Best Counter-Strike: Source player skins

There are eight different characters in Counter-Strike: Source, four Terrorists and four Counter-Terrorists. The trouble is that there are millions of Counter-Strike players, which makes standing out difficult. Luckily, fans have been creating new player skins since the game’s release, and now there are literally thousands of accomplished efforts to choose from. Many of the new skins add advanced effects like normal maps and phong shading to make them look even better than the default skins. Whether you want to turn the Terrorists into suave, suited bank robbers, or add more convincing camo to the Counter-Terrorists, there’s something for you in the Counter-Strike: Source modding community. Read on for our pick of the best Terrorist and Counter-Terrorist player skins.

Installing player skins sounds more complicated than it is. It’s essentially a matter of dropping the mod file into the right place. Here’s how to do it. Head into your Counter-Strike: Source player file directory, normally located here: C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\Counter-Strike: Source \cstrike\materials\models\player\. Within the ‘player’ file, create eight empty files with the following names, one for each of the terrorist and counter-terrorist models: ct_gign, ct_gsg9, ct_sas, ct_urban, t_arctic, t_guerilla, t_leet, and t_phoenix. When you download and unzip a skin, it’s likely that you’ll see a ‘materials’, ‘player’ or ‘model’ file, drag and drop these into your Counter-Strike: Source materials folder to merge the files and install the skin.
With skins like the Death Avenger, you’ll get a t_arctic file, replace the t_arctic file you’ve created with the new one and you’re away. For more details on installing player skins, check out the guide on FPS Banana.

CT Remix pack

This fantastic set of skins gives a new, unified appearance to all of the Counter-Terrorist models. The CT Remix pack is a perfect set of skins if you play regularly with friends. Different masks and gear give each model its own personality, but the highly detailed monochrome camo will give you the appearance of a crack team of killers.

Night Ops

Perfect for all those night-time Counter-Strike maps. Okay, so there aren’t many night-time Counter-Strike maps, but black is slimming and this excellent skin comes as close as it can to making you look like a ninja assassin without breaking the modern military feel of the Counter-Strike universe. It’s so cool that it needs a couple of downloads. Here’s part 1 and part 2.

Tactical CT

When military types talk about tactical vests, they don’t mean vests that hide in your underwear drawer, plotting their best route of attack. They’re really talking about pockets. The more pockets a vest has, the more tactical it is, and they don’t come much more tactical than they do on this Tactical Counter-Terrorist skin. There’s so much detail on this skin that it looks as though you could shoot the buttons off if you wanted to.

Classic Unbreakable CT Pack

The Classic Unbreakable CT Pack comes in three distinct flavours, Desert Marine, Water Snake and Silver Flame. Each one is a finely crafted, highly detailed skin with their own unique look. Silver flame is probably the stand-out of the three, with a swirling, silver flame pattern that your victims are likely to remember long after the round has finished.

Death Avenger

In case anyone’s in danger of forgetting who the bad guys are, the Death Avenger skin replaces your typical Counter-Strike countenance with a terrifying skull mask. If you’re going to run around planting bombs and teabagging the unlucky gents you just just head-shotted, you might as while do it dressed as a Bond villain. Check out Masked for Death for a similar version for the Guerilla skin.

Casual Terrorist

The Casual Terrorist skin is another mod of the ever-popular Arctic Terrorist model. It’s a well made, understated take on your typical Counter-Strike terrorist. The hoodie and jeans combo might seem less glamorous than the Bank Robber, but it’s great if you want to hold on to Counter-Strike’s sense of realism..

Bank Robber

If the Death Avenger skin is about making you look like a Bond villain, the Bank Robber skin is about making you look like Bond himself, if Bond decided to give up his life as an international man of mystery and rob a liquor store instead. The look is borrowed directly from great heist movies like Heat, which prove that you can be a cold-blooded, sadistic murderer, but still look classy in a sharp suit. The Bank Robber skin is so detailed that you can even see the time on his Rolex. About 3:20 pm from the looks of it.

