counter-strike posts

The long-in-development multiplayer shooter Tactical Intervention, after a fairly long period of silence, is now starting to show signs of life. The game, designed by the co-creator of the original Counter-Strike Minh Le, is now scheduled to begin beta testing for European gamers on May 6.

The game, which features multiplayer teams of terrorists versus counter-terrorists, was first revealed in the fall of 2009. In 2010, a closed beta test began for the US but shut down without the game itself launching. Now people in Europe can start signing up for their own closed beta test on the game's official web site.

[Via Blue's News]

You may remember that back in late 2009 we reported on Tactical Intervention, a new first person shooter which was being developed by Minh Le, one of the original co-creators of Counter-Strike. The game's publisher, FIX Korea, held two periods of closed beta testing for the game in 2010.

Since then, however, info about the game's status has been slim to none. Big Download contacted FIX Korea for an update on Tactical Intervention's progress. Its spokesperson told us via email, "We have been solving various issues of development for quality game after (closed beta test) for North America. The release date for game has not been set yet." Naturally we will be keeping an eye out for any future info on the game.

It's been a while since we have gotten an update on Tactical Intervention, the upcoming multiplayer shooter created by Minh Le. the co-creator of Counter-Strike. Today the European publisher of the game Mayn Interactive announced that a closed beta test for the game will launch in that part of the world sometime before the end of 2010.

The game had a US closed beta test earlier this year but since then there's been no real word on when the game will launch in this country. There's also no word on what kind of content European beta testers will be getting for their own beta test.

Even though today was technically a "slow" news day (for once no major game announcements were made) it was still plenty busy for us. Here's some of the smaller but still important news items for the day:

• The promised Elemental "day 0 update" should be going live right about now on Impulse. Here's a full patch list of what's included.
• Impulse also has the first patch for the new space strategy game Star Ruler.
• Direct2Drive is giving folks a $10 discount on all of its games that are priced at $49.95 and up if you put in the code SchoolSucks at checkout.
• Steam has new bug patches for Counter-Strike Source, Garry's Mod, and Swarm Arena.
• Steam also has pre-orders for the PC version of Dead Rising 2.
• The cover for October's Game Informer magazine will be revealed at a PAX Prime panel next weekend.
• Check out a video with game developers and publishers talking about the future of digital distribution of games.

It's been a couple of months since the first closed beta test for Tactical Intervention ended. This week the upcoming multiplayer shooter created by Minh Le, the person behind the original Counter-Strike, is taking registrations for the second phase of closed beta testing. The game's publisher FIX Korea has also relaunched the game's official web site.

There's still no clear word on when the second closed beta test will begin, much less when the full game itself will be released. It seems like the development team is taking its time with the game and for good reason since it will certainly be compared up, down and sideways with Counter-Strike.

Earlier this year Valve started a beta test for Counter-Strike Source to test out the many different new features that would later be incorporated into a big patch for the popular multiplayer shooter. Now Valve has decided to make the beta version of Counter-Strike Source permanent as a test bed for any future updates to the main game.

You can access the beta version via Steam by launching the Counter-Strike Source Beta listing in your Steam game library (it's for the PC version only; sorry Mac users). Players who join and play the beta version can still play the standard Counter-Strike Source game. The beta build has a few things disabled that are a part of the the regular version such as HDR lighting, motion blur and stats.

As promised last week by Valve, the developer has now added Counter-Strike: Source to its growing list of games that now have a native Mac port. The hugely popular multiplayer shooter joins Half-Life 2 and its two "episodes" along with Portal and Team Fortress 2 with Mac versions.

As with Team Fortress 2, Mac players of Counter-Strike: Source can play against their PC brethren. People who own the PC version can download the Mac port for free and vice-versa. In addition the game itself has gotten a major update with the addition of Steam achievements, graphical upgrades, a new stats system and more. Finally the game is on sale for two days via Steam only for just $6.80, about 66 percent off its normal price.

The folks at Valve decided to take an E3 2010 break this week from releasing new Mac games for its Steam PC game download service. However that will change next week as Valve updates us that the Mac version of their multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike: Source will be released by then.

The Source Engine port of the hugely successful team-based game is of course a graphical remake of the original Half-Life 1 mod that is still highly successful. There's no word yet on a specific launch date of the Mac port but it should allow for new Steamworks achievements, multiplayer play with its PC counter-part, and more.

[Via Blue's News]

In 1999 a team based multiplayer mode for Valve's first person shooter Half-Life was first released to the public. The creation of Minh "Gooseman" Le the mod was called Counter-Strike and its design (terrorist vs counter-terrorists in round-based gameplay) was an instant hit online. In fact the original version of the game continues to be one of the most played online shooters on the internet 11 years after the first beta mod version was released. In 2000 Valve bought the rights to the mod and turned the game into a commercial title later that year. In December 2008 Valve announced that the commercial version of Counter-Strike had sold a total of 4.2 million units in retail stores (the numbers do not include copies sold via Valve's Steam service).

Le was hired by Valve (along with Counter-Strike's co-creator Jess Cliffe) after the rights to Counter-Strike were bought by the developer. However after working at Valve for several years Le decided to leave Valve to work on an all new game. Working with developers in South Korea, the fruits of his efforts have resulted in Tactical Intervention, a Source Engine based multiplayer shooter that's being published by FIX Korea and will enter closed beta testing in the US on May 28.

In one of the first interviews about the game, Le talks about leaving Valve, the differences between Counter-Strike and Tactical Intervention and other topics.