Game Reviews
Counter-Strike 1.6 STEAM
By Drat
Sep 19, 2003, 10:07

The roll out of the STEAM powered Counter-Strike 1.6 has definitely not been smooth sailing.  I talked to dozens of people myself that had a hardtime downloading/updating the game.  Those who downloaded the STEAM shell and then tried updating to CS 1.6 after the fact had to deal with error after error, disconnect after disconnect if they even got it downloaded at all.

The wise choice was to download STEAM with the CS data cache built in or in my case download the full version of STEAM that includes all the data for CS, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress and other STEAM powered games.  The problem with these downloads was the size.  Even with a high-speed connection, a 723.4 MB download takes a whole heck of a lot of time.

Once downloaded and installed, you'll find a whole bunch of new features.   The ability to Instant Message via the STEAM messenger with your friends during the game when they in another STEAM game or just working at their computer is a fun feature.  The friends network, which still needs some network improvements, can audibly alert you when a friend joins a game.  Then your server window will tell you what server they are playing on.  No more calling your friends up with IP addresses. 

One of my favorite features is the ability to play CS in a window instead of full screen.  This allows me to be browsing the web or doing some work when I'm waiting for the next round to start because I seem to be the first to die quite often.

Most of the STEAM functionality really works well when it works.  We'll leave it up to them to get the bugs worked out.  Now lets hope that we get to use STEAM for free for a while before they start charging us monthly fees for the service.  As STEAM warned us, the WON system will be taken down soon, thus forcing the change over to STEAM.

Good luck playing and if you havn't updated yet, you can get the patch from www.fileplanet.com or you can even drag and drop it from the LANclub ftp site.

We have added some topics to the LANclub forums to discuss STEAM and CS 1.6.  Jump over there to discuss your feelings on new guns, updated maps, riot shield and STEAM in general.