Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

I’m glad Valve never sold out with Counter Strike. The game still has that raw brutal aesthetic that works so well with the gameplay. It’s a big part of the reason the game feels the way it does.

Other games have lots of wacky skins and stuff but the Counter Strike games never had that and hopefully never will. Some of the unofficial servers are pretty wacky which is fine as they are unofficial.

Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

#7

Post by dominick-cc » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 4:53 PM UTC

ViktorRay wrote: post #6

I’m glad Valve never sold out with Counter Strike. The game still has that raw brutal aesthetic that works so well with the gameplay. It’s a big part of the reason the game feels the way it does. Other games have lots of wacky skins and stuff but the Counter Strike games never had that and hopefully never will. Some of the unofficial servers are pretty wacky which is fine as they are unofficial.

Newer versions of counterstrike have skins/loot boxes

Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

#8

Post by ViktorRay » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 4:55 PM UTC

dominick-cc wrote: post #7

ViktorRay wrote: post #6

I’m glad Valve never sold out with Counter Strike. The game still has that raw brutal aesthetic that works so well with the gameplay. It’s a big part of the reason the game feels the way it does. Other games have lots of wacky skins and stuff but the Counter Strike games never had that and hopefully never will. Some of the unofficial servers are pretty wacky which is fine as they are unofficial.

Newer versions of counterstrike have skins/loot boxes

Yes but they aren’t wacky or silly

Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

#9

Post by alexjplant » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 4:55 PM UTC

I started with CS: Source and quickly got into 1.6 because of the more expansive funmaps and modding scene. It was like the Wild West (or literally as was the case with de_westwood) - Nipper's penchant for glitchy drivable vehicles, ridiculously huge maps with teleports galore and weird music, fy_iceworld, gun game... it was so wonderfully weird. The fact that the core of the game stayed the same for so many years without DLC meant that people got good at it on their own merit without worrying about dropping money on upgrades or grinding long hours to get drops or whatever.

Maybe I'm old but I feel as though there's still a place for shooters of this nature. Every time I hear about new seasons dropping for some ultra-popular game I lose interest; I've no desire to keep up with the evolution of a game coordinated by a billion-dollar company to extract money from my wallet after I already paid for it.

Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

#10

Post by Insanity » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 4:56 PM UTC

Ahh, I started playing CS back in 2004. I go back to it every year for a few weeks / months, but the latest iteration (CS2) leaves some things to be desired from the 'community server' perspective.

No good surf ("TDM") style games anymore, seems like that game mode has mainly died in favour of the timed surf game-mode.

So now I stick to the 'vanilla' game much more, but without a group of friends that plays regularly, it's a bit of a frustrating experience at times.