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 | |  | | | | The rumors are spreading, and people are getting anxious to get their hands on Counter-Strike: Source. Many people have ventured to their local LAN centers, which often aren�t all that local; just to get first impressions for the new game. What�s new? What�s changed? Is it still playable? Could it actually be an improvement over 1.6? We�ll tell you...
The Source Engine
 Years in the making, and the official platform for Half-Life 2, the Source engine is what Valve is hoping will set the bar in computer gaming. Gone are the days of flat and scripted environments, stiff models, and half-hearted special effects. The new version of Counter-Strike is based on the Source engine, and that�s why it�s called Counter-Strike: Source (or CS:Source).
This review will focus primarily on the changes made to the actual game itself, and secondly the changes that have been introduced as byproducts to the adoption of the Source engine. We�ll spare you the details that don�t matter � you�ll get plenty of those when you play the game, starting August 18th for CZ owners.
Living Environments
 The first time you get into a game, you�ll be amazed at how well the environments have been put together. Barrels aside ramps and corners take the place of the typical boxes and crates. Bottles and cans line the alleys in Dust, which before was a sandstorm figure in the middle of nowhere, and now oozes Middle Eastern architecture and war-torn background ambience.
Bomb A in Dust is no longer wide open with the same old boxes, but instead a wasteland of interactive and static objects for defense, offense, hiding and baiting. Counter-Strike Source has introduced dynamic environments to the most popular first person shooter, and all that we can say is... thanks Valve! Not only do the interactive objects in Source leave a lasting impression and improve the overall player experience, but they add to the dynamic experience of actually playing. Barrels can be rolled into position, they can be shot at realistic angles to slide or tip them. Tires can be rolled. Whiskey flasks can be kicked and shot into pieces.
Environmental Effects
 Valve has stepped up the realism once again. Half-life was one of the first games to feature wall �types�. Some walls are cement, others plaster, wood, sand, etc. Different objects had unique sounds and �breakaway� particles associated with them. The Source engine has increased this capability in several ways.
If you�ve seen the Matrix (who hasn�t, right?), you�re familiar with the office building scene where Neo and Trinity blast away a lower level filled with pillars. The walls, the floors, and the pillars themselves were made of marble. Source doesn�t go so far as to allow you to actually chip away at walls, however it makes you feel like it�s so during a firefight. Clipping walls as you trace a player behind them will give you the feeling that you�re actually doing damage to the structure. Bullet impressions stay, and look very realistic.
When you chop away at a sandy wall, it will spew dust. Tiled floors will reflect the lighting, including shadows cast by objects and players. Not only are the effects visually impressive, but they improve the overall atmosphere and realism of the game.
New Physics System
 The talk of the town, people have been perhaps most impressed with the improvement in physics in the latest games, including Far Cry, Doom 3 and now Half-Life 2 (or Source games). I�ve seen them all, and Source has the most impressive physics system yet. Players slump in realistic positions when dead, barrels take gun impact in a fashion that can only be described as lifelike, and objects move with absolute freedom. When you push a tire down a hill, it rolls exactly as you�d expect.
Additionally, as you get into firefights, your guns fly all over. It�s almost comical. When you hit the �drop weapon� key, your gun goes flying (especially if you�re looking up and jumping). You can get a distance of a good 20 feet if you try. When you�re killed, it�s not uncommon that your gun goes flying across the floor. Additionally, we�ve seen a few instances where if you die while against a wall, the gun flies through it onto the floor on the other side, consider that a minor bug.
Along with new physics, the world realistically judges what can be on top of something. For instance, you can�t jump on top of a barrel as its round, and we�re not in the circus here. You can�t jump on top of other players (to boost), though according to Valve that will be changed. Guns and other objects slide down slopes realistically.
Now, the biggest part of the physics system has to be what some people call �ragdoll physics� � the ability of the extremities (legs, arms, head) in a player (or enemy) model to interact with the objects around it in a lifelike fashion. Players fall realistically (with appropriate weight balance). Players hit the floor or wall, via force of grenade or bullet, in such a way that you�d swear they had been thrown there by Godzilla. Finding three bodies sprawled across the choke point in Dust gives you an eerily accurate depiction of the firefight.
