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A Look at the CounterStrike Source Beta
mutewinter writes "CounterFrag.com has posted an article reviewing the recent CounterStrike Source beta. What is unusual about Source is that it keeps the same gameplay, including guns and maps, of the original CounterStrike and simply brings CounterStrike (which uses the original Half Life engine) up to date graphically. Imagine if Doom 3 had been just like the original Doom, but with a better engine. Many gamers look down on recycled content, but is this a problem for a 5 year old game that is still as popular as ever?" S!: We also had an alternative look at the Beta over on Slashdot Games a couple of days back.
why fix it? Well, of course, there should be new content, and there probably will be, but that doesn't mean that we have to get rid of the old stuff. There's always a balance somewhere.. but things aren't always as mutually exclusive as people think it be..
I'm not the devil.. just his advocate.
I work for a very larger server company and Counter strike is still the most popular game, At least 95% of our servers are CS.
"Comedy's a dead art form. Now tragedy, that's funny."
There is a difference. This is not a sequel, just an update. Think of it as CS 1.8 (or whatever version they are up to now).
Because if we do, we let the terrorists win
Imagine if Doom 3 had been just like the original Doom, but with a better engine
To me, that is exactly what they did.
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
I think that counter-strike has found an near perfect formula that follow the KISS standard. GAMEPLAY is the real core of a game. The graphics are just icing. The have a perfect sense of gameplay so there is no need to fix it. Just to make it pretty for the new generation.
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
Give the people what they want. If there's a market for the exact same game in a better engine, then it will be popular. If it's not there, perhaps the developers will work on totally new content. Not many people complain that the Scrabble being sold today is exactly the same as the one they played as a kid.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
I hear the hitboxes are fixed a bit. I stopped playing post 1.0 when the great screw-up-the-hitboxes storm hit.
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The fans din't want the game to be changed. The counter-strike fans will go nuts even if there is a small box moved in some map. So this new version will sell good, at least with the hardcore fans.
Gameplay is fine exactly how it is. Porting Counter Strike to the Source engine is just an added bonus.
Imagine if Doom 3 had been just like the original Doom, but with a better engine
You might get reviews like this:
"Doom 3" is the most visually appealing and best sounding PC game to date, but it doesn't bring anything new to the "3-D shooter" genre in terms of the game play, which is basically 1993's "Doom" all over again.
The only thing I hate more than hypocrites are people who hate hypocrites.
This is a mistake on Valve's part.
I played CS from beta 5 or so up through the 1.2 or so release. Then I got tired of it: the weapons were -too- balanced, and it lost a good deal of the fun and challenge. That, and things became rediculous, such as the accuracy of headshots and such. It just wasn't fun anymore.
That, and the plethora of people that played it obsessively (not I) were irritating, as they were quite good and made getting killed repeatedly terribly boring/frustrating. Add into that the maps getting replayed an obscene number of times (dust, anyone?), with few people playing the newer (and IMO often better) maps, things got really, really dull.
I'm sorry, but I wouldn't have paid money for Doom with updated graphics. I certainly won't pay for CS with updated graphics.
I bought half-life. With it, I got a dedicated community full of modders, bringing forth DoD, CS, and the like of fun, playable expansions in addition to the single (and multi) gameplay of just Half-Life. What is it, exactly, that I'd get by paying for CS Source that isn't already available in terms of gameplay? Nothing. CS currently looks pretty damn decent, what with the 'modern' textures and such, and runs quite well. An engine change does nothing for gameplay.
If I want pretty, I'll get a povray renderer.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
I was actually amazed at how ugly and washed out the screenshots look considering what the engine is capable of. But I appreciate that hardcore CS2 players would revolt if the lighting conditions are changed too much since that would ultimately affect gameplay. But I guess there will soon be new maps which take better advantage of the new engine.
The game isn't supposed to add new content, but rather give you the CS feel in a realistic enviroment. Also, many more respectable sites in the community have covered this including http://gotfrag.com/cs/news/2483/ Also, ID's intentions were to bring you back in the Doom world, only with modern technology.
What is unusual about Source is that it keeps the same gameplay, including guns and maps, of the original CounterStrike and simply adds brings CounterStrike (which uses the original Half Life engine) up to date graphically.
I'm up for anything that adds brings stuff. That's pretty special.
