Counter-strike

A modification of Valve's first person shooter Half-life. It is the most widely played of the HL mods. Counter-strike (CS) is team-based; the two sides are called Terrorists? and Counter-terrorists?. The two teams spawn simultaneously; they have a certain amount of time (usually 30 seconds) in which they can buy equipment, provided they do not leave the "buy zone" (see /Equipment.) The round ends when the map's objective has been completed. Any players killed before the round is over become "ghosts"; their chat/voice messages cannot be seen/heard by the players still alive, they cannot change their names, they become invisible and can float freely around the map.

There are three main types of maps:

cs_ maps: these are based on a hostage rescue situation. 4 Hostages (computer-controlled) are located near the terrorist spawn; the counter-terrorists must take them (walk up to them and press the "use" key) and lead them to the rescue zone, which is usually near the counter-terrorist spawn (note: some maps have more than one rescue zone.) If a player on either side kills a hostage, (s)he loses money. Killing the entire enemy team also ends the round. If the time limit is reached and the hostages have not been rescued, the terrorists win (even if the hostages have all been killed.) Some of the most popular cs_ maps:

• cs_office
• cs_militia
• cs_assault
• cs_estate
• cs_backalley
• cs_italy
• cs_thunder

de_ maps: based on a bomb-defusing scenario. One of the terrorists starts out with a c4? bomb, which can only be planted at bomb sites; usually there are two bomb sites on the map, one of which is near the counter-terrorist spawn. Once the bomb has been planted, the counter-terrorists have to locate and defuse it before it explodes. On de_ maps a special defuse kit can be bought to decrease the time it takes to defuse a bomb. Killing the enemy team ends the round if the bomb has not been planted; if the bomb has been planted, terrorists win if they kill the counter-terrorists, but the counter-terrorists must defuse the bomb even if they kill the terrorists. If the round ends and the bomb has not exploded (or been defused) the counter-terrorists win. Popular de_ maps:

• de_dust
• de_dust2
• de_prodigy
• de_survivor
• de_inferno
• de_cbble

as_ maps: based on an assasination scenario. One of the counter-terrorists spawns as a vip?. The vip can't buy equipment, but starts out with 200 armor (the normal maximum is 100.) The vip must go to a vip rescue point; this is usually a helicopter or apc. The counter-terrorists win if the vip makes it to the rescue point or all the terrorists are killed while the vip is still alive. The terrorists win if the vip is killed or the time limit is reached and the vip has not yet made it to the rescue point. as_ maps are much less popular than cs_ and de_ maps. Popular as_ maps:

• as_tundra
• as_oilrig