It seems like only yesterday that I was writing about development of new maps for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Which is fair but slightly inaccurate, as it was actually Tuesday that I wrote about that. Now the maps are available to play as part of CS:GO’s Winter Offensive update, alongside the first batch of community-made weapon skins to be added into the game. (more…)

Dave Johnston is best known for creating de_dust and de_dust 2, but he also made other maps for Counter-Strike. No, I’m not talking about cs_tire, the reddish-brown retirement home which was cut from an early beta. (That’s me establishing my CS credentials). I mean de_cbble, the quaint castle-set map.

Over on the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive blog, the CS:GO team have written about their work in re-creating and updating de_cbble for the new game, alongside an entirely new map they’re adding soon. They say mean things about the old de_cbble. (more…)

I have sniped a Terrorist across the full length of A-Long. I’ve hidden behind the squeaky door on Nuke, unmoving, for almost two minutes before scoring an ace with a P90. I’ve won and lost last-minute nailbiters. But until the most recent Dreamhack tournament I’d never staked an AK-47 on a match before and I’d never really got under the surface of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Hit the jump to commit to a competitive game

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Counter-Strike is one of My Games. One of those games that made me. One of those games that caused me to run up a huge phone bill when 56k modems were a thing. One of those games where I can still close my eyes and get a little jolt from imagining the rattling fire of an unsilenced M4A1.

In the weirdest way considering that it’s the 4th, 6th and 9th most popular games on Steam, it’s only recently begun to feel like one of Valve’s> games. They’re now honouring the M4A1 fetishism of the game’s tens of thousands of players by adding player-created Weapon Finishes. (more…)

Thanks to the Steam Workshop, I have more random things installed on my PC than ever before. Wanderin through the workshops has become a routine in my downtime. They are the curio shops of games, a tiny sliver of insight into someone’s passions put on display. I’ll find something, subscribe, forget I have it, then turn on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and discover it has underwater maps, battlegrounds inspired by Alice In Wonderland, and motherboards to run around on. Here’s a few of my favourites. (more…)

I have a jar of ball bearings on my desk. For each kill in CS: GO, I drop a ball into a hole in desk. The bearing rolls into a rat’s cage. The rat squeaks in terror, and a noise-activated switch turns on a fan. The fan blows a toy boat across a bucket of water, and the boat’s mast tips a small bucket of sand into another bucket. That bucket is on a string that’s tied to a switch, and it gently tugs at it, releasing another ball bearing from a small cage on a shelf above me. That other ball bearing drops into another jar. If I want to know how many kills I have, I count the balls in the jar. How do you track your kills in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive? You just use one of the StatTrak modules from the now live Arms Deal update? Show off. (more…)

I have a recurring nightmare: I’m sat at my desk and everything is soft-focus and great. I feel happy, and turn to say as much to my girlfriend. But she’s not there. It’s Gabe Newell, who is definitely not my girlfriend, and he’s using one of those old school accounting machines. On the floor is a pile of paper that he gathers up and hands to me, saying: “In Half-Life 2, destroyed 1200 crates. This is your bill.” And I say I don’t have that kind of money, then I wake up crying. I don’t think Valve would retroactively charge me for opening crates, but then I didn’t imagine that their strangely popular unlock system that drives both Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 would end up in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. But that looks like it’s going to happen. (more…)

Did you wake up this morning feeling more judged than usual? Don’t panic. Just look around the room and see if you can spot the RPS Staring Eye of Judgement? Well done, you have chosen, or been chosen, to take part in our little experiment: the RPS Staring Eye of Judgement will, eventually, monitor your every move to ensure that when you sit down and make a comment on the site that you’ve made the correct> decisions in life up to that point. I say “eventually”, because right now it’s just a helium balloon with an eye drawn on it. Could you just drag it around and pretend, maybe making whirring and clicking noises? Thanks! We got the idea from Valve, who’ve decided to hand the matter of CS: GO’s policing over to the community. The sinister sounding Overwatch will be community members who have the power to review cheating cases reported by players and ban those responsible. (more…)

If you’re in the middle of a game of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and suddenly get the urge to play Super Mario Bros., there are a few options open to you. You could stop playing CS: GO. You could grab a nearby 3DS, perhaps yanking it from the hands of a passing four year-old, and balance it under your monitor, using a series of elaborate poking devices to manipulate the game. Or you could join Reflex Gamers’ CS: GO server, where they’ve created an emulated SNES within cs_office, complete with controllers and cartridges. You have to see this. (more…)

I’ll be honest with you: I have two middle names. I’ll be honest with you again: I will almost certainly never play Tactical Intervention, the new multiplayer shooter from Counter-Strike co-creator Minh “Gooseman” Le. Why? Because of a gypsy curse, of course. But you are under no such restrictions, which means you can play the game right now. Its open beta has launched, you see.

Update: doesn’t appear to be live in all territories as yet. Grr. Of course, there are ways and means to pretend to be American, but hopefully they’ll make it open to all comers soon. (more…)