Single-Player

 CS: CZ won't be one of the typical Single-Player Games because it is unlike others non-linear. You can play through missions and then go back after you improved your skills or unlocked a new weapon and then try to finish it at a better time or with a better accuracy. It may sound funny but a game that you could compare it with is Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. You have these missions and you always go back and try to finish with a better time or with more money.

You start off in CS: CZ with only a few weapons to choose from and with a team that has only a few skills, but as you accomplish more and more missions you get more money and you can buy better weapons and improve the skills of you and your team members which are controlled by the game's AI. I was actually never a fan of those games where I had to equip my own troops before a game, I wanted to go in right away and start fragging but Gearbox has made a very cool interface which makes it really easy and fast so this won't be a problem. You can also play through the single-player with your friends and as they take the position of the bot-controled team members (Co-Op mode). It is also possible to play it over the Internet so you don't need to be at a LAN.

The Single Player has 20 missions on 5 different locations around the world. Each mission has 9 objectives where you for example have to defend specific items from the enemies or have to fight through a mission all by yourself, trying to kill the enemies without being killed. The mode that will definitely be something for the tactical guys is called no-reload. As the name implements you can't reload any weapons. If you kill an enemy though you can pick up his and use the remaining ammo but if your clip is empty and an enemy has spotted you, you are pretty much screwed. These already sound like a lot of fun, and there are 6 more to come.

The AI of the team members was really impressing, you play with 3 bots and as you improve their skills they cover you more effectively or warn you earlier if they spotted an enemy. As you walk along most of the time two teammates will cover your back and one goes upfront. They also adapt to your style of playing and your weaknesses. Auto-way pointing is another feature that is really cool, lets say for example a bot gets shot at a certain point of a map twice in a row he will not go there that often in the next rounds or be more sneaky. And the more you play the better the bots get as they discover more points of the maps. You can turn auto-way pointing off though if you don't want the bots to get smarter. Randy was talking about how they tried to make the bots as human-like as possible, I mean if the wanted they could program bots so you don't have a reaction time and they get a headshot every time, but that would not be fun. They rather took Virtual Cop as the model for building a good bot. If a bot shoots at you he first aims a bit off and then gets closer to your body as he shoots, that way you can react but it is still dangerous for you. Bot editing has also been made easy, you can do that in a text file where you can control his skills, behaviour and things like that.

Another cool thing was the improved engine. Randy Pitchford said you can't actually call it the Half-Life engine any more, so much has been done to it. And I can tell you, it really doesn't look like a three-year-old engine any more. Gearbox is using a new model rendering and special effects engine. The walls now reflect the bullets and you can see them splashing in the water. There are also a lot more material effects like garbage that lays on the ground or trees and bushes in the outside, they really add to the realistic feeling of CS. The sky is now also not just a tga file with a picture of a nice landscape on it, it uses real objects, which look a lot, better. The detail of the player models was increased by about 75% and there are a total of 160 different models in the game. Each with a different face, in fact, it was actually difficult for Gearbox to find that many different faces so they had to ask people like the Pizza-boy and mail delivery man to "borrow" theirs ;) The Models are now a lot easier to differ, too. There is also a different outfit for every territory. For example the CTs have a radio attached to their belt and other things like that which make every class unique. Of course the models also look more realistic, no more yellow guys running around (not that I don't like the leet guy, but realism rocks :)). Because a gas grenade has been added to the game it is now also possible to buy a gas mask, which looks really cool on the player models, Gearbox did a great job on that.

Something that most people will be disappointed about is the fact that Custom Weapons models won't be allowed in the game, custom player models are though. Randy said it wasn't an easy decision but it was the only chance to really get rid of those spiked models (stupid cheaters!). I think it was a wise decision, I rather have no cheats and use the custom weapon models. Since the quality of the graphics has been increased the system specs in comparison to Counter-Strike went up, too. Though it isn't really a problem because Gearbox came up with a neat solution for that. The polygon number will adapt to your system specs so if you are still having a PC from three years ago you won't get the full beauty of the game but it will still play smooth. If you have a high-end machine though you will get the full gorgeousness graphics.

Something that most of you guys probably were scared about is the LAW, a rocket launcher in CS? That will ruin the game. Well, you can calm down, it is really not as dangerous as it sounds. Randy said it is more of a grenade than a rocket launcher. It is disposable which means it only fires one shoot. It implodes on impact so no bouncing on the ground or walls and because it makes a sound before actually leaving the launcher it gives you a little warning. The perfect thing to clear out a dark sniper corner but be careful when using it because you are quite an easy target while using it.

The M60 is the second Machine Gun in CS so many people have been waiting for, but what is the difference to the Para? It can hold up to 100 bullets and it is getting more accurate the longer your firing with it which means it is perfect for covering your team-mates while they are reloading or to just hold that rigger down and shield a corner while your team plants the bomb.

The new equipment really affects the game. For Example the Gas Grenade is great, it can block a small hallway and if you don't have a gas mask you will take a lot of damage. A feature that Randy told me about but that wasn't implemented yet is that if you walk through the gas cloud without a mask your screen will be blurry for a few moments after you leave the cloud and your aiming wont be as good. Very good realism there. The shield is also very useful. If someone has it, it is really difficult to shot him. Though it isn't impossible because if he walks down a vertical street or something like that the feet show and you can be shot or if enemies attack him from two sides he can be shot in the back.

The CS: CZ multiplayer will be identical to the CS multiplayer as there will be a patch released that updates CS to CS: CZ mp level. The patch will add about 20-30 MB and since CS 1.4 will be released before CS: CZ we are talking about an approximate size of 150mb for the full install of CS 1.5. Randy was asked why they didn't implement any features that would enforce more team play but he said people love Counter-Strike like it is and they didn't want to make any drastic changes to the game, they are saving that for CS 2 :)

Another big question is of course if it will be possible to make MODs for CS: CZ since they are the reason that Half-Life is still popular and not to forget Counter-Strike is a MOD, too. Well, it will be possible to create MOD with the new content and engine Gearbox has created but it is unknown yet if they will actually be CS: CZ MODs or Half-Life MODs. Of course Gearbox will release tools for the creation like an updated version of Worldcraft and a new SDK.