CS-Nation

Covering the future of Counter-Strike
counter-strike source beta guide
article: counter-strike source beta guide
Listen up Source fans, the newest Counter-Strike game is turning heads and CS-Nation is here to set you straight on what's what in the Counter-Strike: Source BETA. We'll get you into the game and fragging like it's just another dust 24/7 pub in no time. Let's get started!

Getting Started
The first thing you need to be aware of is that CS: Source is, of course, on a brand new engine. This isn't that archaic Half-Life technology that put a man on the moon folks, this is the real deal. Depending on your system specs, you may want to look in to toning down some of the options, and leave the anti-aliasing at the door. I'm running an Intel 3.06 GHZ P4 with a Radeon 9800 Pro, but I play on medium settings to keep a constant, high frame-rate, and it still looks great.


It wouldn't be dust if you couldn't camp spawn.
After you have tweaked your graphics to a comfortable setting, you'll want to setup your config. You'll find the control interface very familiar, and should have no problems there. The built-in buy aliases have changed slightly, while the weapon names for purchasing a gun remain the same, you must precede the weapon name with the "buy" command, for example, "buy m4a1". Just type "buy" in console to list all the weapon aliasing. The autobuy and rebuy feature is also in the game, if that floats your boat.

Another minor config-related change you'll come across is the radar. There is a new command, "cl_radaralpha [x]", that lets you set the transparency level of the radar when cl_radartype is set to "1". This lets you tweak the radar to your liking, but it will never be fully opaque. The good news is that locations on the radar themselves (teammates, the bomb) are fully opaque and very easy to spot in any light level.


CS: Source Radar.

Physics
As you're no doubt aware, CS: Source features a fully robust physics engine that adds an exciting dynamic factor to most of the objects in the world. You'll come across two types of physics objects in CS: Source.


Rag-Doll is funny!
The first type are the larger objects that are fully affected by the world around them. Among this class of objects are small crates, buckets, and of course the infamous steel drum. These objects realistically interact with each other, the world, and the player. However, trying to stand on one will result in you clipping through or pushing it out of the way. One thing to note is that you cannot shoot through most of these objects, including the steel drums. Don't worry, they provide little cover at best, and are easily shot out of the way.

The other, smaller, physics objects you'll encounter are mostly there for aesthetics, and while you can shoot them around, they don't react much with the world, you clip right through them.


Just hold down the trigger and that AFK'er will be dead in no time!
The physics system as a whole is really just a neat little side-feature that doesn't offer much in the way of gameplay altering changes. I'm sure this will change when it is put to better use in new maps.

Gameplay Changes
There are, however, a number of other gameplay changes you'll want to watch out for in CS: Source. The biggest change being, in my opinion, the crosshair refresh speed. As noted in rizzuh's article, the crosshair does not behave the same way it did in CS 1.6 when firing a weapon. Here's what's different:
When firing a weapon in Counter-Strike 1.6, your crosshair will expand to represent the loss of control and recoil. The longer you continue firing, the further it expands until it reaches a maximum point of expansion. When you cease firing, your crosshair will shrink back to its normal size, allowing you to easily line up another target in your crosshair and begin firing again. This is also true to Counter-Strike: Source, but with a slight difference. In CS: Source, your crosshair does not smoothly transition back to its original size, instead it seems to shrink back in phases, one size at a time. This process takes a couple seconds longer than CS 1.6, making recoil harder to control.
Because of this change you'll need to re-adjust your bursting tactics. It's not as easy to fire off three shots at an opponent, wait half a second, and then fire three more. You'll have a hard time lining up that second burst due to your crosshair's delayed settle-down time. Your best bet is to just try to forget about the crosshair and remember that the actual recoil is the same, you'll have to get use to estimating where you'll want to aim your next burst.