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Thursday 6 March, 2008
Gameplay 2
In my second hour of gameplay, I participated in a "scrim" with some friends of mine. For someone of my experience, it's the primary fun of the game. Scrimmages are intense, fun, and sometimes overwhelming. They require complete concentration and winning a scrim gives the player a huge sense of accomplishment, especially against a well ranked team. There is a code of conduct in these matches, but while teams switch sides, trash talk ensues. The second hour scrims did not go as well, and I was very unhappy. I made a few bad decisions and caused my team to lose a few rounds we shouldn't have lost. Once again, however, the experience was intense and extremely engaging.
Design
Counter-Strike is innovative because of its multiplayer component and "spray patterns" as well as hit boxes. One of the things that keeps Counter-Strike interesting is the fact that the game can never be mastered completely. Instead of "point and shoot," bullets are altered by a number of things. Moving makes firing more inaccurate, and holding the buttons down makes "spray" go in a pattern, which is semi memorizable but not easily repeatable. Therefore, some prefer to "burst" or fire one or two at a time, and some prefer to spray and try to control recoil. Almost every gun has a different firing pattern, and the best way to be fired, aimed, and how to move varies with each gun. There is also a huge element of sound; with proper sound, or good headphones, I am able to hear someone take a grenade out from very far away, or hear footsteps. This alerts me that there are people there and allows me to position myself for when they come out. The strategy of these 5v 5 matches is unrivaled in any other game, the coordination and skill required to compete at Counter-Strike is enormous. Counter-Terrorists must protect multiple bomb sites on most maps (in scrims, most will assign one or two to hide in each bomb site, and one in a "middle area") and have to watch every entrance and exit to the bomb sites as well as other areas. Terrorists can utilize flash grenades, fake a walk, or do other things to throw the other team off, as well as many other strategies to either kill all the counter terrorists or set the bomb and get it to explode. The levels are varied and require different strategies, and the intricacies of these matches is simply astounding.
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