- Gabe Newell apparently spent "five months" singing Mongolian throat songs around the Valve office - 22 September 2026
Counter-Strike co-creator Minh Le recalls his time at Valve, including Gabe Newell's bizarre five-month Mongolian throat singing phase. Read the full story on PCGamesN: Gabe Newell apparently spent "five months" singing Mongolian throat songs around the Valve office
- World of Warcraft gets a perfect recreation of Counter-Strike's most iconic map, and it's even got Goose - 9 April 2026
World of Warcraft 's housing system has become a beacon of creativity since arriving with Midnight, not that I'm surprised considering just how expansive the toolset is. From roving houses that may as well have been plucked from Howl's Moving Castle, to holes in the ground where I suspect Hobbits may dwell, the MMO 's playerbase has already showcased some incredible builds. One creator has gone even further afield for inspiration, taking Counter-Strike 's most popular map, Dust 2, and rebuilding its A Site with mesmerizing detail. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: You can now play Counter-Strike 1.6 in VR thanks to the modders who already gave Half-Life and Doom the same treatment Development of a Counter-Strike 1.6 remake has been "frozen" as Valve silence leaves its future in doubt Counter-Strike Source soars to 13-year Steam high, and GMod may be the culprit
- You can now play Counter-Strike 1.6 in VR thanks to the modders who already gave Half-Life and Doom the same treatment - 12 January 2026
When dabbling in any of the titles on our best FPS games list, the goal is to feel locked-in and immersed. You want to feel the bright-white flash and piercing ring of a flashbang, the satisfaction of a long-range snipe, or the sensation of flicking onto the cranium of an opposing player. Virtual reality attempts to increase your immersion, but transplanting a competitive experience into a headset is a real challenge. That hasn't stopped a team of modders from porting one of the greatest shooters of all time to VR, and the timing seems apt given Valve's Steam Frame is on the way. Yes, Counter-Strike 1.6 is now in VR. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Development of a Counter-Strike 1.6 remake has been "frozen" as Valve silence leaves its future in doubt Counter-Strike Source soars to 13-year Steam high, and GMod may be the culprit Counter-Strike creator explains why he left V…
- Development of a Counter-Strike 1.6 remake has been "frozen" as Valve silence leaves its future in doubt - 2 January 2026
While you can still get your hit of classic Counter-Strike on Steam, the original CS experience is getting an unofficial remake. Or rather, it was. Last year, it was revealed that a team of seasoned Counter-Strike modders were creating CS: Legacy , a ground-up remake of CS 1.6 in Valve's 2013 Source Engine. However, just a few months after announcing the project, the devs behind it received a message from a Valve employee that put a big question mark over it, but had no further communication with the company about CS: Legacy's viability. Now, in a message outlining its plans for 2026, the devs confirm that they have "frozen" the project, are making "one last attempt" to talk with Valve, and are putting more energy behind an all-new multiplayer IP instead. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Counter-Strike Source soars to 13-year Steam high, and GMod may be the culprit Counter-S…
- Counter-Strike Source soars to 13-year Steam high, and GMod may be the culprit - 28 July 2025
Nostalgics and newbies alike have swarmed to classic Valve shooter Counter-Strike Source . Hailed as one of the defining FPS games of its era, CS Source is now furiously bunnyhopping its way up the Steam charts, enjoying a wave of popularity unseen in over a decade. While there's no one obvious reason behind this explosion, an update to sandbox hit Garry's Mod may hold the answer. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Counter-Strike creator explains why he left Valve, says he partly regrets it now Unofficial Counter-Strike remake allegedly shut down by Valve after eight years Counter-Strike 1.6 is getting a total remake, built by the legendary ProMod team
- Come slide with me through loopy shooter maps in this homage to Counter-Strike's beloved glitch surfing - 16 July 2025
Counter-Strike surfing is a modded game mode for Valve's bomb defusal FPS in which players skate through obstacle courses by means of a physics glitch. It has a proud history dating back to 2004, when modder Charles "Mariowned" Joyce discovered that it was far more enjoyable to slide off roofs than shoot people in his custom map Killbox. So he made a new map dedicated to sliding, The Gap. Thus the greasy chute that led to Alice0 (RPS in peace) hailing CS surfing as "the esport we deserve" in 2020. People have crafted their own versions of the mode in games like Roblox, and Proper Game Developers such as Blizzard have seemingly taken inspiration - Overwatch 's Lucio is surely a love letter to the mode. Now here comes SurfsUp, a free-to-play surfing game in the Godot Engine. Released this month, it's been favourably compared to surf maps in Valve's Counter-Strike 2 , and is worth a pop ev…
