Counter Strike: Global Offensive Review

Counter Strike: Global Offensive or CS:GO as I'll refer to it from now on is a complete overhaul of the original Counter Strike from way back in 1999. Counter Strike has always been well known for it's addictive, team-based playing style and with the release of CS:GO the trend has continued.
Everything has been re-done for this game. From the new engine to the character models and even the sounds, this game has basically been built from the ground up, it is just based on a game we all know and love.
Counter Strike has always been based on skill. REAL skill, not the kind of 'skill' you see day-in day-out in other FPS lobbies. Run 'n' Gun here and you'll be dead. These games have always had team tactics at their core, and CS:GO is no different. In this game you have to play as a team to reach the objective, there are no advantages to being a lone ranger. There are some players, that are probably coming new to CS as a series who are finding this difficult to learn. They're easy to spot though!
Now I'm not saying that this tactical play has come across perfectly to consoles. The game, when played with the right people does pretty damn well, but if you get a new era team in you're screwed. Tactics, whilst they are supposed to be important, unfortunately aren't if you've got the wrong players. There are far too many who are playing it like CoD.
I have to admit, after playing all the CoD's, Battlefield etc. when I first loaded this game I was thrown by the lack of a sight, and I was playing pretty badly. This game is all about learning what works and what doesn't for you and your team. Get a LAN going with your friends and this game is literally the perfect shooter.
There is no 'red screen' regenerating health in CS:GO, no cinematic story to keep you going, no concept of levelling up and nothing in the way of perks. This game is FPS taken back to it's roots. You die, you stay dead and have to watch as the rest of your team either die or complete the objective without you. It sucks. And it definitely pushes you to try better next round, who wants to be left out of the fight?!
There are two games that are played in multiple rounds, Classic Casual and Classic Competitive. Basically eliminate the other team before they do the same to you, or be the first to complete the objective. Nothing new here, but trust me this game is addictive. The objectives to be completed range from rescuing hostages (or stopping them from being rescued) or bomb planting/diffusing, something which every CoD player will be aware of. The differences between the two modes are these: Classic Competitive sees you playing 30 rounds, earns you money and lets you shoot your friends. Awesome :)
Two more modes were added to this game, Arms Race and Demolition. Arms Race is another that most people will be familiar with, as it has recently been seen in CoD and Battlefield. You all begin with the same weapon, each kill gets you a new weapon until you reach the golden knife. Kill someone with this first and you win. This mode does let you respawn, the only mode in CS:GO that allows this. Demolition sees the weapon progression of Arms Race taken over into Classic mode.
Overall I think this game has made a great crossover to the consoles. It plays really well and is a welcome change from all the arcade-like shooters we see saturating the shelves these days. The fact it is an XBLA title is brilliant, just pick up and play whenever you're in the mood. This game is the shooter for the thinking person, and when everyone realizes that this game will become INFINITELY better. This game receives the 8 rather than higher mainly because for now, it isn't doing what it should be doing. But as I say when the arcade shooters leave, this game will be well worthy of a higher mark. If you like tactical based shooters this game is the one for you!

8/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review. 

Digital Distribution and the Loss of High Street Stores

Being able to download games from home has meant my game collection has gotten unbelievably huge. Seriously I now have a collection of well over 400 games over my Xbox 360, PS3, Mac and 3DS. At least 150 of these are XBLA or Indie titles (Xbox being my favourite console!). I appreciate being able to download a game on a whim. I appreciate being able to have a game I want without having to go out and get it. But it's not always how I want to get my games.

That might sound incredibly awkward and I really don't mean to be this awkward. But don't you think the current availability of 'Games on Demand' makes us this way?  We now have the choice between having games delivered straight to our computers on the day of release, or going to the shop, queuing, hoping they've got it in stock and coming home. Downloads are readily available again and again, so you'll never know the pain of a broken disc. Downloads never run out (to my knowledge) you're never going to be told to come back tomorrow, or try another store. Which is great, you know you're not going to be behind the lucky sod who gets the last copy, but don't you think it's taking some of the magic away? It may sound childish but I love going out specifically for a game. I can wander round the shops, get info on new releases and look at older games I had never considered before. Some of my best loved games are the result of 'last-minute' buying at the checkout. 

I understand that all the information you can glean from staff in the games shops is readily available on the internet but don't you feel like you'd be missing out on an experience? Chatting to other gamers about your purchase, exchanging GamerTags to play online, discussing tactics and DLC. Gamers are a community, and whilst it is mostly carried out online, via forums etc. why should it only be available there?

