PC: Counter-Strike Condition Zero - The game is in no release condition

[Azimer]

Counter-Strike is a mod for Half-Life by Valve and published by Sierra. Counter-Strike Condition Zero is a standalone game released just a few days ago. If you see this game on store shelves, do not purchase it. It's priced at $39.95 (but some places $29.95) and what you get is Half-Life + Counter-Strike + bots. You also get a TonyHawkesque challenge mode single player game. It was very disappointing and far from challenging. The game came with "Deleted Scenes". Deleted Scene was an older venture from Valve and Ristual Entertainment. Valve decided to end their involvement and you get what was left. The game is quite buggy, incomplete, and it crashed on me five times the first night I used the software. Here is the clincher if that didn't bother you yet.

The game is worthy for gaining another CDKey for playing HalfLife Counterstrike. Hey... you get it on a CD and you don't have to install it off the internet. Unfortunately... you can only do this once. That's right. You can only install off the CD for online play once. After that, you must use a crappy steam login and download it off them at a miserable rate. I believe I maxed my rate out at 30KB/s. A game that is about a gig in size at 30KB/s. I have done file share in the past, and that is not that big of a deal. In general, when you purchase a game, you do not expect to have to wait 1-2 days in order to play it. I have a perfectly working CDRom drive and CD with the game on it. Why download it?

If this was a review, I would give the programmers a 1/5 stars for effort, quality, and usability.

My recommendation. Purchase a copy of HalfLife in a bargain bin, download steam and register your CDKey. Then you get all the benefits of this $30 game for only $5-$10. Valve really pissed off some loyal customers with this product.

 

[Modem]

I, and many people expected just that. IMO, anyone who even read the PCGamer review (which was in the November or December issue) would know enough not to get that pathetic game. They even said that what you're essentially getting is CS with bots. That'll teach you not to read PCGamer, heh heh.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Well, steam usually gives me 300k/sec downloads, (games are typically ready in only 10 minutes when downloading the whole thing from scratch) but it has otherpitfalls. Namely, it has stupid popup advertisements, and if the central network is down (has happened several times,) then you can't play your games at alll.

CZ is another example of what the "vaporware valve" produces these days. They put that game off for so long, promised all kinds of improvements (e.g. new models, new weapons, new maps, etc) but instead all you get is an official bot (where better free bots are available) and the same maps only slightly modified.

TF2 and HL2 are valves other very hyped games. Kinda doubtful that either will surface.

 

[Alchy]

Well, Halflife 2 already has surfaced in one way or another, as no doubt you're aware, and that game's certainly going to get released. TF2 though, I couldn't care less about.

So what's this about Condition Zero? No new models or maps?

 

[Modem]

if the central network is down (has happened several times,) then you can't play your games at alll.

You should be able to. They released it fairly recently, it's called offline mode. Not sure how it's working, but I *believe* you need to login when you're not online. Guess that means you have to temporarily disable your internet connection.

 

[pj64er]

You should be able to. They released it fairly recently, it's called offline mode. Not sure how it's working, but I *believe* you need to login when you're not online. Guess that means you have to temporarily disable your internet connection.

If when you turn on steam, it cant find the server, it will ask you if you wanna go offline mode. When steam servers is back up again, just restart it and it will find the server and go back to online mode.


I refuse to touch condition zero, the fact that they sold cs is bad enough. Now they wanna sell an update to a mod the the ONLY game that they created. Talk about milking it.

On the other hand, it does have some redeeming qualities. For one, Ive played with the bots in steam beta before, they are in fact quite fun to play with. More teamwork than your average cs pub, thats for sure. As well, because of condition zero, hl has been updated with the 'detailedtextures' feature, quite a nice simple graphical effect that makes the maps look sharper. A lot of other mods are trying to make use of it (you dont need cz for it to work!)

 

[AlphaWolf]

If when you turn on steam, it cant find the server, it will ask you if you wanna go offline mode. When steam servers is back up again, just restart it and it will find the server and go back to online mode.

Not if you just want to connect to any arbitrary internet server that you already have the IP address for. Sure the auth servers need to be running even for classic half life, but the auth servers are rarely (if ever?) down, whereas the main steam network is down every now and then. One time, they left it offline for an entire weekend, plus a few days.

Well, Halflife 2 already has surfaced in one way or another, as no doubt you're aware, and that game's certainly going to get released. TF2 though, I couldn't care less about.

Well, CZ was supposed to be a lot more than what they actually promised, and it was also supposed to come out over a year ago. HL2 was due out almost a year ago, and granted some of it did get leaked, its very well possible that the game wont be much beyond that.

TF2 was going to be a pretty awesome game. It would have put even what CZ was supposed to be to a big shame. Not even 10% of the shit they promised for TF2 has surfaced in any of their games yet.

