Counter-Strike For Xbox Brings The Frag

Thanks to GameSpot for their hands-on impressions of Counter-Strike for the Xbox, as Valve's massively popular multiplayer title makes the transition to console gamers and Xbox Live. The article points out: "What began as a grassroots mod, literally created in a dorm room, has become the most widely played PC action game on the Internet - in just a few short years." There's also a number of new screenshots of this console conversion, which ships in November, and also includes map enhancements/downloads: "...of the 20 maps that will initially be available, seven are Xbox-exclusive... more maps should be available, via Xbox Live updates, sometime after release."

Comments

CS:CZ Theories

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

Theres something really odd.
CS:CZ's release date is sometime this month. So is HalfLife2.
Valve isnt /that/ stupid, so I think theyre bundling it. I'm thinking either condition zero will ship with hl2 or condition zero will be pushed over steam this wednesday. Theres no way valve will try to compete with their own game, It just wont work.

These screenshots just further help my theory -- Those are condition zero models and maps, but with some multiplayer maps
de_prodigy
de_dust
de_chateau
de_chateau
de_aztec(with the 1.6 bridge)

The CS:CZ models can be seen on here for comparison

A Gamespy article backs this up by saying
"On the multiplayer side, Condition Zero will contain ten new Counter-Strike maps, available exclusively through the retail package. For current Counter-Strike players, a v1.6 patch should be released right around the same time the game hits shelves, ensuring online compatibility between the two games. When When we spoke with Valve a few weeks back, they mentioned that they would likely release some of these maps to the public, perhaps one very few weeks. The guys at Ritual confirmed that this was a possiblity, but nothing official has been decided yet. It's worth pointing out that Valve has historically been pretty generous with this kind of thing, and we be surprised if an official map or two wasn't released to the community within weeks of CZ hitting shelves. "

So I'm thinking they are going to push cs:cz over steam, Possibly for free or maybe just at a very low cost. Theres no way you can sell it retail with HL2 coming out in mere weeks.

(This post is mostly so come wednesday if I'm right I can link to this, heh)