HardOCP's "Valve's Counter Strike:Source – Beta at Best"

[Alias]

What would it be worth for me to ask them about it


i just may do that tonite.

I think ill stick with CS LAN only with bots for now

Roger that, they need to fix the bots for Source.

 

[animalchin]

i played cs back in the 5.2(or 5.8?) days until about version 1.2. i need a game to play and i want some hl2. do you think its worth buying now or should i wait until it drops in price a little and cs starts working?

 

[Duck]

CS works just fine now

The only real problems with it from a player persepctive is the lack of maps.

Other than that all the problems relate to admin tools

 

[nullvector]

I was pretty disapponted by the lack of HL2 MP, but that's something we knew was not going to be included for quite a while.

My perspective on this issue is that I knew what I was getting when I got HL2, a great single player game. Sure, Steam isn't 100% perfect, but my personal experience with HL2 so far as been better than any game I've ever played, period. New technology usually doesn't come out of the gate with flying colors.

I don't think I remember the last time a PC game came out that didn't have any issues.

I say we give Valve a few months, and see what happens with HL2 DM down the line. With HL1, they delivered an incredible MP deathmatch experience, and then CS comes out from a third party, and its almost like no-one rememberd HLDM anymore.

The same might happen with CS:Source down the line. We might have some new mods which deliver a far superior experience than CS ever did, and CS:S might become an afterthought.

Maybe I just dont see this as a life-or-death matter like some people do, to me it was just a game, albeit the best game I have ever played. It's not like Valve forcibly made us go to BestBuy and purchase HL2. Heck, my Steam login that I'm using now was free with a 9600pro.

I think alot of people are finally getting burned out on the CS concept. After 5 or so years of playing CS, it's not as exciting as it was back then. Times change. Maybe Valve didn't see CS:S as being very futureproof. Maybe they are expecting user-mods to come out that will blow CS out of the water. Maybe they concentrated on the single player aspect, and are leaving MP up to us as 3rd party developers, we will never know.

If people don't like CS:S, inevitably, they wont play it. Something bigger and better will come out, and we'll all be the better for it.

 

[GilmourD]

You seem to be missing the point. The reason for the lack of patience is that the product in its current state is almost unplayable. Not having the fixes is doing more harm than good. Valve being silent on the subject and not communicating doesn't help. Ergo, vis-a-vie, concordently the seemingly lack of patience.

Almost unplayable? Maybe I have a skewed perspective, but I'm rocking out in HL2 and CS:S on an AthlonXP 2500+ OCed to 2.2GHZ and 512 megs RAM, but my video card's a little old... CREATIVE LABS GEFORCE 1 (not 5, 4, 3, or 2, but ONE!) DDR! Yeah, I have all the eye candy turned off, but the thing runs great on my machine. It hasn't crashed, yet, where the original HL (TFC and CS) would crash at least once per session requiring a reboot.

I've been playing this game and wondering what is causing people to complain. Usually my body is surrounded by a Murphy's Law Field, causing EVERYTHING to go wrong, and even I haven't been having any problems.

I understand the admin stuff is lacking, but people are complaining about the gameplay aspects, and even I don't see it with my ancient video hardware. My BIGGEST problem is that I suck at the game right now, but no more than I sucked at the original after this long. Anybody wanna donate a 6800GT so I can see if I can break it on new hardware?

 

[Warriorprophet]

Almost unplayable? Maybe I have a skewed perspective, but I'm rocking out in HL2 and CS:S on an AthlonXP 2500+ OCed to 2.2GHZ and 512 megs RAM, but my video card's a little old... CREATIVE LABS GEFORCE 1 (not 5, 4, 3, or 2, but ONE!) DDR! Yeah, I have all the eye candy turned off, but the thing runs great on my machine. It hasn't crashed, yet, where the original HL (TFC and CS) would crash at least once per session requiring a reboot.

I've been playing this game and wondering what is causing people to complain. Usually my body is surrounded by a Murphy's Law Field, causing EVERYTHING to go wrong, and even I haven't been having any problems.

