Over View

Many of you probably have heard of Counter-Strike, the so-called #1 best online first-person-shooter game. CS was a mod of Half-life once award winning game made by Valve. Many years have passed and Valve finally made many of the Half-life and Counter-Strike fans\' dreams come true. New engine, new game, and new excitement. Though Half-life2 has not been released, those with ATI coupon (me!) or others who pre-ordered Half-life2 is now able to play Counter-Strike:Source and taste the new Half-life Engine, named Source, and I\'ll be going into further details.

Graphics

First sight when I entered the world of CS:S, I couldn\'t support my jaws and my mouth just gaped open. Absolutely stunning. The old weird ugly hand model is gone, (bye~) replaced with newly found Valve\'s Source engine, and looks realistic to the last gun animation to knife swinging. Below is few screenshots of CS:S, and one of the old CS 1.6 in the map called, de_aztec. The Old aztec, USP: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v341/FlashoN/usp.jpg The NEW aztec, USP: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v341/FlashoN/source_usp.jpg Colt M4A1 is back and polished: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v341/FlashoN/source_colt.jpg AK-47 is looking good!: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v341/FlashoN/source_ak.jpg OOOh check out that reflection on the AWM/AWP scope!: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v341/FlashoN/source_awp.jpg

Sound/music Quality

They have re-done the old CS 1.6 sound, which were good quality considering the game is very old. Everything sounds like you expected, it was like I was in a totally different world of Counter-Strike. Silenced gun-fire, and the eerie echo that runs about indoor hall is amazing.

Inside the Game

Valve\'s new source has done it\'s job. Incredible! Totally awesome. Re-done source maps are almost realistic and shooting down barrels and rolling it around is just awesome. Destroying computer parts in cs_office is also very amusing, though I\'ve gotten carried away with it that some one came behind me and knifed me.. (erm ehem ok back to the point). Physics now are one of the crucial part in CS game play since some of the object you are trying to hide behind, your enemies can always blow them away with their grenade and you might find yourself helpless and pumped with lead.

Rating:

Appropriateness: B- Game play: A Graphic: A+ Sound: A Stability: B+

Comments: I have to say the new age of Counter-strike has begun! Unfortunately I had to deduct some points for appropriateness and stability. It\'s a shooting game (duh) so there is blood, though I believe bullet holes and blood can be disabled by setting decals to 0. I took points off for stability, since CS:S requires you have a DirectX 9.0 Video card in order to get all the eye candie. However, you can still experience the incredibly coded physics and the all-new game play without a DirectX 9 video card. Be sure you check the system requirements in Steam website: www.steampowered.com for more info on Requirements.