both excellent for that. But we have 10 - 14 people who play on a regular basis, and nothing beats the strategy involved in a 5-on-5 game, you can't just go running around shooting everything that moves.

Although, we picked up Delta Force 3 - Landwarrior today. We didn't get the chance to install it, but after a week of raging database debate, spending tomorrow afternoon blowing the shit out of each other is going to be a blast!

I imagine we'll return to CS a few short weeks after intense DF3 play though. I'm glad they finally went gold with it, I'd like to be able to pick up a box that has HL and CS (preferably with a bunch of other mods as well) so I can brush up at home.

I still plan on taking you up on that offer to kick my ass someday capt.crackpipe. :-)
posted by cCranium at 4:38 PM on November 9, 2000

I always keep going back to TFC. The new maps and gameplay modes (Dustbowl & Avanti rock my world) keep things interesting and the various character classes keep new challenges around.

I find it amazing that a mod for a game that came out about 3 years ago and based on a game engine that is 5 or 6 years old (Quake 1) has more servers (~3400) than the total for all mods of Quake III (~3000). CS does rule.
posted by mutagen at 1:03 PM on November 10, 2000

Hmm, how come no one ever sings the praises of Rainbow Six? I was a slave to that game for all of 1999. Its too bad that you pretty much had to go to zone.com to find matchmaking, but still, it was pretty damn fun.

Anyway, I'll have to go look for CS in stores today, as I don;t have half-life any more.
posted by Hackworth at 2:53 PM on November 10, 2000

Never played Rainbow 6, though I hear it's very nice. :-)

I heard a rumour from a coworker who pays more attention to these sorts of games than I do (I'm more of a Neverwinter Nights follower :-) that there's going to be a CS-like mod released for Q3Arena "Real Soon Now"

One advantage is the Bot AI. What little Q3A I've played, the bots tend to spank me far more than RealBot or the one other bot I've tried in CS.

(though loading up the work server with droves of bots when there's only 2 or 3 of us playing, and mowing them all down is an excellent stress reliever in its own right. :-)
posted by cCranium at 4:26 PM on November 10, 2000