Counter-Strike

"CS for XBOX? How can it be?"

Counter-Strike originally a Half-Life mod created by college kids hit the PC scene in 2000. It was immensely popular with PC gamers and people played this game like maniacs. The game got so popular it tournaments would be held and the prizes would be $10,000 dollars in cash and even more. People quit their daytime jobs so they could focus all their time on becoming a professional Counter-Strike player. Now the game has redone for the XBOX. The XBOX CS is basically CS Ver. 1.6. It has the weapons 1.6 has plus the game looks good.

Graphics 7
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The graphics of the game are well done and look better than the PC version. The graphics aren’t the best on the XBOX, but they look nice. The skins look more realistic plus the maps just have that shiny feeling to it. Playing CS on a television is so much better than playing it on a small computer screen. Overall graphics look more vibrant and are better.

Sound 8
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There is no music for CS, but there is custom soundtrack ability, which is very nice. You can play your music while playing CS online which is great. The sound effects however do sound good. The bullet shots and grenades explosions sound very good.

Controls 9
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Many people were worried about the controls for CS being horrible, but they were wrong. CS uses Halo’s controls and they are well played. You use the left trigger to fire your gun. You use the right trigger to crouch. The Y button is used to cycle through your weapons, the X button to reload your gun, the A button to jump, and the B button for alternate fire. The black button is used to cycle through your grenades and the white button is to drop your weapons. You use the left joystick to move and buy weapons and the right to look around. The back button is used to look at the score and the start button takes you to the main menu. The D pad lets you use a radio so you can call in for backup or tell your teammates to follow you.

Game play 9
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This is where CS shines the most. The game has basically 2 way’s to play. There’s the single player option and the multiplayer option. The single player just lets you go up against bots, which are basically A.I. teammates and opponents. The single player isn’t what you’re after since it’s not really good. It’s the multiplayer that makes this game so good. You can play on XBOX Live or through system link, but XBOX Live is what most people. On Live you play 2 types of matches which is Bomb Defusal where if you’re a terrorist you must plant a bomb or if you’re a counter-terrorist you must keep the T’s from planting the bomb. Then there’s hostage rescue where you must rescue hostages as a CT. The online play is great so far. It’s very fun to play against other people online. There’s always some competition or some loud mouth you need to shut up by knifing. In the start of the round you get a few seconds to buy some weapons, ammo, and maybe some equipment. The first round is usually the pistol round because you don’t get enough money to buy any good weapons. The 2nd round you usually get a good amount of cash to buy good guns. You then go and either rush or camp. Rushing with your teammates is usually a good choice so you can get kills and win the round. You should camp only if you’re losing the rounds. Once you die in this game you have to wait for the round to end to to play again. That’s right folks no respawns in this game during a round. If you die next round you’ll have to try it again. Overall the game play is good and very fun. Do not buy this game if you don’t have XBOX Live because the single player is not worth your cash. If you are though looking for a challenging Live game this is your game.

In the end if you have a good PC get the PC version of this game because the PC version is much better. If you have a bad PC and you have XBOX plus Live get this game now! It is worth your $50 bucks because once you get good at this game you will love it a lot!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/24/03