I understand the admin stuff is lacking, but people are complaining about the gameplay aspects, and even I don't see it with my ancient video hardware. My BIGGEST problem is that I suck at the game right now, but no more than I sucked at the original after this long. Anybody wanna donate a 6800GT so I can see if I can break it on new hardware?

Eyecandy off? no no, you have the GAME turned off, the only benefits to CS:S are the graphics and sound, and all the moveable trash laying around. Without the graphics, and I'm assuming LQ sound, turned off you may as well be playing beta 6. Its that buggy.

I have the texture replaced with red blinking error sign problem and I haven't installed ANY 3rd party stuff. I even wiped my drive and reinstalled everything trying to get rid of the problem. Still there. The game is unplayable online due to the asshole issue in any decently pinged server, and even backwater servers have hacker problems eventually. Someone can always get a good ping.

Bots suck, and I still have texture errors in LAN mode so thats no help either.

I can't even fathom trying to run a server without 10 of the best admins on the net being 1-2 online at any given time to chase issues down. And the servercost is extreme for rentals to boot.

I am still waiting on Quake4 I guess, I hope Raven pulls their usual magic and gets me a game to play.

Ahh well, back to the WoW beta, a game which ROCKS if you liked WC3's custom RPG maps at all.

 

[GilmourD]

Eyecandy off? no no, you have the GAME turned off, the only benefits to CS:S are the graphics and sound, and all the moveable trash laying around. Without the graphics, and I'm assuming LQ sound, turned off you may as well be playing beta 6. Its that buggy.

I have the texture replaced with red blinking error sign problem and I haven't installed ANY 3rd party stuff. I even wiped my drive and reinstalled everything trying to get rid of the problem. Still there. The game is unplayable online due to the asshole issue in any decently pinged server, and even backwater servers have hacker problems eventually. Someone can always get a good ping.

Bots suck, and I still have texture errors in LAN mode so thats no help either.

I can't even fathom trying to run a server without 10 of the best admins on the net being 1-2 online at any given time to chase issues down. And the servercost is extreme for rentals to boot.

I am still waiting on Quake4 I guess, I hope Raven pulls their usual magic and gets me a game to play.

Ahh well, back to the WoW beta, a game which ROCKS if you liked WC3's custom RPG maps at all.

I have no problems with sound (nForce2). It's just my video card that can't handle all the eye candy, but it still beats the pants off of the original CS graphically. As far as the other issues you have, I haven't run into them. Smooth sailing here. I've even been lucky enough not to have to deal with too many asshole hackers (although a few do creep in every once in a while). I'm just waiting on some cash to get myself a BFG 6800OC, then I can jack up all the options. But so far, my lowly original GeForce DDR is running the game at a consistent 35fps+ without many hiccups that don't have to do with my brother kicking the plug out of the router.

BTW, my brother also plays this on an A64 3000+ with a Radeon 9600 Pro and has the same experience as me.

 

[lopoetve]

Trust me, you cannot play HL2 if you shutdown steam after you authenticate it. This should be taken out of this write up, offical line or not, its false.

Sure you can. I did it today, because my internet was down. It asks if you want to play in offline mode. Steam is the launcher, but it doesn't need the internet.

 

[DaveX]

I had HL2 pre-loaded a long time ago and I unlocked it with no problems. My friend had trouble connecting to Steam on 11/16 around 3 PM PST for about 2 hours but I had none. I haven't encountered any CS:S cheaters yet and the performance is smooth for me. But then again, I mostly spend my time playing DoD seriously I've played CS since Beta 7 and after the transition to CS 1.6 and Steam, it's no longer my favorite game (DoD is ). I think Steam had so much potential...like the friends feature...but it fell flat on its face. I'd like to not have to connect to Steam and be able to play HL2.