CS has had the longest retention of any of the FPS shooters for me (besides maybe Q2 and all of its assorted mods). I think I got hooked because I found a decent, mostly honest server where people would play as a team to meet the objective. You actually felt like you had a job to do and became more immersed in the game.
Once it started to become more and more popular, a lot of the team play went away on "common" servers where it just became a frag fest. I'll definitely check out Source and see how it looks and feels. Hopefully most of the map exploits have been fixed better cheat prevention mentions have been added.
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
Damn, did anyone else read that title think for a brief second that they were going to be treated to some counterstrike source code oogle at?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Imagine if Doom 3 had been just like the original Doom, but with a better engine
From what I've heard (reviews, people, and the like) this is what Doom 3 pretty much turned out to be, with a little bit TOO much emphasis on the "fear" factor.
Counter-strike was great until beta 6 on... (at least in my opinion) but bringing it to source might make it fun once again (For at least a few months) while the lamers figure out the new way to h4x0r source.... so, bring it on!
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
The new Beta that's out is on the Half-Life 2 engine. Even if there never was a graphical or engine update to Counter-Strike, after another 5 years it could still easily be one of the largest multiplayer games available. Why? Gameplay. People simple love the gameplay, and if they are looking for higher quality graphics, there is a huge skinning/modelling community out there for Counter-Strike.
Funny comic from Penny Arcade today about CounterStrike, here's the link.
"There is no spoon." - The Matrix
I think it's great to see a computer game become insanely popular, stay popular, and then remain exactly the same even through engine upgrades. A strict 'standard' is exactly what's needed if computer gaming is to become a 'pro sport' and popular for spectators. After all, how can anyone who's not already into computer gaming become an avid spectator if the game keeps changing on them?
Oh, like Doom Legacy...
In addition, as someone else noted, this is essentially an update, it's not supposed to be Counter-Strike 2. I didn't hear anyone complain about CS 1.6 being just like CS 1.5.
Just my two cents
OMG WALLHACK! awp camping W#%&RE!
There is no spork.
'shake' - shakes whole team's screen
'buy c4' - buys new c4 as terrorist which you can drop and distribute to your team, costs $0
I might deserve a troll label for this but...
From the "review" it seems he's never played Farcry. The features described in HF2 are all present in Farcry. Not that I'm not waiting for HF2 to come so I can get CS too. But you have to expect any new FPS game to contain ragdoll physics as well as the other effects that Farcry & Doom3 have. IMHO this is why Valve has not released HF2 on time. I don't think it originally did not measure up to some of this years games and they are using the leak as an excuse to add more features.
Again it's my opinion and rather than being a coward I put this forward for comment.
Thank god, it kept all of the fucking idiot players too!
... and thought that the source for Counter Strike had been leaked...
Perfect!
Just helping out.
Hurricane Ivan: A 17th century prison collapsed. All of the inmates escaped.
Once again, let Penny Arcade tackle this difficult issue....
8 -20&res=l
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-0
This video is a must for anyone who has played Counterstrike
it isn't suprising for me to discover that cs:source is only it's revamped predecessor.
;)
What vALVE did was shift from what was born and is a basically free game to a pay-for-play model. Everyone needs an income, that's why they hired Gooseman in the first place.
It's ok after all. They make great games and they deserve an income out of it. Still, I wonder what outrage this will cause among the community when vALVE will ditch CS1.6 as they did recently with CS1.5 (the WON version, that worked without installing digital delivery on demand tool STEAM).
Time will tell... I'm still waiting for the linux client
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
Counterstrike players complain for months if you even change small weapon balancing issues. I've even people complain about the new graphics. it would be like if you changed the rules of football. Its the game they've learned to play and Its highly upsetting if you start messing with it. I wouldnt be suprised if Counterstrike Was almost identical 10 yeas from now. with maby the addition new weapons.
It seems that their engine is finished, but Half Life 2 is not. So to keep in the news... they attach some old content to the new engine and send it out for beta testing.
Not only do they get to work some more bugs out of the Source engine, but now all the tech news sites are talking about it. They can't let Doom 3 have all the news, even if HL2 was supposed to be out last year.
http://www.kubuntu.org/
Imagine if Doom 3 had been just like the original Doom, but with a better engine.
Honestly, that would've been awesome. I like Doom3, but something from the originals is missing, and it reminds me waaay to much of Half-Life rather than Doom. Actualy, is anybody aware of some group re-creating Doom and Doom2 on Doom3's engine?