Not only are these effects insanely cool, they add touches that the more keen players will pick up on in key situations. If your teammates are dead, finding their positions may help you understand how they died. No more static animations. | | Article continued on page 2 » |
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 | |  | | | | | » Page 1: The rumors are spreading, and people are getting anxious to get their hands on Counter-Strike: Source. Many people have ventured to their local LA... | | » Page 2:
Weapons
A New Version, A New Firing System
One of the things famous for every release of Counter-Strike is how the community acts to th... | | » Page 3:
Grenades
Counter-Strike has three styles of grenades: HE (explosive), FB (flash) and SG (smoke). In Source, they have all changed, though s... | | » Page 4:
Final Thoughts
After some solid time playing Source, we�re optimistic. Many of the changes implemented, though via the source engine, dras... |
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| | | | | | yeah after playing it for a bit its WOW... really nice change from 1.6
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| | | | | | flashbang = too powerful and headaching
and they need to remove the slowness(nade) / deaf when u get hit by a nade or flash, it makes cs feel like a "WAR GAME"
This comment was edited at 08/15/2004 10:15 PM
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| | | | | | i just downloaded it :o
im installing now i hope its good !!
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| | | | | | I wish my sound would just be muted instead of having a the buzzing sound. That can hurt people ears you know :|
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| | | | | | if you turn flashbang will you still get the full flash effect of white screen to the faded image that lasts like 5 seconds or will the flash thing be shorter if you turn, but still get the sound
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| | | | | | nope even if you turn, you'll stil flash(full)
looking at wall doesnt help
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| | | | | | smoke fakes are useless in source as u may as well not turn around at all for a flash - it'll get you completely anyway.
apart from that, good overview.
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| | | | | | Flashes don't last quite as long if you turn around, it will shave a second or two off the effect.
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| | | | | | How do you install it? Jesus..
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| | | | | | Nice read, can't wait to play it on the 18th
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| | | | | | 2nd one buzz, the flash thing be shorter if you turn, but still get the sound
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| | | | | | Im reading that they have changed AK/M4......interesting.
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| | | | | | If this is coming out soon are they going to use it at the CPL instead of the current cs?
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| | | | | | good article.. valve should change 3 things and then everyone would love cs..
1.Remove flash effects except blind.
2.Remove Frag nade effects except the hp dmg.
3.Have the 1.6 Recoil.
If they change these 3 minor things. I beleive everyone woiuld fall in love with source
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| | | | | | #18, it's not so much that the guns are changed - the game makes them feel different.
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| | | | | | you don't get flashed as long if you turn. Normally when you look at a flashbang as it goes off, you get the ringing noise, the image burn, and a long white screen. If you turn around you get the rining noise, image burn, and hardly any white screen.
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| | | | | | stop whining the game rocks... EVERY cs change ppl have whined... you will get used to it... it rocks end of story
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| | | | | | great read, really interested in trying out the shotguns now.
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| | | | | | I already love it. I was able to run a dedicated server and my own game client, and play against someone else online while maintaining 60-70 FPS and not having the game lag for me. The weapons are all solid, the mirror effect on the scopes is awesome, I love hiding in the EuroVan at T spawn and relaxing, and the smokes kick ass. I've heard nothing but great reviews from everyone I've gotten the chance to play with, and I'm sure that once Valve fixes the server code and the little bits of netcode that still hang up the game every now and then, it'll definitely be enjoyed by all CS players.
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| | | | | | Good read, but can you shoot through walls?
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| | | | | | #26 no u cant.. only through crates and wooden door.s
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| | | | | | cs is growing up on us ~_~
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| | | | | | #20 i like the new nades, btw the turn around and still flashed should be a bug, i dont get it.
but what they really need to change or at least try to, is to get back the feeling for weapons, it basically got lost.
#26 yes but not through all, it changed from 1.6, hopefully nuke will be less wallbanging :P
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| | | | | | im worried about this crosshair thing. my key strength was spraying so im wondering if i should go down to the small crosshair so that i concentrate more on the bullets and less on the position of the crosshair in relation to the target.
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| | | | | | crazy, can't wait...
