As you may all know now, Valve have decided to release the next version of Counter Strike mod for half life 2 known as Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Why they did not release the next episode of Half life is still confusing and debatable. Recently I was on talking to some people (CS:S gamers) who were given exclusive access to the game in works and managed to obtain me a lot of information about the game. So here I am sharing all the features of CS:GO that I could extract from them.

Upgraded Maps

CS: GO will launch with five maps for Bomb/Defuse mode, and two for the other Hostage Rescue mode. Those combined seven maps are all based on classic Counter-Strike 1.6 and CS: Source maps. The maps will be recognizable to series fans as Valve’s designers have kept the best of them nearly intact, only applying a graphical upgrade but leaving most of the level layout intact. .

Another map, Nuke, has had some of its dead space removed.The classic map Aztec has been altered to give terrorist players more cover and quicker paths to bomb placement areas. Dust has had a “sniper alley” fixed so that players can now run through a trench in that map while trusting that some bridges that span it and other obstructions will give them some cover. (The major reason why we all hated Dust)

Here are some screen shots of the Dust map. Check out the graphical upgrades.

Casual/Competitive Mode

Valve have introduced a new mode called the Casual Mode. In it, money is no object and players can buy weapons for each round without worrying about cost. They will be playing with voice-chat open to all players, on both sides and the ability to spectate any player’s actions, again, from either faction, should they die and be watching the rest of the round as it plays out. Sounds like their effort to “lower the skill floor” for new players.

Experienced players do not need to be disappointed as it will also feature the old competitive mode which drops the cross-team chat and spectating and intensifies the rounds, dropping round time from three minutes to two. In Competitive, money earned for success in a round does count and can be spent on weapons and armor for the next round.

Hosting servers by trusted partners as well as own

Just like Black Ops and BF3, Valve will also be setting up servers with partners to ensure there are many servers available for the general public. For more experienced players who want a custom experience, Valve still provides you with an opportunity to host and tweak your own servers.

Gaming Controls

On PC and Mac, Counter-Strike: GO players can expect the standard options you get with a Steam game and any of the control options you would have with a computer (Mouse and a keyboard). For Xbox 360, players will use a game pad. On the PS3, players can use the game controller, the PlayStation Move motion controller or even a mouse and keyboard.

Cross Platform play for PC, MAC and PS3 but no Xbox

As the title suggests PS3, Mac and PC players will be match-made against each other, clumped by skill, regardless of input device or platform. PS3 mainly because you have the ability to attach a keyboard and mouse to it. I am not sure why Xbox 360 is not included as some people on PS3 will also be playing via a game pad.

New Weapons

The game features new weapons. Most prominent is the taser gun, an expensive, one-shot, instant-elimination gun that Faliszek described as a weapon that is used to humiliate. Players on either side can use a decoy, a bundle of firecrackers, sort of, that looks like a player on the mini-map and lets off the sounds of guns being fired. But it doesn’t look like a player and doesn’t make the sound of footsteps. A third new item is the molotov cocktail which fills an area with fire and smoke, briefly, the first CS item, that is designed to slow another team down. There will be more new weapons but you will have to wait for the official launch to figure them out.

When can you get to play this game?

The game is set to go into beta this October. Attendees of PAX and the Eurogamer Expo will get Beta codes they can redeem later, and Valve will provide fans other means, not yet announced, to get into the game. Please note that this Beta is for PC only

Counter-Srike: Go is scheduled for a first quarter 2012 release on the PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It will be download-only and currently no one knows what it will cost.

Do not forget to add me on steam: kaiser2011

For those who want to see some early action, here is the IGN video preview

Anyone who has used extension in Firefox knows CoolPreviews wonderful preview window can be. Now you can get the same kind of functionality in Chrome with extension ezLinkPreview.

Note: Extension does not work on websites containing Buster “framework” code (the URL navigate occur).

Before

Normally, if you want to have a better appearance to a particular Web page the only option you have is to move forward and open a new tab or window. But it would certainly be nice to be able to take a quick “preview” before hand …

After

Once you have completed the installation of any extension is ready to go … just refresh the page open before installation and enjoy the goodness of preview. when you place your mouse near any link you will notice a small “Preview Button” appears with the letters “EZ” inside.

A closer look at the “Preview Button”.

Click the Preview button “to open the popup window. Now you can get a very good idea of whether the page is worth visiting or not.

Here’s a closer look at the popup window. Note that you can see the URL of the Web page and access a practical set of buttons on the right side (open a new tab, Pine keep open cover, and close). You can even resize the window as you want to better meet your needs (you can actually enter one of the four corners to resize the popup window).

It is also possible to open a preview window “in the popup window … you can see the” Preview Button “here …

If you have maximized Chrome, you can enjoy using a large preview window size. “Now, how nice!