And more on-topic now, I think it's good they kept the same maps and guns from the original Counter Strike. For a beta version, it helps to see the differences between the old engine and the new one.
You are more than the sum of what you consume. Desire is not an occupation.
Well that and the game is horribly lame...
I for one will be trilled when Counterstrike dies. Given that everyone plays it to the exclusion of everything else [175,000 to 5,000 any given evening from statistics I've seen] the FPS genre has been CS or nothing for pretty much 4 years. And since I can barely stand the game...
Comparing Doom3 to CS Source is silly. Doom3 has great 1p and laughable multiplayer. CS has no 1p and refined muiltiplayer. What makes CS good is not gfx, It consistency. I know when I load dust1 up that It will be exactly the same, that my fps aren't going to go in the crapper, and that when I kill someone it is because I aimed better. The reason that CS is so successful is that anyone can be good as long as they have skill, and with skill you really can kill anyone with any gun. It's not a race to the bfg9000 like most other games. Maybee some of the other game companies will catch on one of these days that people want refinement online not cool looking water reflections that lead to the likes of 20fps.
CS still offers a level of gameplay that other cannot match, and CS:S does a very good job of renewing the game. Expect to hear more about CS:S as it moves out of beta, I was impressed with it.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Keeping the gameplay the same as the original is one of the cool things that Valve does that most companies don't do. For example, if you look at Team Fortress Classic (their remake of Quake's Team Fortress) you'll note that they _attempted_ to keep the gameplay (physics, movement speed, damage, etc) authentic.
:)
I definitely think that there is demand for upgraded graphics while keeping the gameplay the same. I can only imagine how cool a revamped Quake 2 would be
Most remakes of classic games that fail... fail because they changed the gameplay.
but guys, there's also going to be a Counter-Strike 2 for half-life 2, which will have new content.
Almost makes me want to play CS once again, the graphics look cool, and I'm a huge fan of good physics. But I despise Steam, I refuse to support something that will eventually try to get me to pay a subscription for a game I paid for.
Ya, that is right, CS:S will be free with HL2, its not suppose to be CS2, nor is it suppose to bring anything new, valve simply ported CS to the new engine, and is offering it for free.. had they taken money for CS:S alone i could understand people being upset, but really.. This is just goodwill from Valve as i see it.. Stop complaining about everything!
Valve, please keep pumping out revisions of CS, I for one do not want to deal with all the 12 year olds with no spelling comprehension on any game I play.
Thank you.
Im.
hit shift + f1 for a little treat..valve should keep in a default wallhack, that way you can just assume everyone is cheating in the game, like most people do already.
Nothing costs nothing
I dunno about you, but I read it as "A Look at the CounterStrike Beta Source".
__________
[Big Brick Wall]
I tried CS when it first came out and couldn't stand it.
First off, it seemed to have netquake net code not quakeworld. The net code was horrible.
2nd, most people don't actually do the objective, the last 2 camp, to play 1 on 1 just to be the last guy standing.
3rd.. ah fuck third, I could on and on why CS sucks.
People out there who play CS and haven't tried Enemy territory yet. Just go download it, it's free and see how a class based game with real objective's that have to be accomplished is done right.
It won multiplayer game of the year left and right. I'm really hoping to hear of ET2 but not sure if the doom3 engine is right for it cause it certainly looks like it's not.
Ot, but does the doom3 engine have terrain support? And 4 players will certainly have to be dealt with.
I hate to say it but the source engine looks like the engine for ET2. Then again they are doing wolf with d3 engine so we'll see.
If you took a look through it (or had someone else tell you about it, *cough*), you'd have noticed all the old Quake-like source files in it like glquake.h. It looked as though parts of Half-Life 1 were included. The reason became clear when people figured out you could play the original Half-Life using the Source engine as though it was a big TC. Amazingly, Valve retained mod compatibility with the previous Half-Life.
So basically, the reason nothing's changed but the graphics is because, literally, very little has changed but the graphics.
> Imagine if Doom 3 had been just like the original Doom, but with a better
> engine.
Uh..yeah - I wouldn't have bought it!
I for one am eagerly awaiting the action packed turn based overhead ascii fighter known by the codename
'Counter Rogue'
CS: Source DOES include significant gameplay changes!