Also, If you don't have CZ, how will we be able to play? Will CS:Source be released just like an individual game for sale at stores sometime soon after?...or?
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| | | | | | It's still beta. Try to get things changed while you can. If you guys wish to beta test, then get a CZ key for 10 bucks off ebay. I completely agree that the flash effects should be toned down when looking away, and I'm definitely going to let Valve know when the beta testing starts for cz owners..
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| | | | | | sounds like some good and some bad. but what's really good is that valve still has some time to tweak it before the final version comes out. betas are awesome
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| | | | | | people shouldnt worry.. its only beta. if you still dont know what i mean remember when m4 had a scope:)
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| | | | | | man the recoil is so whack
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| | | | | | cs = more fun and more of a challenge....
source is just strange
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| | | | | | they just need to put wallshooting back to what it was other than that its perfect.
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| | | | | | It sounds good im just worried about the guns and how were ganna use recoil... Hope it isnt that bad cuz thats one thing I dont really want changed but all in all sounds like its ganna be fun.
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| | | | | | Valve arent followin thier own rules... "why fix if its not broken"... they didnt have to "wow" us with all the new nade effects.. they just had to transfer the engine onto CS and thats it.
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| | | | | | more spray and pray, less fun
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| | | | | | I like it. Im interested to see how the final product feels though.
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| | | | | | Fixing the m4 and ak is nice because the recoil is so messed up now.
Source shout be neat.
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| | | | | | Love the smokes, going to be really helpful now.
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| | | | | | i played for like 10 mintues before i got kicked off an acct that i bought and changed the pw but i thought the game looked pretty nice i didnt get to use all guns but i really hate how theres is no walling i hope they bring it back, and i dont like that shadows, but i think if valve does the right things the game has a whole lot of potential in competitive cs expecially /w sponsorships
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| | | | | | I hope they address cheating from day 1 rather than waiting 3 years like they did before. Cheating is the worst part of cs... great game... I can't wait until Wed!!!
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| | | | | | awesome but no one should get too exited.. considering that this is a beta and they could change/add any thing.
(Specially if killer koala or whatever his name was whines again :/)
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| | | | | | if valve really does care about peoples opinion then they shouldnt put a price on beta and rather make it open.. If its open more people can provide ideas and what to/not to change.
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| | | | | | cant wait til i get hl2~!
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| | | | | | sounds great, but thats whole crosshair thing is going to drive me nuts, i almost had it down to an art :(, ehh w/e ill get used to it.
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| | | | | | that looks insane.... quake source anyone?
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| | | | | | u can still bhop on cs:S woot :)
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| | | | | | Wallbanging: You cannot shoot through a box, from one side to another, however you can shoot through corners of a box or wall where the bullet only has to travel a very small distance through the material.
So if someone's hiding on the opposite side of a box to you, you can't wall them, you can flank a bit and shoot them through a very small amount of box, but not much. Forget shooting through actual cement or brick walls. Totally impossible.
The crosshair isn't a problem, just watch where your bullets are hitting on the wall, not the crosshair itself.
You CAN see through smoke with an awp/other scoped weapon, it's just more difficult to pick things out. Smoke in an open outside environment appears grey/green, and only black when in tunnels or enclosed environments.
Grenade trajectory has also greatly changed, when you bounce a nade off the wall it won't bounce like it does in 1.6, it's a much tighter angle. Also, if you try to bounce them off the lip of a ramp or something, they don't bounce at all, they just stop and go off right infront of you.
They seem to have changed each and everyone of the weapons to reflect it's price and so all the guns you wouldn't consider normally using, shotguns, mac10, UMP, P90, para etc. all have their uses. The colt-ak price difference is easily more pronounced when you compare the recoil of the ak with that of the colt.
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| | | | | | i need wall sHOOTING ! im aimetti i shoot thru walls.
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| | | | | | played it and its great.... cant wait to sill final product... finaly valve is doin somehting right
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| | | | | | sounds awesome.. changes are needed to CS and that's what source is gonna give. The crosshair deal has me a bit worried, but I'm sure we'll all get used to it, and the CS:S flash's might be a real monster when this thing goes live.
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| | | | | | why would a grenade that flashes your "eyes" make you deaf?
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