As I mentioned below, VoodooExtreme has put up a post with a ton 'o info on Beta 5, here's the gist of it:
What a day!
Counter-Strike Beta 5, includes 2 new maps and a fully automatic shotgun, as well as significant improvements in the areas of ease of use, active visual feedback and accessibility. The CS team and Barking Dog have been working together to refine the HUD, improve the menus and help system, and implement new observer modes and features. Valve helped finance and produce the project as a way to say thank you to the Half-Life community and further the effort to showcase the great work of all HL mod developers.The beefy parts are in bold, as you can read, it seems both Barking Dog (I'm so informed!) and Valve have helped production on beta 5. For the full can of beans, go to VE! Also we have a link of new pics right below this post..
What a day!