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.

Comments

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 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
CS-Nation info page
Video
HL2.net forum post 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 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 (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 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.