Whats Being Heard Online

It seems incredible to think the first Counter-Strike was released back in 1999, some Eleven years ago. Putting it simply the game, setup gaming as we know it. The simplicity, the addiction level. Many sleepless nights and insomniacs can be blamed on Counter-Strike.

So it’s not surprising that back in 1997, the release of CS:S, was a massive success for Valve, who took ownership of the brand in 2004, which included the shut down of WON. At its biggest period of popularity, no game came near CS:S in when it came to players online and gameplay hours racked up.

Six years on, CS:S it’s far off COD MW2 when considering the number of online servers and players. It’s unlikely COD MW2 will be able to boast in 6 years against the same hot game at the time. It’s most likely the openess of the game that has added to its continued popularity. Besides the actual binaries, gamers can add custom maps, mods, configs. You can modify the game engine as you wish via setting cvars. CS:S dedicated gaming servers differentiate in game play not like any clanserver (although Garrys Mod players might have a say on that claim!). Just a few examples of CS:S utilising modifications include:

• Surf Servers
• Warcraft
• RPG
• Hide n Seek

It’s this depth, and option to run the server by your choices, and make your own entertainment that make CS:S so incredible. To play CS:S, You just need a STEAM account, and to buy CS:S, which at this moment of writing is as little as £12.99 – bargain! You will require a fairly good spec rig, and graphics card, although from experience, most laptops will now play the game without issue. If you want to go beyond just gaming on other gamer’s CS:S servers, you perhaps ponder hosting your own gaming server from a gaming server host that are experts in hosting CS:S servers.

What you’ll want to think about is the server latency. Your ping to a server is the distance between you, and where the server is physically located. The lower the latency, generally, the smoother your gameplay. Usually, any latency of 100ms or under is more than acceptable for online gaming.

You might also think about joining a gaming clan. A gaming clan is a collection of gamers that form a ‘clan’ and play with each other. Usually a clan will play competitively- i.e. play wars against other clans, sometimes for money. If that’s not your kettle of fish, you could think about forming a community. A gaming community like a clan, play together, but usually not competitively, and more for fun. Some Counter-Strike Source communities boast members counting over 500.

Last of all, something to think about is when you first play, you will without fail find you get beaten really bad. Top tip- don’t take it too badly. Some of the people that play CS:S online have been doing so for ages- for hours every night. With any game, becoming pro at CS:S takes lots of practise. And practise makes perfect when it comes to being brilliant on CS:S servers.