Two New CZ Reviews

[CSN NewsBot]

With Counter-Strike: Condition Zero being released yesterday, the reviews are "pouring in" as they say. First we have PC.IGN and their review, in which they gave CZ a 7/10. You can find the full review over at their website however; here is a little sample to whet your appetite:

PC.IGN (7/10)

Gamers who don't already own the frenetic Counter-Strike should be attracted to this new game as a good introduction that helps them transition into serious online competitors. Gamers who already accomplished Counter-Strike players will find the offline component somewhat novel but not indispensable.

Next up is Gamespot and their review of CZ, which scored a 6.8/10. You can see the full review right over here. And here's a little snippet of what they had to say about CZ:

Gamespot (6.8/10)

Condition Zero is a product that will appeal most to those players who haven't tried CS yet (and how many of them are there?), those who don't want to deal with the hassles of playing the game online, and those who just want to have some offline practice.

There seems to be a recurring theme of "good for new players, not so good for people who have been playing CS for awhile" in all of these reviews. There is also a recurring theme of the price being just a little high. However, it should be pointed out that Condition Zero is doing well in these reviews for all of the problems it has faced since it was announced nearly three years ago.

[Equalizer!]

Well going by these comments in CSN it's not doing too well.

[asspennies]

Nothing can compare to CS online. But CS Offline? It seems to be getting a less-than-perfect reception.

[Spoonman]

Both Gamespot and IGN comment on how the bots in the offline mode are actually decent. (For the most part)

[Julio Caesar]

Edited by [user="109979"] @ [time="1080152633"]

You'd think they would say that CZ is more for veteran CS players who are allready acquainted with the aging CS vibe.



Also, out of all the planing turtle rock and valve did with the game, you'd think they would ahve released it when there wasn't so many awsome FPS games being released in the first place (farcry, batle feilf vietnam, UT 2004, not to mention all the other great PC FPS games that are gonna be released in the next 4-8 months.) So basically, after all these years of development, CS:CZ couldn't be more screwed than it is now.

[_Shorty]

when you buy a game at retail for, say, $40, how much of that do you figure would finally filter back to Valve after the retailer, distributor, publisher, and any other middlemen take their chunk? *This* is why I think Valve are insane for charging $40 for the title over Steam. You can be damn sure the bandwidth usage involved doesn't make up for how many middlemen have been cut out. Which I don't think Valve even ends up paying for anyways, do they? Not sure exactly how the content servers are as far as that goes, whether Valve's paying these guys some cash for their pipes or if it's voluntary or if the little ad displayed by the content server is all the payment they get, or what. But still, CS:CZ should be $10 at most over Steam if you ask me.

[DaRk-AnGeL]

hmmmmmmmm ign says



"The one upside to all this is that the game runs beautifully on older systems."



Is that guy talking out his arse ?

[><43ro]

CZ iz goooooodddddd i played it i wanna get it 4 my birthday:P

[Tsop]

In response to #5

It's $10 off if you get it through Steam... not $40. (believe me, I still think that's way too much).



If they are going to charge $40 for this crap, it really makes me wonder how much hl2 (if it's ever released) will cost. I know Doom III is already raising the norma $50 price tag to $55, but how much will HL2 cost?



Regardless, $40 for this heaping pile of cow dung is WAY too much. If I would have reviewed it, it would have lost 20 points simply because of price. At the VERY MOST, it should have cost $20... Way to go Valve. Hmmmm.... $40 for CZ or $40 for Far Cry (which came out today)... which one should I chose?

[Deletable_Man]

I'll probably never pub again, where here I have here bots that give information and can think. They also have great skill on higher levels. Why dick around the serverlist for a decent server when I can just play with smart, VERY smart bots

[K-16]

Deletable_Man wrote..

I'll probably never pub again, where here I have here bots that give information and can think. They also have great skill on higher levels. Why dick around the serverlist for a decent server when I can just play with smart, VERY smart bots

Smart bots that "don't cheat nor whine."

[RavenGT]

K-16 wrote..

Smart bots that "don't cheat nor whine."

lol, technically bots in all games uses "cheats" such as aimbots and wallhack (ESP). Or else the bots wouldn't know where to shoot or look. They just don't call them "cheats, thats all.

[3a5tw00D]

- They pushed it out to calm the masses till hl2



- They pushed it out to get some $ till the $ flows in from hl2 because of the delay and hacking (spent all $ from hl1 to produce hl2, and so if its delayed as much as it has been, they must be reeling $ wise)



- they pushed it out for the simple fact of just pushing it out, getting rid of the project that had grown stale and to the point where it would not please gamers whatsoever without delaying it further (which would be causing conflicts with an "imminent" hl2 release)



- they pushed it out to test/debug steam resources/code and implement proper update rollout procedure and test user feedback regarding HOW the steam system is working for the average user, NOT if the CONTENT (condition zero absolute shitiness and lack of NEW features at a price that could only be justified b/c of the financial constraint they are currently experiencing (my guess, I have no evidence to backup my statement/opinion, cs 1.6 glitches)) was up to par or not. It's not like they don't care, but they know first and foremost the system must work in the first place, and THEN address issues that the common gamer will moan/cry/bitch about (hey godamn I want my opaque radar too ya know? )



I feel bad for valve and their steam project not going as smoothly as possible. CZ will no doubt try to cushion the losses incurred with the years of wasted development time (will it even turn a profit?) and I may be hurting valve myself by posting this (ppl got high expectations from game sites like this one and others showing screenshots/posting stuff about the new models and movies of things to come in CZ, however it is not rizzuhs nor any game media organizations fault, its solely valves for allowing ppl to release teasers, I doubt if they knew that the development would have flip flopped like it did, or had even caved into ravenous gamer outcry for information on the "sequel" to cs, they would have released as much info as they did about the game.



These are all ideas that popped into my head about the question regarding why in the fuck they would even release sum p.o.s. like this



I guess I won't be buying CZ, even though I WANTED to. like the other dude said, better spent sending it to sum Ethiopians. nt valve

[.b0w. Bushwacker]

RavenGT wrote..

lol, technically bots in all games uses "cheats" such as aimbots and wallhack (ESP). Or else the bots wouldn't know where to shoot or look. They just don't call them "cheats, thats all.

read this

A human-like attention system: Bots can only see and hear what a real player would in the same

situation . They check corners and hiding spots, "lead" their aim around corners, investigate noises,

and in general act on incomplete information. This results in bots that can be surprised and even panic.

A visual and auditory pipeline that delays incoming stimuli to simulate human reaction times.

Smooth and realistically imperfect weapon aiming, based on each bot's individual skill level.

http://turtlerockstudios.com/CSBot

[Julio Caesar]

Still, I'd buy Farcry anyday than this peice of crap. So the bots are great, big deal. Thats the ONLY thing this game has going for itself, except for maybe some redone maps to make them look prettier and some other maps thrown in there too.