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?