Valve has a number of Easter eggs in its games. It's become a staple for the studio to hint at a larger connected universe within its most popular properties. The latest Easter egg is a reference in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for Portal, but it's not a tease for Portal 3.

Twitter user Tyler McVicker posted an e-mail message on his Twitter account that he received from the head honcho of Valve, Gabe Newell, where it was revealed that the small Easter egg in the new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map that was part of the free-to-play update that added the Battle Royale mode. The Easter egg was a complex message that had to be decoded, which displayed a line that was from the credits of Portal 2, as reported by Eurogamer.

In the e-mail it shows that McVicker contacted Gabe Newell directly and asked if the hidden Portal messages in the survival map of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was an augmented-reality game or was it just a standard Easter egg. Newell responded to the e-mail message with a very simple reply that said "Easter egg."

Now, what is the significance of this? Well, typically Valve has a number of hints, teases, and ARGs to give gamers a heads-up about some new projects.

When Valve has an ARG it usually means that gamers have to go on a wild goose chase to find out what's actually going on. Not every ARG results in an actual discovery, though. For instance, there was a massive ARG that took place a couple of years ago where there were hints and images located in some of the game pages of the Steam Winter Sale. This led gamers around a crazy wild goose chase trying to figure out what was going on.

This stretched from across the Far Cry 4 page all the way to the Hitman page and then it circled around to the Half-Life games, which led some people to assume that the ARG would be related to a reveal for Half-Life 3, as chronicled by GMZ.

The goose chase turned out to be a red herring and there was actually no big reveal to be had regarding Half-Life 3. Instead it was just a troll by Valve, which most gamers should be used to by now.

Seven years ago, back in 2011, there was another troll by Valve for Half-Life 3 where team members were wearing a t-shirt for the game that never came to be.

In this case, gamers were under the impression that there could have been an ARG being put together for Portal 3 after gamers discovered a hint in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. However, before gamers went back on the chase for clues via an ARG, the whole thing was nipped in the bud by Gabe Newell, the acting president of Valve.

For gamers who have been hoping that there was a new Portal inbound, it doesn't sound like there's going to be a new game coming out. Valve's most recent game is the collectible card game Artifact, and so it's doubtful that a new Portal would be inbound soon, as confirmed by Newell.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, but thankfully (for fans of Counter-Strike) the addition of the Battle Royale mode has happened much sooner than expected for the first-person shooter. Valve announced that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has now officially stepped into the arena to rival Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

Valve sent out a short and sweet message about the new mode, which is dubbed Danger Zone, for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The new mode also accompanies the game's transition into a full free-to-play title. According to the press release, the next time anyone logs into the game, the update will automatically commence, the files will be altered, and the game will be free-to-play. All accounts that already have access to the game will also automatically be upgraded to Prime Status, completely free of charge.

For neophytes, if you have not downloaded the game before or registered an account with the game, you will have the option to try out the free-to-play account or you will be able to lob some actual money into Valve's coffers for $14.99 to upgrade to a Prime Status account.

Not only that, but you'll also gain access to the brand new Danger Zone mode, which enables the ability to play Last Man Standing against 17 other players.

No, the game does not sport the 100 player Battle Royale mode like its nearest competitors PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds or Fortnite. Instead it's a lot closer to the Battle Royale mode featured in Warface, where there are just over a dozen other players in the map that you have to whittle down in order to become the winner of the round.

Over on the Danger Zone web portal, there's a breakdown of how the game mode works. You drop down into the map, you can either scour for weapons or order what you need using the personal tablet device, and then you can either run to safety or track down your foes and finish them off.

Now there are multiple ways to earn points in the mode. Unlike other Battle Royale games like The Culling or Island of Nyne where you kill your foes to earn points, you can also earn points by rescuing hostages located around the Danger Zone map in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Barring that, you can find locked safes throughout the map that you can blow open using C4 charges.

According to the website, what's in the Danger Zone mode at the moment is just the start. Hopefully, Valve takes tips from Treyarch and what that team did with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 by starting out with a lower player count for the Battle Royale mode and then slowly ratcheting up the number until they hit 100. It would be pretty cool if Valve did the same for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

For now, though, you can check the game out and dive into the various game modes and features now that it's free-to-play. For those of you who were bored with the standard modes, you can check out the Danger Zone mode as a solo survivor, as a team, or as a trio in three different variations of the mode.

Cheating may be a fun pastime in your own private quarters, messing around with games and having fun at your leisure. However, cheating is no laughing matter when it comes to professional esports, and one player found out that the hard way.

According to a report on Eurogamer, there's a controversy that has boiled over within the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive eSports community after one of the players in the competitive community got caught cheating. Thus, proving that even with a seemingly insurmountable library of skill, some players are still compelled to cheat to win.

The report indicates that during the Extremeland Zowie Asia tournament which took place in Shanghai, China, OpTic India player Nikhil "Forsaken" Kumawat actually began using a cheat hack during the middle of a tournament while OpTic India was playing an intense game against the Vietnamese team, Revolution.

Kumawat was caught using the cheat by the tournament officials, but attempted to wipe it off the hard drive of his computer before being called out on it. However, he just wasn't savvy enough to get rid of all of the evidence of the hack before he got caught.

Officials began investigating the claim of hacking by checking Kumawat's computer, at which point he attempted to delete the program, which allowed him to aimbot against his opponents in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. An aimbot is essentially an automated aiming system that auto-locks onto opponents, allowing you to quickly nab fatal shots with just the press of a button.

Kumawat attempted to delete the files while the officials were checking his computer, but in dramatic fashion, the official got physical and grabbed onto Kumawat's arm, preventing him from pressing the delete file.

Quite naturally, Kumawat was booted out of the tournament, which is typical when a player is caught cheating at an organized eSports event. What a lot of people didn't expect was that the entire OpTic India team was also disqualified from the tournament as well. This infuriated the owners, which resulted in them firing every single member of the team.

Can you imagine that?

It's like if someone on the New England Patriots got caught deflating the ball, and Robert Kraft decided to fire the entire roster of players on that NFL team.

But, it gets worse. Nikhil "Forsaken" Kumawat is now being considered for a lifetime ban from all eSporting events, which would effectively kill his career as a professional gamer.

The video footage captured of him being caught by the officials also doesn't help matters, since instead of confessing to the crime he attempted to delete the hacks. Take a look:

As pointed out by Eurogamer, this isn't even the first time that Kumawat has been caught cheating. He was previously banned from tournament play for a brief stint back in 2017 when he was hit with a VAC ban while playing on Steam. A VAC ban only occurs if the Valve Anti-Cheat system flags your account for using cheats. It's going to be hard for Kumawat to recover from this incident, especially given that he's already been banned once before for cheating.

When it comes to playing games online there's usually a group of gamers who feel slighted that some online-only games don't have offline modes. It's a common complaint you see from many gamers, because there is definitely some truth to the effect of online games eventually shutting down and taking all of the player progress with it. Many gamers (and even organizations like the EFF) have been championing for solutions to provide gamers with offline modes for online-only titles, especially MMOs and MOFPS titles. In a rare case of trying to give gamers what they want, Valve decided to actually give the first-person shooting community a taste of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive without having to pay a dime for it. Yes, there's actually a free offline version of the first-person shooter that's been made available for gamers.

PCGamer is reporting that the free offline version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is available for download over on the Steam store. In fact, if you head to the store you'll note that there's a giant green "Install Game" button available for you to press, where you can download the offline version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to play against bots, or even spectate games through the GOTV.

The game has been out since 2012, and has managed to move millions of copies across Steam. It's also one of the most played games on Steam, averaging around 280,000 players a day, peaking at 450,000 players a day, and having a top reach of 850,000 players, according to SteamCharts.

Valve even ported the game to home consoles as well, including the Xbox 360 and PS3, bringing the total sales to well above tens of millions of copies.

I suppose for Valve it's okay to give away an offline version of the game for free because the company has made so much money on the product already that there isn't really much of a loss for supplying games with offline modes where gamers can get in some practice time against bots.

I imagine the hook here is that much like free trial weekends or demo modes in other games, most gamers who play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will get hooked playing against the bots and then want to test their skills online against other players. The full edition of the game is just a click away, and it's priced at the very affordable $14.99 mark.

This will enable players to take advantage of skill groups, online matchmaking, in-game inventories, XP, ranked matches, and full voice chat support. Of course, if you live in Belgium or the Netherlands you won't be able to make use of the loot boxes featured in the game due to the laws prohibiting premium loot boxes in those regions, but otherwise the price of entry will gain you full access to the whole game.

