Product Details
 | Counter-Strike: Source |
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Product Description
MODEL- 09839 VENDOR- ELECTRONIC ARTS FEATURES- Counter Strike: Source PC Blending single elimination, team-based gameplay with the notion of an economy to produce an online action experience of incredible depth and realism, Counter-Strike is the most played multi-player online action game in the world. With Counter-Strike: Source, the now legendary game has been given a complete overhaul, with graphic enhancements such as higher polygon models, shadows and reflective water to add dimension to the new characters, items, and environments. CS: Source also contains all new maps. In addition to the award-winning Counter-Strike gameplay, this game also includes Half-Life 2: Deathmatch - featuring fast action gameplay in physically simulated environments - and Day of Defeat: Source, Valves World War II online action thriller set in the European theater of operations. * The #1 multi-player online action game in the world offers the largest community of players. * Amazing value also featuring: Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Day of Defeat: Source. * Includes official Counter-Strike Bot for offline skirmish play. * Powered by Source, Valve s new engine, featuring amazing graphics and special effects. -- SPECIFICATIONs ----------------------------------- ESRB Rating : M for Mature Genre/Category: Shooter System : PC Requirements : Minimum: 1.2 GHz Processor 256MB RAM DirectX 7 level graphics card Windows 2000/XP/ME/98 Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection Preferred: 2.4 GHz Processor 512MB RAM DirectX 9 level graphics cardProduct Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #3487 in Video Games
- Brand: Electronic Arts
- Model: 71608
- Released on: 2005-09-26
- ESRB Rating: Mature
- Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.00" h x 5.50" w x 7.50" l, 2.00 pounds
Features
- Single-elimination, team-based online shooter
- Completely overhauled with better graphics, new characters, items, and environments
- Package includes Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Day of Defeat: Source
- Real-world physics adds depth the gameplay
- Internet connection required for online play
Editorial Reviews
From the Manufacturer
Blending
single elimination, team-based gameplay with the notion of an economy
to produce an online action experience of incredible depth and realism, Counter-Strike
is the most played multi-player online action game in the world. With Counter-Strike:
Source, the now legendary game has been given a complete overhaul,
with graphic enhancements such as higher polygon models, shadows and
reflective water to add dimension to the new characters, items, and
environments. Counter-Strike: Source also contains all new maps.
In
addition to the award-winning Counter-Strike gameplay, this
package also includes Half-Life 2: Deathmatch--featuring fast
action gameplay in physically simulated environments--and Day of
Defeat: Source, Valve's World War II online action thriller set in
the European theater of operations.
About Counter-Strike:
Source
 Counter-Strike: Source
blends Counter-Strike's award-winning teamplay action with the advanced
technology of Source technology. Featuring state of the art graphics,
all new sounds, and introducing physics, Counter-Strike: Source
is a must-have for every action gamer. | About Half-Life
2: Deathmatch
 Fast multiplayer action
set in the Half-Life 2 universe! HL2's physics adds a new
dimension to deathmatch play. Play straight deathmatch or try Combine
vs. Resistance teamplay. Toss a toilet at your friend today! | About Day of Defeat: Source
 Day of Defeat offers an
intense brand of online gameplay set in the WWII European Theatre of
Operations. Players assume the role of light/assault/heavy infantry,
sniper or machine-gunner class, and missions are based on historical
operations. |
Customer Reviews
Great game..... once you get good.
Ok, here are your options.
You can buy this package and get three multiplayer games. Or you can buy
the retail version of Half Life 2 and get Counter Strike:Source, Half
Life 2 Deathmatch, and the story version of HL2. Basically, with this
package versus HL2 retail, you will be trading the story version of HL2
for the multiplayer game Day of Defeat and whatever price difference
there is.
Now with that out of the way, I'd assume you are
looking at this page because you are interested in Counter Strike:
Source. Good choice. There is a reason CS:S is the number one online
game in the world. The game is amazing......it's that simple.
The
game is set up around the premise of Terrorists vs. Counter-Terrorists.
When you first join a server you choose which side you want to be on,
the main difference being the weapons you will have access to. During
the game each team has a different goal. One some levels the Terrorists
have to plant a bomb while the Counter-Terrorists try to stop them. On
other levels the Counter-Terrorists try to rescue some hostages while
the Terrorists try to stop them. During each round you get 1 life.
That's it! This means if you die you have to sit around and wait until
the round is over. It's not a big deal though, the levels are generally
small and well designed, and rounds don't usually last very long. Some
of the positives of this system are that it discourages "Rambo" type
play where people will just run around with guns blazing, of course some
people still do that, but most people are more concerned about being
careful with their life.
