Counter-Strike on Xbox

[sega fan]

I spent the night at a friends house last night and I brought over Counter-Strike for Xbox. Out of curiosity we logged in to Xbox Live to see if the game's servers were still up and to see if anybody was still playing. Oddly enough, there's an increadibly small community that is still playing Counter-Strike on Xbox.

It's amazing; I would've figured that every Xbox FPS except Halo 2 would be a ghost town by now. About 40 - 50 people still make up the community. The only downside is that the 50 or so players are all over the world so not everyone is playing simultaneously.

I grabbed a blank tape and caught some footage. I'll post pictures or get that to youtube soon, but I have to fix the cassette first because my friends VCR ate my tape. I can repair it, but there will be a minute missing due to the splice I have to do.

Anyway, I'd thought I'd share and I want to know, have any of you played Counter-Strike for Xbox. If so, any anecdotes? Also, are you guys willing to start playing again?

[streetsofrage]

ya i played counter-strike on my xbox360 not to long ago , people still play it

[Puffy2k316]

yeah whenever the list of most played original xbox games is posted CS is 5th or 6th every month.

funny that 50 people gets you 5th place now

[sega fan]

I'm also impressed that the downloadable content is still intact and up for grabs.

[streetsofrage]

I'm also impressed that the downloadable content is still intact and up for grabs.

and still expensive

[sega fan]

and still expensive

That's funny, Last night I got two Xbox exclusive Counter-Strike maps for free.

[streetsofrage]

ya time i checked they were still for sell, MS still charges for cod 2 maps

[sega fan]

ya time i checked they were still for sell, MS still charges for cod 2 maps

Are those free as well? Counter-Strike DLC is now free. I wonder if there is some expiration date for Xbox Live DLC prices. That's probably why Microsoft doesn't promote being able to play original Xbox games on Live as much as they used to; because they're not making any money off of the extra content.

EDIT : After about 15 minutes of fighting with the plastic case, I finally fixed the tape. I should get the scoreboards and screenshots up in this thread soon. :) Thank god that his VCR ate the tape after we got done recording. I cut out nothing but blank space.

As I said before, my friends VCR ate my tape but I opened it up, took sissors and cut out the twisted and torn segment of the tape, then I had to gently place a band of clear scotch tape to connect both sides of the tape. Then I had to rewind the tape with my bare hands to make the tape nice and tight.

[sega fan]

The downloadable content is still available and It's free. One thing that I find weird is that the server that you download the extra content from uses the original Xbox Live interface; It doesn't use the modern-day Xbox 360 Xbox Live interface. It's cool to see one of the last remaining elements of the Original Xbox Live service.

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=97&pictureid=624

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=97&pictureid=625

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=97&pictureid=626

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=97&pictureid=627

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=97&pictureid=628

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=97&pictureid=629

[GeckoYamori]

Office and Inferno were DLC on the Xbox version? Sheesh.

[mick_aka]

Not played CS or CS:S for quite a while, shut our clan servers down ages ago (I ran [STAG] clan and was a <TiT> also)

http://steamcommunity.com/id/mick_aka

Quite interested in grabbing the XBox version though, looks like it's DIRT cheap too :D

[Elusive]

I remember Major Nelson posting that Halo 2 was still pretty much the only reason the framework behind Xbox Live hasn't changed since the service went, um, live. Original Xbox games expect certain things of the service (installed HDD being one), whereas the 360's connection to Live is more modular to account for future upgrades.

So it's likely that the day we see cross-game clan support, unlimited friends list / friend sorting & tagging etc. is the day original Xbox support is switched off :(

[GeckoYamori]

Pretty sure dedicated servers would solve that problem... Even Quake 3 on DC is still running thanks to that AFAIK.

Not that Microsoft is ever going to set their sights on it. They love controlling Live with an iron fist.

[sega fan]

Scoreboards. My gamertag is Humens.

1st match
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=97&pictureid=619

2nd match
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=97&pictureid=620

3rd match
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=97&pictureid=621

4th match
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=97&pictureid=622

5th match
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=97&pictureid=623

[Elusive]

Pretty sure dedicated servers would solve that problem... Even Quake 3 on DC is still running thanks to that AFAIK.

Not that Microsoft is ever going to set their sights on it. They love controlling Live with an iron fist.

A few games use dedicated servers; EA use them for all their games (so they can switch off the old sports titles' multiplayer, of course), even the Halo games use Bungies' own servers (so they can do all the crazy stuff at bungie.net).

All Xbox Live basically does is provide the magic that connects users together: everything's hosted on the users' own connection. Which is better as so long as there are people with copies of Game X, that game will have an online community; there's no risk of the servers going dark unless someone drops a bomb on every single Microsoft server farm at once.