- Counter-Strike creator explains why he left Valve, says he partly regrets it now - 16 July 2025
At 20 years old, Minh Le, better known as 'Gooseman,' co-created what would become one of the biggest and most popular videogames in the world. Originally a humble Half-Life mod, Counter-Strike was quickly spotted and bought by Valve, which also hired its two developers. 25 years later, Counter-Strike 2 averages 1.6 million peak concurrent players per day - estimates vary, but most sources assert that the shooter earns Valve around a billion dollars a year. Not bad for something that was first built in a college dorm room. Le, however, doesn't work at Valve anymore. Alongside Ultimo Ratio, he's now working on a new - and excellent - FPS called Alpha Response (more on that later). So, what prompted him to quit a job at one of the most esteemed game makers in the business, leaving behind Counter-Strike in the process? Talking to PCGamesN exclusively, Minh Le explains what happened. Read t…
- The mod that aimed to recreate Counter-Strike 1.6 in CS:GO is now officially cancelled following 'abrupt actions by Valve that prevent us from releasing' the project - 8 May 2025
Despite a brief blip of hope that a way forward may be found, the ambitious Counter-Strike mod Classic Offensive has been officially cancelled... Read more.
- Unofficial Counter-Strike remake allegedly shut down by Valve after eight years - 8 May 2025
Take the maps, skins, and overall balance and feel of classic Counter-Strike and remake it all using the tech that powers CSGO. That was the dream of Classic Offensive, a long-running mod project that first started life back in 2017. But now, eight years after development began, according to its creators, Classic Offensive has been shut down by Valve. The Half-Life and Left 4 Dead developer has seemingly sent a cease and desist letter to the Classic Offensive team, preventing further builds of the unofficial remake from being released on all other modding platforms. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Counter-Strike 1.6 is getting a total remake, built by the legendary ProMod team Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and even Day of Defeat have been updated by Valve Counter-Strike creator regrets not balancing the AWP
- Counter-Strike modders are remaking the classic shooter, and they're using Valve's official Source Engine SDK to do it - 18 March 2025
There are two shooters that I imagine will never die, because they just seem to hang on despite being incredibly old and plenty of other games coming out in the mean-time: Team Fortress 2 , and Counter-Strike (both Valve games, funnily enough - they've clearly got the Source (sorry)). Counter-Strike 2 , which came out back in 2023, is the most played shooter of all time on Steam in fact, but even now the original game is still pretty popular. There's literally more than 16,000 people playing it right now. And though it might not be official, a group of modders have come together to remake the 1.6 version of the game. Read more
- Counter-Strike 1.6 is getting a total remake, built by the legendary ProMod team - 17 March 2025
Counter-Strike 2 is doing exceptionally well. As of Saturday March 15, Valve's multiplayer shooter achieved a new concurrent player count record, with a staggering 1,824,989 people playing CS2 simultaneously. Deadlock is standing strong. Half-Life 3...might still happen. Needless to say, the House of Gabe is alive and kicking. But what about the glory days? What about Counter-Strike 1.6 , the greatest game (yes) in the entire series? You can still play the original, of course, but if you want a refreshed version, a complete CS 1.6 remake is now in the works, and it's made by some of the best modders in the series' history. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and even Day of Defeat have been updated by Valve Counter-Strike creator regrets not balancing the AWP Counter-Strike and CoD players are getting random Steam ban notices
- Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and even Day of Defeat have been updated by Valve - 19 February 2025
It was choppy, unreliable, and populated almost entirely by screamy mic spammers, but my word, do I miss the days of Half-Life Deathmatch Source. It's one of the enduring images of my own PC gaming past - a team of HLDM Source players, all wearing the G-Man skin, sprinting through the Black Mesa lab map and coating the walls with satchel charges. Half-Life 3 may very well be in the works, but Valve hasn't forgotten about the classics. Counter-Strike Source, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2 Deathmatch, and my beloved my HLDM have all gotten sudden, surprise patches. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Counter-Strike creator regrets not balancing the AWP Counter-Strike and CoD players are getting random Steam ban notices CS2 has more players than the next top nine Steam games combined