It is worth noting that outlets like PCGamer had to inform gamers of this news because there is no overt entry on the Steam page for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It's odd that Valve made the change to offer gamers a free offline mode (something not available for many other online-only shooters such as Sudden Attack or Operation 7) but didn't formally announce it on the game's page. Anyway, it's free and I guess that's all that matters... right?

The loot box fiasco has been going on since November of 2017. Last year a lot of gamers got angry about how predatory loot boxes were invading premium priced games like Star Wars: Battlefront II, and campaigned to have the pay-to-win mechanics removed. They were successful. The aftermath of that campaign managed to spill over into the political sector, where various gambling commissions from around the world ended up getting involved and putting some restrictions in place on the use of loot boxes. Both Belgium and the Netherlands banned loot boxes in their regions, and now gamers who have grown accustomed to opening up loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive can no longer do so.

The news about the restriction comes courtesy of an update over on the official Counter-Strike website, where there's a changelog for the latest patch, which means that there are now CS: GO account restrictions for users in the Netherlands and Belgium, prohibiting them from accessing the loot box containers in the game.

Valve did, however, re-enable access to the Steam Trading and Steam Market utilities for those in the Netherlands. One of the initial side-effects was that the company had to disable all access to the trading markets until a patch could be issued to prevent those from Belgium and the Netherlands from accessing loot boxes.

This move comes after the gaming commissions in both regions laid down the law by mandating that loot boxes are recognized as gambling and that they cannot be used in video games unless a gambling license is issued and approved by the authorities. Of course, if you legally certify that your game is gambling, it automatically ratchets up the rating to the highest one available, given that in most regions gambling is restricted for use only for those legally classified as an adult.

In America, if a game is classified as an actual piece of gambling software, the ESRB automatically has to label it as an AO+ game, which stands for Adults Only. This is one of the reasons why the ESA and other publishers have been vehemently pushing against the classification of loot boxes as gambling because it means a number of high-profile games will be slapped with an Adults Only rating. The downside (for publishers) is that AO games are not permitted on the home consoles, and are prohibited from being sold by the platform holders. This would effectively affect games such as Overwatch, nearly all of EA Sports' titles such as EA Sports UFC and the newer FIFA games, along with titles such as Middle-Earth: Shadow of War.

The aforementioned titles, along with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2, were part of the Belgium and Netherlands gaming commissions' investigation into predatory loot boxes. The commissions found that the loot box mechanisms were identical to roulette machines, and in some cases had fostered gray market resellers to make real-world money on loot box earnings, thus turning them into actual gambling houses.

The loot box business is absolutely huge, with more than $5 billion in revenue being accrued in 2016 within the CS: GO skin gambling arena alone, as reported by TechRaptor.

Valve has been the only major publisher so far to acquiesce to the demands of Belgium and the Netherlands, while Electronic Arts and Activision have been reticent about addressing the loot boxes featured in games such as FIFA and Overwatch.

Skin betting is big business in the world of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It's a subculture that has reached some fairly extreme heights when it comes to making and spending money on weapon skins. While it might seem crazy, someone actually spent $61,000 on a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive weapon skin.

Polygon is reporting that on Monday, January 29th, 2018, a user ended up spending $61,052.63 on a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin. The skin features an autographed sticker from Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, which apparently raised the sniper rifle's value to absurd heights. So what exactly makes this skin so value? Well, according to Polygon the skin is called Dragon Lore, and it's one of the rarest and most expensive skins in the skin-trading and skin-betting circles. They're only available through loot crates known as Cobblestone Packages.

Part of the reason that the price for this particular skin was so high was because there's a skin grading process in effect for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive weapons. The more in-use they are or the lower the grade they are the more "wear" they have on them. So battle-worn skins are scratched and dinged up with dirt and wear and tear on them. The opposite of that is the "Factory New" skins, which are described in the article as being "crystal clear" and brand spanking new. So the clearer and more pristine looking the skin, the rarer it is.

For the Dragon Lore skin with the autograph from author Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, it turns out that the skin was "Factory New". So not only was this the most rare skin in Valve's game with an autographed signature on it, but it was also in pristine condition. Obviously the value of the weapon skyrocketed, hence why it sold for over $61,000. The original owner of the skin had picked it up for $35,000 and then sold it for $61,000, making a healthy profit on the weapon skin. He told Polygon that he's financially stable enough to make such transactions.

The CS:GO trading community had a heavy blow dealt to it a while back when some of the skin trading sites were forced to shut down after gambling commissions stepped in and forced Valve to issue cease and desist letters to have some of those places close up shop. Nevertheless, some of the skin trading organizations still exist where users post up skins to sell to other users.

In this case, the high-rolling skin trading taking place in Count-Strike: Global Offensive still seems to be going strong. As evident with the sale of the Dragon Lore, some gamers most certainly place a high value on the worth of skins in some games. We've seen similar transactions take place for games like Star Citizen, where gamers have been spending big to get their hands on space ships to help fund the development of the game.

I suppose while the money may be used in Cloud Imperium Games' case to develop a game, in the case of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive the big price tags is simply to get one's hands on the most rare skin in the game. Here's to hoping the sixty-one grand was worth it.

One of the biggest complaints about any competitive multiplayer game is the matchmaking. Developers pore over all sorts of details in order to make matchmaking algorithms beneficial for players. Well, Valve is stepping outside the box and making matchmaking variables based on your behavior in other games.

Over on the official Counter-Strike website, there's an update for the game called "The Trust Factor". This is a replacement system for the previous model known as the "Prime Matchmaking" system. In the "Prime Matchmaking" players would have to attach a unique phone number to their account, and they would be paired up based on their in-game experience. This created fractures for some players because it meant that if you enjoyed being matched up with or against certain groups of players, those who ranked up or didn't rank up fast enough would eventually be moved out of the matchmaking pool.

According to Valve, this created what the team referred to as a "hard boundary" for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community.

Instead of relying on the strict boundaries of the previous system, Valve decided to re-imagine a new system based on observable player behavior. Instead of matchmaking based on strict, arbitrary variables, the developers decided to experiment with creating an algorithm based on the conditional variables of a player's account behavior and attributes from their Steam profile.

For instance, the algorithm takes into account how often an account was reported for cheating; how often the account spent playing certain games; and whether or not the account was VAC banned at any point.

According to the post, the experimental results have been positive so far, and Valve will be ditching the parts of the old system that didn't work in favor of the new "Trust Factor Matchmaking".

The post explains that players can't know exactly what factors and variables will account for the totality of how an account is gauged for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matchmaking. Based on the FAQ, Valve will be experimenting with a variety of factors, adding and removing some depending on what best works with the algorithm.

Now one of the common questions is "Will we be able to see our Trust Factor?" and the answer is an emphatic "No!". Valve doesn't want players worrying about their trust factors. Valve wants players to just play.

According to the developers, your trust will go up as you continue to be a model citizen within the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community.

There's a dedicated feedback account also being setup for those who feel as if they may be negatively affected by the new matchmaking algorithm. So if you feel as if you're an upstanding digital citizen of Counter-Strike but you're being matched up with the wrong people, don't hesitate to reach out to Valve and discuss the issue with the support staff.

The Trust Factor Matchmaking will continue to roll out for players and become the de facto standard of matchmaking for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. One can only wonder how the community at large will take to the new change.

Valve got hammered by the Washington State Gambling Commission recently for the use of the Steam API OpenID being attached to certain unsanctioned gambling sites for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Well, Valve addressed the Commission with an interesting response.

Polygon picked up the response that Valve sent out, where they state...

Valve takes a very pushback mentality to the accusations from the Washington State Gambling Commission. The thing is, you can't really blame the Gambling Commissioner. Digital gambling is completely unregulated other than being outright outlawed in most states, and the fact that people were using Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to run these not-so-underground gambling rings while pretending that it was all just fun and games (even though in some cases there were reportedly hundreds of thousands of dollars being moved through the rings over the course of weeks) it's not surprising that an official state commission would eventually get involved and start asking questions.

Let's also not forget that these gambling rings were being promoted by YouTubers who have a majority of young viewers, many of which were under the age of 18. You could easily attach your Steam ID to these websites and use Steam Wallet to fill up the account. The only blockade to keep people under 18 from signing up for the gambling sites was a basic terms of service screen with the "Are you 18 years of age or older?" checkbox.

There were various reports and some complaints about the Counter-Strike gambling rings, but it wasn't until YouTube outlet H3H3 Productions did a video about several other high profile YouTubers running the gambling ring did it gain widespread attention, get the eyes of the FTC, and prompt for various lawyers to get involved to launch a case against Valve and the YouTubers.

Eventually the Washington State Gambling Commission got involved and started investigating after all the commotion was kicked up, and they came down on Valve first because Counter-Strike is their game, the Open ID Steam API is their software, and people were using their game and their software to facilitate unlawful gambling communities.

