Carnage anyone? If it's carnage you want, then it's carnage you'll get. Counter-Strike: Source delivers the same rage as its predecessor. With better eye candy and advanced physics you cant go wrong. Counter-Strike: Source uses the newly designed Halflife 2 engine otherwise known as the Source engine to revamp the most played online FPS. The new engine not only allows for larger maps, higher poly models, and spectacular lighting effects, but the in game physics are amazing as well. Despite the engine changes, Counter-Strike: Source feels and plays exactly like the original. In other words, that means the same guns, the same maps, the same animations and the same player models. In seeing how much of the game is actually unchanged, you'd think the game would get boring rather quickly, right? Wrong.

 

Counter-Strike: Source has an incredibly addictive aspect which is directly correlated to its repetitiveness. The longer you play, the more addicted you become. Thats how good it is. I've been an avid Counter-Strike player since the early beta testing, beta 2 to be exact, and I'm still playing today. I mean sure, I could of spent more hours at work, but that doesn't get me frags does it? I still enjoy encountering the same reoccurring battles. I know where the teams are going to collide and I know where the campers hide and yet, it never gets old. Why? Because you're always left with the urge to frag that bastard who destroyed your team the previous round. Counter-Strike: Source always leaves you wanting more, whether it be another frag to raise your server rank, revenge, or just another run around the map with an itchy trigger finger. Counter-Strike: Source doesn't get old. Period.

Me wreaking havoc

Oh the gore!

 

Nonetheless, the replayability isn't the only great thing about Counter-Strike: Source. The graphics are phenomenal. Picture your favorite maps with new textures, higher poly counts, and added reflections and lighting. Thats what your given in Counter-Strike: Source. The water has also been worked on to provide an extremely realistic feeling to it. The water looks and acts so realistic that when bodies die in the water they bob up and down floating on the surface of the water. Having all the enhanced graphics sure makes for a pleasant viewing experience, but the thing that puts Counter-Strike: Source above all the others are the amazing physics. Dead bodies perched up along side walls splattered with blood and bodies flying through the air after being hit by a grenade blast are prime examples. I mean, what gets better than that?

Oh yes, the shadows!

Furthermore, Counter-Strike: Source has fantastic sound to supplement the gameplay. You hear every bullet impact upon the surfaces around you and as they pierce through your body or into your body armor. The sound quality in CS:S on my Megaworks 6.1 THX system through my Audigy 2 ZS is astounding. I can hear every little sound from the empty casings ejecting from my gun to my buddy's thud against the ground as he drops dead beside me. If you don't have a surround sound system or an Audigy 2, go get them now. You'll

thank me later.

Now that I've covered the positive aspects about Counter-Strike: Source, but what about the cons? Well, I guess I'll begin with the player models. Each side only has one model. Thats right one model. As I recall all the previous Counter-Strike releases had four models for each team and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero had five! What happened to them all? Not having the 1337 Cr3w brings a tear to my eye, but doesn't bother me enough to lose sleep over. In having only one model for each team, it completely eliminates any confusion to which model is for which team. Good feature I guess -- if you're a n00b.

 

Only having one player model for each team is acceptable, but what about the maps? Prodigy, Militia, Siege -- where did they all go? My favorite maps no longer exist in Counter-Strike: Source. I hope they will be released within a future release and if they're not, I'm sure someone will port over the originals.

Amazing gun flashes -- *drool*

I got j00 sucka!

 

Overall, Counter-Strike: Source is as good as it gets in FPS history. With only a few minor defects, Counter-Strike: Source ranks up there with the best of the best FPS of all time. So what now? I'll tell you what. Buy Counter-Strike: Source off Steam and you'll enjoy playing it for at least the next six years if not longer.

Graphics......... Excellent
Sound.............. Excellent
Gameplay....... Excellent
Replayability....... Excellent
Overall Rating...... 98%

 

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