Counter-Strike

Realism is what I've always wanted in a shooter. Death match games where you respawn every 5 minutes seem to have been done to death (pun is intended). But, realistic scenarios involving terrorists and anti-terrorists, realistic weapons, and great maps combine to create the best combat I've ever experienced in gaming land. And the best part??... All the players are actual people playing at their computers like you.

Ok, my friends have played this game since it was in beta testing (summer 1999). I watched them, but I never played -- until about 2 months ago. This is one of the best, most addicting games ever. Counter-Strike is a multiplayer-only PC game played either over a network or the Internet.

The game simulates terrorist/counter-terrorist action. You can join either the terrorist or the counter-terrorist (CT) team. The two most common scenarios are bomb defusion and hostage rescue. In bomb defusion, one terrorist is given a bomb and must plant it at a specified location. The CTs must either kill all of the terrorists prior to the planting of the bomb or defuse the bomb once it has been planted. In hostage rescue, the terrorists must prevent the CTs from rescuing the hostages.

A little background into the making of the game: Counter-Strike is a modification of Valve Software's game "Half-Life." Counter-Strike was not created by Valve, but by a group of people seeking to improve the multiplayer aspects of the game. It is more popular than the original game, played by millions of players all over the world.

Note: This game features graphic violence and should not be played by children.

Regarding shady sovereign. The game is supposed to be REALISTIC, not SF. If you like Unreal Tournament or Quake fine, go play that. CS was never intended to be a game like the ones you mentioned, some kind of an alien game with non-existing supernatural weapons that reload automatically. And about the maps, I really think you didn't play the game enough, it has hundreds of maps, maybe more, of different sizes. But if they are not played in major competitions they don't stand a chance, they are played only for fun.

Personally this is the best game ever, entertaining, competitive and fun. The only thing I hate about the game is the Source version... but that's just me.

Playability, Controls, Game Modes, Weapons... Everything is amazing in this game. It played even more than the next game, Counter-Strike: Source.

This game is amazing at moddable so this was the reason why it is played too long. AMX Mod X extensions, mods was the core of the servers. That mods and extensions made the game playable for a real long time.

Deathrun, Jailbreak, Zombie, Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, BunnyHop, KZ... There was a lot of mods for this game and all of them are amazing, I played all of them with enjoy.

When the whole world was raving about Counter-Strike, I had initially chosen not to play it because I preferred the frantic action of the Quake games. However, when forced to play it among friends, I quickly got addicted to it. You'd notice people playing the same old levels over and over again. Counter Strike is so good because of how balanced it is in terms of gameplay. Your arsenal is extensive and the bullet ballistics are extremely realistic and add to balancing the gameplay. You really have to strategise and evolve effective tactics and team work as brute force often ends up getting you killed. Getting killed is extremely frustrating and getting a kill feels extremely good as well. So go play it now if you have'nt already.