Gordon Freeman

Everyone’s favourite physicist has gone rogue. This alternative skin for the Leet model adds Gordon Freeman to counter-Strike: Source, as a terrorist. Where did it all go wrong, Gordon? He may be able to single-handedly thwart an alien invasion, but can he handle the pressures of a CS arena? There’s only one way to find out. Download the skin and suit up to see if the One Free Man really has what it takes.
These are just a few of the thousands of Counter-Strike: Source skins available. Head over to FPS Banana for more. If you’d like to customise your character even further, check out our pick of the best Counter-Strike: Source weapon mods. Which one is your favourite, and are there any that you’d add to the list?

The 10 best new weapon mods for Counter-Strike: Source.

Counter-Strike: Source has brilliant weapons, but somehow the huge Counter-Strike modding community has managed to make them even better. Modders have achieved great results by cutting out the polygons devoted to bits of arm you hardly ever see, and piling them into creating new high detail weapons complete with new sounds and custom animations. They’re also dead easy to install. Perhaps you’re tired of seeing the same old combat knife, fancy sticking a scope on your M4A1 or want to dual wield Berettas made of ice and fire. Read on for ten of the best.

Before you install any mods, it’s worth keeping a backup of your ‘cstrike’ file, as not all servers support custom skins. With that done, all you need to do to get each of these mods working in your game of Counter-Strike: Source is download and unzip the mod file. Then open your Counter-Strike: Source directory, normally located at Steam/Steamapps/*your account name here*/counter-strike source/cstrike.. and drag the mod folders into this directory. If Windows asks whether you want to merge the files, click ‘yes’. Now, boot up the game. Voila. All those old weapons you’ve seen a thousand times before will be shiny and different. Here’s our top ten.

1. Nighthawk

As the default pistol, the USP is the one gun you’re going to see a lot. Spice it up a bit with these alternative models. The sleek Nighthawk will give you a highly detailed alternative with a realistic looking scope. The HK1911 0.45cal is another great replacement, with unique animations and unusual boxy silencer.

2. Dual M7s

This brilliant mod replaces the once-great P90 with a pair of M7 submachineguns, because two guns are better than one, that’s just a fact. If there’s one thing everyone knows about submachineguns, it’s that spinning them round and round like an idiot makes them fire better, that’s another fact. Brace yourself, this is probably the best reload animation ever.

3. Scorpion knife

I know what you’re thinking. “There isn’t enough Klingon weaponry in Counter-Strike Source.” You’re absolutely right. The Scorpion is exactly what you need if you want to replace the boring old knife with something more exotic. If that’s a bit too otherworldly for your taste, the M9 Probis III blade is a perfectly fine replacement for Valve’s original.

4. Auric Dragon Desert Eagle

The Auric Dragon reskin brings a touch of class to your tired old Deagle. The traditional silver texture is darker, and, here’s the good bit, there are golden dragons embedded into the grip. It looks like it’s come straight out of a John Woo film.

5. Magic bullet

This mod gets rid of the AWP sniper rifle entirely. Instead of replacing it with another gun it gives you telekenetic powers. A quick point of the index finger sends a floating bullet flying at your target. The reload animation makes you beckon, at which point the bullet you just fired flies back into your hand. Genius. You’ll find a video of the magic bullet in action here.
If adding magic powers to Counter-Strike seems a bit extreme, there are some other excellent alternative AWP models out there, most notably the mighty Barrett M82a1 (pictured).

6. Double Barrelled Shotgun

This mod replaces the XM1014 with a good old fashioned double barrelled shotgun The sturdy looking weapon comes with its own reloading animations. For a good modern alternative check out the mighty Striker.

7. Snark’s M4A1

This fantastic looking replacement for the M4A1 looks as though it’s come from a modern Call of Duty game. Who needs a gun with both scope and a laser sight, you ask? You do! Because it looks awesome.

8. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. G36

If you’ve braved S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s terrifying wastelands, you’ll know how comforting it is to have a G36 at the ready. Thankfully it kills Terrorists as well as it does mutants, and it looks a lot better than the SG552 it replaces.

9. Vintorez

The Vintorez really does look as though it could shoot a pea from a mile away. That’s partly because it has the the biggest scope you’ve ever seen, but mostly because of the superb texturing work. This weapon replaces the SG1 sniper rifle.

