What is going on with 'Counterstrike: Condition Zero?'

[yoshi]

First it was meant to be released in late November, then December, then January and now late March!

I'm not usually one to actually count the days for games (except Civ3 and it wasn't really worth the wait), but from what I can tell CS:CZ is going to be great.

Stunning AI: Bots are no longer omniscient but will check every corner and coordinate attacks. This will really enhance the Singleplayer game. Supposedly the bots actually function like human players --they even radio in enemy positions using language you would normally hear when playing against other human players (probably no profanity though ). No more getting shot between the eyes by a pistol-carrying bot that just turned a corner from the other end of the map! (No more of the bots shooting in every direction except yours when they're only a few feet away either --although I think that may have been fixed in the latest patch.)
This will make the game much more strategic as 'camping' will no longer be a pointless endeavour when playing Singleplayer...

Better graphics: More in line with what the standards are now without actually changing the engine so the game should still run pretty smoothly on average systems.

More Weapons: I have no idea what the new weapons are. The previous selection was pretty satisfactory. All that was needed was some kind of RPG launcher and perhaps a wider selection of sniper rifles IMO.

This should turn out to be a pretty hot item when it comes out. There's just one problem: it has to get released first! If they keep pushing the date back, I may be pushing up daisies by the time it gets released...so I'll never get to play it!

 

[Archer 007]

I thought it was already out

 

[Dell19]

Was this the game that got released, recieved poor reviews, so the developers decided to remake it?

 

[yoshi]

I know it was under development by another company but things didn't work out --it never got released AFAIK. It's being developed by Turtle Rock Studios, and Valve of course.

Check out a brief summary on the game's homepage here.

I checked on Amazon and they say it's due for release on March 25, 2004 (although it was made available for pre-order on January 11).
I checked Gameport and they say Decemeber 30, 2003 (I htink they need to update their site).
Other sites sellers Febuary, others say...it goes on like that.

What I want to know is which date is the real release date --does the game's dveloper even know?


(Something I forgot to mention is that the game is supposed to ship with tools for easy MODding. That should be of interest to a few people who post on this site.)

 

[Thrawn]

I've seen CS:Condition Zero on shelves. So uhhh, what are you talking about?

 

[yoshi]

Are you sure it was Counterstrike:Condition Zero? How is it that it's being sold in New Zealand before the US? You must be mistaking it for another Countertrike MOD.

BTW, the previous company that was working on CS:CZ was Ritual Studios.

Sierra actually delayed the game 3 times.

March is also when Half-life 2 is meant to come out. SOme good marketing strategy, I'll give them that.

The beauty of CS:CZ is that it will be introducing Single-player MODs that seem interesting --although I'm really just looking forward to taking on the improved AI the largest map I can find and setting their skill to maximum! Cheat-free servers are a plus for multiplayer.

There's a downloadable version called miRC but I think it only includes the aprtially complete Ritual stuff.

 

[WildFire]

It's already out.

Check your local retailers.

 

[Thrawn]

Originally posted by yoshi
Are you sure it was Counterstrike:Condition Zero? How is it that it's being sold in New Zealand before the US? You must be mistaking it for another Countertrike MOD.

Positive.

 

[Emp.Napoleon]

I haven't seen it anywere.

 

[yoshi]

I just realized what the confusion is all about. I'm such an idiot! I forgot to say that it's the PC version I'm talking about. The version you're seeing on the shelves is the X-Box version which is already out. (It seemed odd that people were already reviewing it.)

I was right about the date. Check out Walmart and you'll see that the release date is set to March 26, 2004.

BTW, I did check my local retailer and as usual, they had no f!$%ing clue --as long as you buy the product, they could give a crap (some store clerks can be such retards :die: ).

The release date is not written in stone though, so it could be released in 2005 or tomorrow --the game has already been developed but is being delayed by manufacturing issues (or so the publisher says).

Another tidbit of info is that the requirements are significantly higher for CS:CZ than CS (it jumped from PII to PIII and uses more than double the RAM).
Hopefully that will not affect game performance too much (Sierra prided itself on keeping the original engine for just that purpose) --then again, compared to the latest games on the market that require at least a 10000MHz processor just to run somewhat smoothly, an improved CS will be a relief.

I read in one preview that some of the levels will include new weapons such as the LAW anti-tank shoulder-mounted weapon, but will only gradually introduce these into Multiplayer (through patches I suppose). I'm not sure what the logic of this is, but I'm starting to realize that designers have their own ideas about what ‘game balance’ and will, as a result do odd things that make little sense to the rest of us. See, the people at Atari (Infograms) aren’t the only ones who do stuff like that!


Just out of curiosity, has anyone played the X-box version? Since it should play the same as the PC version, is the AI as good as they say it is? I've read reviews but people rarely write about the AI --they're too busy playing multiplayer.

 

[Thrawn]

I could swear I've seen the pc version on shelves too.

 

[Azadre]

It was presale