Counter Strike is now finally out of beta! So after months and months of beta testing CS is finally out, free to download, but not only this it is also now boxed, and in the shops, ready and waiting to welcome an army of new players to the world of CS :). You`ll be wondering what changes have been made in v1.0. Lets have a look...




Weapons
Three new weapons have been added this time around.


PISTOL: FN Five-Seven
Available only to the Counter Terrorists, and looks like a good gun that can be used in close / ranged combat. Although each shot is weaker than say the USP (default CT weapon) it does have a faster firing rate, and accuracy seems to be better than the other pistols the CTs have to choose from.

SUB-MACHINE GUN: H&K UMP .45
Very similar to the good old MP5 with a few small differences. Each clip only holds 25 bullets compared to the MP5`s 30, but each shot is more powerful than the MP5s. The problem with the UMP is the reload time. You`ll need to reload more often than if you used the MP5, and it`s painfully slow. With the MP5 you`ll be able to empty the clip and reload in seconds, the UMP seems to way to long, and could annoy players who will probably ditch it for the trusty MP5 :). The UMP would be good in the hands of a player who is accurate, and can aim for the head a lot.

SNIPER RIFLE: SIG SG-550
A new sniper rifle that replaces the G3/SG-1 for the counter terrorists. It looks and sounds nice, with a nice close up zoom. It seems almost identical to the G3/SG-1 for me, but one thing I did notice was the accuracy. Don`t even attempt to run and shoot with it. I had a play with the SG-550 by firing it at a wall as I was standing still and it hit dead on target, but I then moved slightly to the right and fired, the shot went way off to the right of the crosshair. I`ll have to do more testing, but it looks like there will be no more "running/jumping around like the terminator with the AWP". So only by taking time to aim and staying still will you be able to hit anything with any accuracy, which is exactly how a sniper should behave :).

THE OTHER WEAPONS Have there been changes to the other weapons? When I first joined a server with 17 others (the second Drchris fired up the servers they where filling up :)) I had a play with some of the new weapons, but I then picked up an AK47. Now usually I could not hit much with the ak47 in the past, but in version1.0 the ak47 seems a lot more powerful. Maybe the spread of the bullets is closer to the centre of the crosshair than before? To test I popped myself into the corner of a room (map was militia, on the walkway that has the ladder leading to the roof that overlooks the terrorist start point) and waited. Sure enough 2 CTs rushed in and I killed them easily. Then one by one more of them came in, all knowing my location, yet I could fire the ak47 full auto and down each one. In the past if I tried that I would had missed. The same goes with the colt M4A1 where people seemed to be using it more and racking up more kills with it?

MAPS
No new maps this time, but a few changes to the old ones.

CS_OFFICE: Be ready to relearn this map, as there are a lot of changes. No longer is this map fast paced with the CTs rushing into the office, we are now faced with what look like blast doors which need to be opened by a CT before they can get deep into the office. Still a good map, but the new changes will take some getting used to :).

DE_VEGAS: Now this map is a lot better. A few structural changes have been made to the building making it more balanced.

There maybe more map changes (I`ve heard 747, prodigy, and cobble have changes), but I`ve not had a chance to play them yet.

Gordon freeman / other characters appearing as ghosts?
I`ve heard rumours of this happening before. A player will be playing as normal, but all of a sudden a ghost image of Gordon freeman, or the guy with the suitcase will appear. I think I`ve seen it myself. I was on militia outside the house looking at the roof when in the corner of my screen I could have sworn I saw Gordon freeman. Thinking it was a terrorist I quickly lowered my gun towards the window, but he had gone.

Last night myself and 2 other CT players where racing down a corridor on de_vegas, when one of the two with me stopped as I, and the other guy ran past. Next we saw a messages from him "LOL I see some suit case guy standing here". I was going to have a look, but as I turned around to head back to his location I was shot at from behind and killed :/.

Is it real or a rumour? I`ll let you decide :) = CS.Net forum post "Haunted DE_vegas" http://ubb.counter-strike.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/009706.html

New Models
The new models look amazing. Highly detailed, but there are a few things that are annoying CS players about them.



- They looked fatter compared to the original models, apart from the Arab model which looks to skinny. This is not a big problem, but will take some getting used to :)
- The SAS model is blue? The SAS has never, and I repeat never warn blue in the way displayed on the model, but ignoring that check out the effect where the light reflects off the gas mask being warn by the SAS model :).
- Movement. The models movement is different and has already got a lot of players moaning about it, but if you take a closer look you can see it`s not all bad. When the models run in a straight line the animations look fine, and it`s only when a player strafes left/right or stands still and looks far left/right does the models look very out of place. The upper and lower parts of the body are separate, but when a player strafes / moves around to look to far in one direction the lower body remains still and you end up with the upper body having moved a whole 90 degrees or more to the left / right, which is not realistic and Dr^Duck helps sum this up nicely:

[Dr^Duck] ... and quite frankly they look kind of like mech`s from a Big Stompy Robot Game the way their torso`s can swivel.

Boxed version
Yep CS will now be out in a boxed version, which includes the basic halflife (no single player mode), and full CS version1.0 install. I also read somewhere the boxed version will have a training map for newbies, but I can`t confirm that.

One change in the boxed version of CS is all the weapon names have been changed. This is due to copyright laws on the weapon names, BUT don`t worry if you buy the boxed version. Gooseman will be sticking a new weapon text file on the CS web site that will convert the weapon names back to their real names.

It`s out over in the USA, but I`ve not got the UK/European release date :(. If anyone knows it then please let me know.

CS players / community
It happens with every release of CS. Everyone moans about changes being made. They threaten to give up CS, or demand the changes are taken out. Version 1.0 is no exception, and although some of the shouting about the animations can be justified in some way, what gets me is the way people judge to quickly. Within 30 seconds of joining my first game of v1.0 with 17 others who where also having their first taste, everyone commented on the weapons and models, saying "wow that`s nice", "lol at the models", the usual things you`d expect, but then after a few more seconds some players started to say "CS is shite now", "The models are crap!" and the changes made to cs_office (the map I was on at the time) make it shit and a crap map (total rubbish. It just means cs_office is a totally new map, and new tactics need to be adapted to it), and so on...

[Rant mode on] ... I mean come on. Version1.0 has some new changes, and instantly CS is crap? The second version1.0 hit the servers the CS community was doomed? No. The fact is a lot of players judge way to quickly in the CS community, while a small number of others like to play the new version of CS for a few days then judge it on facts and not from a few seconds play. Ignoring the slight problem with the animations and look at CS as a whole. It is still the same game. Although in each update there maybe a few tweaks to the way the weapons behave, or changes to maps / models you know Gooseman and the CS team are still working on CS, and do listen to the CS communities comments. Not the "CS is shite...", or "We want version xx back" uneducated comments, but the comments that educated players leave about the problems that are in the release and possible changes to help fix them. CS will never go backwards to past betas, and any changes made to it will be improved on, tweaked and fixed as it goes from each (can`t say beta now :) ) version to the next. Although people complain this is what makes CS so special and why more people play it than any other of the online games out there combined. [Ranting stopped].

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