WazMeister
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A review, preview, article?!?! What ever you call it its hefty so pre-warned! Good info though.
Counter-Strike-Source.... Wow the name makes chills run up my spin in excitement and awe of the next generation of games from Valve the number one company I feel a urge to be a proper geek fanboy.
For months I have just sat around constantly saying "All I want is CS:S" to everyone when ever I play CS 1.6, not just the graphics but just to see the community get a change of new players, diffrent play styles and so forth. I think the most worrying thing that put even me in panic mode was "will my pc run this fine?", reading benchmarks and reading up about specs each time made my eyes tingle with water that I never run it in the graphics I want smoothly I think alot people worried and still do about this with their pc.
My spec is nothing to gawp at and get excited about but it still holds it own and I would of thought I could run HL2/Cs:S in the following settings pretty much smoothly-
Res- 1024*768
Models- High
Textures- High
AA-0
AAF-0
Trilinear mode
Other settings Med
On the following system-
XP3000
nforce 2 ultra chipset (k7n2 delta-L)
Crucial 512mb pc3200 ram
Radeon 9700 Pr0 (4.9)
DX 9.0c
1.5mb Line
So I kindly waited for the day for CS:S to come out or HL2...... Its a funny story to be honest infact to me it makes me feel like a Noob, a simple sad git because I was one who trusted Valve and thought HL2 be out last Sept and upgraded my system to the above from a very crappy PC which got me very indept on my credit card yet it never came a year later I was yet worried to upgrade more to run it but finally the Source engine has been seen! (not in all its glory as CS:S is kinda cut down version so I heard/read) Counter-Strike:Source was being released if you pre-order Half-Life 2 via STEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!
When it was announced I was so excited I was going to do the pure pedigree geek thing and book a day off work to instantly play! When the msg "TOMMORW 11PST (7pm gmt my time) on nearly most gaming sites I visit was posted I nearly fainted with excitement. No kidding I even rang my friend screaming excitement of joy nearly to tears at 1am in the morning whom he had work at 4am............... I was that dam excited just over a release of a game I wanted to cry in happyness I dread to think how I act once HL2 is released.
I never been that excited since my brother's daughter was born which was best thing ever in the world, it felt as if I got laid instantly in a few seconds and had to brag to my friends "I did this....that and even the other".
When it came up to get on the Thursday I instantly signed up yet again paid via credit card which a few attempts failed due to over useage on server. Luckily I got on to pay and alot my friends was still trying to get it going, I installed and loaded it up for the first time!. I was so excited my hands shook!
I did all my settings prior to same as CS 1.6 well same keybored layout, sense etc etc when it came to video I really took my time to get it right! At first I chose the options with the * that valve suggest for my system and I did a stress test.
I think I got something like 95 which shocked me.... I thought to my self "hold on.. STRESS TEST? stresses my system with what the engine can chuck at it and I got 95 FPS average!! WHOOOOO!!".
I was on cloud nine thinking I run the game like a pr0 at CPL winning 50k a year! I went back to my vid settings and thought I whack everything high and have 2xAA and no AAF. I ran stress test again and what did I get!! 89FPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought I was dreaming at the time finally I was getting my moneys worth out of my £300 pounds Radeon 9700 Pro that I bought when it was first released! I only ever used it on CS 1.6 (older version that was to the date) my system was handling it like a buety! I felt like a hot spud wrapped in foil chucked on a bon fire by a smiling child who thinks it cook better than what a oven could do.
Enough of the tests I wanted the game! so I put my settings back to what I mentioned at the top of this reviewy/article, bad spelling thingy what ever you call it.
At first no servers was up so I made my own and my friend joined and god I was gobsmacked! The graphics just really blew me away on my chair unless I farted CS:S made me swing from one part of my room to the other and back again!
It was not just the graphics it was the sound as I ran around CS_Italy! The diffrence it was from 1.6! I never expected it to be so good looking I found it more sexy than Carmen Electra. The gun models, the player models.... the sounds and effects of playing footy with the tins just made me cringe is excitment that I finally got another game to play for a good 5 or more so yrs! as long as I played CS old version that be!!!