 

[rayg]

that article was like a little kid whining about not getting a new toy or something. CS:S is fine for me, I haven't encountered one cheater (although I admittedly don't play much), and it's visually lightyears ahead of CS 1.6. They brag as if playing since 1.0 is a big deal. I started playing CS at beta .4. It was great then, and still is fine. I like how the game as evolved, and steam has been good for CS, not bad. Before Steam, there were rarely updates for CS, now they are all the time. While the whole HL2 activation thing really pissed me off, I like Steam a lot for keeping games updated automatically.

 

[Impulse]

A lot of people seem to be missing the point, I don't think they're complaining that CS isn't fit-and-ready right this very moment... They're complaining it was released as a fit-and-ready MP component to a retail produt this very moment. A lot of people fail to see all sides to this, to the average player this is much less of a headache than to the average admin that creates a better enviroment for that player.

I don't agree with some of the future heavyhanded predictions (mostly because I just don't know enough about what's been going on to do so) but I can definitely see where Duck was coming from and why he might've felt said feelings should've been aired out for Valve or anyone else out there that cares.

 

[Tsumari]

I just want to hop in to say that Steam, and technologies like Steam, are going to be my first choice for purchasing games in the future, when possible. If it was a little buggy on its first major release, who cares? It will be worked out, and everything will mature.

Tsumari

 

[headless]

RayG said the same thing i've been thinking since yesterday; I direct you to his post:

that article was like a little kid whining about not getting a new toy or something. CS:S is fine for me, I haven't encountered one cheater (although I admittedly don't play much), and it's visually lightyears ahead of CS 1.6. They brag as if playing since 1.0 is a big deal. I started playing CS at beta .4. It was great then, and still is fine. I like how the game as evolved.

 

[FrgMstr]

Steam had problems in the begining, but it was a public beta test. For the longest time, however, Steam was not plagued with problems. When HL2 came out there were some issues. What that second sentence makes it sound like is that Steam is barely adequate and always crashing, which is most definitely not the case.

The second sentence is 100% true. You can read into what you want, but don't blame me for what you dream up. I think you should take the statement at face value. Also, the article was really not about Steam, although we thought that the subject at least needed to be mentioned. I think I can quote the article as saying.

"Since then the Steam connection issues have mostly been corrected. "

 

[EinsteiN]

I as only a player(not admin), can only sit by until good admins tools are provided, to highten my playing experience.

I have some specific things about CS:S though:

- objects and how they handle in CS:S
- priorities of development...

I for one lack the logic to comprehend why there's such a big difference between object handling in HL 2 and CS:S. HL 2 has physics like Doom 3, Far cry etc. everything acts as you expect it to and looks good to.
CS:S has object that resembles rubber/ice!?, They have weird behavior when close to players, like the players getting stuck or bouncing away from the objects(no general rule, they just behave weird), objects can keep bouncing on top of each other until one breaks!?
Anyways enough rant about the objects, that will probably get fixed soon.

Funny thing I noticed on the map cs_office on the top floor in the office facing the court yard is a picture on the wall with the inscription "Keep going the Crunch is almost over"(AFAIK).
On the desks in the offices is a desktop computer with the inscription "Beefy Computer" on the side(looks just like a Dell eww). If you hit the computer the side falls off and inside are modelled individual components(as objects); VIA MB + seperate CPU Cooler, ATI GFX, SB Audigy 2 soundcard, IBM Harddrive, Generic PSU, and memory sticks...
Why on earth would they spend so much time on crap like that and leave the rest of the objects unfixed!? Just throwing another ball in the air, but it seems incredible lame to me that they would have higher priority on this stuff than other more important stuff, like the Admin tools/VAC/Object handling....

My last negative experience is the lame CD-check on the retail copy of the game, but that will hopefully get patched, because that is f*cking annoying.

But I will also praise HL 2, to me it seems like a very finished game. CS:S looks like it is going to be in beta stage for a while yet.