Valve has since tried absolving themselves from any connection with those rings by sending out cease and desist letters to the Counter-Strike gambling sites using their Steam API, but apparently the Washington State Gambling Commission didn't get the memo.

Chris Stearns from the Gambling Commission wants further investigations into eSports gambling, citing that it's "unregulated" and needs oversight. Valve updated the Commission in their letter about their cease and desist initiatives and seem to be willing to work with the state regulators to get the situation resolved.

And while the class-action lawsuit against both Valve and the YouTubers was denied, the lawyers are seeking to build a case on the state level. Whether Valve will still have to deal with those issues remains to be seen.

So it looks like the State of Washington is gunning for Valve, explaining that the gaming mega-giant should probably stop facilitating gambling before some real trouble comes their way.

The State of Washington Gambling Commission issued a statement today explaining that it has reached out to Valve in regards to in-game gambling. Valve, the folks behind games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive, not Half-Life 3 and games platform Steam, have been involved in some naughty dealings and, as it turns out, Uncle Sam pays attention to those kinds of things.

According to the announcement, Valve has been informed that they must "immediately stop allowing the transfer of virtual weapons known as 'skins' for gambling activities" through the Steam platform.

Apparently the Commission contacted Valve back in February of this year regarding Counter Strike: Global Offensive and the ability for players to gamble with in-game skins. While the gambling side of this whole operation is not actually orchestrated by Valve, it is being done by third-party groups that have Steam accounts and, thus, falls under Valve's responsibility.

In case you're curious how serious this issue is, the Esports Betting Report claims that one such skins gambling site, CSGO Lounge, orchestrated about a billion dollars in skin gambling from Jan. 1 to Aug. 1 of this year.

Basically, whether skins are purchased in CSGO or won in-game, players are able to trade them around freely. However, these third-party sites allow players to gamble using their skins as currency, and they are then transferred accordingly. The trick here is that those skins can then be sold for real-world money, which is where the gambling comes into play. In other words, a CSGO player can put up a handful of their skins on a gamble and, if they win, earn something more rare as a result. They can then choose to hang on to their "winnings" or, you know, sell them for cash to the third-party source.

It sounds like Valve's own CSGO isn't the only game this is being done with, as games like FIFA have also been noted as being used for skins gambling. But while Valve can't be held responsible for other developers necessarily, it sounds like the State of Washington is at least taking them to task for the big earner, Counter Strike.

The statement from the Gambling Commission concludes saying that Valve is basically facilitating this type of gambling and has been ordered to "take whatever actions are necessary" to stop it from happening. They've got until Oct. 14 to respond, which isn't a heck of a lot of time.

While Valve can, and apparently has, issued statements to these sites to knock it off, they can't exactly make them stop breaking the law. It's kind of a tough spot they've been put in, and the only solution may be to stop allowing players to trade their skins.

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gambling rings have been turned upside down. Valve is cracking down on them and attempting to shut them down, but one site plans to stay open by going legit.

Over on the CSGO Lounge website, the owners posted up a message to the community about their betting services for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and for Dota 2. They state that they're attempting to get an officially sanctioned gambling license to operate legitimately and continue their services as normal. However, in the meantime, they're limiting the betting portions of the site until they get licensed, stating...

They plan on implementing a more secure registration form to comply with most gambling regulatory bodies and to ensure that only those over the age of 18 are eligible for using the site.

They also state that the site was never intended for real-money betting, explaining...

This has been stated often in defense of online betting and trading when it comes to digital items in games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, that it's all virtual and therefore legal. However, according to many state laws here in the United States, digital bets with real currency is still considered gambling. In fact, during the original kerfuffle that spawned from Trevor "TmarTn" Martin and Tom "ProSyndicate" Cassell and their CS:GO Lotto website, which was operating out of Florida, on the U.S., Gambling Laws website, it clearly states...

Given that the Counter-Strike gambling sites used money from the Steam Wallet -- which is real world money deposited into a Steam account -- and the money was then used in a game of chance to bet on and win skins in Counter-Strike, that still counts as gambling under most state laws here in the United States.

What's more, is that while certain gambling sites such as CSGO Lounge may not facilitate real-world money withdrawal, many users who bet and win high-value items use gray or black market services to sell accounts based on the estimated value of the items they acquired. So if you manage to bet on and win a skin worth $4,000 real life dollars, you could then turn around and sell the account with that skin for around $3,500.

This sort of thing happened often enough that Valve had to update their terms of service and subscriber agreement to ban account selling.

Bloomberg reported that the gambling ring business for games like Counter-Strike is worth an annual $2.3 billion.

Nevertheless, CSGO Lounge is attempting to get a license to operate in territories that allow for betting so that they don't have to shutdown. Other Counter-Strike gambling sites have already closed up shop after Valve sent out a cease and desist for any site using their OpenID API to integrate their gambling services with the Steam user IDs, giving those sites 10 days to close down lest they bring legal action down around their ears.

Despite some of the sites closing up shop, the parents of kids under 18 who were solicited to by YouTubers have already begun talking to lawyers about civil lawsuits (and in the U.S., it's illegal to solicit minors for gambling), others have tried targeting Valve for facilitating the tools for gambling without stepping in to shut down the sites, as reported by PC Gamer.

After the FTC was notified about the gambling rings, and after lawyers started getting involved for civil suits, Valve did start putting their foot down more firmly against the sites.

What's interesting is that CSGO Lounge is trying to go legit, even though it was one of the two dozen or so sites that were sent the cease and desist by Valve.

While the betting portion of CSGO Lounge will be limited until they get licensed, they will still allow for standard player-to-player trading. Valve didn't clarify if they're okay with sites focusing mainly on trading, but they certainly aren't okay with the betting and gambling.

Gambling on video games has been a recent hot button topic, as many of the sites dedicated to it have been flooded with controversy. Now, one senator is looking to introduce legislation in order to prevent such games from targeting young people. There are a couple of caveats to be aware of here, however. The first, is that the Senator in question is in Australia. The second, is that it's far from clear exactly what changes to the law he's looking to make.

The topic of gambling on competitive online games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has been a major issue in recent weeks, primarily based around the discovery that more than one YouTuber who promoted such sites, actually had a financial stake in them. While the non-disclosure issue is one with problems of its own, the news opened up many eyes to the fact that if gambling is taking place in video games, where large percentages of the player base are minors, this means that minors are gambling, and that's a problem.

As a result, Independent South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon has announced plans to introduce a bill to tackle the issue of underage gambling in games when the Australian Parlament reconvenes at the end of August. Speaking with Fairfax Media, Xenophon called out Counter-Strike Global Offensive and DOTA 2 as examples of the offenders he wishes to deal with.

However, Senator Xenophon stopped short of explaining exactly what his bill would do. Australia already has a law dealing with "interactive gambling" but the Senator says that it hasn't been able to keep up with the changes in technology. It sounds like the main objective will be to rework the existing law so that video games can be included within the law's definition of gambling.

It's also possible that games that have gambling aspects involved could see increased age requirements so that minors are not able to play them. In addition, it could be made illegal for games in Australia to sell products with variable pricing based on chance. Such things are already illegal in Japan.

Before the law gets around to dealing with any of these issues, private industry is already trying to fix the PR problem. Valve, creators of Counter-Strike, as well as Steam, the platform the game is played on, began to take action last month by sending cease and desist letters to third party gambling sites that linked themselves to Steam via the platform's OpenID API. These sites allowed players to bet rare weapon skins, which had actual cash value, on the outcome of games. Valve has tried to make it clear that they had no actual business relationship with these sites.

With this issue being a heated one right now, it will be interesting to see if other countries follow suit and attempt to enact legislation to deal with underage gambling on video games.

It's not a common occurrence that Valve takes action against mods to its games, but that's exactly what's happening with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. In fact, they're basically whipping out the ban hammer for folks who create servers that allow players to use custom skins for their various weapons.

Valve made the announcement official heading into the weekend, and it's causing quite a few Counter-Strike fans to call foul. As Valve states in the announcement, however, they gave players plenty of warning before finally taking action.

Said warnings rolled out as early as July of 2015. The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team notified the community that operators who created servers that “falsify the contents of a player's profile or inventory” would be punished.

The statement then goes into great detail why these actions are harmful to the game, as well as what the punishment for continuing to create these kinds of servers would be. While Valve is typically on-board with mods (Since, you know, the original Counter-Strike is itself a mod), the developer said that creating these kinds of servers cause harm to the game's ecosystem.

For starters, the in-game skins come in pretty much two flavors. There are those you get for achieving certain goals, and those you can buy from the store. If you come across someone in an online match, a quick glimpse at their loadout tells you their story. You know what major accomplishments they've made, and you'll probably recognize the skins they paid real world money for. In the case of the former, the skins you don are a status symbol of sorts, which serve as one of those carrots on a stick meant to keep players coming back for more.

