Counter-Strike Source Beta Set for Late Summer

fistfullast33l writes "Valve has announced via Steam that a Beta version will be launched for Counter-Strike: Source, the multiplayer counter-terrorism mod that will now be updated for release with the Half-Life 2 powering Source engine. It is expected to be kicked off around late summer. Apparently: 'The beta will first be open to subscribers of the Valve Cyber Café Program, and then extended to owners of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.' Seems like a good time to find out where the nearest gaming parlor is." This move is interesting in light of allegations of Valve bullying cybercafes - we also recently covered the South Korean unveiling of Counter-Strike: Source over at Slashdot Games.

CS: Source media and info

[rizzuh]

Well, my site is still suffering from a slashdotting from a few days ago, but check out CS-Nation's CS: Source info section [csnation.net] for an FAQ and of course plenty of CS: Source media.

Shameless enough? Heh.

More info

[hoferbr]

More info about Counter-Strike source:
CS Banana FAQ [csbanana.com]
CS-Nation info page [csnation.net]
Video [filefront.com]
HL2.net forum post [halflife2.net] about the Seoul apresentation.

Annoying Engine Name

[BAILOPAN]

I really don't like Valve's choice of the word "Source" for their engine. I mean, obviously it has source code, but it almost seems like it's trying to trump the definition of "source". It's even more annoying when you have a GPL'd Mod [amxmodx.org] for Half-Life (and in the future for HL2). "It's open source for Source which you don't have the source for." what

Going off-topic, Valve supplied an excellent SDK for HL1 but as of Steam that community policy seems to have disintegrated. We modders have no SDK for Steam or VGUI2. The updated engine interface headers to Steam is buried in the mailing list, and it has typos. They also don't have a reputation for giving clear/good answers in response to questions about working with their new stuff (forget about actual support also).

Either Valve's really, really too busy with HL2/CS2 to interact with community coders or they're just getting arrogant. I'm that CS2/HL2 continue with Valve's original "awesome SDK"-ness, especially with the underground rumor that it will have Metamod [sf.net] (or multi-mod sub modding) functionality built in.

Re:Sounds good.

[kaschei]

Actually, valve didn't make Condition Zero. Well, they did, and they didn't, and then they did again-- this [csnation.net] does a better job of explaining than I. The Condition Zero that's out now was co-produced by Valve and Turtle Rock Studios. Some of the missions were created by Ritual, with whom Valve had also worked. Before that, Gearbox and Rogue each had a go at making it. At this point, it's probably a little difficult to determine how much work Valve specifically has been doing for the project, as opposed to how much they've paid other studios to do, or are just taking from the mod itself. Plus, Valve isn't in the business of releasing new stuff, they're in the business of making money, so your last comment is a little bit awkward.

Re:another reason why this is crap....

[Scudsucker]

But if the players have to have their own copy of the game why would they play at the cafe?

1) Lan party without the hassels of moving your shit
2) You have a modem for Internet access and the cafe has a couple T1's
3) You're traveling in a different city and need to get your Counter-Strike fix

Re:Am I the only one who loathes this game?

[GregoryD]

I understand where you are coming from. I am fairly new to the CS world myself, I've only been playing since steam. I have a heavy Return to Castle Wolfenstein background (former Cal-i player). Wolf was about brute force shooting and finesse. Counter-strike is about control and accuracy.

You seem to have the right idea about the burst firing. Recoil is huge also.

I started to get more sucessful when I learned how to control the spread of my bullets and the recoil. Compared to other games, the recoil in CS is huge. If you hold down the button for more then a second, you pretty much have to be aiming at the feet to get anywhere near chest level. (with different guns it varies exactly how low, ak really low, colt not so low) The better players will make their first shots count. Even while moving the first few shots of the colt are accurate. A really good player will exploit this. He will stick and move. 2 shots, move, 2 shots move. At a sniper distance, all the guns blow goats. You literally have to fire 1 shot at a time.

So here is my cheat sheet:
close: concentrate on recoil and pulling your mouse way down
medium: learn how to stick and move at headshot standing level and headshot crouching level
long range: very very controlled 1 shot at a time, pretend your rifle is a sniper rifle and you have to reload after a shot