For context, Team Fortress and Counter-Strike 2 trade ban started as fan-made Half-Life spin-offs that Valve eventually roped into its own official library; fans and mods have always been at the epicenter of Valve’s business model. With how integral the community has been to Half-Life throughout its history, it’s no surprise that the scene is still thriving despite the lack of official content.

Ultimately, we can only really guess as to how Valve weighs each of these points, or if it even uses all of them at all in determining a Trust Factor value per player account. There is much more to consider, and everyone should take the time to check out the patent for themselves. It can appear to be a long, daunting read, because it is, but there are some interesting pieces of information to glean from such an endea

"Contrary to what people may think, LambdaGeneration actually grew during Valve’s silence," Alex explains. "Many of the news-oriented sites that once overshadowed us started to struggle - many just gave up. The community, however, did not."

Few games have been the blueprint for a genre like Counter-Strike is for economy-based FPS games. In Counter-Strike, players receive money each round — depending on numerous factors — that they can spend on weapons, armor, and utility items such as grenades. Not all weapons were created equally and a gun's effectiveness does not correlate to its price point, tho

For newcomers with varying tastes, do any of these aforementioned games help them get more acquainted with the FPS genre? New FPS players looking for a great introduction to the hardcore world of multiplayer FPS might want to try out certain games to test their reflexes and engage in gun-toting fun against other te

Valve’s newest effort at matchmaking assigns players with a value known as the Trust Factor. This is a hidden value that considers several points to help place a player into a match. Valve has made it perfectly clear in this blog post that they will not revealing the specifics that modify this value because they do not want players to alter their behavior in an effort to manipulate the system. This is perfectly fair on their part, as players will go to great lengths to break video games, either just for fun, or to gain a competitive advant

Ultimately, the Trust Factor has a clear focus according to the patent, which, "may provide an improved gaming experience for users who desire to play a video game in multiplayer mode in the manner it was meant to be played." This description playing a game as intended refers to players who respect the game in its core design, meaning those who do not cheat or act in toxic w

However, if you want to get up close and personal, then you can rush players with the burst-fire mode to unleash a torrent of bullets into enemy players, killing them easily in around one to two point-blank bur

Essentially the same PUBG experience , PUBG Mobile drops players in squads throughout a remote island. Once on the ground, squads need to find weapons and armor as they eliminate enemies they meet along the way. With a game map increasingly getting smaller with each passing minute, players will need to remain on the move in order to surv

While the future for the game is bright, Counter-Strike is a franchise that loves to pay homage and respect to its roots. As such it is one of the few, if not the only game that has remained mechanically identical since its inception. This familiarity extends to the maps that for some have surpassed 20 years of active competitive play. So, the best way to pay respect to these maps is to rank the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has to of

Thanks to the game's extremely straightforward mechanics, Team Fortress remains one of the easiest FPS titles to get into. Its class-based system makes it easy for players to get into sub-genres such as hero shooters, whereas its combat paves the way for more fast-paced tit

Alex's point is an important one. I occasionally jump to Reddit to find out what's going on with the community, perhaps to discuss some wild theories about the G-Man after a long day of bunny-hopping through the waterways of Half-Life 2, but the subs are drowned in memes. So, I go to Twitter, where it's near-impossible to find any structured form of discussion. The only spot to find community content in a neat package was LambdaGeneration, but even then it was curated by fans - what was being lost in that process? LambdaGeneration’s new social media platform addresses all of these issues.

Platforms: PC

It’s thanks to Quake Champions that fans of this iconic franchise can rejoice in the hit shooter’s return to the gaming scene. After all, before Quake Champions ’ 2017 release, the last installment in the franchise was Quake 4 in 2005. With this in mind, Quake Champions marks not just a return to form to the arena shooter, but the introduction of additional elements that make it just as exciting an experience for modern f