Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike (English pronunciation: /ˈkʰʌn.tə(r) ˈstraɪk/,
sometimes differentiated as Counter-Strike 1.6 and shortened to CS)
is a tactical
first-person
shooter video game
developed by Valve
Corporation which originated from a Half-Life
modification by "Gooseman" and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe.
The game has been expanded into a series since its original release, which
currently includes Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Counter-Strike:
Source, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Counter-Strike
pits a team of counter-terrorists
against a team of terrorists
in a series of rounds. Each round is won by either completing the mission
objective or eliminating the opposing force.
The game was the most played Half-Life
modification in terms of players, according to GameSpy in 2008.[3]
As of August 2011, the Counter-Strike franchise (Valve)
has sold over 27 million units.[4]
Gameplay
Counter-Strike is a first-person
shooter in which players join either the terrorist team, the counter-terrorist
team, or become spectators. Each team attempts to complete their mission
objective and/or eliminate the opposing team. Each round starts with the two
teams spawning simultaneously.
A player can choose to play as one of five different
default character models (four for each side, although Counter-Strike: Condition Zero added two extra models,
bringing the total to ten). Players are generally given a few seconds before
the round begins (known as "freeze time") to prepare and buy
equipment, during which they cannot attack or move. (one notable exception is
that a player may receive damage during freeze time. This happens when a map is
changed to spawn players at a certain height above the ground, thus causing
fall damage to the player. This is a method map designers use to alter the
starting "HP"
of players on a map). They can't return to the buy area within a set amount of
time to buy more equipment (some custom maps included neutral "buy
zones" that could be used by both teams). Once the round has ended,
surviving players retain their equipment for use in the next round; players who
were killed begin the next round with the basic default starting equipment.
Standard monetary bonuses are awarded for winning a
round, losing a round, killing an enemy, being the first to instruct a hostage
to follow, rescuing a hostage or planting (Terrorist)/defusing (Counter
terrorist) the bomb.
The scoreboard displays team scores in addition to
statistics for each player: name, kills, deaths, and ping
(in milliseconds). The scoreboard also indicates whether a player is dead,
carrying the bomb (on bomb maps), or is the VIP (on assassination maps),
although information on players on the opposing team is hidden from a player
until his/her death, as this information can be important.
Killed players become "spectators" for the
duration of the round; they cannot change their names before their next spawn,
text chat cannot be sent to or received from live players; and voice chat can
only be received from live players and not sent to them (unless the cvar sv_alltalk is set to 1). Spectators are generally able to watch the
rest of the round from multiple selectable views, although some servers disable
some of these views to prevent dead players from relaying information about
living players to their teammates through alternative media (most notably voice
in the case of Internet
cafes and Voice over
IP programs such as TeamSpeak
or Ventrilo). This form of
cheating is known as "ghosting".
Development
Mods and scripts
Though Counter-Strike is itself a mod, it has
developed its own community of script writers and mod creators. Some mods add bots, while others remove
features of the game, and others create different modes of play. Some of the
mods give server administrators more flexible and efficient control over his or
her server. "Admin plugins", as they are mostly referred as, have
become very popular (see Metamod,
AMX Mod and AMX Mod X). There are some
mods which affect gameplay heavily, such as Gun Game, where players start with
a basic pistol and must score kills to receive better weapons, and Zombie Mod,
where one team consists of zombies
and must "spread the infection" by killing the other team (using only
the knife). There are also the Superhero and Warcraft III mods which
mix the first-person gameplay of Counter-Strike with an experience
system, allowing a player to become more powerful as they continue to play. The
game is also highly customizable on the player's end, allowing the user to
install or even create their own custom skins, HUDs, sprites, and sound
effects, given the proper tools.
Cheating
Counter Strike has been a prime target
for exploitation by cheaters since its release. In-game, cheating is often
referred to as "hacking" in reference to programs or "hacks" executed by the
user.
- Wallhacks allows players to see through walls. These work by
displaying objects that are normally obscured or by replacing opaque game
textures with translucent ones. As the engine only renders the immediate area around the player, this does
not allow a player to see the entire level at once.
- Speedhacks give the player increased foot speed. These work by
sending false synchronization data to the server.
- Recoil hack removes any recoil (and thus
improves accuracy) from a player's firearm.
- No spread is used to remove the random deviation normally
experienced when the player shoots. This is similar to the recoil hack.
- Aimbots help the
player aim at enemies. Practically the same as auto-targeting, These work
by either modifying a bullet's in-flight path, or automatically moving the
player's crosshair onto an enemy.