 

[Duck]

something else I want to make clear, this article looked at the game from an admin perspective only. Since CS is multiplayer only it requires someone to have setup a server for you to play on. And the enitre point of the article was to point out that the lack of admin tools and features make the game extremely difficult to admin. If the server operators continue to leave the game and start hosting other more admin-friendly games there wont be anyplace for you to play (at least without high pings)

cheating, yes cheating hasnt yet become a huge problem in CS:S but without any sort of anti-cheat in place it is only a matter of time.

From a player perspective the game is really pretty much the same as 1.6 without the shield and with better graphics. But again this article wasnt about the player experience. It's also not about HL2 or anything assosciated with it.

Finally I've seen several comments to the effect of "I don't see what all the complaints are about, I totally think he's just a whiny bitch. Of course i haven't played much for the last year or two" 90% of the issues I brought up relate to developments in the last year and the long term outlook they represent. If you haven't played much or at all in the last year you're not likely to have any idea what I'm talking about and even less of you don't admin a public server.

Having said all that I do seriously appreciate the time you took to read the article and reply with comments. Also, although I did only start seriously playing CS at 1.0 I did play it here and there prior to that and my point was only to explain that i wasn't basing my comments on only the time since CS:S was released, not to claim any sort of super CS'r status.

 

[XamediX]

While I think that the article was well thought out and provided some valid points, I have to disagree with the view that Valve hasn't and doesn't listen to the community that made it so great.

I worked on the Firearms mod for the original Half-life for, oh, about 2.5 years. During this time I saw firsthand just how supportive of the community Valve really is. The give so much of themselves back to the community its amazing. Just look at the depth of the original SDK; up until Valve you might get a level editor and just enough access to the code to make a mod (or it had to be hacked apart), let alone full documentation and tech support. They've held a number of MOD Expos to showcase what people were doing to their game. They've invited mod authors to show off their mods at E3 in the Valve booth. Their employees have always been willing to help sort out problems in a map or errors in code. When they asked the FA Team if they could purchase the right to sell Firearms in boxed editions of Half-life, they became even more involved to help us polish the mod. Valve employees would stop by our IRC chat room to see how things were going, they helped us squash bugs, playtest and implement new ideas. One employee even made a level for us in his spare time.

Fast forward a few years, and they are already working on giving us total control over mods we make for an engine and a game they just spent the past 5 years developing. I think people tend to forget that they've been working 18 hour days for the past year+ to get Half-Life 2 into hands as soon as possible. It takes time to do things, and there are only so many hours in the day. I have faith that if Valve had been able to fix that stuff before the "release" of CS:S they would have and I have faith that since ya'll are complaining about it and brining it to their attention that they will fix it as soon as possible. CS has never ceased in being developed. Why should we think that development has stopped now? Its been, what? 5 years since CS:Beta1 was first released and we've had at least two major releases a year since then with tweaks and fixes and new content.

The problem is gamers today want their cake AND their icecream and they want it RIGHT NOW and it has to be made of the finest ingredients by the best chefs in the world and if anything is wrong with it, the color of the frosting is #3333FF instead of #3333CC we get out the pitchforks and forget how fun the game really is and how despite all the shortcomings that we scream about so loudly, we still keep coming back for more, day after day, year after year.

I can agree with the conjecture that CS:S is still beta, but I can not stand by and let Valve be bashed for not supporting the community. That is just utter BS!

I muthaf'in cosign on that one!

I just want to hop in to say that Steam, and technologies like Steam, are going to be my first choice for purchasing games in the future, when possible. If it was a little buggy on its first major release, who cares? It will be worked out, and everything will mature.

Tsumari

cosign again.

i've played cs since the "beta 6 days" when u could zoom in with the silenced colt. that was hot! But, it just seems like too much whining going on or maybe the CS concept has run its course as was previously stated. Steam worked great for me, i had it preloaded ~1week before release and unlocking went fine, (even though i did stay up till3am est.). Any fool that tried to dl the game on the day of its release expecting a smooth ride, justified the moniker.

I really think He just put this out here for us to eat up and see what we had to say. I can't see such an off based view coming from him. I mean did everyone forget that steam constantly updates our games without us having to even search for it? And you're worried about the bugs gettin fixed? But that's just my opinion, i could be wrong.....