- Counter-Strike creator regrets not balancing the AWP - 1 August 2024
Between 1.6, Source, CSGO, and Counter-Strike 2, the PC's favorite multiplayer shooter has been through innumerate changes in the last 25 years. Originally a mod for Valve's Half-Life, Counter-Strike has grown into the most popular game on Steam. But despite its myriad evolutions, there has been one constant: from its earliest days to its modern mega stardom, in CS, the most controversial weapon has always been the AWP. A bolt-action sniper rifle that deals serious damage, the AWP is Counter-Strike's high-risk, high-reward gambit gun. To some, it's a ballistic instrument that takes mastery and skill. To others, it's an overpowered menace used only by the lowliest players. Now, Counter-Strike's co-creator weighs in. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Counter-Strike and CoD players are getting random Steam ban notices CS2 has more players than the next top nine Steam games combi…
- Counter-Strike co-creator says he's happy they sold the game to Valve—'They have done a great job of maintaining the legacy' - 18 July 2024
Counter-Strike recently celebrated its 25th anniversary , and is more popular than ever. The original Half-Life mod became a standalone title after Valve hired co-creators Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jesse "Cliffe" Cliffe, and since then has iterated and grown into the most popular competitive FPS on the planet, with over 30 million monthly players... Read more.
- December 12, 2023 Update - 12 December 2023
Fixes for joining games through invites and Steam friends list. Miscellaneous UI fixes for Dedicated Servers. Fixed an occasional crash when opening the scoreboard. Fixed camera movement after death in multiplayer. Fixed crash when creating a server if the server creator's Steam name was entirely non-ASCII characters.
- December 1, 2023 Update - 1 December 2023
Fixed crash when modifying certain video settings in a multiplayer match. Fixed server browser issues after modifying video settings. Fixed local player not showing up in player count on a listen server using Steam Networking. Fixed rare corrupted lighting rendering bug in some maps. Fixed miscellaneous fog rendering bugs. Fixed pushable entity physics in Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.
- November 29, 2023 Update - 29 November 2023
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes have been updated to support the Half-Life 25th Anniversary engine updates, including all related fixes from Counter-Strike. Fixed lighting rendering issues on some AMD GPUs. Added "Use shaders" checkbox for the video options. Servers can over-ride this setting with sv_allow_shaders. Miscellaneous Steam Networking fixes. Miscellaneous UI layout fixes. The Half-Life dedicated server application (app 90) which is used by Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero has been updated with latest server code and updated windows and linux binaries. Updating is recommended.
- November 22, 2023 Update - 22 November 2023
Counter-Strike has been updated to support many of the features from the Half-Life 25th Anniversary update. If you are still experiencing compatibility or stability issues, it is suggested that you install the "steam_legacy" beta branches of Half-Life and Counter-Strike (selectable in each game's properties page in Steam).
- Counter-Strike and CoD players are getting random Steam ban notices - 10 November 2023
Steam VAC ban notices are suddenly appearing for Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, and Team Fortress 2 players, despite the fact that - in some cases - they haven't actually played the game in years. CS 1.6, Modern Warfare 2, and TF2 players say they are getting Valve Anti-Cheat notices that are more than a decade old. One Counter-Strike 1.6 player has a notice from 17 years ago, while another Counter-Strike Source player has received a ban notice despite not playing the game in 14 years. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: CS2 has more players than the next top nine Steam games combined CS:GO gets a Halo crossover - check it out here Counter-Strike tops League of Legends as the second most-valuable esport
- CS2 has more players than the next top nine Steam games combined - 28 September 2023
Counter-Strike 2 is finally here, which means both long-time fans and newcomers to Valve's iconic shooter are already hopping in-game to play through the updated maps. CS2 arrived as a free update to Counter-Strike Global Offensive, replacing the latter in the process. Now that CSGO is officially dead and Counter-Strike 2 has taken over, an uptick in fans can be seen on Steam's charts. CS2 has a whopping amount of players after just one hour, sitting with more than the next top nine Steam games combined. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: CS:GO gets a Halo crossover - check it out here Counter-Strike tops League of Legends as the second most-valuable esport Counter-Strike co-creator Jess Cliffe charged with paying for sex with a minor
