In other news, Gabe Newell has stated that Counter-Strike: Source will start pre-loading the 300MB monster for those eligible (Cybercafe owners, Condition Zero owners) on August 5. The actual release date for this beta version, will be August 10. Read on for more information.

This shall be important to follow. If you have broadband you will definitely want to leave Steam running for August 5 as the network, although Valve has said they are taking preparations, will still be hit hard over the five days until it's release. After that, it is likely it will still be under some heavy usage for a few days. This is a two-part process, users will want to prepare just as Valve is. The transfers will likely be slower than normal updates either way.

For connections such as Single ISDN or dial-up, you may want to wait after the initial day or two before you attempt to pre-load or install the beta. It will be especially slow and will not be worth the struggle more than likely at first.

With this, it means if you have access to it that you can really start to see what the Source engine is about and fiddle around and most likely, map and mod for this as well.

It will only contain the necessary files for CS:Source, though, and then only the ones for the beta.

Also, it still stands that there will only be one map for this beta, so think of it as a CS demo, haha...cough, well it's also likely it will be (again) the infamouse, de_dust. Valve said it would probably be d1, so we can only presume it will be (for now anyway). Who knows, but this means they may have more models and materials in the preload, but unavailable and those with this may not have to update much upon the actual release of the real thing...:0

Now, the source is being pre-released... before the game. Is this only for modding purposes? How can we play test it?

This beta release centered around CS is not a mod, cs stopped being a mod a very long time ago (along with DOD) so I consider this to be a pretty nifty trick.

Valve has shifted their games over to the free Steam distribution network. While you can buy everything old and they still work, this essentially turns them over into large GCF files akin to a pak file, etc. (GCF Explorer, good tool). They still use CD-Key attached to your Login account to monitor you, so actually you can play your own games from any computer in the world that has the game installed and an internet connection to login.

They are releasign the CS Beta because it is essentially a conversion of the materials from the normal versions put into Source form (all previous HL-based mods can be converted into Source engine material!) and then of course, because it would be ugly, they updated models, textures, etc.

The beta is open to PC owners of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and (first and foremost) Cybercafe/LAN Center's that have a license for Steam. That is the only way to obtain the beta and play it (since it is moderated through the use of Accounts, you can't really fake it and get away).

It has the resources supposedly, to play the original DE_DUST map and at least one model for each team. They want to release this to get feedback from gamers about how similar it is to the original and according to a preview of a beta build earlier this month (it was tested live to a select few of gamers in Seoul, Korea as well)

They said that since they had already released XSI, etc. and mods have been underway since then (apparently more than i could ever name, im learning), that when this release you should in theory, be able to introduce some limited material...such as a map based off the textures used (however, im unaware of Worldcraft aka Hammer's abilities right now to edito Source-related materials) and models use. I'm sure you can make/replace the models, weapons and textures, though. I just dont know if Hammer supports everything, since I don't know much about how Source is going as far as mapping and the sdk yet~

They wish to release it to this choice community (around 20, 000 players for CZ and then all the lan'ers) because it is a nice chunk and can help them find anythign they may have overlooked, they're doing most of their port of CS tailored for gamers, its nice...some of their updates to cs over the last six months have caused real chaos and problems, like the introduction of the shield caused many new bugs and glitches that week, then a couple months later as well (they even updated it to fix a bug where you could buy multiple rifles and use them all, wyhiel u have a shield and shoot at the same time, etc., they fixed it and that same week the bug was...somehow 'unfixed' etc etc)

essentially, they have told us that valve's current projects after hl2 will be working on tf2 (thats always the case, lol) and supporting the mod community, i think they're relying a lot on mod support, obviously by the fact source can have any mod ported over, coop should be possible, still waiting on word from gabe about that, though...since no mp at launch, remember?

wow...long read

I still consider it mod. I used to do some mapping work with th original team befor ethey sold off to Valve (which was a good move for them really).

And now I consider it a mod again because Valve states that hl2 will ship with no multiplayer.. which in my mind makes this a mod for hl2 because it is the multiplayer equivelent until another one comes along.

Yeah, technically it is a mod. (Although Valve considers it it's own game now, according to Steam.)

But not everymod gets it's own retail version and then a re-make and another retail version, then ported to X-Box.

leet

Note: The only thing the original box version of CS was good for (for normal users) was the extra cd-key for when they buy HL and download CS for free. (A lot of people had problems with CS Retail, however I had it working great for months, lol.)