Counter-Strike - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

Just a weird load of CS mods I guess.

Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies is a weird thing. A zombified free-to-play version of dear old CS 1.6 made by not-Valve always would be but gosh, this video game! I’ve inadvertently played a good five hours since Nexon launched it into open beta on Tuesday. I’m baffled but fascinated. It feels like a cover-disc collection of mods passed through a portal from a world where Valve released source code for Counter-Strike, not Half-Life, so CS became the base for loads of odd mods.

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Counter-Strike - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

Sure, okay!

One mode in the free-to-play Counter-Strike Online 2 sees players turn into a deadly cartoon pig. Another gives terrorists cloaking devices, and of course the game does zombies too. The original CS Online has an event starring giant bug men. In Japanese arcades, Counter-Strike Neo had sexy cyberbabes. The straight-faced man-shooter lives a fabulous double-life thanks to Valve licensing it to Asian developers, who rebuild in weird ways we don’t usually see. But!

Later these year we’ll all get to coo and prod at one of these oddities when Nexon bring Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies to western players through Steam, free-to-play.

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Counter-Strike - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Graham Smith)

How long is it before everyone copies Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update structure? The latest addition to the venerable multiplayer shooter is called Operation Breakout, and it adds six new maps for everyone to play for free. For those willing and able to pay $6, you then get a now-familiar bundle of upgrades including access to mission drops with the chance to unlock “45 exclusive weapon finishes”, a Challenge Coin which tracks your achievement-y ‘mission’ progress, and a new weapon case containing new community designs.

Given how most other games split their multiplayer communities by selling the maps directly, and given how that split is bad even for the developers, surely it’s only a matter of time before we’re covering our Battlefield and Call of Duty weaponry with paid-for and unlockable stickers and baubles. More details on the update and its maps below.

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Counter-Strike - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Craig Pearson)

This information is coming to me via a blurry video and Google Translate, so I make only a slight claim of accuracy on this. I’m fact, I’m going to create a pseudonym to deliver it. Look over there while I change my clothes. No peeking, now! I’m shy. Right! Ready! Hello, I am Graham Journalism: Games Journalist. I used to host the late night Channel 5 show Game Pad from my front room, but a scandal and a few years in prison has seen me retreat from the public eye. But I’m back now, and my community service demands I make use of my skills. The other day I accidentally Googled “Counter-Strike 2″, a finger slip that has proved more than fortunate. It turns out there is such a thing for the Asian free-to-play scene, and it’s madder than you can possibly imagine. It’s not out yet, but Counter-Strike Online 2 is basically APB. (more…)

Counter-Strike - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Nathan Grayson)

360 NO SCOPE SLIGHTLY ROTATED TORSO SHOT.

Counter-Strike will probably outlive us all. It will also probably keep bunny-hopping onward long after we’ve disposed of all terrorism> and achieved glorious grievance-free utopia. There will be no counters or strikes. Only Counter-Strike. So it’s exciting to hear that the implausibly enduring formula’s original creator has decided to revisit it, and the fact that his new game, Tactical Intervention, is actually gonna be playable> is pretty neat too. But when? And how? Turns out, the answers are a) this month and b) on the very personal computing device (presumably) sitting before you. The greatest anti-terror weapon of all, however, isn’t guns or drones or bombs disguised to look like good ol’ freshly made American apple pie. It’s knowledge, and you’ll find tons more of it after the break.

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Counter-Strike - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Robert Yang)

“A People’s History” is a three part essay series that argues for a long-standing but suppressed tradition of non-industry involvement in the first person genre. This is part three. [Part one. Part two.] (more…)

Counter-Strike - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Tom Bramwell)

Eurogamer’s grand high poobah Tom ‘Tom Bramwell’ Bramwell makes a welcome return to RPS to tell us all about the latest makeover of Valve’s undying multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike, which was was released to the world just yesterday. > (more…)

Counter-Strike: Source - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alec Meer)

that's a very small backpack. How can he fit a Thermos in that?

Lamentation at the ongoing lack of a new Half-Life there might well be, but Valve sure are launching a lot of games round about now. Dota 2 is quietly infecting the brains of a small army of people with a new type of language, Team Fortress 2 has just turned into a strange, voucher-based co-op game, and Fart Cops of course continues its unassailable dominance of the game charts in China. Then there’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which moves from long-running beta to A Thing That You Can Pay For And Play today, specifically in about five hours from now. It’s pretty cheap, too – £10.79/$13.50 at the moment. Who’s playing/will be playing? I admit, I’m tempted. It’s been long years since I used to ineptly stagger around CS 1.6′s Dust in the PC Format office, but I have a certain affection for the game’s quiet viciousness. The time very much seems right for its latest rebirth. (more…)

Counter-Strike - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Lewie Procter)

Despite having originally released all the way back in the year 2,000 Anno Domini, CounterStrike is still – still! – the number one game being played on Steam right now. That’s not even taking into account CounterStrike Source. It’s an astonishing achievement, and CounterStrike’s continued popularity is reason enough to pay attention to the new game from co-creator, Minh Le. That new game is Tactical Intervention, and it’s a project he quit his job at Valve to pursue. I sat down for a chat with him, and this is what ensued:> (more…)

Counter-Strike: Source - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (ESFI World)

Our e-sports correspondent is ESFI World’s Samuel Lingle>

It’s been a month since the last e-sports update, but fear not. They’re returning with weekly regularity. In theory.

Today I’m going to recap most of the bigger events of the past month or so, considering there was a lot of exciting stuff you guys may have missed. It’s StarCraft heavy by necessity, as the majority of e-sport events these days feature Blizzard’s popular RTS.

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