 

[Deadly sk1llz]

Quote:
Originally Posted by miek
While I think that the article was well thought out and provided some valid points, I have to disagree with the view that Valve hasn't and doesn't listen to the community that made it so great.

I worked on the Firearms mod for the original Half-life for, oh, about 2.5 years. During this time I saw firsthand just how supportive of the community Valve really is. The give so much of themselves back to the community its amazing. Just look at the depth of the original SDK; up until Valve you might get a level editor and just enough access to the code to make a mod (or it had to be hacked apart), let alone full documentation and tech support. They've held a number of MOD Expos to showcase what people were doing to their game. They've invited mod authors to show off their mods at E3 in the Valve booth. Their employees have always been willing to help sort out problems in a map or errors in code. When they asked the FA Team if they could purchase the right to sell Firearms in boxed editions of Half-life, they became even more involved to help us polish the mod. Valve employees would stop by our IRC chat room to see how things were going, they helped us squash bugs, playtest and implement new ideas. One employee even made a level for us in his spare time.

Fast forward a few years, and they are already working on giving us total control over mods we make for an engine and a game they just spent the past 5 years developing. I think people tend to forget that they've been working 18 hour days for the past year+ to get Half-Life 2 into hands as soon as possible. It takes time to do things, and there are only so many hours in the day. I have faith that if Valve had been able to fix that stuff before the "release" of CS:S they would have and I have faith that since ya'll are complaining about it and brining it to their attention that they will fix it as soon as possible. CS has never ceased in being developed. Why should we think that development has stopped now? Its been, what? 5 years since CS:Beta1 was first released and we've had at least two major releases a year since then with tweaks and fixes and new content.

The problem is gamers today want their cake AND their icecream and they want it RIGHT NOW and it has to be made of the finest ingredients by the best chefs in the world and if anything is wrong with it, the color of the frosting is #3333FF instead of #3333CC we get out the pitchforks and forget how fun the game really is and how despite all the shortcomings that we scream about so loudly, we still keep coming back for more, day after day, year after year.

I can agree with the conjecture that CS:S is still beta, but I can not stand by and let Valve be bashed for not supporting the community. That is just utter BS!

I muthaf'in cosign on that one!

I concur. Valve only shows us much love. Why shouldn't they?

I think the argument that the SDK is released so the community can make a better mod is a valid one. I'm not so sure that Valve didn't make CS:S as a way to show off the engine IN PROCESS before HL2 was even out. Ever think of it that way? Maybe they expect us to make a better CS mod using this new engine.

Call it:
Super Hyper Global Meganet Counter Terrorism USA Rules Lol Saddam Sucks.
AKA:
SHGMCTURLSS!

 

[fbiguy]

Look, stfu and sit. Wait and see. How hard is that to do? That article is nice as it points out problems but almost unnecessary because all I see is whining. You don't think Valve knows? Just give them time to do it. Stupid Americans-- no patience nowadays.

-J.

Hmmm, ok. Lets point out a few things here, in question form. Since when was this an all American forum? Oh, and how do you know that all those who posted against the original article are not Americans, and thus all those who posted in support of the original article are Americans?

What nationality are you? Oh wait, after reading your post i almost forgot, nationality DOES NOT matter, because every nationality will have assholes....such as yourself. Thanks and go die.

oh, and btw i share your point of view, wait it out, there are other games to entertain me for the time being. oh and i am American, strange how you and i think alike.

 

[G'ßöö]

I cannot begin to recall the gazillion issues and hours of tweaking etc for keeping up a cheat free server. It was so much in the end (last may) that I, and many of my die hard cs'ers friends quit. loosing 1.5 was bad enough and now this? cs:s has nothing new anyway...yawn!

...typical!

 

[G'ßöö]

Hmmm, ok. Lets point out a few things here, in question form. Since when was this an all American forum? Oh, and how do you know that all those who posted against the original article are not Americans, and thus all those who posted in support of the original article are Americans?

