Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Firstly, Counterstrike has been the game of choice for the on-line community for some time now, to what do you attribute this success?
Randy Pitchford: It's fun.
How will Condition Zero build upon the strengths of CS, and what will it add that fans will relish?
Randy Pitchford: Condition Zero is a single player version of the on-line game. It adds purpose, narrative, character and team building incentives to the game. Condition Zero also allows players to tackle the narrative missions cooperatively. Finally, Condition Zero adds new technology, content and game play features that will upgrade the existing multiplayer game.
I hear that a little new technology will be improving the visuals of Condition Zero; what kinds of improvements will we witness, and what benefits has this entailed from a design perspective?
Randy Pitchford: There are new special effects technologies and rendering technologies that give us a number of benefits that specifically benefit the design of the game. This includes some upgrades to the model rendering system to allow for fully alpha blended models. You'll see very realistic trees and foliage as a result of this feature. There will now also be levels of detail in models which allows us to provide the High Definition pack for Counter-Strike without sacrificing performance on mid-range PC's. The most visible upgrades will be in the area of special effects. These can really only be appreciated by seeing the game in action. As a result of new special effects technology, there's now precipitation in many levels (like snow and rain) and specific bullet impact effects for any given type of material found in the world.