Counterstrike Source Getting Started Guide

This is intended to be a very simplistic guide to getting up and running playing Counterstrike Source, the popular first person shooter.

1. Buy it from http://www.steampowered.com/ It's a big install so do it when asleep or at work.

Everyone I'm aware of has used steam to buy it, cos they had the old version and added steam when it came out. It certainly had a few hiccups in it's first days, but it does have it's advantages:-

You get frequent patches and regular content updates - quite nice that every few months they can bung out new maps or features and when you next login you pick them up.

It's got a backup function that enables you to split it into cdr or dvdr size and you can install it on as many machines as you like - although I believe you can only play the same game simultaneously on one machine.

If you prefer buying something physical and then just getting the latest updates you can either buy HL2 from a shop or online, or just CS Source itself for a few quid less. You can check the prices on kelkoo or pricerunner, or whatever you prefer.

2. In steam's Settings menu set the Internet option to match your connection speed, I believe most just set this to T1 if on broadband.

3. Go into counterstrike's Options, Keyboard, Advanced and check that you have fast weapon switching and the console enabled.

4. Go in the game options and view the control settings so that you can get familiar with them.

5. Fiddle about with the game graphics, sound and mouse settings. You should get used to adjusting these as you're likely to want to adjust these as you get used to the game.

6. Turn up the brightness on your monitor! It can make all the difference as to whether you shoot a team-mate or opponent.

7. Create a little server on your own PC. You can use the options within CSS to create a server that you can join. Even if you're the only person on it with a couple of bots, it will give you an opportunity to at least look at one or two of the maps, try buying stuff, planting a bomb or rescuing a hostage. There's plenty more information about running a server if you look on our links page.

8. Go into console and type net_graph 3. This will display your loss and choke in the corner. Loss is related to your internet connection, choke is related to your settings of the rate variables - rate (mine is 20000), cl_updaterate (mine is 66) and cl_cmdrate (mine is 66).

9. Once you're happy (or bored) get yourself onto the FuN CSS server listed on our front page.

10. As an initial style with almost any weapon, it's best to start by only attempting to single-shot or double-tap when trying to shoot an opponent. Some guns tolerate being fired in different styles and rates, but others can experience strong recoil when firing repeatedly for some time.

11. Use the spectator mode options and watch both your teammates and opponents. This will enable you to see how the more experienced players play, where they go, how they shoot, whether and how they interact with their teammates. Some people can be surprisingly predictable and it may just help you turn the game to your advantage when you start to know where to anticipate opposition and ideally how to take it by surprise.

12. Use the X, Z and U keys to tell your teammates what you're up to and if you encounter opposition. If you're lucky they'll help you out and you may win the round. Try and do likewise and they'll be glad you're there.

13. Get very used to using the radar. It will tell you where you're team are and highlight anyone who's communicating. If you've got an objective - hossies for cts and bomb for ts then that will show up too. Once you progress to friendly fire servers being familiar with the radar can literally be the difference between your teammates or your opponents loss of life - ie. if you hear a noise from a place but there isn't a blob on the radar then you know to be ready to shoot.

14. Get some practice in with the most common weapons you'll pick up - eg. deagle, mp5, ak47 and m4. Notice with the latter 2 (as with most rifles) that you can usually get more accurate shots if you crouch and fire. Equally most of the sub machine guns can lose much accuracy if you run whilst you're moving forward but are okay if you strafe (run side to side).

16. If you're on a server that keeps statistics you should be clear on one point - you get a lot more points for achieving your objective than achieving kills. It's a team game and the points system is biased towards the team winning.

deadmonkey