What nationality are you? Oh wait, after reading your post i almost forgot, nationality DOES NOT matter, because every nationality will have assholes....such as yourself. Thanks and go die.

oh, and btw i share your point of view, wait it out, there are other games to entertain me for the time being. oh and i am American, strange how you and i think alike.

ya gotta expect man. look where you are! social retards are everywhere!

 

[fbiguy]

ya gotta expect man. look where you are! social retards are everywhere!

i'll take that like your on my side oh and btw, here it is again, bringing in the nationality thing...

 

[headless]

I find it interesting that i've seen less hacking in CS:S than i do in 1.6 on a normal day and even when punkbuster and CD were widely used there were still people cheating on servers protected by them. Anti cheat software has never worked consistently, so i don't find the lack of an embedded anti cheat program a big barrier to making CS:S fun. The people who go out of their way to cheat will STILL cheat; but this brings up a great point... cheating is apparently running so rampant and yet the only real cheating i've seen in CS:S is a speed-hack like thing. I, however, have been banned from more than 10 public servers in the last month for suspected cheating and i've never even seen a hack in person or had one on any of my PC's over the years (i got into net gaming during Quakeworld... and it's always been like this!).
People are paranoid, they hate to lose, and they project onto good players. Even the best anti cheat software that blocked ALL cheaters wouldn't keep these people from banning me from the server after i burst-fire glock 9 of them in a row in the face because THEY are convinced cheating is occuring. People school me constantly but i rarely see solid evidence someone is really cheating (tracking through walls, locking onto characters, etc.)


Valve still hasn't fixed the nailgren exploit in tfc, have they? LOL.

 

[archevilangel]

While I do agree with your points, I can't help but laugh at the overall message. At least you have a game to play, broken as it may be. TFC was Valve's first retail mod, and was once the most popular one as well. Our original game still isn't fixed, much less some sequel. It's been so many years since Valve has paid attention to us, we have community mods that fix the bugs (how f***ing ridiculous is it that fixed code is already out there, and Valve STILL won't implement it). The CS community is Valve's spoiled child compared to TFC, be happy with what you have.

heh, not that your complaints isn't legitment, but valve has a habit of ignoring the community. TFC players have been putting up with this for a while. At one point TFC was the HL MOD, and valve let that dwindle by not fixing some of the oldest bugs ( http://www.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=102551 ) and by not marketing TFC(Look at the popularity of both dod and cs after retail packages were released for both of them).

Anyways, on back to CS:S specificly. Not having rcon is atrocious, and it looks like it was rushed out. I've talked to a lot of my friends who are CS players and they all found CS to be supperior to CS:S.


No valve did not ruin counter-strike, but I hope now people realize what they're buying when they get hl2 I know plenty of cs players who will buy hl2 just for CS:S. Sure they'll play hl2 for around 30 min and quit(Most of them havent even touched HL).

Yep ryan, we have 4 year old bugs and they're complaining after getting a semi sequel. As broken as it may be, they could have it much worse. TFC players have been complaining forever, and our complaints have been ignored by cs players because "it's not our game," except it is. Valve makes your game, valve makes our game and this time it's your turn.

I won't be happy until Team Fortress 2 or TFC:Source or whatever is released. That game was sadly underrated, and this from a long time beta CS vetran. Right now I'm very much enjoying the War3 mod for CS. Throws a little more spice into a game this old...and a game most of my friends nolonger play because of the mess of the original steam.

^^^

Valve still hasn't fixed the nailgren exploit in tfc, have they? LOL.

nope

 

[Mayor McCheese]

I can't believe how some of you are sugarcoating the problems with CS. I realize the article is written with an admin's slant, but from a player's perspective I see it the same way. Most of my friend's were pretty excited about CS:S's release. What excited them? The cool new graphics? Nope. The updated physics engine? Nope. The chance to play without cheaters? Yes. I was a little more cynical. I figured that we could play for up to a month before the cheating started. Boy was I wrong! Every night that I've played so far I have encountered cheating (especially speedhacks), and until recently, server crashing. Those of you claiming that you haven't seen much cheating must not be playing that much. Why don't you try posting the server IPs so I can on your servers. Oh wait! The cheaters reading this forum will just ruin it for you too.

