How's CounterStrike Nowadays?

[QueHuong]

When school started, I uninstalled CS because it was so addictive and haven't touched it since. Now since school's over, I want to play CS again, but I have a few questions about the current version:

1) Is it stable? More specifically, I'll have WinXP, Voodoo3 3000 AGP, and either The Hujer_HoE or CA Voodoo WinXP drivers.

2) Are there any new and effective cheat protection schemes? I hated CS for the cheaters, but hopefully, they're neutered.

3) How's the graphics and sounds?

4) Any new weapons, or other features?

5) All in all, is it worth playing?

 

[CrowDog]

Its still CS...not really a whole lot different. I havent noticed as much cheating but I dont play 24hrs a day either. Most of your questions can be answered at the cs website...as far as features and weapons.....

 

[CubicZirconia]

All in all, is it worth playing

If you liked it before then you'll still like it. However, if it was starting to get old, don't expect any major changes that really make the game much different. It's still counter-strike and nothing more.

 

[Slogun]

CS is still great, I played it daily for the past 2+ years and run a dedicated server as well.

There is a major change since you last played. There is now automatic anitcheat protection built into all cs servers. You do not see the rampant cheating that was ruining the game and making everyone paranoid. CS Guard (add-on server-side anticheat protection)is also now more prevalent and has evolved into the lastest version which is now called hlguard.

BTW, there is a new update for HL AND CS (cs1.5) coming out this weds. Don't know what it will change, but folks will probably need to get them to continue to be able to connect online.

Also, you might come play at my server sometime:

After Hours 24.184.246.164:27015

Went back and saw your questions again. CS 1.4 added a lot more polish to the game. There are some interesting viewing options when dead (like first person view), now its almost fun to be dead. Check menu options (WHEN YOU ARE DEAD) by pressing your crouch button, yes , crouch button. You can then enable PIP, etc, heh, yes, the crouch button WHILE YOU ARE DEAD.

If you are looking for some new look and feel, a lot of people got the fusion7 skin pack which changes all the weapon skins and sounds, you can do a google search for it.
Me, I didn't try it, as I fancy myself a cs purist.

 

[Chooco]

ok now....:
-what do you mean by stable? do you mean the server or the client? the server is LESS stable and the client is same as it was before.
-there's now CSGuard, Cheating Death and HLGuard. they are effective for the most part but there's still problems with OGC
-the souns are the same and the graphics are the same
-same weapons but they made it gay in that you can't jump and shoot anymore. even with the USP Tact, jumping make the recoil impossible to aim which is gay. they made it so jumping slows you down LOTS but this can be counter acted with the metamod plugin made by hullu which you can get HERE
-it's sort of worth playing....it's just a simple game with nothing special. i think TFC is the best one right now because of the specials it has....there's Neo-TF and AdminOp which make the game super messed up such as planting mines, tripmines, having jetpacks and remote missiles. CS can be real fun if you use some of the plugins nobody uses such as putting HL monsters in CS or TFC with the plugin botman made which you can get HERE and there's the grapple hook which would REALLY help spice up CS which you can get HERE

 

[Celstar]

I was hopeful with the release of the new patch that cheating would be curbed. Alas, it remains hopeless. CS is a great game, its too bad there are too many cheaters out there to ruin it. Hopefully, another game with better cheat protection will come to take it's place.

 

[Chooco]

there would be way fewer cheaters if they did the following things:
-make the guns do less damage: makes the game more based on skill than luck, in TFC if the other guy shoots you first it does not mean he will kill you and visa versa
-make guns NOT shoot through walls: this basically ENCOURAGES wallhack

i tried to use hullu's plugin to make people have 500 life to compensate for the power of the weapons but it didn't work, it's a shame
on my TFC server you spawn with 10k life lol....

 

[Slogun]

Heh, well, me and my admins have not had to manually ban a cheater on our server for at least three weeks when the new security module was automatically updated, and it is continually updated. It recently was causing a problem because it was so sensitive it was kicking everyone using software rendering video mode, which included everyone playing via laptop or who had a poor video card, but they fixed that.

The only folks we have to ban/kick now are the afks, foul mouths and whiners......

IMO, the new jump-stumble configuration was a great boon that put an end to the bunny-hop head-shotters, i wouldn't dream of adding the metamod plugin that defeats it.

 

[Chooco]

why? you can't jump and that makes it retarded. the game WAS good and now they are just getting rediculous with the stupidness.

 

[Confused]

YOU try running and jumping around with a gun and see how accurate you are! Not being able to fire accurately in the air is good, the "i'm gonna slow you down to 0.5mph after you jump for about a second" isn't good. I hope they do it so that you run out of stamina the more you jump and you slow down after 2 or 3 jumps, cos you go outside and try to jump once, you can continue running, but try jumping twice in a row and it's more difficult!