 

[pj64er]

Dont you need the main steam network to even get on steam? I thought the auth servers is only used when you are connecting into a game session. tbh, Im not really sure what goes on over there. I just know what offline mode looks like

 

[AlphaWolf]

Dont you need the main steam network to even get on steam?

Well yes, but it would be best if you could just connect to any arbitrary server without having to rely on the steam network. I myself use scripts to connect to my favorite servers without having to bother with server lookup BS. Worked great with regular half life. Even if the won master servers were down, you could always join your favorite servers.

 

[Azimer]

I, and many people expected just that. IMO, anyone who even read the PCGamer review (which was in the November or December issue) would know enough not to get that pathetic game. They even said that what you're essentially getting is CS with bots. That'll teach you not to read PCGamer, heh heh.

I was going to buy it whether it sucked or not. I needed a new CDKey because someone stole mine awhile back. With steam being a requirement of CounterStrike now, I had to get a new CDKey rather than borrowing a friends.

Also... HalfLife couldn't be found in stores around here, Platinum pack was too damn expensive for what you got, so I opted to spend $29.95 on CZ.

 

[pj64er]

Alphawolf: I guess thats a design problem with steam itself. I think their content servers is necessary to keep everyone's versions of stuff in sync (where as WON servers is only needed to keep track of the game servers). Hopefully once VALVe gets their shit sorted out, they wont ever be down.

Azimer, now that you got a CD-Key / SteamID, give Natural Selection a go. Great fun (http://www.natural-selection.org)

 

[AlphaWolf]

Azimer, now that you got a CD-Key / SteamID, give Natural Selection a go. Great fun (http://www.natural-selection.org)

Indeed. IMO the best third party mod ever made.

 

[Azimer]

I am unsure if I can use 3rd party mods without a HalfLife CDKey. I will attempt it when I get around to it

 

[Modem]

Mods are going to be built into steam pretty soon. Valve just started taking people's mods that will eventually be intergrated into Steam (optinoal download I'm guessing). So I'm guessing that the cd-key will need to be valid. Not sure about the current status though. The mod looks cool though, currently downloading it. hehe.

Here's what they said:

=========================================================
We'd like to begin collecting builds from Mod teams interested in distributing their Mod on Steam.
Players will be able to click on the icon for your Mod in the Games list to install your Mod and then get all of the files they need. This means they won't need to visit a web site to download the content and install it manually. We will be able to release new versions of your Mod on Steam so everyone will automatically get the updates.

Dedicated servers will also be able to get the content for your Mod.

We should be ready to start distributing Mods on Steam in the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you'd like to have your team's Mod included, please put together a complete build of what you'd like to release (.zip or .exe) and send me an e-mail with a link to the file so I can download it and get things ready on our end. Make sure the build you give us has been tested with Steam.

Please also include contact information for a Mod team member for us to communicate with if we have any questions/problems.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Eric Smith [[email protected]]
Valve
=========================================================

 

[pj64er]

I was under the impression that you also get a HL Key with CZ. If you didnt even get that....ouch..


All you need for third party mods to work is for HL itself to load on steam. Once you can see the tram intro in HL SP, you are all clear to go nuts on mods.

 

[Azimer]

Yeah... the CDKey received is not even valid for HalfLife or any of the mods already on the list. (DoD, TF, etc). I almost wish I spent the extra money on the Platinum edition.

 

[Modem]

Any cd key you get (Halflife/CS/DoD/CS:CZ) would be compatable. Of course, the only way you'll get all of them (except CZ) is by buying Halflife. Then you'll have access to other ones. Just get the GOTY edition (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...-1060175-7527920?v=glance&s=software&n=507846) that I've had for years. Then, if you want the addons to Halflife (Opposing Force/Blueshift), just buy Blueshift, because it comes with Opposing Force with it. Once you have Halflife GOTY, you'll have access to everything but CZ (except if you buy it from the steam menu). Halflife GOTY is only $20, so it's more than worth it.

 

[pj64er]

Damn, thats horrible. WITH a HL CDKey, all that shit design is excusable, but without...bah.

I did what Modem said, got a GOTY HL, best $20 dollars ever spent.

 

[Modem]

I'd still buy it for $50 if I had to. It's such a awesome game, even today. It's beating the crap outa every game it's facing in the gamespy tournament, haha. 3000 votes over even Diablo II's greatness, and right now, it's beating Mario Bros. 3 by a couple thousand.

 

[Azimer]

I will likely just stick with CS. I am not interested in learning a new game. I am also not going to have the time I was had to devote to "wastes of time" (as mentioned more than once by my parents). I should still have GOTY if someone didn't steal it... there is some principle here. Not much... but some!