In 1998, a game which took a revolutionary step in gaming history was released; Half-Life for PC. From it's dazzling graphics, to it's captivating story, Half-Life enslaved thousands of PC gamers all throughout the globe. Sticking gamers' and their friends' faces to their computer screens for hours on end. However, in 1999, a living game god and Half-Life enthusiast, Minh Le created the most popular and ensnaring online MOD to date... Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike is, without a doubt is one of the most played online game in history. With it's release, to this day, Counter-Strike racks in two-and-a-half million players a month! Now that the legacy of CS sure as hell is felt by PC owners, Valve has turned itself to the console market. Will it succeed? Or will it fall short of it's PC counterpart?

Valve is, at this point in time, planning out-do any online console game this year with Counter-Strike's debut on X-Box this fall. And with Halo 2 out of the picture indefinitely this year, it just may do that. With Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, the sequel to CS, right around the corner for PC CS fans (May), X-Box owners will have to wait until Fall in order to get their piece of the Terrorist pie. You may be griping about this little set-back, but rest-assured, when CS drops, you will get your money's worth. CS: Condition Zero will feature an all new Single Player story mode, where you will not play as a single entity, but as a variety of different squad persons apart of various squad organizations, among different countries throughout the world. Now, why have I evangelized to you about the great new PC game-to-be? Because the X-Box version of Counter-Strike will indeed feature this single player mode that is all the buzz around Condition Zero! Additionally, the X-Box version will feature two new solo missions, exclusive multiplayer maps, significantly greater graphics, and "standardization" (which will allow for better gameplay equality due to everyone being on the same hardware format, as to PC where people have different computers). Some more features available to X-Box owners is the first time on X-Box Live that clan organization will be available. Along with that ability, is the possibility of IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, basically chat room like lobbies.

Because the multiplayer experience probably won't be that of the PC counter-part, the people at Valve have said that in order to make up for the 16 player limit, and only 2 X-Box exclusive weapons, they will be creating at least 5 exclusive maps for the X-Box version. Online, the core of the game is revealed. If you are not familiar with CS, at the beginning of a game you choose whether to be Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist. Also at the beginning, you choose which weapons/armor/items to buy (with the money you earn in previous rounds, based on you and your team's performance). There are four main games: Hostage Rescue, Bomb Defuse, Assassination, and Escape. Playing them all myself, allows me along with millions of others to agree that Hostage Rescue and Bomb Defuse are the best. Hostage Rescue pits CT forces against Terrorist forces in which CT has to evacuate all of the hostages to predefined locations while the Terrorist team has to stop the CTs from doing so. Bomb Defuse is the same, but instead of rescuing hostages, the terrorist team has to plant a bomb at a location on the map and make sure it goes off. The CTs have to make sure that the bomb does not go off by defusing it if it is planted. Assassination turns one of the players on the CT team into the "VIP" who must be escorted by his CT teammates to the extraction point, all this while the Terrorist team is trying to assassinate the VIP. And Escape quite simply is where the Terrorist team must get from point A to point B while the CT team is tying to prevent this from happening.