Has Counter-Strike died at the hands of Left 4 Dead?

While in a game of Left 4 Dead a few months ago, two of the guys on my team were talking about the state of the Counter-Strike community.  It seems that they were gaming buddies that played several online games together.

They were saying, that just last year it was easy to find full counter strike servers. But ever since the original left 4 dead caught on, the Counter-Strike and the Counter-Strike:Source communities have been slowly dieing. Instead of being full of human players, the servers are full of bots.

One point needs to be addressed, has the era of Counter-Strike come and gone? Has the game gotten so old, that people were losing interest and already moving on? If so, this would not be the first time that a gaming community has been killed by a new game.

Quake II killed Quakeworld and NetQuake
Half-Life killed Quake II
Team Fortress Classic killed Quakeworld Team Fortress
Left 4 Dead 2 killed Left 4 Dead

Regardless of how great a game is, its time comes and goes.

Doom, probably the greatest PC game of all time, now mostly lives in the memory of those that played it.

Quake and Quakeworld, probably the greatest deathmatch game ever made, is now only a memory.

Half-Life, one of the greatest single player games of all time, now only a memory.

Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike:Source, two of the greatest team based games to ever grace the internet.  Are they slowing dieing because of L4D and L4D2, or has their time passed and they were already on their way out?

CS and CS:S have had had a good run.  They were 2 of the most successful muti-player games to ever grace the internet. But like all other games, their time has come and gone.

Post your comments in the Left 4 Dead killed Counter-Strike thread of the forums.

In the epic battle of terrorist and counter-terrorist VS zombies and survivors, it looks like the zombies might have won.

Tags: Counter-Strike, counter-strike:source, Left 4 Dead

A new Counter Strike Forum has been added to the line up.  This only seemed like a logical addition since it is one of the most popular online games ever played.  That one forum section covers both the original CS, and Counter-Strike:Source.

Counter Strike was originally developed by Minh “Gooseman” Le and Jess “Cliffe” Cliffe and was a free add-on to original Half-Life. The first release was in 1999. Valve Software bought the rights to the game, and released it as a commercial product in November of 2000. Because CS was developed for Half-Life, it used a modified version of the Quake engine. Over time the graphics became dated and due to the engine, as limited real world physics.

Counter Strike:Source is the original CS remade with the Source engine, which was developed for Half-Life 2. This version was released in October 2004.

The Source game engine offers improved graphics and real world physics, as compared to the Quake engine. The newest version of the Source engine supports Dual Core processors and better graphics then the original Source engine.

Counter Strike revolves around 2 teams – the terrorist and the counter terrorist. In some maps the terrorist have to plant a bomb to win, in some maps the counter terrorist have to rescue hostages to win.

Both team have access to a wide assortment of weapons, such as an AK-47, M4, shotguns, H&K MP5, pistols, AWP sniper rifle.

Counter Strike has the honor of being one of the most popular online games ever played. Even though the first version was released in 1999, 10 years later it still has a loyal following.

Tags: Counter-Strike, counter-strike forum

The question is, whats next for counter-strike?  Now that Valve software has released Left 4 Dead, and the players have seen where co-op team play can go; the next question is – when do we get an update to Counter-Strike:Source?

Lets just imagine that Valve took CS:S, mixed it with Left 4 Dead, included a dash of Doom II – Hell on Earth, and a touch of Half-Life 1.

For those of you that do not know the history of the Doom series, take a look at this forum thread on the Doom series.  Doom II takes place after the original Doom.  The “Doom guy” escapes from Hell and returns to Earth.  Only to find that the demons have escaped Hell and have invaded Earth.  Not only have the demons escaped Hell, but they have killed the Doom guys’ bunny and he is pissed.  Unlike the original Doom maps which took place in military looking bases and areas that looked like Hell.  Doom II takes place on city blocks with buildings in the skyline.  The whole Doom series starts with scientist developing a portal system that opens a doorway to Hell.

The story plot of Half-Life 1 starts out with an experiment gone wrong where Gordon Freeman opens a portal to Zen.  After HL1, in the story plot of Half-Life 2, we find out that the combine have invaded and all of the nations on Earth have surrendered.

In Left 4 Dead some kind of virus has been released that drives people crazy and starts to cause mutations.

Take all 3 of those games, mix them together and you would have a great update to Counter-Strike:Source.

Scientist are playing doing some kind of experiment where they accidentally release some kind of virus that affects an entire city – or they open some kind of portal.  Unlike Left 4 Dead where the survivors are trying to get in, a special military unit is sent in to clean up the mess.

Players would assume the roles of the zombies or demons and the military units.  The weapons would be a mix of Doom and Counter-Strike.  Where you have a wide assortment of weapons and find new weapons in the development facility.

If a Counter-Strike 2 is ever released, that is what I would like to see.

Tags: Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike 2, counter-strike:source, valve software

Its not very often that a counter-strike video of this quality is posted on youtube.  So when one comes along, it should get the credit it deserves.

Productions like this are a combination of love for the game, and a desire to produce a quality product.

Tags: Counter-Strike, counter-strike forum