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I’m sure anybody who enjoys playing first person shooters is well aware that UT2004 was released this week.

As a die-hard Counter-Strike fan, it has been hard to imagine that anything will replace CS (except maybe CS2 for Half-Life 2). I bought a copy of UT2003 last year, but was a little disappointed because it just got boring after a while. Sure, the new bombing run mode was fun, but it was best played on LAN IMHO.

So, the UT2004 demo came out. I hadn’t heard anything about the demo yet, but I decided to give it a try. I’m not sure how many weeks ago that was, since time has mostly lost meaning for me since playing the game. Onslaught may be one of the best ideas in first person shooter games ever. I haven’t even thought of Counter-Strike since I first played the UT2004 demo, and that’s a big deal for me.

This week, my pre-ordered copy of the UT2004 Special Edition finally arrived (buy this copy if you can find it, it comes on a single DVD and bonus DVD instead of _6_ CD’s). I’ve been playing online every chance I’ve had. I can’t get enough of the new Onslaught maps. They even brought back the classic version of Facing Worlds (the CTF map that I’m sure you’ve played if you have ever played UT CTF). For those that are completely unaware, the Assault mode was brought back, and they gave us a modified Sniper rifle (not quite as good as the old one), and an AVRIL to lock on and destroy vehicles encountered in Onslaught gameplay. I have to say, it will be very tough for the upcoming Doom III and Half-Life 2 to take my attention away from Unreal Tournament 2004.

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The release of the (very) long awaited Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is finally at hand. I’ve been waiting for this game for the past couple *years*, so it’s exciting to see that it’ll finally be released in a couple weeks.

Another interesting thing about this release is that it is the first game to be released through Steam, Valve’s content delivery network. You can pre-order the game for a nice discount of $10, making it $30. I’ve decided to go ahead and pre-order, to see how smoothly this whole process works. It looks like you are required to verify your email address, then you just give your billing information. Steam will already ‘trickle down’ the update, so even if you decide to buy it on the day of the release, you’ll already have everything you need to play it right in your Steam content directory.

I’ve always thought that purchasing games over the internet like this was a very good idea. It saves on the delivery time and cost, the pressing of the cd’s and manuals, and you never have to worry about the game being in stock on release day. Hopefully Valve got it right and this won’t be something that I’ll regret.

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