Midnight launches are a rite of passage for most gamers, an absolute must for some. I have a friend that goes to every midnight launch, just because he likes the atmosphere. Do we really want that atmosphere to disappear? If more games become available for download on the day of release, game shops will start to become redundant. One day maybe all games will be a digital download. But then what happens to the shiny stuff you get in the special editions? Posted to you a week after release, or gone altogether? One day maybe there won't be anymore game shops on the high street, who knows? 

We saw this nearly happen earlier this year. It hit me pretty hard to be honest. I had just finished Xmas temping at my local GAME store, a job I loved. I thrived off being able to advise customers on other games they might like, what to buy their technophobe dad’s or the latest game for the little kids. The people who work in GAME stores, in my experience are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. We would gladly spend an hour helping out one struggling customer and love the rapport we build with our customers. All that was threatened when a few deals went wrong. Many people were left jobless. Stores shut up and down the country. Every hour there seemed to be another piece of awful news regarding GAME and Gamestation. It was gutting, for everyone involved. And every single gamer wondered what the hell was going to happen next. 

Luckily GAME were given the help they needed to keep some of their stores open, leaving gamers with our haven for awhile longer. But for how much longer? The rise in Digital Distribution and supermarkets undercutting everyone is going to be seriously damaging in the long run. Was this just a sign of things to come?

Whilst it is great to be able to just grab a game you fancy without moving from your sofa (funds allowing obviously) it is also great to go out and grab it and read the case and manual on the bus on the way home. Theres a sense of nostalgia to a manual, and you just can't beat the smell!! 

I love the XBLA titles and love that they're only a simple transaction away (pretty sure my bank balance doesn't though!) but I would never dream of owning a full 'retail' release on anything other than a nice shiny disc! So I guess I should say I like to have my cake and eat it, I sure wouldn't like to be in a position where one or the other was unavailable.

Downloads are great but discs are great too and I think it is important to find a happy medium between the two, so that they don't end up canceling each other out.

DLC - For Love or Profit?

DLC is meant to prolong the longevity of a game, but instead it seems more and more developers are releasing downloadable content that should have been included in the retail version.

Personally I LOVE DLC. I have spent a hell of a lot of money on all the DLC packs for, amongst many others, Mass Effect 1 & 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Dragon Age: Origins, Gears of War 1 & 2, Borderlands and various Call of Duty games. I have also spent a small fortune on my Rock Band, Guitar Hero and Lips music libraries. I have no aversion to developers bringing out DLC - in fact I embrace it. I love that they are making it possible for us to go back to a game we’d completed and have something new to do, even a year after the release. 

Worth the extra 1200MSP??

But I think that should be the purpose of DLC. DLC should be an optional increase to an already amazing game. I feel there are some developers who are releasing below par games with the view to releasing a few DLC packs to cash in. Take the Call of Duty franchise for example. The games that include Zombie mode only include 1 map for the game mode. Now I am aware that Zombies isn’t the main focus for these games but if you are going to include something in a game I don’t think it should be half-assed, and to me that is what Zombies mode feels like. Particularly in the first CoD game to include this mode, Call of Duty: World at War. This zombie map basically saw players put in a hut and told to survive. There were none of the perks, machines or the desperate run to turn on the power. There was no long slog to learn the map. It was as basic as it could get so of course when DLC packs were released that promised fun by the bucket-load we all jumped at it and didn’t think twice about the extra 1200MSP spent. Our appetite for zombie annihilation was sated, for a while at least. But more and more DLC was released and we kept on buying. Overall how much have you spent on a CoD game? And after all that money, does it feel like a game with extras, or just a complete retail release? If you have bought all the map packs for CoD: Black Ops up to now you have spent £70/$105 on this game, would you have paid that for the disc in store? Somehow I doubt a game priced that high would do as well.

Resident Evil 5 was also a culprit. Capcom went as far as to release multiplayer DLC soon after retail release. The DLC was announced BEFORE the release of the game and included the games only online VS multiplayer. 400MSP saw players able to take the Mercenaries mode online and fight in 5 different modes, Slayers, Survivors, Team Slayers, Team Survivors and Versus. Surely this is something that should have been included in a $60/£40 game?

DLC is an amazing way to prolong the enjoyment gleaned from a game. I completed Mass Effect 2 last year but when ‘The Arrival’ DLC was released I was as excited as I had been when playing the game for the first time. That to me is what DLC should be. Improving an already amazing game. Not making a game complete at an extra cost.