Folks creating servers that allow for custom skins are throwing that system right out the window. If you see someone with a rad skin on these servers, it's likely a mod that they plugged into the game or even purchased from another player, which in affect takes money out of Valve's pocket for cosmetic items.

Fans are upset because these servers are not competitive and, thus, have no impact on that main ecosystem of the game. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that folks have been charging for these skins and servers, I'm not sure there would even be a problem.

However, despite many warnings, some folks continued to use the mods and servers and Valve has finally taken action. According to the statement, the team permanently disabled Game Server Login Tokens (used to create these kinds of servers) for folks who created servers that offered free or paid content that “falsified” players' profiles. Folks who generated tokens tied to those servers were also permanently restricted from creating new tokens.

That's certainly not an issue they have to deal with for games like Call of Duty or Battlefield, so this is some new territory for FPS fans to navigate. Let us know your take in the comments below.

Most people might ask, “Why haven’t schools thought of it sooner?” A high school in Norway is embracing the new age of entertainment and has included a three-year course in their curriculum that centers around playing competitive online games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends.

According to The Daily Dot, Garnes High School in Norway saw the importance and popularity of esports and decided to give students what they truly wanted with serious training and education in the realm of competitive esports. The course is three years long and focuses on the science, strategy and techniques behind competitive gaming. Peter Grahl Johnstad, the school’s science department manager, said,

Students will be required to complete only five hours of study a week (up to 30 hours for the three-year class), which can include studying the theory behind competitive esports and teamplay, attending an esports match or Skyping with a professional gamer. And of course, they’ll be able to eventually compete in local competitions after getting through the games themselves.

This class isn’t just a snoozefest where you can hang back and play games all day. It also involves intense physical and mental training to help enhance reaction time, reflexes and more. These sort of abilities are constantly being used and tested in a video game, so the purpose for intense training is to up those abilities and strengthen them. Johnstad says that nutrition will also play a key role in staying physically healthy.

Just like in a regular school, the students will receive homework, exams and grades depending on their performance. Johnstad adds that he hopes the course will generate more enthusiasm for education. Users on Twitter were ecstatic to find an education in gaming.

For those who are interested, the class will be open for sign-up on March 1. Would you attend a three-year long course in competitive esports? Let us know in the comments below.

Valve has updated Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with a brand new revolver, a series of Christmas themed weapon skins and a brand new killcam. But don't worry, the killcam is only available in the casual modes. They aren't going to break the sensitive balance of competitive play like that.

The news was rolled out over on the official Counter-Strike website where they detail what the new features are like. They've added in gifts and gift leaderboards that will be made available up until January 15th, 2016. They added a revolver case, as well as new sticker capsules and service medals for 2016.

Of course most gamers are only concerned with what new goodies they can actually utilize during the actual gameplay of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and in that regard Valve introduced a few new goodies, including the R8 Revolver that occupies the Desert Eagle loadout slot. It's a secondary weapon that comes with high-impact stopping power for mid and close range bouts. The R8 isn't just a fancy letter and number attached to the “Revolver” name, the R8 refers to the fact that this Counter-Strike secondary weapon can hold up to eight rounds in the revolver's cylinder. This gives you two extra shots compared to what's available in most other standard six-cylinder revolvers. So you get a little extra power per shot and a couple of extra shots to down a target before having to reload.

The Killer Replay is the one feature that may have a few hardcore Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fans a bit on edge. But don't worry, this killcam equivalent isn't meant for competitive play. Valve implemented the feature for casual play and for the Demolition mode. What's more is that server operators can turn on Killer Replay or turn it off. It's available in the game settings and it's even possible to use control variables to modify certain properties of the Killer Replay in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

The actual replay mechanic allows players to quickly see how they died from the enemy's perspective. It's identical to the killcam from Call of Duty and games of a similar ilk. The point is to help give gamers an idea of how and where they were killed from in order to adjust their game and devise a plan on exacting a little bit of revenge.

A few other additions have also been made on the gameplay side of the equation, with very moderate tweaks made to the Competitive Matchmaking times, as well as new times for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championships. In addition to this they added a new timeout feature that allows a team to call a single 60 second timeout during a Competitive Matchmaking round. In order to incite a 60 second team timeout a vote must be taken. Only one timeout is allowed per match, so don't expect to see it spammed.

They also made some changes that will be more convenient for streamers, such as the autodetection of graphics settings to match a machine that's running multiple windows at a single time. This will automatically adjust the shadow, lighting and geometry and texture details to fit the best performance of the player's machine.

You can check out the rest of the changelog over on the official Counter-Strike website.

Valve is always coming up with new ways to keep players protected and safe when engaging in online activities with various games available on Steam. In the case of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive they will have a new holding period for items when players attempt to make trades.

Over on the Counter-Strike blog they reveal that there is going to be a new holding period for trades when players attempt to make trades using the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive marketplace.

The new trade hold will automatically kick into effect for anyone who does not have the new Steam mobile authenticator. Yes, the same kind of mobile authenticator app that Blizzard uses for many of their games such as World of Warcraft and Diablo 3. If you do have the Steam mobile app you can instantly confirm the trade and get on about your business. If you do not have the Steam mobile app, the trade will stay in holding until both parties making the trade can confirm that everything is satisfactory before proceeding to finishing up the trade.

If anything looks suspicious or out of place you can browse through trades on hold and cancel anything that looks out of the ordinary. Otherwise you can proceed and finish the trade with someone else for whatever items you're trading. Over on the Steam mobile authenticator website, part of the notice states that the new app will help make trading instant, otherwise gamers will have to deal with trading holds in their favorite games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive...

Valve is using this opportunity to also push for the Steam mobile authenticator app. Players who sign up and grab the app between now and December 16th will be eligible to receive a 5% discount on all marketplace purchases on Steam. That's not a bad incentive just for grabbing an app to better protect your account and your trading?

This move from Valve isn't surprising at all. In fact, it seems like this move is kind of late given all the online account thefts and security breaches that many online services are known for.

Blizzard got wise many years ago during the peak of World of Warcraft and began to increase the security around their products when hacked accounts and account trading was a popular thing to do many years ago. At this point the mobile authenticator for many of Blizzard's titles is just common security practice.

With Valve catering to well over a 125 million users the world around, it seems like it's been a long time coming to have mobile authentication made mandatory for trades. We don't always hear about the trading scams in the gaming news at major websites, but it happens often enough in games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that it's become an issue that Valve is attempting to address with the new trade-holds feature, preventing users with fraudulent accounts or intentions from gaining the upperhand on unsuspecting users.

You can look for the trade holds to go into full effect on December 9th.

Valve has made some pretty big changes to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. They've completely retooled the game's skeletal system and upgraded the hitboxes to better accurately represent the player states.

Over on the Counter-Strike website they have a blog post explaining how they've completely overhauled the skeletal system to coincide with an all new per-body part hitbox, where instead of it being a giant rectangular hitbox for certain parts of a character's body, it's now a more modular design to coincide with the character's movement, position and the animation that they're playing.

As mentioned on the blog...

This is exciting news (or at least it should be exciting news) for Counter-Strike: GO players. The addition of third-person world animations for actions taking place only makes a ton of sense. It always bothered me that they would have two different view-models where in first-person the animation sets differ from the third-person actors.

I love that RSI and Cloud Imperium Games already from the get-go maintained that the first and third-person view-models are the same entity/actor and that they won't have two separate instances running in Star Citizen. This means that whatever you see in first-person in Star Citizen is whatever everyone else sees in third-person in their screen.

Using RSI's method for first-person shooter gameplay maintains a consistency across the board so that weapon firing, hitboxes and interactions maintain synchronicity for all players. The fact that it took Valve this long to adopt that kind of authenticity and mechanical aesthetic for Counter-Strike: GO is kind of disappointing. Bohemia Interactive have been using this method for their Arma games for years, and it's just a far more accurate way of synching animations, movements and hit-detection across the board.

However, in the case of Counter-Strike: GO, it still doesn't share third-person and first-person actors, it's just that third-person actors now have more animations and they now more accurately represent what's happening in first-person. This should, in theory, help tone down the complaints about hit-detection and poor hitbox implementation.

Counter-Strike: GO was always on the Combat Arms tier in my book as far as gameplay mechanics go, but it's at least good that Valve is finally upgrading the experience for hardcore and competitive players.

In the changelog they acknowledge that all world model weapon animations have been changed, all player model geometry has been re-rigged, new player states for rigging and defusing bombs have been added, the ragdolls have been rebuilt, and the animation network has been updated for better synching.

