Important news for Counter-Strike addicts today (and I could myself in that group), as Project Manager Erik Johnson announced a new money system for de_ maps.

The skinny here is that a new tactic has been making its way around professional and semi-professional teams, making the game a bit dull. The root of the problem is that the fairly unique (and very important) Counter-Strike money system was designed only for cs_ maps (hostage rescue), and then happened to be ported to de_ maps (bomb planting).

"We're still working out the specifics, but the intention is to make the tactic of waiting for the round to end on the T side a disincentive. We'll also change the round timer to shut off once the bomb has been planted on de_ maps." says Johnson, on the ever reliable (yet apparently currently inaccessible) website.

As a side note – this is an excellent example of the good use of Steam. Whilst most media and players slate the slightly unreliable Steam content delivery platform, it shows that they can roll out a patch for this problem very quickly. This is as opposed to waiting months for the next .1 upgrade.

There is a detailed analysis, including personal experiences of this exploit in the wild, over at GotFrag.

exoSyphen Studios in Romania have released a port of the original Quake on SPV Smartphones. Quake had already been produced for Windows CE in the past, so its not clear if this is a variant of that, or a whole new version. Nevertheless, it is impressive and downloadable here.

Word comes from Vivendi that the Interplay developed Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II. on the and PS2, has gone gold and will be on shelves on 20th January. The PR spiel is pretty impressive, with the expected smattering of made-up words.

    Darkness gathers yet again in the sprawling port city of Baldur's Gate and the city's most recent saviors vanished along with the Onyx Tower, foul bastion of Eldrith the Betrayer. In heroic tradition, adventurers throughout the Western Heartlands make the journey to Baldur's Gate to meet their great and unknown fate. The threat of Eldrith has been eliminated, yet sinister, enigmatic forces still rally against the city. There are many intrigues to unravel, enemies to battle, and characters to meet -- both old and new -- before Baldur's Gate is saved from a fate far worse than utter destruction.
"'Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II' has already received tremendous pre- awareness and anticipation among gamers," said Philip W. O'Neil, warming up the investors. "We have high expectations for this title and are looking forward to a successful launch."

80 levels, more monsters, larger environments, and five customisable characters are promised along with an 'item creation system' allowing players to create magical items.

By Jason Cartwright