I ran around the map few times just think wow... its so real! until we got bored and wanted to see its fragging abilties! is it really CS with a make over? Is it old CS on drugs?.
We left and did another server refresh to see thousands of servers up....?!?! within seconds?!?!? We both screaming down TeamSpeak at the time like little girls "OH MY GOD ITS THE NUTZ! I playing it constantly! going pr0! making a CLAN!!!!! having a sicky and playing all night!!!!!!!".
We found a good ping server which steam stated 30 and we enterd....................For the first time to get a real feel!
Loading took awhile....infact it took dam ages compared to old CS but we can't compare as just check it out its quadriple better graphics more to process.... then it took the piss but I eventually got in.
I thought maybe I need to format, defrag and get my system rolling like a 5.0 but I forgot i only formatted the day before and let my HD defrag over night.
Anyway back to the real topic CS:S!!!
The current map on the server was Dust and I was in awe yet gain of how diffrent the map was yet also exactly the same.
Its weird... it looks diffrent but feels so the same which makes me love it, its the old dust with a make over by gandhi himself! It was buetiful enough to stick a poster on the wall of it and let your mates see it and say "theres my baby...."
After having a few ronunds though I already started to hate a few things, not hate in thinking "this game sucks, jesus back to 1.6! valve sucks donkey draining seman dick".
But more of a "oh.. I kinda don't like that wonder if a option come out for it or a fix".
First of all the BUY menus I hate, I hated that style in old CS and I wish Valve added a option to choose old white text option which I and many more who I spoke to love best. Another feature added is if you not got the money and bring up the buy menu to get something you cant press what u want and the window close.. you gotta press 0 now. I know its silly but I forget and its annoying to press 2 for kelvar+helmet then not get it and press 0 afterwards.
As I carried on playing I noticed gameplay has changed slightly, before I played everyone I spoke to in beta stated its CS with better graphics its exactly the same but its not. Example it feels there is more rushing which is kinda good less camps and also each team meets quicker in spots its hard to rush on a team in certain areas now than 1.6.
I think this is overall good a new learning curve it still is CS but a slight tang to it as if its a leman with mold growing on it.
The flashbangs are awesome, I love the deafing sound they make and the double vision it totally rocks!! I got so carried away i started to flash my self in a corner and giggle like a girl. The only problem is maybe for PUBLICS valve can later add a feature to disable Flash Affects by team mates?
Clan wars/PCW yea have it on as its more organized as its teams but publics since CS: S I think I been flashed by my team and died due to it more than the enemy.... It got very frustating at times and so does the blocking so please stop blocking entrances peeps as bumping into other players seems to be very jagged than 1.6 .
The models I tend to love though players seem to hate the hunch back affect I love it! its like a real life aiming prone style kinda thing. AIming down the site like real SAS or real pro terroists the models infact is one of the great things of the game but one questions is "Where are the other CS models we come to love?" i know its been brought up loads but I just like to mention it looks ugly seeing a room full of T's or CT's the same model....a mix adds spices like a brewy. Also when walking/running or bumping into them it seems very jagged and annoying, I cant pin point the word but it just seems very annoying as if ur getting slapped everytime you bump them... could that be changed at all?
Other than that the models are a high point for CS:S!
Aother feat I love is the HE deafing and the stutter of it, if one hits you it makes you barely move for a few seconds and your deaf too which gives it more of affect that is awesome.
Again as I played on I noticed shooting as changed instead of the usal tap tap tap a roo style with colt and ak it seems and feels very diffrent this weekend I have played alot more and in my opinion the colt has changed alot from 1.6. I find it very hard to shoot afar now, get head shots the only use I find now is up close sprayage gets you kills. The ak is a domiant for far shooting and is also good for sprayage if you know how though.