The update also made some gameplay changes as well, such as reduced clipping where weapons and players would poke through thin walls. They made some tweaks to some of the weapons, and even updated the UI that suffered from some minor bugs. Interestingly enough they also added a new report feature for reporting enemies for anti-competitive griefing or losing on purpose.

You can check out the entire changelog over on the official website.

Honor in competitive shooter games is not a common thing. Usually if a cheater comes in and starts wrecking the game like a third wheel in a marriage, the team with the cheater just lets it slide. Well, one team member did not let the cheater do his own thing and instead trolled him the entire match.

Kotaku spotted a video by Solek1337 who captured the match on video, showing what happened and how a player named Soulm8 put a fork in the groove of a Russian cheater. Check out the video below.

So for a little context, Solek was playing against a group in Counter-Strike. His team were losing somewhat badly to a Russian hacker who was using aimbots and a hack to see through the game's walls. Even with the hacks the Russian was still getting owned from time to time.

The hacking persisted in the match, though, ruining the fun for a lot of the players.

After a while another player on the Russian's team finally had enough of the cheating and hacking, his name was Soulm8. He decided to fight back against the hacker by killing him and then trolling him for the remainder of the match. Some of the Russian's teammates tried to kick out Soulm8 but someone else on the team decided to keep him on board.

Soulm8 proceeded to troll the Russian hacker by standing in front of his scope so he couldn't snipe properly, as well as block his view to keep him from getting any kills. Soulm8 also allowed the opposing Counter-Strike team to get free kills. This not only evened the playing field but also disrupted the hacker's attempts to dominate the game.

Solek was ecstatic about Soulm8's honor and chivalry, loudly boasting...

The video is practically impossible to follow without Solek's commentary. It basically just looks like a lot of shooting and killing going on but Counter-Strike games aren't the easiest to follow if you aren't familiar with them. Even with Solek's commentary there was a lot of jangled context and quick switching within the video that made it difficult to parse for a coherent narrative.

Even still, after the halfway mark things became a lot clearer to understand and we were able to see how Soulm8 trolled the Russian hacker, eventually resulting in the hacker being kicked from the game after he killed Soulm8 too many times. Counter-Strike's anti-trolling measures prevent teammates from repeatedly killing each other and the Russian hacker burned right past that threshold.

A lot of people seem to be responding positively about Soulm8's behavior in Counter-Strike and for standing up to the hacker. Maybe if we see this more often it'll make hackers think twice about ruining a game.

A cool new video has emerged from creative Youtube outlet Andrewmfilms, featuring a collection of scenarios from popular video games all realized in the form of LEGOs. If you're having a hard time wrapping your head around that concept, just check out the video and be amazed.

Andrewmfilms has a series of videos on his channel similar in tone and theme to the one above. There's one about Pac-Man and another called the “Fus Ro Dah Accident”, obviously related to the popular magical saying from Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. He even has a “Fallout vs Skyrim” video.

As for the short film above, it starts off in Aperture Labs with Chell. We only see the environment and setting from first-person so it's difficult to tell that it's actually represented through LEGOs at first. After a few portals are made we're then treated to the realization that the setting is themed after the popular building blocks.

Chell proceeds to make some more portals and fall through the floor, showcasing one of the neat features in the Portal series where the physics-breaking concepts could leave your mind in a wobbly mess trying to understand how it all worked. The segment ends when Chell falls really fast through the portals and then goes splat on the ground.

The next segment takes place in the forest of Skyrim where the player uses the very popular Fus Ro Dah attack to blast enemies to the ground. There's a lot of LEGO beheadings that take place as well as some more magical attacks that sees some skeletal warriors being burned to the ground.

The segment after that is one of the more interesting and well produced ones: BioShock. This was done superbly. Andrew managed to capture the atmosphere and horror that Irrational Games brought to the table with their first-person shooter. The giant, LEGO rendition of the Big Daddy just tops it all off. Very good stuff.

There's a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive segment after that. Man do I hate in videos when people rapidly keep switching between the knife and the gun and that pet peeve is beautifully captured. Also, it was pretty apparent it was Counter-Strike since he didn't do any 360-no-scope sniping, which would have been the dead giveaway that it was supposed to be Call of Duty. Also, he mentions that it's Counter-Strike in the YouTube description.

Out of them all, the BioShock segment was probably the most compelling. It's rare we get to see LEGOs go that dark... and the surprising part about it was that it seemed to work quite well. I doubt the LEGO Group would ever want a first-person shooter game made where gamers saw one of the yellow brick people taking out a syringe and shooting up during the middle of a vicious gun-fight in order to power-up and blow opponents to smithereens. But hey, it would be a pretty cool game if they ever decided to pursue that avenue.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has received a major update called Operation Bloodhound. This update brings both free and paid features to the PC/Mac/Linux shooter.

Whether or not you buy Operation Bloodhound, you'll have access to six new maps in CS:GO. The additions include returning community favorites Agency and Season along with these new battlegrounds:

• Log – Cut down more than trees, as a long-ranged battle breaks out at a logging facility.
• Rails – A decrepit rail yard becomes an industrial killing field in this night-time engagement.
• Resort – Once a temple to excess and wealth, the luxurious Elysee Resort has been transformed into a high-stakes firefight.
• Zoo – Terrorists have arrived at the Bay Area Zoo, and they didn’t come for the dolphin show.

Furthermore, all players can now earn XP at the end of each official match. By leveling up your Profile Rank, you'll get a new title and icon for your account. You'll also get a weapon drop the first time you rank up every week.

If you buy the $5.99 Operation Bloodhound Access Pass, the game will offer you several additional perks. You'll have access to 62 missions spread across campaigns. These campaigns include two new types of missions. In Guardian Co-op, you and a friend must fend off enemy Bots. Assassination tasks you with finding and killing an enemy on the other team.

By completing these missions, you'll earn extra XP for your profile and also upgrade your Operation Bloodhound Coin. A new Operation Journal will track your stats until Operation Bloodhound's end on September 30th and let you know how you stack up against friends.

Like other Operations, Bloodhound includes some loot as well. The Falchion Weapons Case, exclusively available to Access Pass holders, contains a new Falchion knife along with 16 weapon finishes made by the community. When Access members earn weapon drops, they'll come from six exclusive weapon collections with a total of 89 new finishes for guns.

Operation Bloodhound's accompanying patch also makes a number of bug fixes that weren't quite so fun as bird surfing. The problems addressed include server-crashing exploits and invisible players. The hitbox fixes aren't here just yet, though. You can read the full patch notes for the update here.

After lots of complaints, a few gifs and some video footage later, Valve has decided to fix the hitboxes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. When will they be fixed? No one knows. How long will it take? Well, it'll be on Valve's time.

Kotaku reported that complaints about the hitboxes have been going on for quite some time regarding Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. However, Valve has mostly ignored those complaints to focus on other areas of the game.

Things really kicked into high gear, however, when a gif went viral showcasing a player attempting to get the drop on an opponent, running up on him while he isn't looking and shooting him up several times in the head. However, the opponent doesn't die and is basically tickled and offended. The opponent spins around and fires off a shot, killing the player instantly. This sent the Counter-Strike community into a tizzy because many of them questioned how it could be possible to shoot someone point blank in the face and not kill them?

The gif image and this webm video showed just how poorly optimized the hitboxes are in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Complaints about this issue have gone on for quite some time, yet they weren't being addressed or acknowledged by Valve.

The video and complaints that skyrocketed threads on Reddit finally caused Valve to acknowledge the issue of hitboxes in Counter-Strike. The company mentioned that the issue is being worked on but they don't have an estimated time as to when the patch will arrive.

For those who don't know, hitboxes are the areas designated on the character models that dictate how much damage they receive and where they receive that damage. A hitbox around the head designates that all shots within that area caused “head damage”, which is usually fatal or near fatal depending on the weapon being used. A hitbox around the arms or legs usually registers lower damage counts, while hitboxes around the center torso does almost as much damage as a headshot. In the case of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive the hitboxes obviously aren't registering properly for some headshots, as evidenced in the webm video.

Some people have complained that perhaps this is less an issue relegated to Counter-Strike and more an issue associated with the outdated Source Engine. It's hard to tell the severity of the situation and whether or not it was just lag or a poor connection or if the hitbox really was to blame.

The gif in the original article on Kotaku almost makes it impossible to tell what's happening exactly due to all the screen-tearing and the piss-poor frame-rate. However, the issue was obviously bad enough that people within the Counter-Strike community were able to yell to the rooftops and get Valve to take notice of the issue. However, at this rate, there's really no telling exactly how long it'll be before the hitboxes in the game are properly fixed.

Like all things running on Valve time, this thing could be resolved as soon as June or as late as June, 2016.