- Accurate physics, including ragdoll physics for when players die; you can also push stuff around.
- When you land from a jump, you STOP MOVING. No more bunny hoppers! Also if you fall from a high enough ledge to take damage, you stop moving for a bit.
- Accurate hitboxes, so you actually have to hit the head to get a headshot.
- The new fog effects make smoke grenades really useful.
- Flashbangs actually make you deaf for a minute, as do grenades if they explode near you.
- Jumping makes noise.
Nathan
The review has the line "Gun models are great" or something next to this picture:c ounterstri ke%20source/beta/review/007x.jpg
;)
http://www.counterfrag.com/screenshots/
Problem is, the model is a *MIRROR IMAGE* of an M4/M16. That is to say, what you see there (mag release button, ejection port, nonfunctional side of safe/semi/auto selector) should all be on the right side of the gun.
Just so you know
Gabe Newell stated that the CS:Source will be a separate game from HL2, and they will charge for it too.
m l
http://server.counter-strike.net/article_132.ht
Also, they've stated that the CS: Source beta players will NOT get CS: Source for free when it comes out. Given the fact that many of the CS: Source beta players right now have the ATI free HL2 voucher (me), this says yet again that CS: Source won't be free.
Dude, they updated the netcode a loooooong time ago ;)
All the people bitching about CS and how crap it is probabely got sick of being owned by more skilled players. And yes a vast majority of CS players are young and or immature and so the sentiment is understandable.
However imo what makes CS good is the wide margin between average and skilled players. And further the even wider margin between an average team of skilled players and an excellent team of average players. And this is due to the simplicity of CS. The well balanced aspects of action and tactical play.
There's plenty of good competition, especially on LAN where the random nature of online play is removed. Put all this together and you have a good game.
Lastly I'm looking forward to the physics and their impact on gameplay. Really don't give a shit how it looks. But yes it's a pity Valve didn't drop hitboxes altogether and follow iD's lead.
It has the havok physics engine!!!!!!!!!!!
This is to inform you, gentle moderator, that the parent post is from a person who has trolled Slashdot in the past under the names bonch and Overly Critical Guy. Please, do all of us a favor and don't be taken in by this person's moronic brayings.
Thank you.
This has been a public service announcement.
Show you a FPS that is different? Different to a "First Person Shooter"? Where you don't explore a map and shoot bad guys?
You're a dumbass.
http://cdoom.arqz.com/ So far, they have modded the weapons to no reaload all the time. And they also have a Doom3 version of Doom 1 e1m1
but I am wondering why the icon on this looks like a penis pump - and how one would use that to play over the web....
Must involve a webcam at some point, but now I really am just guessing.
First off, do you have any idea what the hell you are talking about?
;) So in general, it really applies to the type of person you are and the type of games you enjoy most -- which is why more people play CS. Personally, I enjoy them both games, but I would never recommend something I enjoyed more (Quake 3, Doom 3) over the two, simply because it's just a completely different thing.
"I hate to say it but the source engine looks like the engine for ET2."
What is that suppose to mean? Sure, the new Return to Castle Wolfenstein game will more than likely use Doom 3's engine, but it was originally designed for Doom -- not Wolfenstein. Just like Wolfenstein using Quake 3's engine today -- it just runs a lot better on the parent game. Doom 3's engine is awesome -- nothing compares.
As far as you directing the crowd to play ET over CS -- that's all one big opinion -- those are two completely different games and to say one is better than the other only makes yourself look more like a fool. Sure, they are both First Person Shooters, but let's just say they both have a lot of different qualities in them.
And Doom 3 was originally designed for what it has always been -- a single player game. The addition of a small multiplayer support system was awesome and I'm glad it's the way it is. There will be future games to expand the multiplayer limitations of the Doom 3 engine -- Quake IV for instance. We're in for a lot more to come.
And yeah, Wolfenstein won a lot of multiplayer awards... but take in account that Half-Life and Counter-Strike won a lot more. I'm not taking sides here, as idSoftware is my favorite development team, but you just have to know that CS won't be getting that many awards anymore, simply because it's an older game. And also, maybe you've just had a bad experience playing in some CS servers -- go play some bots. People actually do objectives.
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
Valve said long time ago that CS for Half-life 2 was NOT CS2, only the original CS for HL2. Why should we now be surprised about it?