The pistols seem the same and other guns I not played enough to fully state but yea its gonna take me and the community to adjust to diffrent types of shooting now. I find it cool as its another learning curve but the colt I am starting to hate which I loved in cs 1.6.
During this first go thats all I got to experince due to work (no i couldent do a sicky dam it) I logged and went to bed dreaming of the weekend ahead for some serious CS:Source playing.
Over the friday night and tonight I have realized alot now....
Some maps I think are still boring and others even better than before! One that sticks out like a sore thumb is Aztec... Do I need say more? awesome!
Havana and pirsana how ever they called or spelt I still confused why they made it in the batch more maps is good but to have these in it first makes me shudder. Boring and crap in my opinion and rarely played in 1.6, what was needed is Inferno, train and nuke which will probley come out later by valve we hope.
I noticed alot more as I played too I started to look into things with more detail I was juttering all over the place like lag spikes or something to the point of making me wanna smash my keybored but with a command I found smoothed some of it out
CL_Smooth 0.
Not a clue what it does but it smoothed things out a little, then I started to notice more slow downs which made me panic..........very panic.
So i caled up my FPS with net_graph 3 and stuided it as I played some more which shocked me and worried me. At spawn I was getting 50fps with a few team mates on screen which was cool, then it hit 70 when alone which i loved but some reason if I was in certain areas of maps it was hitting 30! Then a enemy pop out and I get 25! then he shoot and i get 20!!!!
Then a nade go off and I get a big fat stutter and I ask if anyone else got it on comms with some saying yes and some saying "no... valve ownz". Then the bomb went off and I got 5 FPS!
I rebooted and tried again with same results.. I thought I was being riddled out of something soo I messed with my system and did the IGN tweaks and a few on HL2 forums for CS:S. I even put everything to low and res 800x600 but was still getting real dodgy FPS alot slowing down with battles of 2 enemyes or 3. At this point I wanted to break down and cry thinking my system could not run it even in its lowest.
I looked around on the net and saw people with better speak was getting same problem but not plenty a good handful though, then I saw people with crapper systems getting better performance in better settings.
More and more people popped up stating same problem on big arse powerful machines which chilled me for awhile thinking maybes its a bug and not my system being outdated whiched I prayed for as a bug can be fixed but I couldent afford anymore upgrades.
I tried playing on and on and asking around in servers with alot people saying they are running fun on same systems as me or near enough sometimes worse systems. They stated they dont get one jilt and its bug free while a other half was saying its constant bugs and so forth. I did not know what to think so I whacked my credit card out and bought a 9800XT 256mb and another 512mb ram praying I get at least 40fps in everything low.
So i await for my upgrade hoping I can run it ok............
Now do I ask is it a Bug? memory leak? Source not optimzed for all system setups/hardware vendors? I do not know but I pray for me and any other person with same spec or better that get real dodgy FPS that its a bug and it gets fixed.
Enough of that subject as it upsets me to tears... honestly it does
Waited so long for it the game I be playing for 5 or so yrs of my life and cant play correctly .
ANother subject is bullet reg, how does it work? Is it the same as HL1 netcode? Someone explain as I find at points bullets never hitting.
Alot times I was getting HS after HS then next minute I see my self hitting them but no health going down on them.......
It was crazy! I run out a hall to shoot a enemy next minute I find my self on floor after a clip in his head!
Again I looked into this and it was not just me... "phew!", it wasent bad all the time but when it played up boy bullet reg was more like bullets dont shoot nowt.
Will we see fixes or is it fine as it is as alot people I asked stated they was fine but on the other end others was saying bullet reg/netcode sucked.
A few times I died I pulled my console down and it gives details of hits and health given and taken from a enemy.
Sometimes it would say I took 135 dmg with 0 shots?
and even crazier things than that... was it a report bug or was it bullet reg really palying up bad?
One point I noticed my friend shoot a enemy with a clip of MP5 in the chest up close and nothing happend, then the enemy shot him loads and he died HS.
The report was something like you took 14 dmg with 4 shots and 124 with 0 I cant remeber exact state but it was crazy and we laughed it off.
