On the Download: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

It looks like when the big retail releases start coming in force at the end of the summer, the downloadable games start to trickle.  That is not a big problem consider what released this week.  Valve has brought the return of the king of competitive shooters in Counter-Strike.  Easily keeping the attention of many gamers for the weeks, months and possibly years to come.  There are still a lot of people that play the original Counter-Strike and that game is over a decade old.  Another noteworthy downloadable release this week is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II has finally released for Steam.  As a big fan of the original Knights of the Old Republic, I have personally been waiting for this game to be released on Steam for the last few years and very excited to pick it up in the near future.  Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II is available on Steam for 10 dollars if anybody is interested in picking it up.

After 12 long years, Valve has made a full-on sequel to their ever-popular Half-Life mod, Counter-Strike.  Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is an online first-person shooter that focuses on skillful team-based gameplay.  Each match allows players to play either a Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist.  The goal of a round is to either complete the designated objective or eliminating the opposing team.  In each round, the player is given one life.  If you die, you must wait until the next round to respawn.  Between rounds, players are able to purchase weapons and equipment using the money earned during the round. You earn money by completing objectives and killing enemies and you lose money by killing a teammate or hostage (accident or not).  Global Offensive features new game modes, new maps and new weapons and equipment for players to indulge in.  Along with all the new stuff packed in Global Offensive, Valve has added updated versions of classic Counter-Strike maps, game modes, weapons and equipment such as de_dust.  If you want to join in huge multi-player experience that is Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike is available on Steam, XBLA and PSN for 15 dollars or 1200 Microsoft Points.