This may seem ignorant, but why would you use per-pixel over per-polygon? As I see it, the graphics are merely the visual represenation of the game state stored in memory. Per-pixel collision would be using that visual represenation as the basis for the game state, which seems to me like a weird way to do things, because then it would be influenced by stuff like resolution. Could someone please explain this?
-ReK
md5sum -c reality.md5
reality: FAILED
md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match
The hyperlinks on the thumbnails in that article lead to the same thumbnails! Erase the "x" in the filename to see the larger image.
aka this is now this.
Counter-strike's popularity is in its multi-player. The 'content', for all comparison purposes is the experience, and the people you're playing against. Doom 3 was a single-player game. Huge difference. Huge. Did I say huge? I meant really big.
Moo
http://www.doomsdayhq.com/
The Doomsday Engine is an enhanced version of the original Doom engine. You can use it to play any games that use this engine, like Doom 1/2, Heretic, and Hexen (you must have the original game files to do so).
This engine supports (among other things) OpenGL/Direct3D graphics, 3D sound with EAX or A3D, and even 16-person multiplayer.
That sounds a lot like another comic's quote from Real Life
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Updating classic games with eyecandy. Before CounterStrike was created by fans, their most successful online game was a facelift of the original team fortress. Id software wisely leaves this to fans; both Quake 1 and 2 have numerous GPL'ed engines with eyecandy that is on par with newer games, although I prefer TomazQuake for Q1 and Q2:ICE for Q2, which add enough effects so that the respective games don't look ancient, but not so much as to make them run at slideshow speed.
Yes the netcode was updated a long time ago, but when I tried it, it was horrible but yet tons of people were playing it. To me, efficient netcode was crucial then when most people were on modems. Because lets face it, no matter how good the game is if the netcode isn't up to the job how can you actually have a good game? And then I remember they tried 'fixing it' by making it fair for modem/high speed users with some type of prediction that gave people with dial up some type of advantage in certain circumstances. Sorry I can't remember the details but I remember it didn't work well. So yes, I've heard it now has and for awhile has had good net code, but when I tried it the netcode was horrible but yet it was the most popular game online. I never understood playing a game when something required is sorely lacking. For ex. my belief in gaming is gameplay is king. Something could have horrible graphics but great game play. Now when you bring a game online, the netcode needs to be of quality to allow a user to enjoy the gameplay. This game certainly didn't have it for awhile but yet thousands were playing it.
...is becoming the new Duke Nukem 3D, recycled content is just about all the gamers can count on.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
One of the coolest things about the Source engine as compared to the HL1 engine is that object attributes are hierarchal. What this means for CS is that we will now be able to design maps that contain stuff like vehicles with turrets, or doors with breakable windows.
This isn't the same as Counter-Strike 2 is it? I thought they were just porting some of their older games to the new engine and also doing total rewrites of TFC and CS.
It wasn't.
YOU FAIL IT!
..about Source is that it keeps the same gameplay, including guns and maps, of the original CounterStrike and simply brings CounterStrike (which uses the original Half Life engine) up to date graphically.
This isn't correct. They ported a large chunk of the code/behaviors over, and imported the old models/maps, but they've done a significant amount of work to get them to look good in Source. This is hardly just "updating the engine." I'd even suspect that they can make CS look even better, seeing as it's a side project right now (and HL2 is the priority.)
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
After pirating CS Source I cant logon to regular steam on my Linux setup with cedega.
There will be a new CounterStrike!
That means a new aimbot, new wallhack and a large influx of script kiddies to run them because they're too lazy to develop the skills to kill legitimately.
To be fair, it's not just CounterStrike that's laden with cheats. CounterStrike just happens to have the most players and therefore the most cheaters. Frankly, CS never did much for me, cheating aside. There's cheats out for UT2k4 (those showed up within 2wks of release), CoD and many others.
Sure, there's some good players out there, but cheaters are usually pretty easy to spot. That instant 180 degree spin/one shot kill (usually a head shot to boot), or the "I have huge cajones and won't attempt to hide that I'm running aimbot" classic of 7 headshots within a 2 second timeframe. Over and over and over.
There's the wall hack, so no amount of sneaking up or cover will prevent you from dying the nanosecond you expose a pixel of your elbow.
There's the extra large clip hacks (ever wonder why he didn't have to reload?). The list goes on.