 

[truApostle]

all your base are belong to us.

 

[heyheyhey]

Look, stfu and sit. Wait and see. How hard is that to do? That article is nice as it points out problems but almost unnecessary because all I see is whining. You don't think Valve knows? Just give them time to do it. Stupid Americans-- no patience nowadays.

-J.

Sorry, I wasn't aware that when a game is released in its final version that it ISN'T SUPPOSED TO WORK RIGHT....

 

[Apologenetic]

I have been playing sence HL2 came out for hours on end and I have yet to run into a cheater... one that could beat me anyway (CS:S name "_-=EM=-_ Holie Fire")... and I am loveing this game, the ragdoll's halirious deaths and the gun physics and realistic damage and violent head shot deaths I just love this game. I know it's not perfect yet and an anti-cheat would be nice but give them time, CS has been through 2 and a half years of polishing. This game will be even more awesome in a few months when they patch and fix, just give it time... and heyheyhey, when was the last time a game worked right when it first came out? Doom3 Multi, dare I say... FarCry?? at least it's not a console game, then we'd all be screwed

 

[Great_Melinko]

Look, stfu and sit. Wait and see. How hard is that to do? That article is nice as it points out problems but almost unnecessary because all I see is whining. You don't think Valve knows? Just give them time to do it. Stupid Americans-- no patience nowadays.

-J.

mebbe you need to click here for more information of what to do

 

[Skystalker]

I have been playing sence HL2 came out for hours on end and I have yet to run into a cheater... one that could beat me anyway (CS:S name "_-=EM=-_ Holie Fire")... and I am loveing this game, the ragdoll's halirious deaths and the gun physics and realistic damage and violent head shot deaths I just love this game. I know it's not perfect yet and an anti-cheat would be nice but give them time, CS has been through 2 and a half years of polishing. This game will be even more awesome in a few months when they patch and fix, just give it time... and heyheyhey, when was the last time a game worked right when it first came out? Doom3 Multi, dare I say... FarCry?? at least it's not a console game, then we'd all be screwed

Exactly.

I can't believe how negative people are being. Considering the fact that Valve has missed damn near every deadline that has ever been set, I am glad to see that they have a pretty good update to Counterstrike. Perfect? No. Someone will always be bitching about it, I am sure. At least it is something... and I am sure the mod people will have a field day with it-- that is how Counterstrike was created, was it not?

Live with it people... it is software. At least we have something to work with... unlike 6 weeks ago. If you don't want to play/admin it, don't. Wait until it matures a bit.

LOL... you people crack me up sometimes.

-Skystalker

 

[Super strokey]

The number one thing that blows my mind about HL2 is that you HAVE to be connected to the internet (either to register or play it, have heard both and somtimes together) to play the single player game from how i understand it. WTF is that? I understand that its there for nothing other than stopping piracy and i respect that but its seems stupid that a person has to pay an isp to play a game that requires no use of the internet at all. Im gonna hold off buying the game until there have been a few updates cause it really sounds like it needs it.

 

[Sabs]

You have to activate Windows, Office, Norton Antivirus, and many other applications these days. It's not very out of the ordinary. It's simply an anti-piracy countermeasure, and I have no problem with it. I do not know of any PC gamers who have no access to an internet connection. At any rate, HL2 can be played with Steam in offline mode, and only requires an internet connection for activation of the game.

 

[Skystalker]

You have to activate Windows, Office, Norton Antivirus, and many other applications these days. It's not very out of the ordinary. It's simply an anti-piracy countermeasure, and I have no problem with it. I do not know of any PC gamers who have no access to an internet connection. At any rate, HL2 can be played with Steam in offline mode, and only requires an internet connection for activation of the game.

