Valve / Steam Games (Counter Strike & Half Life)

[camper]

I'm sure some of you are fans of any of the valve games, whether is it Counter Strike or Half Life or even Day of Defeat.

Well, any of you for Counter Strike?

[Numbuh 0xFF]

Personally, I think that Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are some of the best FPS games in the history of the form. Exemplary work on integrating the player into the world and great storytelling, especially in HL2. Good stuff.

On the other hand CS and its variants are merely annoying. Can't, for the life of me, find any redeeming qualities. Then again, I was always more for story and exploration and less for pure twitch-based gameplay. Even so, I find that if I want to spray various locales with automatic weaponry I find it more enjoyable to do so from within a game with an engaging storyline.

[numbuheightbitstar]

Since I have a 56k dial-up connection I can't really game online (56k vs. DSL = Instant Lose), but the first Half-Life is one of the best FPSes out there.

I don't have a computer capable of playing HL2 yet and again my 56K connection is a deterrent there (you need to leave your computer online for awhile after installing the game because of Steam or somesuch) so I can't comment on that.

[camper]

You should subscribe broadband, my friend JamesEight.

Anyway, I respect about your decision of liking Half Life more, 0xFF. But I also don't understand why did Valve focus a lot of the Half Life series with all those bunch of Episodes. I don't like them when they leave the Counter Strike series very quiet without a Source version of Condition Zero and Day of Defeat did not get a Condition Zero-like campaigns and missions. Is it the fan of demands for Half Life are more than Counter Strike's? Personally, I am a Counter Strike fan including Day of Defeat, I prefer real weapons, not fictional ones.

Worse, Valve is very lazy on improving the bots, especially here are a few things that Valve did compare to the world's best bot, POD-bot.

Valve's bots.
1. Bots will intend to simply throw grenades without using them wisely like real players.
2. They mostly have problems rescuing hostages. Especially hostages will get stuck if they don't take care of them properly.
3. When Bombsite A is clear without a C4 sound, the bot will just go there and listen for the noise, worse, that site has no terrorist guarding it, why go over there in the first place? They should have skipped the A site and just go straight away to the B site. Why can't they behave like the real POD-bot players.
4. Bots will just simply defuse the bomb first without completely securing the bombsite for other guarding terrorists.
5. VIPs will just engage the enemy instead of defending themselves like it did in POD-bot.

etc...

[numbuheightbitstar]

Did Valve program CS? I thought Counterstrike was some fan-mod that got really popular.

Broadband... that's like DSL, right? Main reason I still have a 56k is because I live in a country area, and my main options are A) wait until DSL lines are installed out here or B) pay $100 a month for satellite DSL. And IMO, paying more than $15/mo for internet access is just wasting money.

I think the deal with expansion packs is, you see.... CS is mostly just an online mod for people to get together and blow each other away. The only purpose an expansion pack could serve would be to A) refine the gameplay or B) add more levels... both of which would be absolutely pointless to buy an add-on for as either function is handled by free downloads.

Half-Life is in a different camp. Its a single-player, story-driven game. Making an expansion pack basically consist of creating new levels and a linear storyline to go with them. Now, there are ton of mods out there that accomplish this and are free ("They Hunger" and "Azure Sheep" for example), but Valve's own mods can turn a profit since they advance the canon HL story, so they release them as "Expansion packs."

Personally, the advent of expansion packs is why I always wait until a game has been out awhile before buying it. Like with HL1... when it first came out, it was just the game by itself. Then you had to buy the Opposing Force expansion seperate, and finally Blue Shift. Now you can find all five of them in a boxed set that costs less than what the original game costs by itself back in the day.

[camper]

About broadband, me, I pay the subscription fees monthly exactly $75. But if it's a 56k, it'll pay like "the more you use, the more you'll pay" and vice versa. That's why I recommend broadband today, most of the population nowadays are already using it. Anyway, it's up to you, your time will tell.

Actually, Valve did invent Condition Zero, the original CS 1.6 was a mod. But unfortunately, CZ is not capable of adding in bots such as POD-bot, that's why Valve's bots' AI are very terrible, they can only do is to fight without using good human intelligence.

Though CS you can say it's a mod, but the fan demands it well when the Source engine is so beautiful, so they tell Valve to start creating one, which they did. But however, Valve is too lazy to improve the bots' AI.

Well, overall your comment, probably is the fan demands of Half Life are more than CS. Well, it really disappoints me.

[silverspark]

CS is pretty fun but my parents dont want me playing that and my cousins wont let me play when I visit them because they think I'm a girl so I'm not good at it and I'll kill their person...lol

but then I have a friend (a girl) who is seriously good at all kinds of games, CS, halo, RO, flyff, maple story, and a whole bunch of other stuff
she is especially crazy about halo though

[thesuki]

I've actually never played either of them. I'm not much for video games.

Did make a joke about both in a fanfic once, though.

[camper]

Not just fanfic jokes, there are plenty of people make Flash movies of CS too. Including non-CS flash movies also have CS sounds in it.

Oh, silverspark, oh, gender does count? Hmm, I thought your problem was the addiction of the game. Yes, I have many cases in my country few years ago when many students skips school just get to play Counter Strike (Before the latest online games like Ragnarok was released). So far, everything seems fine already without much of addiction problems, I think.

[silverspark]

skip school for cs? wow

I'm not that addicted to it, but I remember visiting china and finding a channel dedicated to cs while watching tv

[camper]

A show dedicated to that? That's unique. I also remember the I, Videogame series too.

About the skipping school issue, that lasts from 1998 till 2002 before the latest games like I mention such as Ragnarok, Rakion, Gunbound, DOTA, etc.. were released, outclassing CS.

[silverspark]

well, its still fun to play cs once in awhile ;D

[camper]

I know, though many plays CS 1.6, I still find the Source version fun too. Especially a lot of modelers shifted from creating CS skins from 1.6 to Source instead.

[numbuh82]

I think you should change the title to steam games.

Also HLF2 is one of the best games I've ever played.Garry's Mod is also a very good game.Counter Strike is both good and bad.Bad as you get the people who call them selfs Gamers who over use the term n00b when in fact they are good at just one game and a very shit at almost everything else.On the good side it is a fun game.

[camper]

I don't remember Garry's Mod, but what I know in Counter Strike is POD-bot, it's the best to play with especially the AI is nearly human when you play against them. But when Condition Zero and CS Source kicked in, their AI is very terrible and I hate them, I wish POD-bot can work in CZ as well as CS Source, Valve is really very lazy on improving bots.