A glitch that has been taking Counter-Strike: Global Offensive by storm has been fixed. After receiving some complaints about a bird exploit in the de_train bombsite map, Valve hopped to it and fixed the exploit.

PC Gamer is reporting that the Terrorist spawn on the long route from point 'A' in the de_train map had some extra map benefits in the form of flying pigeons. It's not just that the pigeons are there in the stage, it's that the pigeons offer some hidden benefits to those on the Terrorist side.

You see, players are able to hitch a ride on the pigeons because they're actual solid entities. I'm not really sure how that happened because most background objects have a default state of lacking solid boundaries. It's hard for me to imagine that the map designers didn't have some kind of knowledge of this, especially given that programming or plotting their active path required constant interaction with their object status and whether or not they would be solid, killable, static, etc. Anyway, you can see how players made use of the birds with the clip below.

According to PC Gamer, Valve modified the map and tossed in a textured sign letting players know not to ride the birds to the high heavens.

Now this probably seemed like the sort of thing that would be done just for the “lulz” and giggles. However, some players found out that the ride-worthy birds provided more than just laughs and giggles. In fact, a few enterprising Counter-Strike players managed to take the whole bird-surfing to a new level... almost literally.

In the video below you can see where some Terrorists used the bird-surf bug to get high up on the stage and proceed to snipe from outside the dome. Brilliant.

The bug was pretty useful for getting easy kills without being spotted, but Valve wanted to put an end to that ASAP. I mean, could you imagine what that would have done in the tournament scene? It's not like the tournament scene doesn't have their own cheating problems to deal with.

With the game being patched and the sign up to warn players not to step on birds, this should make Counter-Strike: Global Offensive more digestible for the average player and a bit more boring for those who like to take exploits to new levels.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a first-person competitive shooter. The game is available digitally via Steam and for home consoles. Players will compete in team-based modes such as demolition, deathmatch, arms race and hostage rescue, across multiple maps. For those who aren't adept in online, competitive multiplayer, there is also the option of playing offline against computer-controlled bots.

It's not often that we hear about professional e-sports players being caught red-handed in a cheating scandal. However, there's a pretty big problem that blew wide open when some of the top players for CS:GO were blatantly caught cheating.

PC Gamer has a detailed report on the account involving professional e-sports players Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian, Simon "smn" Beck, and Gordon " Sf" Giry who were recently VAC banned on Steam when the service picked up that they were using third-party cheating software in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

VAC bans are put into place via Steam to ensure that players don't use cheat tools in online multiplayer games. According to the article, the tool they were using was hard to spot and difficult to detect, even by Valve's highly respected anti-cheating software.

PC Gamer is reporting that over on Tovmassian's Facebook page, he stated that...

Tovmassian was cut from the Titan team and reports are now starting to call into question the veracity of the true competitive skill of professional e-sports players set to partake in the upcoming Dreamhack Winter 2014 tournament.

The head honcho over the Dreamhack Winter 2014 tournament, Tomas Lyckedal stated...

What's interesting is that Tovmassian had noted that the person who provided him with the hack had stated that “many” pro-players in the e-sports circuit were using the cheat tool. If that really is true then it's a scary thing given that the e-sports scene is what it is because of the exhibition of player skill and capabilities. Having the prestige of the e-sports scene compromised with skill-assisted tools is a disheartening and disgraceful circumstance draping itself all over e-sports.

An e-sports commentator also shared his expertise about the hack that was used, noting that you won't notice it visibly on the screen and it basically makes good players slightly better and it makes great players that much greater. The interesting thing about it is that it calls into question exactly what these players planned on doing if they had to attend live events where they couldn't install the hack on the event machines? I mean, what were they planning on doing? Bringing USB sticks and attempting to do a quick install while no one is looking? It seemed like an ill-thought-out plan on the end of pro-players attempting to use a hack to get ahead.

The entire article on PC Gamer goes into much more detail over the whole Counter-Strike cheating scandal and offers a very detailed rundown of all the intricacies surrounding the situation involving the pro-players caught cheating. It will be interesting to see if the high level of cheat prevention methods used to keep pro-players in line, will also carry over to the standard enthusiasts who just play just to have fun and sometimes cheat for the sake of cheating?

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive development team is currently working on two more maps. The new additions are a remake of the classic map "Cobble" (a.k.a. de_cbble) as well as a new arena called "Overpass."

Cobble is set in and around a country farmhouse. The terrorist team has to plant a bomb at one of two sites while the counter-terrorists try to stop them. It was much larger than many of the other classic maps, which made it popular for matches with large amounts of players. However, the dev team acknowledges that it had some problems.

"The original map fell out of favor for several reasons. For one, its paths to bomb sites were long and disconnected from each other, ending in tight choke points," says the dev blog post. "This meant that teams were unable to react and change strategy mid-round. The same choke points that made it difficult to plant bombs made it near-impossible to re-take a site and defuse a bomb in time. The lack of strategic options made de_cbble’s gameplay feel limited and monotonous."

The revised map is more fluid and less restrictive. There's a new elevated route to reach the B bomb site and a new stairwall to connect to the long approach to A. Bombsite B has been moved closer to the entrance as well to make it easier to attack. Some ceilings have been removed so that players can toss grenades over them to cover their attack.

The visual appearance of Cobble has received a significant upgrade as well. The scale of the buildings has been reduced so players don't feel like they're walking through a giant's estate. The featureless surfaces of the map have been broken up with more realistic details. The designers also looked to create more organic cover instead of just throwing crates everywhere as the classic version's designers did.

In "Overpass," a GSG9 team is trying to defend a military shipment on a canal bridge. The Phoenix terrorist faction can either blow up the overpass or the shipment itself. Players can fight in the open canal or the adjacent public park. Bombsite B, the overpass pillar, is a wide-open environment surrounded by several chokepoints. Bombsite A can be accessed through two routes in the public park. One route is a sniper haven while the other lends itself to close-quarters fights.

"The design of Overpass benefited a great deal from our experiences upgrading Mirage, and from the incredibly helpful feedback we’ve gotten from the CSGO community since. This allowed us to come into the design of Overpass with some very clear goals: We wanted to keep the visibility high and the environment enjoyable to be in. We also wanted the map to offer something new for both competitive and casual players."

The development team didn't mention when we can expect these new maps. I'm looking forward to their eventual release. Cobble was a fun map in earlier Counter-Strike days in spite of its flaws. The revisions sound like they're on the right track.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is available on PC, Mac, PSN and Xbox Live Arcade.

Valve has released a new set of community maps for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Purchasing the Operation Bravo Pass gives you access to these eight maps on official dedicated servers.

The maps are available for casual, deathmatch, and competitive modes. Seven of the maps (Agency, Ali, Cache, Chinatown, Gwalior, Ruins and Siege) are brand new. The eight, Seaside, is available in competitive mode for the first time ever. Here's a description of each new location:

Agency - The highly polished confines of this modern corporate skyscraper are home to a frantic hostage rescue.

Ali - Interesting bomb site trade-offs and highly strategic gameplay in a compact Mediterranean village.

Cache - Surgical precision and tactical prowess are crucial to securing a hidden weapons cache beneath Chernobyl.

Chinatown - Fast-paced, aggressive combat in a tight urban environment.

Gwalior - A frantic uphill battle over the historic ruins of Fort Gwalior, India.

Ruins - Two tense bombsites separated by a dangerous sightline in a Mayan temple.

Siege - Engage in sprawling outdoor firefights and underground close-quarters battles in this reinterpretation of a hostage rescue classic.

"Like with Operation Payback, buying a pass to Bravo gets you an exclusive upgradable Challenge Coin," Valve says. "This time around, though, the coin will double as an operational scorecard that’ll let you keep a complete record of your stats from all Official Competitive Matches for the duration of Bravo."

The pass also unlocks 15 weapon finishes. You won't just get them automatically, though. Instead, they're drops on both Bravo and non-Bravo maps. The finishes range from new types of camo to a very fetching shark pattern.

Players who don't buy the pass can still benefit from Operation Bravo's release. Players with the OB Pass can invite their friends to matches with these maps. Furthermore, all players have a chance at getting Bravo cases featuring a different set of weapon finishes. OB Pass holders will have a greater chance at getting these cases.

The Operation Bravo Pass costs $7.99 and will give you access to these maps on official servers through January 20th. As was the case with Operation Payback, the proceeds from this pass go toward the players who built these maps. It's a way for you to support the modding community that's helping sustain the game.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players have a new weapon at their disposal: the ban hammer. The new Overwatch feature allows the player base to punish troublemakers in the multiplayer shooter's PC version.