The graphics in this game are amazing!
All the particle, smoke and water effects are extremely well done. There
is a reason the Source graphics engine is so popular and it shows in
this game. If you don't have an up-to-date computer you may have to
sacrifice some visuals for performance, but the Source engine scales
quite well, so as long as you aren't years behind you should be able to
find settings that work.
A heads up to any parents up there,
there is a good amount of blood in this game and obviously it is
centered around shooting other people, so you may want to keep that in
mind if you are purchasing for a kid.
Now we move on to the
actual gameplay. I already touched on the one life per round aspect of
this game, but as a new player you should be prepared to die...... a
lot! You will die over and over and you will never kill anyone. That is a
fact, and if you are going to buy this game it would serve you well to
just accept that right now. Having played First Person Shooters in the
past will help a bit, but you will still be nothing but a bullet
absorber when you first start out. The learning curve on this game is a
bit steep, and there are many people out there who have been playing
this game for years. They have the aiming system down to a science and
know every level like the back of their hand. There is also a little
weapon called the AWP, which is a sniper rifle you will get to know very
well. Mainly by the amount of times you are killed by it. This is a one
shot one kill weapon and there are some players out there who simply
don't miss with it. Suffice to say it can be quit frustrating when you
are constantly killed from 200 yards while you barely get a chance to
even see who shot you.
The point of all this is that it will
require a bit of patience to learn this game and get to a skill level
where you can be competitive. There is a neat little option where you
can start your own server and fill it with "bots", which are computer
controlled characters, and use this as practice. You can even set the
difficulty level of the bots. While no AI can compete with human
intelligence this is a good way to get better at the game and learn the
levels if you are getting frustrated on real servers.
Overall,
it's a great game that is being updated constantly with new levels and
features. If you can get past the learning curve you will be rewarded
with a satisfying online shooter that you will be playing for years to
come. If you are easily frustrated and do not want to put in the time it
takes to get good at this game you may want to pass on this and try
something else.
Counter-Strike:
Source is a praiseworthy remake of one of the greatest action games of
all time.
In 1998, the first person
shooter genre was revolutionized with the release of Half-Life. Players
fought human beings and alien hordes and other various types of opposing
creatures as they explored a secret base called Black Mesa. The
popularity of Half-Life sparked many new talented developers. In 2000,
the action video game genre was defined with the Half-Life modification
of Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike featured an extremely addicting and
superior gameplay that before hasn't been seen since the release of
Pong. An entire culture seems to have been formed because of
Counter-Strike as it's seen today, and now it is the most popular online
action game in the world. Half-Life 2 featured stunning graphics and
physical gameplay which gave Valve the signal that their new game
engine, Source was a huge success. The next major project Valve decided
to work on is Counter-Strike: Source, a completely overhauled and remade
version of the legendary Counter-Strike with the Source engine.
However, Valve knew that it would be a challenge both carefully keeping
the sensitive gameplay intact that has been released years ago and both
upgrading the way players play without the game becoming a failure. So,
how did Valve do with the late 2004 release of the highly anticipated
release of Counter-Strike: Source?
Before any quick conclusions
are made about the game, players should know that it is actually still
in development. The game is frequently updated by Valve with content
additions and enhancements and maps that have not yet been ported to the
Source engine yet. However, players will be happy to know that the
major maps such as Dust2, Aztec, Office, and many others have already
been ported to the new game. Only the least popular such as Siege have
not yet been added to the game as of August of 2006. Players should be
rest assured that the remaining maps should and most likely will be
ported to the game.
So, why did Valve decide to release the game
only partially developed publicly? There has never been an official
answer to this but most players speculate because Valve is eager to know
the public reactions to the game. When Counter-Strike: Source was
barely released it only contained several maps available to play. Valve
seemed to want to know what players thought of the game before they
finish completing it. If the game appears to be a failure to the public,
Valve would know if they had to scrap the project, but if generally
positive reactions came from players, especially veteran Counter-Strike
1.6 players, Valve would happily continue with the remaining development
of the game. With this said, the positive has happened. Generally,
Counter-Strike: Source was accepted by fans, and Valve continues slowly
with the development of the game.
Counter-Strike: Source as
already very much known continues with generally the same gameplay of
1.6. If it did not, it wouldn't be deserved to be called
"Counter-Strike: Source", but "Counter-Strike 2". Terrorists and
Counter-Terrorists face off in map skirmishes with an arsenal of weapons
available for purchase. Depending on either what of two possible map
types they are playing in, the terrorists will either have to plant a
bomb in one of two bomb spots in the map, or in the other game type the
terrorists will have to protect usually four hostages that are in a
specific area of the map from the counter-terrorists rescuing them and
winning the round. Or, in both types, a victorious team can be declared
simply when one has completely killed the other opposing team. As
Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike: Source is a highly fast-paced
shooter.