10. Mark 23 .45 Auto Akimbo

Those Beretta Elites, they think they’re so great. Little do they know that the Mark 23 Auto Akimbo models, with their high resolution, high detail textures are superior them in almost every way. The underslung attachments make them look meaner than the standard Berettas, and it has custom animations provided by a man who calls himself Batman IV. For an unusual alternative, check out Ice’s Heaven and Hell Berettas, because firing a gun while it’s on fire earns you extra action hero points.
If these 10 alternative weapons aren’t enough, you’ll find thousands more over on FPS Banana. Which one’s your favourite? What other mod features would you like to see on PCGamer.com?

30 million gamers now use Steam

Valve tell us Steam now has over 30 million accounts, with new user growth up 178% over last year, and sales up over 200%. For reference, Xbox Live has 25 million accounts total. Even if Steam accounted for the entirety of PC gaming, which it doesn’t by any means, this would give you some idea of how not dead it is.
Steam itself has now seen sales more than double every year for six years straight, and this year they more than tripled. Valve say they’re gearing up the network to run at 400 “Gps”. Presumably gigabytes per second, which makes their claim that it’s “enough bandwidth to ship a digitized version of the Oxford English Dictionary 92.6 times per second” sightly confusing. Is the OED 4 gigs? Someone should zip that thing. Anyway, Steam is apparently fast and popular and PC gaming is massive and exploding and awesome. Here’s a press release.

10 top tips from a Counter-Strike pro

Ever fancied yourself as a Counter-Strike master? Ever thought about going pro? There’s a lot to consider, even once you’re among the best players around. Professional gaming’s no easy gig, and there’s far more to it than simply knowing how to aim a crosshair at an opponent’s face. As such, we’ve been chatting to Elliot Welsh, aka. ‘wez’ of leading competitive gamers Team Dignitas, to find out his ten top tips for moving up the ranks in the world of professional Counter-Strike.

1. Get your hardware sorted

If you want to compete on an even playing field, the last thing you want is a dated rig or sloppy internet connection holding you back. In a game whose combat is as finely balanced as that of Counter-Strike, just a slight framerate drop can be catastrophic. “Low fps can affect your recoil, bullet registration and smoothness of your game,” says Elliot. “If you’re stuck with a terrible computer, you don’t really have much chance online against someone with a top-end machine. Also, a good computer and connection will be the same conditions you’ll be playing on when you turn up to a tournament, so you won’t have to adapt to different conditions when you set up on the day.”

"Get your hardware sorted," sez wez.

2. Find a team you get along with

Sometimes in life we’re all thrown into a situation where we have to work with people we aren’t so fond of. Like at PC Gamer, for example. Bloody scoundrels, the lot of them. But there’s no doubting that getting on with your team mates is going to make things a whole lot easier down the line. In fact, it might even be better to pick friendly souls with potential to improve than switching in the cream of the crop without knowing them well. “Playing with people you get along with will make you enjoy the game much more, and undoubtedly be more likely to stick together,” says Elliot. “Changing your lineup every month won’t do you much good, even if you’re replacing a player with someone slightly better.”

3. Practice your tactics in the best environments

If you’re considering competitive Counter-Strike, the chances are you’ll already spend a fair number of hours playing the game. But practicing in the right environments is key to your continual improvement. Deathmatch servers are a good place to start – “You respawn as soon as you die, so you’re constantly shooting and it’s a good way to improve your gunplay,” Elliot explains – and clan war practice is pretty much essential. Use a chat program such as mIRC to search for practice games against other teams, and try out all the tactics you’ve been mulling over in your head. “I’d advise having ten minutes after each match you play to assess what you did wrong, what you did right, and how you could improve,” adds Elliot.

4. Watch demos of other players

Practice might make perfect, but there are numerous intricacies to Counter-Strike play that you may be able to pick up from others. Watching demo videos of other players is a great way to assess their mad skills without fear of being gunned down if you take too long to stop and stare. Professionals will have various different ways of moving, aiming, shooting and reacting to different situations. Just make sure you try out your own moves as well: “All players have different styles,” warns Elliot, “and one player’s style may not be suitable for you or your team.” Demos from Dignitas’ players can be found on their website.

Watching demos of pro players can be helpful, but make sure you practice too.