If a player is constantly reported for bad behavior, their case will be sent to Overwatch. Experienced members of the community ("investigators") will be able to review replays of these players and determine whether they were guilty of griefing or cheating. If a guilty verdict is reached, the offender will be banned. The length of the ban depends on how severe the offense is and how many prior convictions the suspect has. If the investigators overwhelmingly vote for "Insufficient Evidence" verdicts or their votes are inconclusive, the case will be dismissed.

Valve will select members of the community to become investigators based on their activity level. A player is more likely to be chosen for Overwatch if they've logged many hours with the game, they've racked up a lot of wins and they're in a high Skill Group. They'll need to have a low report count as well. If they make accurate judgments on cases that coincide with the majority of other investigators' verdicts, they'll improve their Overwatch score and receive more cases to review.

CS:GO isn't the first game to let players punish each other. League of Legends features a Tribunal system that works similarly. I wonder if Valve will eventually implement a feature like LoL's Honor system to reward well-behaved players as well.

According to the official FAQ, the Overwatch feature is currently in beta. It will only issue a small number of cases for the time being. Furthermore, Valve will review all cases before any punishments are doled out. They'll make the system completely community-driven once they're confident it's reliable, though.

Holy crap, Valve! Talk about racking up good guy points. This is like something you would expect from organized religion if it weren't full of corrupt, greedy, sodomizing, child-molesting dastards. Anyway, the real meat of the story is that Valve has announced “Operation Payback”, which is a celebration of custom maps made by the community that's being sold for a fee. The money goes to the creative map designers who took time out of their life to create the maps you enjoy playing in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

As noted in Valve's press release...

Now, I know some of you are worried about all of this: “What's this pass gonna cost us?” “Why are they charging us for custom maps?” “Don't they have enough money already?”

While the preemptive complaints are understandable, let's just keep in mind that the pass is a regular $5.99 and will be available for some time at half off for only $2.99. The money goes to supporting the map creators and allows players to play on seven of the top-rated maps on low-ping servers, so the pass isn't just some charity or is an aimless cash-grab without merit.

I've never been much of a fan of Counter-Strike as it doesn't tickle my fancy or fulfill my appetite for FPS games like some other titles on the market but I do respect the fact that this brand had humble beginnings as a Half-Life mod and has evolved into a financially lucrative franchise, so hats off to everyone involved and hats off to Valve for taking the opportunity to reward the community for their continued dedication to the game.

There's another company whose name I shall not mention who would never do anything like this...in fact, the community had to take it upon themselves to even create the mod tools necessary just to modify the game after it had been locked down in order to sell DLC. Sorry Cliffy B, but Valve just keeps proving they're nothing like a certain other company you tried comparing them to.

Anyway, you can learn more about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's Operation Payback by visiting the Official Website.

The official Counter-Strike: Global Offensive website has been updated with another video from a professional gamer. In this latest video, AZK of Team Dynamics shares some of his wisdom.

AZK's focus in this video is sniper play. He provides some tips about how to effectively use the AWP, perhaps the most annoying of all weapons. He'll talk about firing the gun with and without a scope, and also positioning.

Several pro CS events are occurring this month. The top teams in the US are competing this weekend at the ESEA Season 12 finals. DreamHack will run from November 22nd to 24th in Sweden. The month will conclude with the Insomnia47 tournament in the UK. The CS team will no doubt take the opportunity to film another one of these interviews.

For tips on how to use another fan-favorite CS gun, the AK-47, check out the previous tip video from Area 51's Semphis.

Valve thinks you're terrible at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Yes, you. Is that how you think you're supposed to hold a Desert Eagle? What are you doing with that smoke gren - you know what, it's not important. Just listen up.

The company will be releasing a series of videos from professional CS players. In each video, they'll pass on some of the knowledge they've accumulated over the years. These tips might not turn you into a pro but maybe they'll make your kill:death ratio a bit more respectable.

The first video stars Semphis from Area 51. He talks about how he handles the ever-popular AK-47 assault rifle. Also, he shows you how to effectively use flash and smoke grenades in de_inferno.

CS:GO launched in August, but it's far from a "new" game. It's based on a Half-Life mod that was released back in 1999. The basic gameplay has remained intact , so many players came into CS:GO with years of experience. Thus, the learning curve can be a bit brutal for newbies. Hopefully these videos do some good.

The CS:GO team will be going to next week's Electronic Sports World Cup in Paris. While there, they'll meet other CS:GO pros so expect more tip videos soon.

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive development team is planning to make a "major update" to the multiplayer shooter. This update will include, among other things, two new maps for your T vs. CT pleasure.

The first map, ar_monastery, seems to take place in a snowy Tibetan monastery. Just looking at the screenshot makes me nostalgic for Uncharted 2. The "ar" prefix on the map, if you're not aware, means it's designed for Arms Race mode.

The second map is de_vertigo. This demolition map is actually a revamped classic. It takes place in a skyscraper under construction. Try not to fall off the side, especially if you're carrying the bomb.

The patch is also said to have a "ton" of fixes to bugs pointed out by gamers. You should also expect revised matchmaking for Classic Competitive play. It's not clear what platform(s) this update is planned for. Presumably the PC/Mac version will get it, but consoles might not be so lucky due to how slow certification can be at times.

Global Offensive, an HD remake of the popular Half-Life mod, was released back in August.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is finally due out next Tuesday, Aug. 21, and both Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment want to make sure your trigger finger is itching uncontrollably before it gets here. To that end, they've posted a new cinematic trailer showing off some of the game's tense action.

The original Counter-Strike began life as a mod to Half-Life 2, using the game's engine to turn a single player shooting affair into a multiplayer war between terrorists and anti-terrorists. This newest version of the game was built from the ground up, but has the standard Counter-Strike DNA pumping through its veins. Purchasing items has been augmented and some controls have been tweaked but, on the whole, people will still be swapping an untold number of bullets to either plant a bomb or stop the bomb from being planted.

Check out the latest trailer, revealed exclusively through Game Trailers.

You'll be able to take part in this latest firefight on a variety of platforms, including PC, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 306, beginning Aug. 21. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will run $14.99, but PlayStation Plus subscribers will enjoy a 20 percent discounted price of $11.99. You can also pre-order the game through Steam on PC or on the PlayStation Network right now.

And now that you've seen the cinematic side of CS:GO, here's a reminder of what the gameplay actually looks like, complete with a brief history of the series.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's lengthy beta is almost at an end. Valve has revealed that they plan to release the counter-terrorists vs. terrorists shooter to the public by the end of the summer.

CS:GO will be on sale starting on August 21st. It'll be available through Steam, PSN, and Xbox Live. The price is set at $15 for all platforms.

Global Offensive is a modern remake of a game that originated as a Half-Life mod in 1999. Teams of counter-terrorists and terrorists face off in objective-based matches. It quickly became a classic thanks to the one-shot deaths, realistic recoil and quick matches.

Valve and Global Offensive co-developer Hidden Path Entertainment updated all of the classic content from CS. They've also introduced new modes, weapons, characters. Additionally, the game's been brought up to today's standards with features like matchmaking and leaderboards.

I imagine there are a lot of young gamers out there who have no idea what Counter-Strike is. It's a damn shame because you can see its DNA in a lot of modern-day multiplayer shooters today, including Call of Duty. Hopefully you'll check out Global Offensive and find out what all of us old-timers have been raving about.

Although Counter-Strike: Global Offensive isn't due for a release until sometime during this summer, it's been confirmed that the shooter's software development kit will follow after the shooter's launch.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's software development kit will release three months after the full game's launch, confirmedValve co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell to Seven Day Cooldown (via Polygon).

The SDK will give players the appropriate tools to mod, as well as create their own maps. Valve veteran Mike Durand, who headed the development of several SDKs for Valve's modding faithful since 2006, is currently working on the kit. Also included will be several maps from Counter-Strike 1.6 which ultimately failed to be an inclusion within Counter-Strike: Source. Newell further delved into how both past installments have had their best elements integrated into Counter Strike: Global Offensive.

"People have been playing various incarnations of Counter-Strike for a long time, and have super strong opinions on the subtleties of aiming and those kind of things, and our sense is we've done a pretty good job of taking the best of both 1.6 and Source and combining those to CS:GO. So unless the beta testers are blowing smoke up our ass, I think we've done that," stated Newell.

"Hopefully, it's gonna help consolidate the two communities, that everybody will look at it and say, 'Okay, this is the version of Counter-Strike I've been waiting for,' but we'll see. We do think though that is what it gives them: an up-to-date, current, rich-content version of the game that they've been playing."

Counter Strike: Global Offensive is currently undergoing a beta on the PC via Steam. The shooter will also see a release on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 via its respective online networks.

Valve originally planned to allow PS3 owners to play against PC and Mac gamers in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. However, Valve's Chet Faliszek has revealed that the development team scrapped that feature.