Unlike the Halo series where players will often both
explore landscape and at the same time take on enemy foes, in
Counter-Strike you can expect to be on your tiptoes the complete time
you are playing. It only takes a few shots to the chest and only one to
the head to die in Counter-Strike, which can sometimes be the focal
point of the anger in the game but also helps drive the addicting
gameplay of you having to always be on caution and keeping your reflexes
sharp to survive the round. Counter-Strike is a very skill-orientated
game, a newcomer can expect to easily have only one kill per ten deaths,
but a veteran and highly experienced player can easily produce up to
thirty kills with only one or two deaths.
While both
Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike: Source have a fairly large
community, as a whole, the community is one of the rough parts of the
game and at times is not very "newbie-friendly". Cheating using
out-of-the-game programs called "hacking" is on an all-time high. But
thankfully, Valve's VAC2 anti-cheat system does a fair and adequate job
of catching cheaters and permanently banning them from the game. The
VAC2 modules are frequently updated and are becoming more and more
intelligent everyday, and if this goes at this rate, players can easily
expect for the VAC2 system to catch virtually every single cheat in
existence.
As from Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source contains
the same technological advancements of Half-Life 2. Players will see
both physics and the upgraded graphics from the Source engine. To set
the answer to the first question straight, Counter-Strike: Source as
Half-Life 2 is a major technical accomplishment. From the definition of
the textures, to the particle effects and to the ragdoll physics,
Counter-Strike: Source as Half-Life 2 is a benchmark in PC gaming. It is
without doubt that players will enjoy and be amazed at what
Counter-Strike: Source has technologically to offer. The first time a
player under a bridge shoots and kills an opposing player, sees the body
dynamically and fluidly drop down the bridge and adjust its skeleton to
the irregular landscape, the player will drop their jaws. Valve's
physics portion of the engine both contains an enormous amount of
dynamicness in objects and the bones of models. When a player throws a
grenade down an alleyway that is filled with barrels, bottles, and other
objects, the objects will fly into the air and drop down into a unique
position that before has never been seen in video games. The engine's
ragdoll physics also contains an incredible amount of fluidity and dead
bodies can die an infinite amount of ways. Over a ledge, down a slope,
or simply just drop down on the ground, they will always have a unique
position.
The Source engine also as known in Half-Life 2 before
features eye-popping graphics. Valve completely remade the textures that
were used in Counter-Strike, and this is the major difference
graphically of the 1.6 version of Counter-Strike and the Source version.
The textures now really look more lifelike and clearer which makes the
game look a lot more attractive. Valve also did a good job developing
special effects in Source. From particle effects from bullets to the
vivid volumetric smoke, it has all been carefully created. Whether you
are standing behind a metallic surface or a soft sandy surface the
proper effect on the texture will be created when bullets are fired on
it. Players will see the bright-white ricocheting effect on metal plates
or the dust that pops out of weak, stony surfaces. Players will also
see that there is a nice smoke effect that comes from both an
after-effect of a grenade, but more specifically the popping of a smoke
grenade. The smoke actually has volume and depth to it and players can
walk and notice that they are actually walking through a field of smoke
rather then just a cheap dust effect that has been seen many times in
past games.
Another quite noticeable and somewhat controversial
change in the Source version of Counter-Strike is the displeasureable
effect a player experiences when he is affected by a popping of a
flashbang. In 1.6, players would be blinded and only see white for a few
seconds, but still be able to hear and could more easily retreat by
thought before the enemy rushes out in the open. However, in Source, a
flashbang is much more effective in disorientating the enemy. A
flashbang is not only much longer in Source, but also completely
disables your hearing with a high-pitched scream. This entire effect can
easily disorientate an entire enemy team with just one flashbang and
can easily completely confuse a new player. In addition to the
disorientating effect of the Source flashbang with the extended flashed
time and the loss of hearing, players will also see that a flashbang
continues to try and confuse a player by before returning his hearing
and vision, an early image of where he is standing will bleed onto the
screen making the player think that he has recovered whereas he will
then move, but then notice that he has been tricked because he has not
fully recovered, his senses will then finally return and he will notice
where he now is.
A possibly overlooked point of Counter-Strike:
Source is its audio. The Source engine supports a wide range of fluidity
and dynamicness of its sound effects. Most of the weapon firing sounds
have been copied and directly imported into Counter-Strike: Source from
Counter-Strike 1.6. But most have actually seen the remake with Source.
