Counter-Strike: Source (also known as CS or simply CS:S) is a multiplayer, team-based tactical first-person shooter video game, developed by Valve and Turtle Rock Studios. It is a remake of Counter-Strike, the 1999 modification of Half-Life. Built on the Source engine, the game was released in 2004 along with Half-Life 2. As of February 28, 2008, the game is the most played Half-Life 2 mod, according to GameSpy.[1]

As in the original version, Counter-Strike: Source games pit a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in a series of rounds. Each round is won by either completing a mission (such as detonating a bomb or rescuing hostages) or by eliminating all members of the opposing team. Unlike Half-Life: Source, the game is a complete remake instead of a port with additional content.
History
Pre-loading of Counter-Strike: Source to cybercafe owners (as part of the Cyber Cafe program) began on 9 August 2004, being released for play two days later. Vouchers for the pre-release game were available with the purchase of ATI Radeon video cards and with Counter Strike: Condition Zero; the pre-load for these users began on 16 August 2004, with the game again becoming available two days later.[2]

The game can be bought individually on retail boxes or in "game packs" which Counter-Strike: Source come bundled within, with prices varying from US$ 19.95 to US$ 99.95 (digital download in Steam software).[3]

Only 1 day after the initial cyber-cafe release Valve began what would become the first in their long line of updates for CS: Source. By the time of its official release almost two months later, Valve had eliminated numerous bugs and added several updates and patches.

The betas and official release versions shipped with only two player models (one per team) - the "Phoenix Connection" terrorist (a member of the fictional Phoenix Faction) and the SEAL Team 6 counter-terrorist. Being an early version, the player models were low quality and out of proportion, giving rise to being commonly described as having "peanut-heads". Valve released several successive versions of the two original characters.

Around Christmas 2005, an update was released for CS: Source, adding two new player models - the GIGN and Guerilla. This was followed by the addition of the Leet and SAS player models on March 1st, 2006, and the GSG 9 and Arctic models on April 12th, 2006.[4]

Changes from Counter-Strike to CS: Source include the improvements inherent to the Source engine (such as better graphics and modified physics), as well as updated models, animations, maps, sounds, and some small gameplay changes.

Because of the large fan-base that Counter-Strike: Source has accumulated, there are a wide variety of different customizations and addons that can be used with the game. There is a large fanbase for the game that creates customized sounds, textures, weapon skins and player skins. However, under the rules of Valve Anti-Cheat(VAC), models for objects within maps cannot be edited, so that a player using a different model other than the standard does not have an advantage over another person.


[edit] Maps
Maps are frequently made by players for the game, and the easy-to-access Valve Hammer Editor allows anybody to create their own. The number and types of custom maps (and indeed, custom map categories) for the game is constantly rising,[11] which means that most people can find something to their taste.

There are several types of maps available, such as DE (Defuse), CS (hostage rescue) and AS (assassination). For further information, see the Counter-Strike article.

Other maps from the previous Counter-strike series have not been released on Counter-Strike:Source, however some of these maps were remade with Valve's Editor Tool.


[edit] Mods
Like many other modern first-person shooter games, Counter-Strike: Source has been heavily modded by its developer community. Server-side gameplay customizations are typically implemented using Valve's Source SDK for Server Plugins. Server-side mods like Sourcemod and EventScripts build on to the basic RCON commands as well as with the gameplay customizations.

The Quake Sound Pack, the popular game sounds available with Sourcemod is actually a misleading title. The sounds, which include: "First blood", "Godlike", "headshot", "dominating", "ultra-kill", "m-m-m-monster-kill", "holy shit!", "multi-kill", "unstoppable", "team killer", "rampage", "ludicrous kill", "killing spree", and "wicked sick" are all from Unreal Tournament 2003. The only sounds from Quake 3 are "Prepare to Fight!" and "Humiliation", which occurs when a player kills another player with the Gauntlet weapon.