Counter-Strike-Source.... Wow the name makes chills run up my spin in excitement and awe of the next generation of games from Valve the number one company I feel a urge to be a proper geek fanboy.
For months I have just sat around constantly saying "All I want is CS:S" to everyone when ever I play CS 1.6, not just the graphics but just to see the community get a change of new players, diffrent play styles and so forth. I think the most worrying thing that put even me in panic mode was "will my pc run this fine?", reading benchmarks and reading up about specs each time made my eyes tingle with water that I never run it in the graphics I want smoothly I think alot people worried and still do about this with their pc.
My spec is nothing to gawp at and get excited about but it still holds it own and I would of thought I could run HL2/Cs:S in the following settings pretty much smoothly-
Res- 1024*768
Models- High
Textures- High
AA-0
AAF-0
Trilinear mode
Other settings Med
On the following system-
XP3000
nforce 2 ultra chipset (k7n2 delta-L)
Crucial 512mb pc3200 ram
Radeon 9700 Pr0 (4.9)
DX 9.0c
1.5mb Line
So I kindly waited for the day for CS:S to come out or HL2...... Its a funny story to be honest infact to me it makes me feel like a Noob, a simple sad git because I was one who trusted Valve and thought HL2 be out last Sept and upgraded my system to the above from a very crappy PC which got me very indept on my credit card yet it never came a year later I was yet worried to upgrade more to run it but finally the Source engine has been seen! (not in all its glory as CS:S is kinda cut down version so I heard/read) Counter-Strike:Source was being released if you pre-order Half-Life 2 via STEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!
When it was announced I was so excited I was going to do the pure pedigree geek thing and book a day off work to instantly play! When the msg "TOMMORW 11PST (7pm gmt my time) on nearly most gaming sites I visit was posted I nearly fainted with excitement. No kidding I even rang my friend screaming excitement of joy nearly to tears at 1am in the morning whom he had work at 4am............... I was that dam excited just over a release of a game I wanted to cry in happyness I dread to think how I act once HL2 is released.
I never been that excited since my brother's daughter was born which was best thing ever in the world, it felt as if I got laid instantly in a few seconds and had to brag to my friends "I did this....that and even the other".
When it came up to get on the Thursday I instantly signed up yet again paid via credit card which a few attempts failed due to over useage on server. Luckily I got on to pay and alot my friends was still trying to get it going, I installed and loaded it up for the first time!. I was so excited my hands shook!
I did all my settings prior to same as CS 1.6 well same keybored layout, sense etc etc when it came to video I really took my time to get it right! At first I chose the options with the * that valve suggest for my system and I did a stress test.
I think I got something like 95 which shocked me.... I thought to my self "hold on.. STRESS TEST? stresses my system with what the engine can chuck at it and I got 95 FPS average!! WHOOOOO!!".
I was on cloud nine thinking I run the game like a pr0 at CPL winning 50k a year! I went back to my vid settings and thought I whack everything high and have 2xAA and no AAF. I ran stress test again and what did I get!! 89FPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought I was dreaming at the time finally I was getting my moneys worth out of my £300 pounds Radeon 9700 Pro that I bought when it was first released! I only ever used it on CS 1.6 (older version that was to the date) my system was handling it like a buety! I felt like a hot spud wrapped in foil chucked on a bon fire by a smiling child who thinks it cook better than what a oven could do.
Enough of the tests I wanted the game! so I put my settings back to what I mentioned at the top of this reviewy/article, bad spelling thingy what ever you call it.
At first no servers was up so I made my own and my friend joined and god I was gobsmacked! The graphics just really blew me away on my chair unless I farted CS:S made me swing from one part of my room to the other and back again!
It was not just the graphics it was the sound as I ran around CS_Italy! The diffrence it was from 1.6! I never expected it to be so good looking I found it more sexy than Carmen Electra. The gun models, the player models.... the sounds and effects of playing footy with the tins just made me cringe is excitment that I finally got another game to play for a good 5 or more so yrs! as long as I played CS old version that be!!!
