Here is a review for Counter-Strike: Source.

Over the past few years the hype has been building for a megaton of a game called Counter-Strike: Source. After delays and delays, we finally get the game in out hands with expectations bigger then ever. Did it meet them or did it let us down? All that right here in my user review.

Game Play - 9/10

Why you might ask, why a 9/10? Well simply this is the beginning of a game released online over steam gaming service offered by Valve. And with every game released online, there is bugs, major and minor that casual gamers could find annoying. With any game containing Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists there has to be a big selection of weapons, from rifles to pistols. Being such an open game, buying items when you spawn at the beginning of a round, the rocket launch was sadly not included in the game. Why, well because it simply would be unfair. The rest of the guns have all variants, from strong-weak to fast-slow each has its own us and you have to figure that out on your own. I think that the guns hit it right on the money, something for everyone I would say. With big battles up to 32 players on a server, you can expect some latency if your not outfitted with a state of the art computer. Depending on the map, there is many different things you can do. Play a bombing game DE, with such maps as DE_Dust or DE_Aztec, can be very enjoying or frightening, depending on the skills of your teammates. Or just playing a simple shoot out, or what the players know it as, CS. Cs maps are just T vs. CT. Well the game didn't come with many maps in the beginning modders will be pleased when they get the CS: S modding package when the game is officially released into retail.

Graphics - 10/10

The graphics are a real turn point in video games these days, they can make or break a game. The improvement from 1.6 - Source is flawlessly amazing. Having such beautiful character models and environments, can only mean one thing, a beautiful game with great game play. Unlike Doom 3. The graphics of the Source engine being much different of that of other games, they differ because they are actually the most realistic out there, from facial features to bump mapped levels. The graphics are above anything I have ever seen out on the market right now. The graphical feature on the levels is top quality, the levels of bump mapping and normal mapping is amazing. Imagine clay tiles in real life and compare them to that in the game you will see an amazing resemblance, the shininess reflected off them and everything. One of the best features Source has is the water, it has the ability to reflect and refract everything with amazing precision. The impact that these graphics has is that it makes it feel like you are playing more then a game. It makes you feel like you are actually there and the realism of the graphics and sound do that.

Sound - 9.5/10

Right off the bat you will notice something very different about Source, the ability for high quality surround sound. The sound in this game could be considered realistic in terms of gaming. You can silence weapons, you can switch modes on the weapons, everything sounds different and that’s what sets this differently from most other first person shoots. In the mod console you can turn footsteps off and on, so if you have surround sound and have a pretty noise proof room, I suggest cranking it up and listening to all the ambient, gun shots, grenades, environment and character sounds. The blood spray doesn't sound the same after every shot, it all depends on where you hit him and how hard you hit him, glass breaks and sounds different on different levels. You can pretty much shoot anything and it will have a different sound. The echoes in hallways to being grenade and flash banged, their all have amazing and crisp sounds, pulling out weapons and loading them have such a nice metal sound to them you could picture it in your head and see that this is quite an achievement in gaming. The only thing that makes and breaks the mere .5 off a perfect score is when you join a game you always get an annoying jitter or clicking in the sound, but it's reasonable to have such a thing.

Value - 10/10

The value is the one of the greatest feature about the Counter-Strike series. The modding ability of these games is where Counter-Strike series gets it's replay value. The value of having a game that doesn't get old in game play is going to be a classic no doubt. And I think that’s what the counterstrike series really has. The ability to play and forget how old a game is and what it looks like in visual terms. With an early release of this game via steam download service the mod package isn't out yet to be used by the public. With the purchase of Counter-Strike: Source, you can get all of Valves back catalog and the new games Half-life 2 and Day of Defeat: Source. But the release of these will be close to the November 16th release date of the colossus game, Half-life 2.

Tilt - 8/10

My expirenece with Counter-Strike: Source has been a quite good one to my knowledge. I've had fun with it online, and offline with bots, or lan. Online seem to be the most fun, joining a 32 person public server or a 20 person clan server ether way it's one of the best online games, but fall slighly behind Unreal 2004. The 2 points off is because of server rejection and pointless booting exploits when the game first came out. I heart this game and I will heart it for many years to come.

The Verdict - 9.5/10 (Not rounded)

Well Counter-Strike: Source passed my expectations, it only fails in two aspects right now, the lack of mod support at the moment right now and you have to have a credit card or visa to buy it online. But these are minor problems that will be fixed in the near future, such as on November 16th. Now for the good stuff, CS: S is a remarkable game for this generation, physics that are top notch rag doll, graphics that are some of the most realistic these days. So I suggest that if you have a credit card and are willing to fork out $59.99 American ($75.50 Canadian) get the silver package, its well worth the money and one of the best games this generation.

Please take in mind this is my first review ever, and take it easy on me.