5. Forget the rest, play against the best

It’s always nice to win, so it might be tempting to select weaker opponents for practice matches. But this can be counter-productive. Unless you’re playing at the highest level you’re capable of, there’s not a great deal of compulsion to improve – and certainly less you can take away from both victories and defeats. “Although playing against people below your own ability will still benefit you in some ways,” Elliot explains, “playing against top teams will give you an insight into the level of professional play, and allow you to learn from high level players.”

6. Communication is key

As with all team-based games, but perhaps even more so with Counter-Strike, it’s important to be in good contact with your team mates throughout a match. A lack of communication can be the difference between a decisive victory and an embarrassing, crushing defeat, so talking to each other is tremendously important. But simply maintaining contact isn’t enough: it’s imperative to be efficient with your communications. “It’s best to keep your calls about what’s happening short and quick, and explain everything you know, such as how many enemies you see, if you see the bomb carrier, and what weapons they have,” says Elliot. And be sure to get hold of a voice chat program such as Ventrilo or Mumble to utilise during practice: they allow you to speak to your team mates whether you’re dead or alive, an advantage not afforded by Counter-Strike’s in-game chat system.

7. Embrace the community spirit

You might be tempted to pour all your spare hours into improving your game, but there’s more to being a professional Counter-Strike player than simply playing Counter-Strike. Your team could consist of the best players in the world, but if no one knows who you are, you’re probably going to end up going nowhere fast. “Playing an active role in your country’s Counter-Strike community means that there is more general interest, which means there will be more tournaments and therefore more oppotunities to practice in competitions and under pressure,” says Elliot. “Also, it allows you to make friends to casually play with when your team may not be online, so you can still practice even if your team mates aren’t around.”

Team Dignitas in action.

8. Master the three pillars of skillful combat

Elliot flags three key things to master in Counter-Strike combat: recoil, flashbangs, and smoke grenades. Counter-Strike’s recoil patterns are very different to many shooters, and it’s imperative to master the technique: “For most professional players, the general technique is to spray at close range, tap fire at medium range, and tap slightly slower at long range, all while moving in between taps to make you a harder target to hit,” suggests Elliot. Meanwhile, good grenade use can make all the difference. “Again, watching a professional player’s demo will give you some useful tips,” says Elliot, “but it’s always best to join an empty server with your team mates and practice them for yourself.”

9. Financial advice

Counter-Strike isn’t all about the combat tactics. It’s also a game in which managing your money is key to high-level success. At a professional level, you’ll need to make sure your finances are in check whether you’re winning or losing, because ensuring your team is finely in-tune and well-timed with quick purchases is essential. Elliot’s top tip? “If you find yourself short on money after – say – losing the pistol round, the best thing to do is save your money by not buying anything for one or two rounds, so you can save up enough cash to purchase a rifle and armour.”

10. For goodness’ sake, stick with it

It might sound obvious, but the only way you’ll reach the dizzy heights of top-level professional gaming is to keep plugging away until you’re good enough. It’s a lot of work, and something you’ll need to treat like a real job as much as play – even during those inevitable times when morale reaches rock bottom. “A lot of dedication is needed to become a professional,” says Elliot, “and there will be times when you and your team are trying to improve and results may not always go in your favour. If this happens, the best thing you can do is stick together, and keep playing through it.”

Patched: the new Counter-Strike: Source

Valve released its first major update to Counter-Strike: Source in almost four years today. The patch is live and playable to Steam users, and includes a heap of UI improvements, engine updates, and 144 achievements. A full list of changes, and my take on the major updates, within.

The update is a modest modernizing of Counter-Strike: Source. Valve has integrated some of its existing tech and design seen in other Source engine shooters (like Team Fortress) into its most-popular multiplayer game. That includes: bloom-tastic high-dynamic range lighting, a redesigned scoreboard, a killcam that spotlights who killed you after you die, multicore rendering, a domination and revenge system (net four kills of the same player, and you’re dominating them), persistent stat-tracking and a buffet of 144 achievements.

Damn, I'm good.

The most original enhancement is a small one: end-of-round trivia. At the end of each round, an MVP is highlighted, but there’s also a note about an interesting action taken by a player during that round–kill someone with a grenade after dying or rack up a pile of damage while using nightvision, and you might be mentioned. This is a small counter against how symmetrical rounds of CS:S can feel–running the same bomb route on de_dust hour after hour can be tedious, and having a tiny factoid at the end is a welcome, albeit token, change.
One improvement not mentioned in the patch notes is a minor tweak to the radar: when you’re dead, it now displays player names dynamically.

