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Of course, using such a market economy in a game can create some pretty dramatic shifts in momentum, as the teams that win more will be allowed to pick the better and better guns, while the losing teams get stuck with a tighter budget and lesser weapons. Despite this seemingly poor system of balancing out play, it actually works out fairly well. Players can easily switch between teams, or members of the losing team can save their money through the rounds. Finally, the economy system starts completely over every single time the server changes the map.

Fig. 6. A Terrorist Profile Shot

Next up, there are a variety of different "missions" in the Counter-Strike world. Although the games can resort to as much, simply killing all the opposing forces will not always win the game. More accurately, there are easier ways to win the games. Some of the different themes include: CTs rescue the hostages, CTs protect a VIP from the terrorists, terrorists try to plant bombs, and terrorists try to escape from the CTs assault. The differentiation from the classic deathmatch or even teamplay deathmatches is certainly refreshing.

So, what weapons will you have to wax your opponents? Lots of realistic and very well done weapons. In the current edition of Counter-Strike, the weapon types include:

• Pistols
• Shotguns
• Submachine Guns
• Rifles (including assault and sniper)
• Large Machine Guns

As well, gamers will also find a great deal of selection for other items, including body armor, flashbangs, and concussion grenades. We'll take a closer look at the weapons and their effect on gameplay shortly; for now, I wanted to bring up the modeling in the game itself. The Half-Life engine allows guns to be shown in a first person perspective, and the makers of Counter-Strike took full advantage of that element to really show off their fantastic modeling skills. Take a gun like the Steyr Aug, for example. The classic grip shows one hand gripping the trigger ever so gently. Everything down to the fingers, the sniper scope, the barrel of the gun are superbly modeled.

Fig. 7. A CT foolishly moves to his death.

In my opinion, the best modeled gun is the MP5; it just looks terrific. However, one really has to appreciate the true care and detail which went into the modeling when you see yourself reload your weapon. By far my favorite reload is with the Steyr Aug assault rifle. Your hand quickly reaches for your empty clip, whips out another clip and drives it home. All done with a flurry of motion which looks absolutely exquisite. If there ever was a case for having games show the gun in your line of sight, this would be the reason.

So, once you join your server and select a weapon, the game progresses in a very straightforward manner. Each round starts with the selection of the weapon (a five second grace period is typical) and then the teams are let loose from their insertion points, usually across the map from each other. They each usually have several different routes which can be taken to confront the enemy, or to evade him. Again, most of the fighting will occur around the theme; either to rescue hostages, place a bomb, or to kill a VIP. Once a player is killed off, he'll be able to watch through a ghost mode. There are no instant respawns in this game. Rather, players have to wait until the round is over to play once more. Much like the Rainbow Six series of games, this style of play yields good firefights and tense games.