Counter Strike: Global Offensive – “Unborn Child” of the Counter Strike Series

On August 11th, Valve had invited a group of professional gamers from different regions in the world to visit Valve headquarter at Seattle, US. They had no clue as to what Valve was going to surprise them with, and of course, Valve did not let them down by giving them a chance to participate on a secret project.

 

Established by Valve twelve years ago, based on the original prominent game title ‘Half-Life’, the Counter Strike (CS) series, contained some notable versions such as Counter Strike 1.6, Counter Strike: Condition Zero or Counter Strike: Source had won over millions of FPS (First-person Shooter) gamer’s hearts all over the world. Now, the tide will be raised again with Valve’s new project, in cooperation with Hidden Path Entertainment, Counter Strike: Global Offensive (aka CS: GO).

 

 

According to Valve, CS: GO is currently under testing and tweaking pre-beta; the beta version will be public during this autumn and its official release approximately early 2012 for PC, as well as next generation consoles (Xbox, PlayStation 3) and the Mac. This game is designed based on the update of Source Engine, which brings you entirely different experiences, compared to any other previous CS versions.

 

Thanks to Craig ‘Torbull’ Levine, owner of E-Sport Entertainment Association (ESEA) as well as a professional gamer who has the honor to be a member of CS: GO’s testing group, we have an opportunity to find out which new features would be added in.

 

Craig ‘Torbull’ Levine had honor to be a member of CS: GO’s testing group

 

According to Torbull’s review, the traditional cs_map and de_map will be kept; along with casual and competitive modes will be supported in CS: GO. Matchmaking system and dedicated servers will be also implemented. After trying some maps such as Dust, Dust2, Inferno and Nuke, he was surprised about the graphic in this game “The maps look beautiful, the player skins and animations are smooth, and the gun models are cool!”, as Torbull related.

 

 

The weapon system is the most prioritized part in this game that needs to be tweaked. "Valve wanted to create a more balanced weapon system that would expand beyond the main four weapons," Torbull pointed to AWP, M4, AK, and Deagle. "They wanted sub machine guns to be good mid-distance alternatives and for shotguns to provide a unique close range use." Moreover, the AK and the M4 guns seem to be still weak and inaccurate, while the sub machine gun like P90 is overpowered. Surely Valve will have a lot of things to work on this part to make the system more balanced and more suitable for both casual and competitive modes.

 

Besides, some weapons would have the very first chances to exist on this game. Molotov cocktails, an old-school but deadly hand-made grenade, had appeared on the pre-beta. It costs $850 for an attempt to “slow down and re-route the enemy through area of effect damage”, Torbull described this weapon. Another one is decoy grenade. It functions as a baiting weapon by making a fake gun noise to lead the enemies’ attention to other areas. When it is fired by the Terrorists, the sound would be like AK gun; and in reverse, the noise is similar to M4 gun sound.

Molotov cocktails in reality 

 

Money system plays an important role in CS series, as well. The new specification of this game is in such a way that characters will be armed with full Kevlar (including helmet and armor) each round, so that gamers will not have to consider buying these items. And of course, the price of guns and money rewards will be considered for tweaking to balance the money system.

 

One more question about this new game tittle, “Could this game make both the LAN and international competitions turn back into its glory time?” Fortunately, the confirmation that Torbull brought us after the game testing may answer our question “For CS GO to have a chance as an e-sports title, the weapon system is going to need the most work, but remember that this is pre-beta game play. Valve still has plenty of time to get it perfected…” he also hopes this game could make a revolution in CS community “It would be great if CS GO can be a rallying point to usher the Counter-Strike franchise back to the global e-sports stage that has recently seen games like StarCraft 2 and League of Legends take all the limelight.”

 

The fascination that CS series brought to us twelve years ago now still remains in our hearts. But remember, all these mentioned above are only in pre-beta, everything may change completely in the final release. So, will Valve be able to make CS: GO remarkable like they did before? Let’s wait and see on early 2012!