Take the maps, skins, and overall balance and feel of classic Counter-Strike and remake it all using the tech that powers CSGO. That was the dream of Classic Offensive, a long-running mod project that first started life back in 2017. But now, eight years after development began, according to its creators, Classic Offensive has been shut down by Valve. The Half-Life and Left 4 Dead developer has seemingly sent a cease and desist letter to the Classic Offensive team, preventing further builds of the unofficial remake from being released on all other modding platforms.
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Counter-Strike 1.6 is getting a total remake, built by the legendary ProMod team
Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and even Day of Defeat have been updated by Valve
Counter-Strike creator regrets not balancing the AWP
There are two shooters that I imagine will never die, because they just seem to hang on despite being incredibly old and plenty of other games coming out in the mean-time: Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike (both Valve games, funnily enough - they've clearly got the Source (sorry)). Counter-Strike 2, which came out back in 2023, is the most played shooter of all time on Steam in fact, but even now the original game is still pretty popular. There's literally more than 16,000 people playing it right now. And though it might not be official, a group of modders have come together to remake the 1.6 version of the game.
Counter-Strike 2 is doing exceptionally well. As of Saturday March 15, Valve's multiplayer shooter achieved a new concurrent player count record, with a staggering 1,824,989 people playing CS2 simultaneously. Deadlock is standing strong. Half-Life 3...might still happen. Needless to say, the House of Gabe is alive and kicking. But what about the glory days? What about Counter-Strike 1.6, the greatest game (yes) in the entire series? You can still play the original, of course, but if you want a refreshed version, a complete CS 1.6 remake is now in the works, and it's made by some of the best modders in the series' history.
RELATED LINKS:
Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and even Day of Defeat have been updated by Valve
Counter-Strike creator regrets not balancing the AWP
Counter-Strike and CoD players are getting random Steam ban notices
It was choppy, unreliable, and populated almost entirely by screamy mic spammers, but my word, do I miss the days of Half-Life Deathmatch Source. It's one of the enduring images of my own PC gaming past - a team of HLDM Source players, all wearing the G-Man skin, sprinting through the Black Mesa lab map and coating the walls with satchel charges. Half-Life 3 may very well be in the works, but Valve hasn't forgotten about the classics. Counter-Strike Source, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2 Deathmatch, and my beloved my HLDM have all gotten sudden, surprise patches.
RELATED LINKS:
Counter-Strike creator regrets not balancing the AWP
Counter-Strike and CoD players are getting random Steam ban notices
CS2 has more players than the next top nine Steam games combined