- ESP shows textual information about the enemy; such as
health, name and distance; also information about weapons lying around the
map, which could be missed without the hack. Most ESP cheats show info
through walls.
- Barrel hack depicts an enemy's gaze as a
visible line, this is also visible in the killcam.
- Anti-flash and anti-smoke remove the effects of the flashbang and smoke grenade.
Implementation is derived from the wall hack.
Valve has implemented an anti-cheat system called Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC).
Players cheating on a VAC-enabled server risk having their account permanently
banned from all VAC-secured servers.
With the first version of VAC, a ban took hold almost
instantly after being detected and the cheater had to wait 2 years to have the
account unbanned.[5] Since VAC's
second version, cheaters are not banned automatically. With the second version,
Valve instituted a policy of 'delayed bans,' the theory being that if a new
hack is developed which circumvents the VAC system, it will spread amongst the
'cheating' community. By delaying the initial ban, Valve hopes to identify (and
ban) as many cheaters as possible. Like any software detection system, some
cheats are not detected by VAC and at times, the only effective anti-cheat
solution is a human administrator watching an online game. Some servers
implement a voting system, in which case players can call for a vote to kick or
ban the accused cheater. VAC's success at identifying cheats and banning those
who use them has also provided a boost in the purchasing of private cheats.[6] These cheats are
updated frequently to minimize the risk of detection, and are generally only
available to a trusted list of recipients who collectively promise not to
reveal the underlying design.
Release
When Counter-Strike was published by Sierra
Entertainment/Vivendi
Universal Games, it was bundled with Team
Fortress Classic, Opposing
Force multiplayer, and the Wanted, Half-Life: Absolute
Redemption and Firearms
mods."[7]
On March 24, 1999, Planet Half-Life opened its
Counter-Strike section. Within two weeks, the site had received 10,000
hits. On June 19, 1999, the first public beta of Counter-Strike was
released, followed by numerous further "beta" releases. On April 12,
2000, Valve
announced that the Counter-Strike developers and Valve had teamed up.
The non-beta public release dates of Counter-Strike
are as follows:[8]
- Version 1.0: November 1, 2000
- Version 1.1: March 13, 2001
- Version 1.3: September 12, 2001
- Version 1.4: April 24, 2002
- Version 1.5: June 12, 2002
- Version 1.6: September 12, 2003
Note: Version 1.6 effectively
coincided with the release of Valve Software's Steam content
delivery system on September 12, 2003. All further updates and bug
fixes have been dynamically delivered via Steam, without any specific new
version numbers. The name or abbreviation "1.6" is often used to
differentiate it from the newer version Counter-Strike: Source.
Counter-Strike: Source
Main article: Counter-Strike:
Source
Counter-Strike received a major
technology update and refresh on November 1, 2004 with the release of Counter-Strike:
Source, which was heavily updated using Valve's Source game engine
to take advantage of more modern graphics and audio hardware. However, the
original Counter-Strike is still available and played by many people via
Steam, as the two variants
are quite different, and players inevitably prefer one variant over the other.
Both versions continue to co-exist today.
Counter-Strike was originally played
online through the WON
gaming service, which was shut down in 2004,[9] forcing players
to switch to Steam.
The non-Steam version of Counter-Strike (version 1.5) can still be
downloaded from sites such as FilePlanet.[10] Due to the
closure of WON, part of the player community responded by creating their own
WON network, dubbed WON2.[citation
needed]
In March 2007, Valve implemented mandatory advertisements
through Steam in official maps and in the game's GUI overhead. Customers have expressed
frustration with the ads, including an over 200 page thread on Valve's official
forums, saying that they violate original terms of service and distract from
the game.[11] The thread was
later deleted by an unknown moderator.
Counter-Strike Online
Main article: Counter-Strike
Online
Counter-Strike Online is
available in South Korea,
Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia, and is now fully
online. It is developed by Nexon Corporation with
oversight from license-holder Valve Corporation, and is
an attempt to increase market share of Valve's games in the Asian gaming
market.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Main article: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
On August 12, 2011, it was confirmed that a new Counter
Strike game is currently in development at Valve Software and Hidden
Path Entertainment, which also codevelops Counter-Strike: Source,
going under the title Global Offensive.[4] The game is
played on game consoles (such as PS3, Xbox 360, etc.) and PC and is aimed as a
competition to other FPS games such as the Call of Duty and the Battlefield
series.[citation
needed] The closed beta testing is out on November 30,
2011, only for those who got the keys in "Penny Arcade Expo" and
Eurogamer. It will be opened once Valve thinks that the server is ready.
