Counter-Strike 2 News

Prepare for heavy Counter-Strike nostalgia with this Prodigy map port

Crack open a nice fresh can of Surge and settle into the glow of the huge 800x600 CRT monitor, because it's time to relive the glory days of Counter-Strike with Hobbit's classic bomb defusal map Prodigy. Some form of Prodigy has appeared in every version of Counter-Strike since Beta 4.0, until it was dropped in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Now it's back, thanks to some fastidious map modders.

Prodigy was originally created by Alexander 'Hobbit' Manilov, and he started work on the level that would become de_prodigy the same night he was first introduced to Counter-Strike at a LAN party. The map features two bomb locations and is set in a mountain military base of some kind. Terrorists must bomb either the computer lab or a fuel pipeline control room, and the level is a sometimes confusing jumble of corridors and rooms.

The port you can now find on the Steam Workshop is based on the improved version of Prodigy introduced in Counter-Strike 1.6, after Manilov joined Gearbox Software to help work on Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. Modder just sid says this port is almost identical to the 1.6 version, with some minor changes and lighting adjustments.

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D&D gets a "triple-A, third-person, open-world" RPG from CS:GO co-devs

Dungeons & Dragons has perhaps the greatest legacy of any licensed property in videogames, which makes sense, since the entire genre of RPG games traces its lineage back to the tabletop RPG. But for all the genre-defining classics that digital D&D has brought us, there hasn't really been a successful triple-A take on the property - at least, not in the modern idea of what a triple-A game looks like. Hidden Path Entertainment aims to change that.

Today, the studio announced that it's working on a "triple-A, third-person, open-world fantasy RPG that will be taking place inside the Dungeons & Dragons franchise." The news, as noted by Polygon, comes alongside a series of job listings for the project. The description for a writer position suggests that the game will feature "narrative branching" and an "ensemble cast", as well.

Hidden Path isn't necessarily the studio you'd expect to be working on a triple-A game, though the company's catalogue is strong. Hidden Path has put out the excellent Defense Grid games, and worked with Valve on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

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Release Notes for 3/1/2021

[ MISC ]
– Fixed a bug that allowed enemy players to spawn outside of their spawn location.
– Fixed a case where players would see a second bomb in retakes mode.
– Fixed some cases where dropped weapons exited the play area.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update for 2 March 2021

Read patchnotes on SteamDB...

This fan-made CS:GO map looks like it was plucked out of Far Cry 5

As you'll know if you're into giving the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community's handcrafted creations a whirl, the FPS game's modding scene is thriving. Among many new fan-made maps posted this week is one impressive option that drops you into a portion of rural America called 'Grizzly County', with all the landmarks and scenery that idea conjures up - kind of like Far Cry 5's Hope County.

Created by CS:GO modders Lizard and Jakuza, the 'County - Danger Zone' custom map is - as its name implies - crafted for the battle royale game mode, Danger Zone. Set in a fictional slice of rural USA, the map features locations like a farm, sawmill, various homes, a carpenter gothic-style church, quarry, trailer park, motel, police station, and - from the images on the mod's page - what looks like a big, creepy, dilapidated house with suitably spooky interiors.

A bird's-eye view of the map gives some sense of its pretty huge scale, and everything looks not only the part, but incredibly detailed. There are big outdoor spaces surrounded by trees and mountains in the distance, and the variety of its layout looks like it would make an awesome spot for a good few rounds of Danger Zone.

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