The well-known and highly-realistic firing sound of the AK-47 from
Counter-Strike 1.6 has been made to sound even more deadly and clearer
when redone with Source. Explosions from grenades and other things in
the game can sound quite realistic at times. Depending on where you are,
a proper amount of amplitude will be made that you will hear from the
distance you are standing from. The Source engine also supports a very
realistic surround-sound feature. Players can easily depending on what
they hear make out what position it is in at the map.
The Source
engine of course, does have its flaws, whether they are minor or major.
For one thing, the graphics specifically in Counter-Strike: Source could
have looked a lot more lifelike if some of the textures in the game
were re-done. The distinct lack of using the Source engine's features
such as prop placement can make some areas of the game look rather
duller then they should. Also, most of the maps in Counter-Strike:
Source needs a bit more optimization, mainly due to long map loads.
Loading a map in the game can occasionally take well up to three
minutes, when it shouldn't be because most maps don't have that many
props and complex buildings that would result in long map loads. In
addition, the maps generally are quite small when comparing to a game
such as Battlefield 2. Not that this is bad, it actually helps contain
the fast-paced action.
There are also a few other quirks in the
game that can tend to keep the Counter-Strike 1.6 veterans from
switching over to Source. Probably the most controversial aspect of the
game is the hitboxes. This is because for some reason the hitboxes tend
to be slow and late to the models when they are moving. For example if
an enemy is strafing to the left, players can easily kill him by simply
shooting a few inches to the left of his body and the shots would still
register. This is because of how late the hitboxes are to the actual
player models.
Another pesky and probably the most frustrating
and annoying part of the game, is the artificial intelligence of the
hostages. To say it straight, they are as intelligent as a group of
dummies. In most maps, your chance of success of rescuing the hostages
while there are still a few enemies alive is slime to none. Hostages are
slow, will randomly stop at times, and can fail to exit out of
buildings simply because they cannot detect the position of the doors.
Artificial intelligence itself has never been a strong point in the
Source engine. Put, Valve fans know that Valve works hard and constantly
upgrades and fine-tunes the engine, and it is quite possible that both
the hitboxes and hostage A.I. can be improved soon.
All of these
quirks and little problems can easily be ignored when you look at the
big picture. Most players find it an absolute delight of having their
all-time favorite game Counter-Strike ported to the Source engine, and
them wondering how the game would be with all of the upgraded graphics
and special effects. Valve recently also started implementing the new
lighting technology, HDR. HDR can make any map in any game standout and
look gorgeous, as all what HDR is realistic lighting that mimics how the
human eye sees light. The release of HDR is a sign that Valve is
constantly upgrading their engine and implementing these upgrades to
further improve some of the cons of the game.
As a whole,
Counter-Strike: Source is a marvelous and fantastic remake of a widely
known game. While some of the aspects in the game are controversial, it
is because Valve always tends to lean their games towards a realism sort
of sense. Players who want to get into the Counter-Strike franchise
would probably be better off with the Source version of the game, mainly
how Valve has improved some aspects from 1.6 and how simply the greater
the graphics look. Even today, there are thousands of servers that are
running the game, and there is always somewhere to play. If you have a
love for action games or want to try the Source version of
Counter-Strike, you should definitely pick up Counter-Strike: Source,
and experience a solid and entertaining online shooter.
Patience = Fun.
If you've played the original
Counter Strike than you will know what I'm talking about in this
review. If you are looking at this game than you already know that it's
online only which means that you are really only going to be playing
against other people. When you start out, these people are going to be
leagues ahead of you in terms of skill.
I'm saying that you're
bad at video games or FPSs (first person shooters), but you aren't going
to be used to the way this game plays. Everyone else playing is going
to already have memorized each map, how each gun fires, and they're
going to know where you are. So while you're just trying to figure out
how to use your flashlight properly you're also being hunted down. This
can annoy and deter many people from enjoying this game. When you die
twenty times without killing a single person, it can be irritating.
Luckily,
CS:S has two things that can save you. One: you can create your own
server and add a bunch of bots (computer controlled players) and set
them to different difficulties and practice with them. This will start
to get you used to how other players play, and you will get to know some
of the maps and guns. Two: There are literally tens of thousands of
servers out there and many of them are there for new players. So instead
of going to clan servers you can go to newbie servers and just have
some fun.
Overall, the game engine for this game is incredible.
In my opinion it's the best FPS engine out there. The only problem are
some of the people playing it with you. My advice is to find a static
server that has people that have the same mindset about the game as you
do (Relaxed-Serious) and just enjoy. If someone gets angry at you for
not playing well, or playing too well then just leave and find another
server. You'll enjoy the game much more that way.
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