One might not think of Valve as the fun police when it comes to a game that was born directly out of mods, but that appears to be the case. The company has decided to take a much more strict stance against servers containing mods that allow players any sort of benefit outside of cosmetic items.
The 2016 season for the ESL Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Pro League has launched, featuring 24 professional teams and a $1.5 million prize pool for the season and championship bracket.
It's been some time since we heard about the scandal that took place earlier in 2015 during qualifier rounds for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive world tournament in which players were found to be fixing matches and were consequently banned indefinitely. Today Valve issued an official statement that these bans will be permanent and future shady behavior of the like will not be tolerated.
Valve has more than a little bit of egg on their face following the holiday patches they issued for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. They unbalanced the game so much and caused so much outcry that they practically had to recall the whole patch. Today, they issued an open apology to the Counter-Strike community.
This week, free-to-play shooter Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies will be getting a daily dose of special dream-zombie themed content. Each day from today through Friday will have some new zombie scenarios.
That didn't take too long, did it? Three days after the R8 Revolver was introduced in a new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update, Valve has scaled back the hand-cannon due to widespread complaints from fans that it was way too powerful.
The details of the Winter Update for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have been revealed. The main focus of the update is a new weapon, the R8 Revolver, a Kill Cam, and a major gameplay balance intended for ranked championship play.
Valve is working on updating the models and animations in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, improving their skeletal movement and the responsiveness of their hitboxes. "The new system modernizes the player’s skeleton and hitboxes to better express at-a-glance exactly what your enemies and teammates are doing. We’ve upgraded all the existing body animations, and added some new ones like visible weapon deploys, bomb defusing, and ladder-climbing," explains Valve.
In case you were wondering who the big winners were after Valve's Steam Summer Sale (apart from Valve, that is), then wonder no more. Steam Spy has gathered up all the relevant statistics, and though the number one spot probably won't blow your mind, there's some interesting titles on the list.
Counter-strike: Global Offensive has received a big new update called Operation Bloodhound, which adds 62 campaign challenge missions, 6 community maps, and a ranking system that rewards players with Weapon Drops when they hit each level. There's also a new melee weapon to unlock, the Falchion, which drops in its own weapon case with 16 community-created weapon finishes.
In case anybody ever thinks that Counter-Strike isn't big business, the latest viewership figures from Intel Extreme Masters tournament are here to prove them wrong. Over 1 million concurrent viewers stood witness to professional Counter-Strike team Fnatic take the IEM Katowice title from their rivals, the brilliantly named, Ninjas in Pyjamas.
In response to a recent wave of bans for match-fixing in Counter-strike: Global Offensive, Valve has decided to tighten up the rules for professional players. Pro players can no longer place bets on matches, even if they’re not directly participating in the game in question. All tournaments sponsored by Valve are now subject to this rule.
Valve is once again adding six new community chosen maps to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This time the event's known as Operation Vanguard, and its the fifth major celebration of the game's hard-working modding community. As well as the new maps, players can earn new community weapon skins, and take part in the 'Operation Campaigns' system to earn rewards and a place on the leaderboards.
If you're in the mood for a mixture of tactical squad-based combat and anti-zombie violence, you might be intending to go and check out the open beta for Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies. It launched yesterday, though judging by some of the Steam reviews there are still a few connection gremlins for Nexon to squash.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is introducing Music Kits, special packs that let you change the music heard in the game's main menu, as well as the various sounds you hear throughout the game. So you'll have your own unique sounds for bomb warnings, round starting and round ending notifications and so on. You'll even get a signature tune that plays when you're the team's MVP.
During an interview OXM Valve's Doug Lombardi has said the team would "love to do that," when asked about Counter-Strike hitting the Xbox360 Arcade. Portal: Still Alive is Valve's first XBLA title and lets gamers get a hold of Portal without needing the Orange Box compilation - which is fantastic value quite frankly.
Minh Le who co-created the amateur mod Counter-Strike, which later hit commercial success, has finally unveiled his next project to the world. It's called 'Tactical Intervention'. Le joined Valve in 2000 but left on good terms eventually. The mod maker instead secured funds from a South Korean IT firm for development. His new game enters beta soon.
Developer Valve, in partnership with Hidden Path Studios, has been working on an update to Counter-Strike: Source. All beta slots have gone. New stuff includes 144 new achievements to earn, all-new match and lifetime stat tracking, new scoreboards and end-of-round post screens.
Mac gamers can rejoice as Valve's iconic Counter-Strike: Source has finally made it to their shoreline, with the creator putting up a sale for it. For two days the price of the game gets dropped to help win over the masses. CS: Source released back in '04 and has been super updated.
Got a microphone? Probably best not to use it...