Starting again

Steam

I’d made abortive attempts to install Steam when it first came out, with the disastrous results that seemed almost typical. However, a few months had passed so I gave it another shot – only to find out that the two Half-Life CD keys I already owned were not acceptable by Steam, for whatever reason. Inquiries to tech support went unanswered for almost 2 days, so I went off to the store, picked up another copy of the complete Half-Life collection and had a perfectly smooth installation of Steam.

Steam, this time around, wasn’t so bad. I still have problems convincing Counter-Strike to change gamma and brightness; it likes to ignore the settings. Steam is a moderately useful application, but hardly worth the hassle so far. I don’t see any benefit as a gamer and in fact I imagine it’s quite a pain for those without permanent internet connections. To have to be online to play singleplayer is a ridiculous demand; if anything this requirement will popularize cracks and hacks among mainstream gamers who don’t have broadband – especially once Half-Life 2 comes out. I understand and respect Valve’s concern about the terrible toll that piracy takes on sales, but every security measure so far has been beaten by hackers, for Steam it’s only a matter of time.

First impressions

Before CS I’d been playing a ton of Call of Duty, and in the months before CoD, I was a veritable Enemy Territory addict. To this day there is no game better at balancing arcade action and realism, as well as differing classes and weapons, than ET. Call of Duty has its problems but is a very crisp experience. It feels very much like a fresh, invigorated Counter-Strike. The imbalanced weapons are part of the fun, though the sniper rifle really does need to be toned down.

The transition from these games to Counter-Strike was sort of like going to Duke 3D from Quake, without all the quirky weapons that made Duke fun. CS is a wholly more primitive experience on every level, and while this isn’t necessarily bad, it is depressing to see how little progress has been made from 1.0 to 1.6. It’s not so much a matter of the technology involved as of design. Counter-Strike simply isn’t the best at what it does anymore. Everyone will always look back at Quake for the ultimate deathmatch venue, that most merciless test of individual skill. Not so with CS; it’s clearly fallen behind.

Nothing has overtly changed – oh sure, there are riot shields, a few new weapons and silly names for the weapons, but the core gameplay hasn’t changed. And yet, the experience feels totally different and wholly inferior. The first five minutes, first hour, first day of my renewed acquaintance with CS struck me with a profound disappointment – the first such disappointment in my CS life. It’s not frustration at the changes or anger at my loss of skill, but a certain sadness that CS has been eclipsed.