"The beta has proved we want to update not just the beta, but the game itself post-launch frequently on the PC," Chet Faliszek told Joystiq. "To do that we need to separate the platforms so one doesn't hamstring the other. So for that, we have removed the idea of cross-platform play -- essentially make all platforms stronger by not mixing them."

Honestly, this is a good thing for PS3 gamers. Yes, you'll miss out on grouping with a friend who favors the PC. However, you'll also avoid facing off against PC gamers who have been playing Counter-Strike since 1999. I also feel like there's some inherent balance between the platforms due to controls; a mouse just lends itself to more precise aiming than a gamepad.

Global Offensive is currently in beta on the PC. To get a shot at testing the game, you can fill out a survey. The game's targeted for a summer release on the PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac.

Four new screenshots for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive hit the Internet today. They show off a suburban map called "de_lake" that will ship with the multiplayer shooter.

The "de" prefix in the map's name means that it's designed for bomb defusal mode. In this game type, the terrorist team must plant a bomb at a designated point on the map. The counter-terrorists can win by either killing all the terrorists before they can plant the bomb or by defusing the bomb after it's been set.

CS:GO builds on the popular Half-Life mod by adding new maps, game modes and weapons. It also updates the classic content from the mod. New innovations such as matchmaking and leaderboards are included as well.

The fact sheet from the Xbox 360 Spring Showcase says that the game is targeted for a summer 2012 release. Valve has been a a bit more vague about the launch date, saying that it's up to the community to tell them it's ready. A beta for the PC version is currently underway.

Valve gave out 9,000 beta keys for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive last week to community sites and current CS players. If you want to be eligible for the next wave of invites, you'll have to fill out a survey.

"Today we are opening up our online survey to everyone," said Valve. "The next keys will be sent on the basis of this survey. If you don’t fill it out, you won’t be getting a key. Over the coming months we will make selections from the survey participants. Sometimes we might add experienced players, other times new players. Sometimes 1.6 players, sometimes CSS players, sometimes people who have played neither."

It's a good idea to fill out the survey as soon as you can. Valve stresses that there are no wrong answers to the questions. They'll start distributing beta keys to survey participants as early as next week.

Once you get into the CS:GO beta, you'll receive gift keys to give to your friends. Earning these keys is simply a matter of logging in and playing. They want to at least be sure that you're using your own key before they give you codes to hand out.

Global Offensive is based on the popular Half-Life mod Counter-Strike. Players take on the role of terrorists and counter-terrorists and participate in objective-based battles. CS:GO adds a next-gen shine to the original content while also introducing new maps, modes, and weapons.

Valve has provided no specific timeframe for the beta's end. They plan to launch the full version of the game when the community tells them the game is ready. Though the beta is limited to Steam, Valve also plans to release the game on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is now in beta testing on the PC. Even if you haven't been invited yet, this is a good thing because it means gameplay footage is being leaked out onto YouTube.

Global Offensive is a remake of the popular Half-Life mod Counter-Strike. Teams of terrorists and counter-terrorists face off in objective-based matches. The money they earn from wins and kills can be used to purchase new equipment. Global will introduce new maps, modes and weapons.

Valve previously stated that they're going to grow the closed beta slowly. They want to be sure that the game is stable before they invite additional players. They'll continue to add more and more testers until the final release, expected in 2012.

CS:GO is being developed for the PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and Mac. The PC, Mac, and PS3 versions will support cross-platform multiplayer.

You may get to try out Counter-Strike: Global Offensive real soon. Valve said this weekend that the beta for the multiplayer shooter is "imminent." In case you're behind on your SAT verbal studying, that means "near."

"With the imminent release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Beta, we were curious; will you try CS:GO?" said Valve at the end of a post on the Left 4 Dead website.

Global Offensive is a next-gen update of the popular Half-Life mod Counter-Strike. Teams of terrorists and counter-terrorists face off in objective-based matches. The two original modes involved hostage rescue and the planting/defusal of a bomb. CS: GO will add new modes, maps and weapons in addition to updating the original selection.

Valve previously stated that they'll be taking things slow with the beta. They're going to start with 10,000 players and then gradually inviting more and more people. At first, only one or two maps will be available for testing.

CS:GO was originally expected in early 2012. Their decision to slow down the beta means that it might not arrive so soon, though. It's being prepared for the PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac.

At the Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge, a team of Europeans faced off against a team of Americans in a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive match. Intel had the good sense to record the match and post it on the Internet.

The teams battle it out on the "de_dust2" map for about an hour. This map is played in "Defusal" mode. A team of Terrorists must plant a bomb at one of two sites. In order to win the round, the Counter-Terrorists must prevent the bomb from being planted until time expires or, failing that, defuse the bomb. Either team can also win by simply wiping out all their opponents.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will have a mixture of old and new maps and odes. Matchmaking and leaderboards will be supported as well. Cross-platform multiplayer is supported for the PS3, PC, and Mac. The PS3 edition can also be played with Move.

Valve, who is co-developing CS: GO along with Hidden Path Entertainment, plans to release the game in early 2012.

Valve sent out a press release this morning detailing the new mode for the upcoming multiplatform, multiplayer, online first-person shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The new modes that will have gamers glued to their seats for hours on-end is called “Arsenal Mode”.

The new modes comes courtesy of a popular mod made famous in Counter Strike: Source. And I must add that I love how Valve really inculcates the gaming community within their business infrastructures and moving things forward collectively. Anyway, the mode was originally called Gun Game and it's making a return in CS: GO.

The spin-off from the Gun Game mod includes a total of eight new maps across two sub-modes called Arsenal: Arms Race and Arsenal: Demolition. Valve even brought in the original modders of Gun Game to help them work on and perfect the Arsenal Mode(s) in the upcoming Counter Strike: GO.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Gun Game rules, it’s quite simple: Every player starts with a basic weapon and can only receive better weapons by getting kills. I imagine there will be a lot of raging and QQ’ing taking place on the opposing team once someone gets hold of an AK-47 or M16.

Anyways, Counter Strike: Global Offensive is set for release in early 2012 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC via Steam. You want to keep up to date on all things Counter Strike? Feel free to visit the Official Website.

Last week Valve announced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for consoles and the PC. It might not matter what version of the game you get, as Valve plans to include cross-platform play.

"That's certainly our goal. We never want to create these 'islands of players,'" Valve head Gabe Newell told PCGames.de (via Blue). "You have to be sensitive to control differences, and make sure you're accommodating that, but, you know, our view is players should be able to play as part of a community on whatever device they can."

"You know, sometimes there are contractual, or other issues that make that hard, where somebody, a platform holder doesn't want you to do that for whatever reason, but that's always our preference, to let customers play and be part of the larger community."

Valve's Portal 2, released this spring, supports cross-platform play between PS3, Mac, and Windows owners. The reason the PS3 version was compatible with the other versions was that Sony allowed Valve to include Steamworks features in the game. The Xbox 360 iteration was isolated from other platforms presumably due to Microsoft's more restrictive policies for Xbox Live content.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a team-based multiplayer shooter based on a popular Half-Life mod. A team of counter-terrorists and a team of terrorists try to complete conflicting objectives, like defending an objective or planting a bomb on it. Global Offensive features updated versions of maps from the original HL mod as well as new locations. New weapons and game modes, along with modern-day multiplayer trappings like leaderboards and matchmaking, will be included as well.

Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment plan to finish Global Offensive by early 2012. It will be released through Steam, Xbox Live and PSN.

This weekend Valve revealed that they're creating a download-only revival of multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will be released through PSN, Xbox Live Arcade and Steam in early 2012.

"Counter-Strike took the gaming industry by surprise when the unlikely MOD became the most played online PC action game in the world almost immediately after its release in August 1999," said Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of Marketing. "For the past 12 years, it has continued to be one of the most-played games in the world, headline competitive gaming tournaments and selling over 25 million units worldwide across the franchise. CS: GO promises to expand on CS' award-winning gameplay and deliver it to gamers on the PC as well as the next gen consoles and the Mac."

Counter-Strike pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists. The two main game modes tasked the teams with defending/rescuing hostages and planting/defusing a bomb. By winning matches and killing enemies, players earned cash to spend on new weapons and other equipment. The realistic weapon damage and recoil made the game stand out in the multiplayer shooter market, which was mostly dominated by cartoonish, sci-fi titles like Unreal Tournament and Quake.

CS:GO has updated versions of maps from the original CS (such as de_dust) as well as brand new locations. New game modes, characters, and weapons are also included. The multiplayer functionality will be modernized with leaderboards, matchmaking and other features.

Valve is collaborating with Hidden Path Entertainment on CS:GO. They intend to show the game off at PAX Prime as well as Eurogamer Expo 2011.