Counter Strike

Counter-Strike (shortened sometimes to CS) is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe. The game has been expanded into a series since its original release, which currently includes Counter-Strike: Condition Zero,Counter-Strike: Source, Counter-Strike: Anthology and Counter-Strike on Xbox. Counter-Strike pits a team ofcounter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in a series of rounds. Each round is won by either completing the mission objective or eliminating the opposing force.

The game is currently the most played Half-Life modification in terms of players, according to GameSpy.^[2

When Counter-Strike was published by Sierra Entertainment/Vivendi Universal Games, it was bundled with Team Fortress Classic, Opposing Force multiplayer, and the Wanted, Redemption and Firearms mods."^[5]

On 24 March 1999^{[verification needed]} Planet Half-Life opened its Counter-Strike section. Within two weeks, the site had received 10,000 hits. On June 19, 1999, the first public beta of Counter-Strike was released, followed by numerous further "beta" releases. On April 12, 2000, Valve announced that the Counter-Strikedevelopers and Valve had teamed up.

The non-beta release dates of Counter-Strike are as follows^[6]:

• Version 1.0: November 1, 2000
• Version 1.1: March 13, 2001
• Version 1.3: September 12, 2001
• Version 1.4: April 24, 2002
• Version 1.5: June 12, 2002
• Version 1.6: September 15, 2003

Note: Version 1.6 effectively coincided with the release of Valve Software's Steam content delivery system. All further updates and bug fixes have been dynamically delivered via Steam, without any specific new version numbers.

On January 25, 2003, a world wide competition was held by Valve and hosted by Dell. Numerous Dell desktops and laptops were awarded in the competition which attracted over 10,000 participants. The competition was held over a two week period, with the winners "b0b" and "jsrawr" being announced on February 15 on Valve's website.^{[citation needed]}

On March 20, 2004, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero was released. It contained a single player campaign and bots, as well as other changes.

Counter-Strike received a major technology update and refresh on November 1, 2004 with the release of Counter-Strike: Source, which was heavily updated usingValve's Source game engine to take advantage of more modern graphics and audio hardware. However, the original Counter-Strike is still available and played by many people via Steam, as the two variants are quite different, and players inevitably prefer one variant over the other. Both versions continue to co-exist today.

Counter-Strike was originally played online through the WON gaming service, which was shut down in 2004,^[7] forcing players to switch to Steam. The non-Steam version of Counter-Strike (version 1.5) can still be downloaded from sites such as FilePlanet.^[8] Due to the closure of WON, part of the player community responded by creating their own WON network, dubbed WON2.^{[citation needed]}

In March 2007, Valve implemented mandatory advertisements through Steam in official maps and in the game's GUI overhead. Customers have expressed frustration with the ads, including an over 200 page thread on Valve's official forums, saying that they violate original terms of service and distract from the game.^[9]The thread was later deleted by an unknown moderator.

Main article: Counter-Strike Online

As of February 2008, Counter-Strike Online is only available in South Korea and is now in open beta test. It is being developed by Nexon Corporation with oversight from license-holder Valve Corporation, and is an attempt to increase market share of Valve's games in the Korean gaming market.

Tom Clancy's : Rainbow Six Lockdown

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown is the fourth game in the Rainbow Six series. The initial design andPlayStation 2 version were developed by Red Storm Entertainment and the Xbox version was developed by the Ubisoft Montreal studio. Both are published by Ubisoft. The PlayStation 2, Xbox and Gamecube versions were released on September 8, 2005 and a version for Windows was released on February 16, 2006.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

This article is about 2010 video game. For other uses, see Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (disambiguation).

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a BAFTA-award winning^[11] 2010 racing video game in the Need for Speed series developed by British games developer Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and iOS. The Wii version was developed by Exient Entertainment. Hot Pursuit is the 16th title in the franchise and was released in November 2010. The game was released on via digital download on 15 December 2010.

Hot Pursuit's gameplay is set in the fictional Seacrest County, an open world in which players can compete in several types of races. Players can also compete online (except in the wii version), which includes additional game modes as "Hot Pursuit", "Interceptor" and "Race". The game feature a new social interaction system called "Autolog", which is a network that connects friends for head-to-head races and compares player stats for competition. The game also features paid downloadable content in the form of new cars, new race and pursuit events, and new trophies/achievements.

Hot Pursuit was well received by critics at E3 2010 and was most notably awarded with "Best Racing Game" fromGame Critics Awards as well as several other media outlets. Upon its release, Hot Pursuit was met with high critical acclaim averaging 90% on both review aggregate websites Metacritic and GameRankings, making it the highest rated game in the Need for Speed series history and one of the generation's highest rated racing games. In the end of 2010, it won several "Best Racing Game" awards, including "Best Driving Game" at Spike’s 2010 Video Game Awards. Reviewers praised the game’s visuals, soundtrack, the new Autolog feature, felt the game had an excellent sense of speed and that it brought the series back to the roots. Hot Pursuit was ranked number seven onNPD's sales charts for November 2010, and GamesIndustry.biz reported that "Hot Pursuit" managed to sell 417,000 units in the US in its first two weeks. After three months of sales, it was announced that the game has sold more than 5 million units.

Left 4 Dead

Set in the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead™ 2 (L4D2) is the highly anticipated sequel to the award-winning Left 4 Dead, the #1 co-op game of 2008.

This co-operative action horror FPS takes you and your friends through the cities, swamps and cemeteries of the Deep South, from Savannah to New Orleans across five expansive campaigns.

You’ll play as one of four new survivors armed with a wide and devastating array of classic and upgraded weapons. In addition to firearms, you’ll also get a chance to take out some aggression on infected with a variety of carnage-creating melee weapons, from chainsaws to axes and even the deadly frying pan.

You’ll be putting these weapons to the test against (or playing as in Versus) three horrific and formidable new Special Infected. You’ll also encounter five new “uncommon” common infected, including the terrifying Mudmen

Helping to take L4D’s frantic, action-packed gameplay to the next level is AI Director 2.0. This improved Director has the ability to procedurally change the weather you’ll fight through and the pathways you’ll take, in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match your performance. L4D2 promises a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience every time the game is played, custom-fitted to your style of play.

Be sure to pick up a copy November 17th on Xbox® 360 or Steam®, and discover for yourself how much fun a zombie apocalypse can be:

- Next generation co-op action gaming from the makers of Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress and Counter-Strike.

- Over 20 new weapons & items headlined by over 10 melee weapons – axe, chainsaw, frying pan, baseball bat – allow you to get up close with the zombies

- New survivors. New story. New dialogue.

- Five expansive campaigns for co-operative, Versus and Survival game modes.

- An all new multiplayer mode.

- Uncommon common infected. Each of the five new campaigns contains at least onenew "uncommon common" zombies which are exclusive to that campaign.

- AI Director 2.0: Advanced technology dubbed “The AI Director” drove L4D’s unique gameplay – customizing enemy population, effects, and music, based upon the players’ performance. L4D 2 features “The AI Director 2.0” which expands the Director’s ability to customize level layout, world objects, weather, and lighting to reflect different times of day.

- Stats, rankings, and awards system drives collaborative play

- Support for split screen play (Xbox 360 version only)