You do have to admit 2 things:

1) the game is (what I would consider) unreasonably time consuming and more difficult that required to activate and play

2) the pirates will crack it no matter what valve does... the whole "build a better moustrap" scenario

3) god forbid I wish to install/play the game 3 years from now when steam is defunct... my game investment is... gone

They will make money on the game, and I am all for that... it is business. If they make it unreasonably difficult, it will hurt them.

Sorry... this was off topic...

-Skystalker

 

[azzurri]

You do have to admit 2 things:

1) the game is (what I would consider) unreasonably time consuming and more difficult that required to activate and play

2) the pirates will crack it no matter what valve does... the whole "build a better moustrap" scenario

3) god forbid I wish to install/play the game 3 years from now when steam is defunct... my game investment is... gone

They will make money on the game, and I am all for that... it is business. If they make it unreasonably difficult, it will hurt them.

Sorry... this was off topic...

-Skystalker

First of all, that is incorrect. Back your game up after registering and you are good to go. You do not need steam to play this game 3 years in the future.
As far as CS:S goes, I've been having a lot of fun competing with my friends against other players. The game isn't perfect, but I'm sure they will release some patches in the future. CS:S will continue to improve, give them some time. I can tell you first hand how physically and mentally draining it is to develop and test games. They just got done releasing HL2, give them some time. These people have worked damn hard to bring everyone a fantastic new game engine.
As far as I'm concerned CS:S was free. $54.99 for HL2 is well worth it. I haven't experienced a single problem with Steam either. They have a lot of plans lined up, so again sit back and enjoy.
I really don't agree with most of that article, but it's your opinion about the whole situation. As long as the article doesn't try to pass itself as fact I'm fine with it.

 

[rayg]

First of all, that is incorrect. Back your game up after registering and you are good to go. You do not need steam to play this game 3 years in the future.
As far as CS:S goes, I've been having a lot of fun competing with my friends against other players. The game isn't perfect, but I'm sure they will release some patches in the future. CS:S will continue to improve, give them some time. I can tell you first hand how physically and mentally draining it is to develop and test games. They just got done releasing HL2, give them some time. These people have worked damn hard to bring everyone a fantastic new game engine.
As far as I'm concerned CS:S was free. $54.99 for HL2 is well worth it. I haven't experienced a single problem with Steam either. They have a lot of plans lined up, so again sit back and enjoy.

yes you do, the game requires steam to play.

 

[azzurri]

You need to run it, but it works in offline mode as well. So as long as you backup steam as well, you can play this game if steam disappears. I still find it odd that people's biggest concern about steam is wanting to play HL2 three, five or ten years in the future. I won't even mention a no cd type option as well.

 

[Ice Czar]

Look, stfu and sit. Stupid Americans-- no patience nowadays.

flamebait

because every nationality will have assholes....such as yourself. Thanks and go die.

flame

not the brightest thing to do in a thread started by Kyle

there is an extremely limited amount of slack given to learn the ropes

 

[dargon]

You need to run it, but it works in offline mode as well. So as long as you backup steam as well, you can play this game if steam disappears. I still find it odd that people's biggest concern about steam is wanting to play HL2 three, five or ten years in the future. I won't even mention a no cd type option as well.

Your idea is good except for the REQUIRED activation that uses steam. Back it up, goto another computer, install it, watch it look for steam so that it can get it's necessary permission.

 

[azzurri]

Like I said copy steam from your original computer to the next one. It works I already tried it.

 

[Crasher]

Please keep this article up on the front page as long as possible. I want to see a reply or more over a response in the form of fixing the game from Vivendi and Valve. I didn't pay the extra cash to get CS:source because I wanted a broken game. Too many game developers and publishers are showing little responsabilty over the STEAMing piles they push off on us. We the consumers are definately suffering the most from the game industries hunt of the whale aka piracy. I have found this true with other games as well (i.e. Raven Shield's multiplayer.) I am sick of developers/publishers turning a deaf ear to the gaming community and/or taking 6-12 months or longer to fix major issues with their software.

Frustrated,
Crasher