nternet gaming establishments rely on Counter-Strike and Valve knows it, which is why the Half-Life developer insists that internet cafes pay a subscription (per machine) for them to offer 'the world's number one online game' for customers to play. The initial release of the Counter-Strike: Source beta was in many ways then a payback of sorts, that meant if you wanted to be the first to see and play Counter-Strike running on the Half-Life 2 engine, you had to visit an Official Valve Cyber Cafe.
"I'd say Counter-Strike makes up 85 per cent of the games played here, so the subscription is worth it. But it's a high price to pay," says Tony Harding, owner of the Web Frenzy gaming cafe in Hastings (www.web
frenzy.co.uk). "If more software companies followed the Steam model it would kill us as a business."
Of course, I'd popped by not to talk shop, but to be one of the first to play Counter-Strike: Source. Admittedly, I was a day late for the 'launch', but the queue to have a pop with what is essentially a test run for Counter-Strike 2 was surprisingly thin. In fact, I turned up, handed over 1.50 and was within a minute logged in to Steam and ready to go.
Of course, being beta code,
C-S: Source is not without some irregularities, but seeing as I'd not played C-S in over two years I failed to notice any bugs. Clearly I'd missed something, since those around me were happy playing vanilla CS rather than this spanking new version.
"Some people have travelled up to 50 miles to play C-S: Source and the release has been well received," says Harding, before adding rather tellingly that "most of the main Counter-Strike crew in my centre have gone back to playing the original Counter-Strike 1.6 and Condition Zero until the bugs are fixed, though."
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| The Web Frenzy cafe, Hastings. Counter-Strike capital of the world. |