[sega fan]

I remember Major Nelson posting that Halo 2 was still pretty much the only reason the framework behind Xbox Live hasn't changed since the service went, um, live. Original Xbox games expect certain things of the service (installed HDD being one), whereas the 360's connection to Live is more modular to account for future upgrades.

So it's likely that the day we see cross-game clan support, unlimited friends list / friend sorting & tagging etc. is the day original Xbox support is switched off :(

1Up also did a feature on this

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3175519

[moonmaster1]

I never played much live, it only appeals to me when the games aren't as competitive which rules out 98% of all shooters not involving zombies.

@Sega fan and co.:

If you have a modded xbox, go here:
CSX Modding Forum (http://www.csxmoddingforum.tk/)

Go to maps progress/release and you'll find 23 new maps to play if you have the game on your hd *you need the actual disc to play as files are missing*. If your 360 is modded, it should work as well. *end of thread derailment/Shameless plug*

Didn't xbox release dashboard updates to folks on dvds before live came about? without dlc, there was little to place a 50$+ price tag on online play and old arcade games that could be run through mame.

[sega fan]

Hey, thanks for the link moonmaster1. I just submitted a review for the Xbox port of Counter-Strike on Gamespot.




Counter-Strike for the Xbox is a port of Counter-Strike 1.6 for PC. Counter-Strike for the Xbox sports some very impressive features such as 16 player online matches, 16 player system link matches, exclusive content only for Xbox users, and the quality gameplay you've come to expect from the PC version.

Counter-Strike's gameplay is the main reason people still play this game after 10 years. The two game modes featured in Counter-Strike are Demolition and Hostage Rescue. Demolition is where a team of terrorists attempt to plant bombs at one of two designated bomb sites and the counter-terrorists must try to stop them. Hostage Rescue is where counter-terrorists have to infiltrate a terrorist-controlled locale and evacuate all the hostages to safety while the terrorists attempt to kill all the counter-terrorists.

The gameplay itself is like a combat simulator. You have very limited health, headshots kill you instantly, and you only have one life per match; if you die, you do not respawn until the current match is over. Teamwork is the best course of action, if you plan on winning. If you seperate from your allies and try to take on everybody on the opposing team at once, you'll soon after be waiting for the next match to start so you can respawn. It's the depth and realism that makes Counter-Strike unique and special.

The online multiplayer for Counter-Strike is still currently being supported. Finding a match can take a few minutes but once you join, it's smooth sailing. You'll never get dropped from matches and you very rarely, if ever, come across lag. The only drawback to playing Counter-Strike on Xbox Live is that the community surrounding it is very small. I've only come across 80 or so different players while playing online.

The online gameplay is almost as good as the PC counterpart. The few people who still play this version of Counter-Strike are pretty fair players. None of them are tournament level players, but they aren't exactly scrubs either. If you have never played Counter-Strike before and you want to start playing competitively, I recommend training yourself on this port of Counter-Strike before you try to play on the PC versions.

Counter-Strike's offline mulitplayer is pretty good. It lacks split-screen multiplayer but the system link functionality more then makes up for it. You can system link up to 16 Xboxs for LAN multiplayer.

The featured single-player mode is okay for what it is. It consists of you and a team of bots fighting against a rival team of bots. The customization options are surprisingly intricate. You can choose the number of bots, how smart they are, what they are allowed to equip, and what team they will be playing on. The only thing that breaks the single player mode is that the bots are either too smart or they act as if they have a concussion.

The controls are mapped perfectly to the Xbox controller. Aiming on the X & Y-Axis and cycling through weapons is as easy as playing with a keyboard and mouse. The controls are some of the most responsive FPS controls I've seen on the original Xbox outside of Halo 2.

Counter-Strike for the Xbox is a near perfect port of the highly successful Counter-Strike 1.6. The online community is dwindling and it's depressing to know that such a great game is not getting the attention it deserves. I guess you can blame it on the fact that everyone who's a die-hard Counter-Strike fanatic, like me, spend all of their time playing Counter-Strike 1.6 or Counter-Strike: Source on the PC and all the original Xbox Live users spend most of their time playing Halo 2. Even though the online community is very small, It's still worth going online and playing a few matches. Counter-Strike for the Xbox gets a well deserved 8.5 out of 10.

-Addison Gumprecht-

[moonmaster1]

A well done review, counterstrike had a few negatives for me though.

1.all the maps are either hostage rescue or demolition, maybe some are fight yards but what about v.i.p maps? Kinda sucks that they came up short delivering a true counterstrike for xbox.

2.few people play online outside of xbox live. =(

3.I'm pretty sure an HE grenade would kill someone first hit.

I'm sure I could nitpick all day but the big advantage over pc is the controller vibration and custom soundtracks, small details but it adds a new level of atmosphere, like listening to an ipod during a gunfight.