I ran around the map few times just think wow... its so real! until we got bored and wanted to see its fragging abilties! is it really CS with a make over? Is it old CS on drugs?.
We left and did another server refresh to see thousands of servers up....?!?! within seconds?!?!? We both screaming down TeamSpeak at the time like little girls "OH MY GOD ITS THE NUTZ! I playing it constantly! going pr0! making a CLAN!!!!! having a sicky and playing all night!!!!!!!".
We found a good ping server which steam stated 30 and we enterd....................For the first time to get a real feel!
Loading took awhile....infact it took dam ages compared to old CS but we can't compare as just check it out its quadriple better graphics more to process.... then it took the piss but I eventually got in.
I thought maybe I need to format, defrag and get my system rolling like a 5.0 but I forgot i only formatted the day before and let my HD defrag over night.
Anyway back to the real topic CS:S!!!
The current map on the server was Dust and I was in awe yet gain of how diffrent the map was yet also exactly the same.
Its weird... it looks diffrent but feels so the same which makes me love it, its the old dust with a make over by gandhi himself! It was buetiful enough to stick a poster on the wall of it and let your mates see it and say "theres my baby...."
After having a few ronunds though I already started to hate a few things, not hate in thinking "this game sucks, jesus back to 1.6! valve sucks donkey draining seman dick".
But more of a "oh.. I kinda don't like that wonder if a option come out for it or a fix".
First of all the BUY menus I hate, I hated that style in old CS and I wish Valve added a option to choose old white text option which I and many more who I spoke to love best. Another feature added is if you not got the money and bring up the buy menu to get something you cant press what u want and the window close.. you gotta press 0 now. I know its silly but I forget and its annoying to press 2 for kelvar+helmet then not get it and press 0 afterwards.
As I carried on playing I noticed gameplay has changed slightly, before I played everyone I spoke to in beta stated its CS with better graphics its exactly the same but its not. Example it feels there is more rushing which is kinda good less camps and also each team meets quicker in spots its hard to rush on a team in certain areas now than 1.6.
I think this is overall good a new learning curve it still is CS but a slight tang to it as if its a leman with mold growing on it.
The flashbangs are awesome, I love the deafing sound they make and the double vision it totally rocks!! I got so carried away i started to flash my self in a corner and giggle like a girl. The only problem is maybe for PUBLICS valve can later add a feature to disable Flash Affects by team mates?
Clan wars/PCW yea have it on as its more organized as its teams but publics since CS: S I think I been flashed by my team and died due to it more than the enemy.... It got very frustating at times and so does the blocking so please stop blocking entrances peeps as bumping into other players seems to be very jagged than 1.6 .
The models I tend to love though players seem to hate the hunch back affect I love it! its like a real life aiming prone style kinda thing. AIming down the site like real SAS or real pro terroists the models infact is one of the great things of the game but one questions is "Where are the other CS models we come to love?" i know its been brought up loads but I just like to mention it looks ugly seeing a room full of T's or CT's the same model....a mix adds spices like a brewy. Also when walking/running or bumping into them it seems very jagged and annoying, I cant pin point the word but it just seems very annoying as if ur getting slapped everytime you bump them... could that be changed at all?
Other than that the models are a high point for CS:S!
Aother feat I love is the HE deafing and the stutter of it, if one hits you it makes you barely move for a few seconds and your deaf too which gives it more of affect that is awesome.
Again as I played on I noticed shooting as changed instead of the usal tap tap tap a roo style with colt and ak it seems and feels very diffrent this weekend I have played alot more and in my opinion the colt has changed alot from 1.6. I find it very hard to shoot afar now, get head shots the only use I find now is up close sprayage gets you kills. The ak is a domiant for far shooting and is also good for sprayage if you know how though.
The pistols seem the same and other guns I not played enough to fully state but yea its gonna take me and the community to adjust to diffrent types of shooting now. I find it cool as its another learning curve but the colt I am starting to hate which I loved in cs 1.6.