CounterStrike certainly didn't start the trend of l4m3rs, but it certainly has made the largest contribution.
An example rule is that there will be taken penalities in the beginning of the match untill one team is leading. In this way no more boring 0-0 matches, cause one team must attack!
If you have any good ideas or would like to tell us to leave football alone, register on http://forum.football2.org/ There is also an early prototype of the football2 falsh game (think sensible soccer with football2 rules). It's on http://play.football2.org/
Valve had the most popular multiplayer FPS in the world handed to them on a silver platter and they blew it. Condition Zero took way too long and seems like an afterthought. I would have loved to have seen CStrike converted to the Q3 engine (or similar) years ago. It's a bit late now. I doubt I'll be back in any significant way even if it's runnining on Source. There are too many other good games out there.
And I really, really hope this deosn't mean that Halflife 2 multiplayer is going to suck.
They guy who decided to call it "Source" - jackass.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
if the network code would be backwards compatible that would be great. that way people with old hardware can continue to play the game, and people with newer riggs can run the latest newest game engine and enjoy greatly improved gfx/sfx.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Half Life 2's engine is not nearly as advanced as iD's but this is due more to the need for wide open environments in HL2 and Counterstrike Source than any inferiority at Valve.
So Id's engine is better because it can render a dark hole in the ground?
Hurrah for Valve and their wide open spaces - just say no to black holes (and crates!)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
There are just a few maps that are repeatedly played (dust, dust2 and aztec being the main ones), despite the hundreds of maps available for free download, and the moment someone changes to something more original instantly there will be a number of players clamouring (ie spamming) for one of the ones they know well.
People like maps they know well as they can concentrate on outwitting the enemy as opposed to running around randomly hoping they don't run past a hidden alcove where they will be killed by someone they didn't see. The main maps have evolved into very balanced maps, each side having it's own set of tactics.
The incremental changes to the game is great. Each time you get comfortable they (a) add something new, such as smoke grenades or a weapon, to add spice, or (b) change a physical characteristic to level the elite and the n00bs, eg by preventing bunny-hopping. I'm looking forwards to the new physics characteristics whilst knowing that the game will still be my favourite CS.
A couple of days ago I deleted CS of my hard drive as I am on holiday on the French Riviera and I wasn't getting enough sunshine. Despite years of playing, the game is still totally addictive. I've vowed not to re-install HL but will install HL2 and the new CS:Source when it comes out. Hope I last out. I paid about $20 for Half Life all those years ago and it has been the best value for money ever. I'm looking forwards to plunking down my cash for HL2 and rewarding Valve for severely damaging my social life all these years.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
How much of a code rewrite did they have to do to get this released? If it looks so much like the old game and plays much like it with new features does valve have some kind of upgrade component for their new engine from the old? If so, would this mean the rumor of Half-life 1 for the new source engine could be true?!?
Unnnn... Quake really rocked the boat when it came out dude.... Granted I'm a CS junkie but...
I thank Quake for...
1. Allowing players to host servers for Internet play. Anyone remember TEN, Heat, Engage, Mplayer when you used to have to pay per hour to play on the internet? (oh yes, thank you battle.net as well)
2. No more monsters that are just sprites. 3d models are cool, I hope they make more games with 3d models.
3. GLQuake. 1.1 MB patch that added 3dfx glide and OpenGL acceleration and encouraged it to become an industry standard for gaming.
Yah with newer titles and their "game balance" (no more camping the RL) Quake has lost some of its luster, but hey it was good enough for Valve to make a mod to bring it back.
IMHO, Descent is the best 'FPS' ever. Descent 2 was ok (more guns), and Descent 3 was also pretty good. Now, Descent only had a 2d engine, but the source code was made available, and one of the updates was to make a 3dfx version. VERY nice update to a great game.
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
All the talk from people complaining about the Counter-Strike "community" have obviously had some bad experiences on some badly run servers... usually the big ISP-run servers where there are never any admins present.
On a well-run server populated by competent and friendly players more interested in getting objectives and winning rounds for the team, rather than a personal frag count, can be a hard thing to find.
But if you do Counter-Strike remains one of the most playable online games out there.
It's just a case of the server having the proper rules and those rules being observered by the players and enforced by the admins.
I, for one, am never afraid to wield the banning stick.
erroneous: look me up in a dictionary