With Images

Conclusion

The extension ezLinkPreview offers a fast and easy links to preview and / or images while browsing.

Links

Download the ezLinkPreview extension (Google Chrome Extensions)

Go to Source Article at How to Geek

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Apps, obviously! But not just a few. And not just good ones, either. From the start, here’s what the iPad’s section of the App Store will be like.

Plenty of developers are flaunting their blood pacts with Apple by publicizing details about their apps before iPad launch, and the results have been mixed. We’ve got obvious winners, like big studio games, Instapaper and Panelfly, and out and out gimmicks like the Star Trek iPADD. What we’ve seen, though, is just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s what to expect, based on leaks, and discussions with developers.

There Will Be a Ton of Apps

This won’t be like the iPhone App Store, which launched with about 200 apps. In addition to the 150k or so iPhone apps that’ll run upscaled on the iPad, expect a glut of native apps, with a continuing flood in the days after. We’re talking mid-to-high hundreds, at least. Here’s a preliminary list of what’s known to be there on launch day—and trust me, this is far from complete.

UPDATE: How many, exactly? Here’s a leaked video showing over 700 icons.

Everything Will Feel Familiar

There will be some very pleasant surprises come Saturday morning, but you can expect to see a ton of ports of existing iPhone apps—especially games—coming from large studios. Granted, Apple’s been adamant that they want ported apps to feel like different apps, not just scaled up versions of iPhone apps. In particular!

You should not view the large iPad screen as an invitation to bring back all the functionality you pruned from your iPhone application.

This is exactly what a lot of developers are doing, by the way.

And it’s not just apps that you’re going to recognize—it’s the store itself. The interface has been adapted to the iPad, obviously, but the current categorization of the App Store remains.

The Wall Between iPhone and iPad Apps Is Flimsy

Developers have a couple of options for launching an iPhone app. They can either keep the packaging the same as their iPhone app—a “universal” app—or they can launch a separate one, with different branding. The first option is convenient and tidy, but generally means that the developer is offering the iPad version for free to existing customers of an iPhone app. The second option is the easiest way to market a new app, with a separate pricetag, even if it’s just an upscaled version of the iPhone versions. This is where we see the “HD” and “XL” apps (and even, seriously, “Large!”), and where things get messy during browsing—especially if you’re browsing iPhone apps, too.

Thankfully, as you can see in the above video, there’s an “off” switch for iPhone apps, which eliminates anything that’s not upscaled in resolution to fit the iPad’s 768×1024 screen.

Apps Won’t Be Cheap

For a variety of reasons, these apps are going to be more expensive that iPhone apps. Some companies are keeping price parity between iPhone and iPad apps, but others are peeling their apps off under new names, and charging more.

Devs will cite greater design costs and new investment and reasons to hike prices, which will be justified, sometimes. Other times, it’ll be pure gouging.

But a Lot of Them Will Suck

According to devs, Apple has been receptive to just about any app that met its requirements, and that was submitted before the March 27th deadline. This means straight up gimmicks, like silly face apps, standalone clocks, wallpaper apps, and endless variations on sketchpads will all be making appearances. One developer, who merely ported a second-tier game you’ve never heard of that can’t have gotten more than a few thousand downloads, described the approval process as “fast.” The app shown below, which lets you high five a video of a hand, will probably be there too:
Basically, if a dev could code an app within two months and is reasonably good at following directions, he’s got a good chance at making launch.

The Best Apps Will Take Time (Because Nobody Knows What They’re Doing Yet)

While the iPad will launch with plenty of original app concepts, but the truly innovative stuff won’t show up until later, after the studios have had a few months to work. So basically, sit tight. Then sit tight again, for much longer. Even developers that hit the deadline for submitting launch apps are admitting that it’s going to be a while until apps truly mature, not just because of the development time needed to make a complicated app, but because nobody has really spent any time with an iPad yet. Game developers call this “coding to the metal,” and it’s important for establishing basic usability, especially on handheld devices. Marco Arment, on his Instapaper app:

I’ll probably move the reading-view toolbar to the top in the future, like most iPad apps, but I don’t yet know how I’ll hold the iPad when reading.

Ha! But yeah, these apps will be rough drafts, even moreso than new iPhone apps usually are. Not to mention the fact that Saturday’s launch isn’t even the real launch—it’ll be the end of April before the 3G, GPS-equipped iPad hits stores, which will beget entirely new categories of apps. You know, pretty much anything with location services.

The First Wave Will Still Surprise You

The best of the first wave is stuff you probably haven’t heard much about, or seen screenshots of. These are the big guys; the companies Apple wants to have in the App Store when the iPad ships, and the companies that’ve been double-sworn to secrecy. Major news apps, franchise games, etc—a lot of big names are going to be there. They might not be perfect, and they might change quickly, but they’ll be there, and you’ll probably be happy to see them.

Go to Source Article at Gizmodo