During this first go thats all I got to experince due to work (no i couldent do a sicky dam it) I logged and went to bed dreaming of the weekend ahead for some serious CS:Source playing.
Over the friday night and tonight I have realized alot now....
Some maps I think are still boring and others even better than before! One that sticks out like a sore thumb is Aztec... Do I need say more? awesome!
Havana and pirsana how ever they called or spelt I still confused why they made it in the batch more maps is good but to have these in it first makes me shudder. Boring and crap in my opinion and rarely played in 1.6, what was needed is Inferno, train and nuke which will probley come out later by valve we hope.
I noticed alot more as I played too I started to look into things with more detail I was juttering all over the place like lag spikes or something to the point of making me wanna smash my keybored but with a command I found smoothed some of it out
CL_Smooth 0.
Not a clue what it does but it smoothed things out a little, then I started to notice more slow downs which made me panic..........very panic.
So i caled up my FPS with net_graph 3 and stuided it as I played some more which shocked me and worried me. At spawn I was getting 50fps with a few team mates on screen which was cool, then it hit 70 when alone which i loved but some reason if I was in certain areas of maps it was hitting 30! Then a enemy pop out and I get 25! then he shoot and i get 20!!!!
Then a nade go off and I get a big fat stutter and I ask if anyone else got it on comms with some saying yes and some saying "no... valve ownz". Then the bomb went off and I got 5 FPS!
I rebooted and tried again with same results.. I thought I was being riddled out of something soo I messed with my system and did the IGN tweaks and a few on HL2 forums for CS:S. I even put everything to low and res 800x600 but was still getting real dodgy FPS alot slowing down with battles of 2 enemyes or 3. At this point I wanted to break down and cry thinking my system could not run it even in its lowest.
I looked around on the net and saw people with better speak was getting same problem but not plenty a good handful though, then I saw people with crapper systems getting better performance in better settings.
More and more people popped up stating same problem on big arse powerful machines which chilled me for awhile thinking maybes its a bug and not my system being outdated whiched I prayed for as a bug can be fixed but I couldent afford anymore upgrades.
I tried playing on and on and asking around in servers with alot people saying they are running fun on same systems as me or near enough sometimes worse systems. They stated they dont get one jilt and its bug free while a other half was saying its constant bugs and so forth. I did not know what to think so I whacked my credit card out and bought a 9800XT 256mb and another 512mb ram praying I get at least 40fps in everything low.
So i await for my upgrade hoping I can run it ok............
Now do I ask is it a Bug? memory leak? Source not optimzed for all system setups/hardware vendors? I do not know but I pray for me and any other person with same spec or better that get real dodgy FPS that its a bug and it gets fixed.
Enough of that subject as it upsets me to tears... honestly it does
Waited so long for it the game I be playing for 5 or so yrs of my life and cant play correctly .ANother subject is bullet reg, how does it work? Is it the same as HL1 netcode? Someone explain as I find at points bullets never hitting.
Alot times I was getting HS after HS then next minute I see my self hitting them but no health going down on them.......
It was crazy! I run out a hall to shoot a enemy next minute I find my self on floor after a clip in his head!
Again I looked into this and it was not just me... "phew!", it wasent bad all the time but when it played up boy bullet reg was more like bullets dont shoot nowt.
Will we see fixes or is it fine as it is as alot people I asked stated they was fine but on the other end others was saying bullet reg/netcode sucked.
A few times I died I pulled my console down and it gives details of hits and health given and taken from a enemy.
Sometimes it would say I took 135 dmg with 0 shots?
and even crazier things than that... was it a report bug or was it bullet reg really palying up bad?
One point I noticed my friend shoot a enemy with a clip of MP5 in the chest up close and nothing happend, then the enemy shot him loads and he died HS.
The report was something like you took 14 dmg with 4 shots and 124 with 0 I cant remeber exact state but it was crazy and we laughed it off.