You've probably earned all of these in the past six years.

The set of achievements are disappointingly straightforward: most of them are map- or weapon-specific milestones like accruing 200 kills with a Desert Eagle, or earning $50,000,000 in cash. There’s a handful of difficult ones–I think these three will be the hardest to nab.
Clean Sweep
“Kill the entire opposing team without any members of your team dying.”
Variety Hour
“Get kills with five different guns in a round.”
The Immovable Object
“Kill an enemy player who has just killed 10 of your teammates in a single round.”
It’s tempting to see the patch as housecleaning that precedes additional content for CS:S–it is, after all, consistently one of the most-played games on Steam, often doubling or tripling the peak players of Team Fortress 2. I’d speculate that it’s merely a long-overdue gift to CS:S players for their years of support: Valve contracted the creators of Defense Grid, of all things (Hidden Path Entertainment), to help produce the update, so it doesn’t seem like there’s a dedicated team within Valve that’s working on Counter-Strike at this time.

Stars indicate each player's number of MVPs earned.

Full patch notes below, or online at CS:S’ updates page.
General

• 144 achievements added
• New lifetime player stats and summary screens
• New match player stats and summary screens
• New end of round display with MVP and interesting fact about a player
• Updated scoreboard with new icons, visual style, MVP stars, and avatar pictures
• New cinematic death camera
• New domination and revenge system
• Added avatar icons to voice chat, scoreboard, and end of round display
• Incorporated many source engine updates
• Disallowed the use of arbitrary command strings for the message of the day screen. Now only a specific list of commands is allowed.
• Addressed issue in which AWPs and Scouts sometimes did not make the zooming sound.
• cvar mat_showlowresimage is now a cheat command.
• Many development console commands which would crash the server removed.
• Updated source engine addresses many issues:
• Better flashlight effect
• Better HDR behavior
• Multicore rendering support
• Added sv_disablefreezecam cvar to turn off the freezecam on a server.
• Added sv_nonemesis cvar to turn off domination/revenge on a server.
• Added sv_nomvp cvar to turn off MVP stars on a server.
• Added sv_nostats cvar to turn off stats on a server.
• Removed -tickrate command line option and defaulted tick rate to 66 rather than 33. This addressed a number of issues, including:
• Tick rate affecting how fast doors open / close
• Tick rate causing players hitting the ground to stutter
• Tick rate affecting the firing mechanisms of certain guns

UI

• Added the following cvars to allow players to customize their scoreboards.
• cl_scoreboard_ct_color_red
• cl_scoreboard_ct_color_green
• cl_scoreboard_ct_color_blue
• cl_scoreboard_t_color_red
• cl_scoreboard_t_color_green
• cl_scoreboard_t_color_blue
• cl_scoreboard_dead_color_red
• cl_scoreboard_dead_color_green
• cl_scoreboard_dead_color_blue
• Changed the screen that appears when the message of the day fails to load to display proper error text.
• Made the CT silhouette for the auto-select option in the Choose a Class screen smaller and corrected its aspect ratio.
• Addressed a problem that occasionally caused characters to be colored incorrectly on the Change a Class screen.

Gameplay

• Made ladders easier to climb. Added cvars sv_ladder_dampen and sv_ladder_angle.
• Fixed issue that awarded three points when the bomb explodes after the round ends by elimination criteria instead.
• Fixed issue in which you weren’t given credit for grenade damage if you fired a weapon at someone then hit them with a grenade (in that order). Also fixed problem in which grenading a player and then killing them with another weapon showed as ‘*** in 1’ on console.
• There’s now a priority order for displaying win conditions when multiple win conditions are set.
• If timelimit exists and is not 0, then show timelimit.
• If timelimit does not exist, show maxrounds if not 0.
• If both timelimit and maxrounds are 0, show winlimit.
• If timelimit, maxrounds, and winlimit are all 0, show nothing.
• Added a cvar to ignore win conditions: mp_ignore_round_win_conditions.