Counter Strike is back, with CS: GO – Counter Strike: Global Offensive – the newest line in a decade of first person shooting games from Valve.

I must start off this article by saying that I first played CS (Counter Strike) when it was a beta. It was a mod for Half-Life that my friends and I loved playing on sweet 64MB Ram – 256MB of ram powered computers. Counter Strike, Day of Defeat (years later), EverQuest for them and Dark Age of Camelot for me. My childhood friends and I loved the games that we could get our hands on because they were all the best at the time. Sometimes we would spend our boring lunch hours as freshman in high school at Futureshop checking out the games we were going to buy and play. We played on DSL and cable connections and for the unfortunate of us that were still in internet yesterday – 56k dial-up lines. That’s when AOL was pumping out CD’s in the mail of free copies of their dial up software for every Tom, ♥♥♥♥, and Harry to use.

We were nerds in our very early years and you could say we were very young gamers. We did have computers but we had to get our parents to drive us to LAN parties most of the time. Sometimes, a group of us would ride our bicycles or walk to each persons house and help carry back computer components. We’re not just talking mouse and keyboard combinations. We’re talking giant 17-22″ CRT monitors that weighed 25 pounds or more.

I mention all this because back then we were just grateful to play video games. We felt a privilege that our parents didn’t know and probably would never know. We could become submersed into any fantasy world that we wanted and do whatever we chose. What was even better was that we could do it in an online environment with our like minded individuals. Or at least individuals with a common interest in that particular video game. It was amazing what we were able to do so we didn’t troll, we didn’t grief, we just played our games. When they became boring and we became overly skilled that was when we knew we could get away with some TKing action and still complete a level, or a little friendly fire that leads to a failure of a match premature to a failure that was likely to occur a few more minutes down the road.

This leads me into the era of video games today. Our precious game that became dominated by hackers and impossible to truly know how good you were because you never knew if the person on the other side of the internet was looking through a wall at you has been remodeled. I say remodeled because I feel as though that is the extent of it. The game’s graphics have been improved and polished and the game includes many new features. It’s new in game features make Counter-Strike Global Offensive an easy game to play with friends and a fun game to watch if you don’t feel like playing. However the underlying problem is still there – you don’t know what the person on the other side of the internet is doing. With the game running $4.00 over Christmas it was a steal and I wish I had bought it for all of my friends but I didn’t think about it at the time.

The problem and it may change in the future is that Valve will never have a way to secure their games. They update, the hackers update, as with the world of technology. Back to the game itself though because I do not wish to take away from its positive qualities.

Counter Strike Global Offensive is available through steam. The game allows you to play as a terrorist or a counter terrorist in many online matches. There are hostage rescue, demolition, and arms race maps. I never checked to see if my all time favorite – THE VIP MAP!!! – is still around but I’m sure there are some servers still running it.

The game is now centered around in game skins which are sold by other steam players in the marketplace, are won randomly in game, or purchased through steam itself. I can imagine that steam is making money hand over fist with these new promotions and their addition of the in-game trading cards. We will never know though since they are a private company.

So Counter Strike? GO. Go should stand for Go Buy it. Even if the game is still riddled with questionable players, it’s still fun to play with friends and still as highly addictive as it was for me 14 years ago. So if you’re peddling your bike to a LAN party, sitting at home drinking by yourself or doing illicit drugs, put down $4.00 – $20.00 for this classic game and relive some old time memories.

Overall rating 8/10 Based on the game, mechanics and memories it was able to conjure up. It lost points for a poor match making system and no way to leave a game without being penalized in competitive mode. This makes it a 45 minute grief session if you get paired up with a bunch of griefing or annoying voiced kids on your team.

Counter Strike is back, with CS: GO – Counter Strike: Global Offensive – the newest line in a decade of first person shooting games from Valve. I must start off this article by saying that I first played CS (Counter Strike) when it was a beta. It was a mod for Half-Life that my friends and I loved playing on sweet 64MB Ram – 256MB of ram powered computers. Counter Strike, Day of Defeat (years later), EverQuest for them and Dark Age of Camelot for me. My childhood friends and I loved the games that we could get our hands on because they were all the best at the time. Sometimes we would spend our boring lunch hours as freshman in high school at Futureshop checking out the games we were going to buy and play. We played on DSL and cable connections and for the unfortunate of us that were still in internet yesterday – 56k dial-up lines. That’s when AOL was pumping out CD’s in the mail of free copies of their dial up software for every Tom, Dick, and Harry to use. We were nerds in our very early years and you could say we were very young gamers. We did have computers but we had to get our parents to drive us to LAN parties most of the time. Sometimes, a group of us would ride our bicycles or walk to each persons house and help carry back computer components. We’re not just talking mouse and keyboard combinations. We’re talking giant 17-22″ CRT monitors that weighed 25 pounds or more. I mention all this because back then we were just grateful to play video games. We felt a privilege that our parents didn’t know and probably would never know. We could become submersed into any fantasy world that we wanted and do whatever we chose. What was even better was that we could do it in an online environment with our like minded individuals. Or at least individuals with a common interest in that particular video game. It was amazing what we were able to do so we didn’t troll, we didn’t grief, we just played our games. When they became boring and we became overly skilled that was when we knew we could get away with some TKing action and still complete a level, or a little friendly fire that leads to a failure of a match premature to a failure that was likely to occur a few more minutes down the road. This leads me into the era of video games today. Our precious game that became dominated by hackers and impossible to truly know how good you were because you never knew if the person on the other side of the internet was looking through a wall at you has been remodeled. I say remodeled because I feel as though that is the extent of it. The game’s graphics have been improved and polished and the game includes many new features. It’s new in game features make Counter-Strike Global Offensive an easy game to play with friends and a fun game to watch if you don’t feel like playing. However the underlying problem is still there – you don’t know what the person on the other side of the internet is doing. With the game running $4.00 over Christmas it was a steal and I wish I had bought it for all of my friends but I didn’t think about it at the time. The problem and it may change in the future is that Valve will never have a way to secure their games. They update, the hackers update, as with the world of technology. Back to the game itself though because I do not wish to take away from its positive qualities. Counter Strike Global Offensive is available through steam. The game allows you to play as a terrorist or a counter terrorist in many online matches. There are hostage rescue, demolition, and arms race maps. I never checked to see if my all time favorite – THE VIP MAP!!! – is still around but I’m sure there are some servers still running it. The game is now centered around in game skins which are sold by other steam players in the marketplace, are won randomly in game, or purchased through steam itself. I can imagine that steam is making money hand over fist with these new promotions and their addition of the in-game trading cards. We will never know though since they are a private company. So Counter Strike? GO. Go should stand for Go Buy it. Even if the game is still riddled with questionable players, it’s still fun to play with friends and still as highly addictive as it was for me 14 years ago. So if you’re peddling your bike to a LAN party, sitting at home drinking by yourself or doing illicit drugs, put down $4.00 – $20.00 for this classic game and relive some old time memories. Overall rating 8/10 Based on the game, mechanics and memories it was able to conjure up. It lost points for a poor match making system and no way to leave a game without being penalized in competitive mode. This makes it a 45 minute grief session if you get paired up with a bunch of griefing or annoying voiced kids on your team.