Other than that, i like it, apart from the fact i haven't played since about 1 week after 1.4 was released cos i formatted my computer and only reinstalled it yesterday and i suck at it again!

 

[Slogun]

You can still jump of course, that's how you still get up on boxes, etc. You just can't jump and then shoot somebody in the head which was a real game detractor.

I remember back when they introduced not being able to move too well while getting shot, another effective move at adding realism, people complained and moaned about that one too.

For people who don't like the way the game runs now, do a counter-strike search here on AT and look for the thread with info on the "Old School Browser" for CS which allows you to play the old betas. I did. I yearned for the old colt with the scope instead of the silencer. You know what I discovered? The game looks and feels much better the way it is configured now.

 

[neomits]

There is nothing really "New" to counter-strike.... but you can expect something visually new and enhanced come august or september when CS: Condition Zero comes out.

cheating is still all over but if you find the right servers that have protections and good admins its all ok (and there are plenty of them)

Its still just as addictive and just as fun. IMHO, one of the best games ever.

 

[Slogun]

It's not that easy to find, so here's the site about playing the old betas:

http://www.langames.net/

 

[QueHuong]

Thanks for the bunch of info. I want to play CS less now because of what Chooco said. So new question: what's the best (fun, no cheaters, forces you to use strategies, stable - client and server, good for 56k dialup, free, etc) online FPS game?

BTW, what's TFC?

 

[Chooco]

TFC is the second version of the biggest multiplayer game ever.....Team Fortress

 

[MisterPresident]

Noob question here: I have Halflife standalone version 1.108. I want to start playing Counterstrike, but how do I go about obtaining a copy? Do I need to buy a retail version, or does the download at counter-strike.net suffice? Basically, are there any major differences between CS retail and the download?

 

[Slogun]

Naw, not a noob question at all, just a wise one. Buying retail CS is totally unecessary and a waste of money. Nothing different from what's always been available as a free download.

Go to http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?page=tophalflife and upgrade your half life to 1.1.1.0 and then get the full CS 1.5 mod file which is a free 121MB download and you are good to go.

 

[Chooco]

new update to Half-Life. fileplanet sucks so here is a link to the 1109*1110 patch (update not full)
upgrade from 1109 to 1110

 

[Maleficus]

sucks since 1.4

 

[Slogun]

Hehe, a year, two years ago, people used to say it sucked since 6.1, 6.5 (beta), etc.

 

[Chooco]

i only got internet when 1.0 was out so i couldn't be able to compare to betas

 

[Maleficus]

Originally posted by: Slogun
Hehe, a year, two years ago, people used to say it sucked since 6.1, 6.5 (beta), etc.

that's fine, they couldn't adjust to small changes.

1.4 slaughtered the game. people comparing 1.4 to any other release is pointless, cause they cant compare the change just isnt big enough, to even try is stupid.

 

[Slogun]

Incorrect, your perspective is too narrow and short-sighted. The biggest, most significant changes came long ago. Specifically, Valve's complete rewrite of the HL networking system in beta 6.5 which introduced client-side prediction, et al.

Keep the flame burning in your posts and you will earn yourself a moderator's vacation.

 

[Maleficus]

Originally posted by: Slogun
Incorrect, your perspective is too narrow and short-sighted. The biggest, most significant changes came long ago. Specifically, Valve's complete rewrite of the HL networking system in beta 6.5 which introduced client-side prediction, et al.

Keep the flame burning in your posts and you will earn yourself a moderator's vacation.

I guess you could call the netcode the biggest change if you want to look at technical things but in all reality, at least for me, it had virtually no effect on gameplay...

no flame burning in my post, no contempt for you, until you threaten of course. just pointing out what i consider the obvious, that it is indeed stupid to compare the other versions changes when they are so petty in comparison to completely changing the flow of the game.

 

[Extrarius]

I agree with Maleficus. In 1.4, many great things were added, such as the new spectator modes, a few bug fixes, corpses that stay longer, less accuracy while in the air, and other things. HOWEVER, they also made it so that a trained counter-terrorist jumps one time, and when he hits the ground from that jump, he slows down to a crawl. If he landed on all four, it might be reasonable, but in reality, even if he lost his ballence, he would continue at the same speed he jumped at because of momentum and inertia. Many people say it is a good thing because it eliminates bunny hopping, but, when I tested it, I was still able to jump a lot (aka bunny hop), I just didnt go anywhere. What I have yet to see anybody realize is that in many maps, jumping consecutively is very important to get to a strategic location. Just about every map has a series of boxes you can jup up to get to a good place for anything, and since you have to jump once, wait a second, jump again, etc, now, the ballence of many maps has been changed. Italy is a good example. Now that the counter-terrorists cant get in the window quickly, the terrorists have a huge advantage on that map and it ruined the ballance of it. This is a bad thing.