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Valve are doing a small celebration for 20 years of Counter-Strike

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Has it really been 20 years? Madness. Counter-Strike started off life as a Half-Life mod in 1999 and the series is still going strong. Pretty amazing really, to think something that started off as a modification in 1999 for another game by two people has later spawned four games: Counter-Strike (2000), Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (2004), Counter-Strike: Source (2004) and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012).

Writing on the official Counter-Strike blog, Valve posted:

Twenty years ago, a humble Half-Life mod changed the gaming world. Constantly evolving and shifting over the years, Counter-Strike has never lost its fundamentals: it’s easy to learn, takes a lifetime to master, and is supported by a massive global community.

You can celebrate the history of CS with a retro version of Dust II, currently available in the Casual Dust II map group. There’s also a new sticker capsule featuring the unsung heroes of CS – chickens!

You know what's more impressive? The fact that the original Counter-Strike still manages to pull in over ten thousand people most days to play it! Counter-Strike: Source also still sees a healthy player count at over five thousand most days, but the majority now of course play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with it being free and pulling in over five hundred thousand regularly. Condition Zero doesn't see such player numbers, but even so it's still grabbing hundreds of people per-day.

I have to wonder, where will Counter-Strike go next? It will be seven years this August since Global Offensive was released and since then Valve have continued to add maps, fine-tune the balancing and do major updates like Danger Zone to bring some of the Battle Royale audience over. Do you think Valve will ever do another or continue to work on Global Offensive like some sort of ever-evolving live-service?

I remember spending a likely unhealthy amount of hours in the Xbox version (I know, blasphemy) but I really did like the Miami map. Naturally, since being on Linux now I've enjoyed even more hours and most of them now in Global Offensive's Danger Zone, Valve have managed to again make something quite unique with it and it really does get ridiculously intense.

Since we're here, what's your fondest memory of Counter-Strike (any of them)?

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: FPS, Steam, Valve
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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Xakep_SDK Jun 19, 2019
Every second round on casual de_dust2 is old-style, but lighting is terrible.
tadzik Jun 19, 2019
> spawned three games Counter-Strike (2000), Counter-Strike: Source (2004) and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012)

Don't forget Condition Zero! :­)

It's a bit of a quirky sibling, with its focus on singleplayer campaigns, building a team of bots you buy or going through linear, scripted missions with bullet-spongy enemies, but I think it's still a fun episode – I still revisit it every few years :­)


Last edited by tadzik on 19 June 2019 at 11:40 am UTC
Liam Dawe Jun 19, 2019
Quoting: tadzik> spawned three games Counter-Strike (2000), Counter-Strike: Source (2004) and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012)

Don't forget Condition Zero! :­)
devland Jun 19, 2019
Quoting: tadzikDon't forget Condition Zero! :­)

It's a bit of a quirky sibling, with its focus on singleplayer campaigns, building a team of bots you buy or going through linear, scripted missions with bullet-spongy enemies, but I think it's still a fun episode – I still revisit it every few years :­)

I loved condition zero. :) Offline bots are a rarity these days and they were uncommon even then.
WorMzy Jun 19, 2019
Used to play the original on the secondary school LAN (as well as Team Fortress, Sven Co-op, Star Trek: Armada, some weird paintball game that I forgot the name of, and a few other games).

Best use of school equipment I have seen to this day. :D
BielFPs Jun 19, 2019
Quoting: devlandOffline bots are a rarity these days and they were uncommon even then.

Which is why this game became a huge success. Back in the day where online gaming was a niche, people could play alone with bots or use then to fill their team when there wasn't enough people to play.

Other games if you didn't had people to play with you, then you coudn't play at all.
sub Jun 19, 2019
And not a single word when Half Life turned 20. :/

Or did I miss something?
kuhpunkt Jun 19, 2019
Quoting: subAnd not a single word when Half Life turned 20. :/

Or did I miss something?

Nope. There was nothing. Valve is no single "company" though. They are basically a bunch of smaller studios in one big building. Just because the Counter-Strike folks wanted to celebrate something, doesn't mean the other people will
Koopacabras Jun 19, 2019
like if you played Counter Strike in a cybercafe with a Pentium
dvd Jun 19, 2019
I used to play it on a LAN in the library. I still have way more hours in 1.6 even though i still play the odd session with GO. My biggest disappointment is that they never really released more challenging/interesting maps in "war games". I probably should play more on community servers, those were the hearts of 1.6 too.
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