Latest Half-Life and CS patches
Presumably breaking some sort of record for post-release support
Valve Software has updated Half-Life to version 1.1.0.9 to coincide with the long-awaited release of Counter-Strike version 1.4. Apart from the usual upgrade executables for owners of Half-Life and the retail Counter-Strike set, Valve is also offering a streaming game download service for broadband users, called Steam. Hopefully Steam has been altered slightly since the testing phase, where joining a server meant downloading tens of megabytes in uncompressed patches… The list of changes between the old versions of Half-Life and Counter-Strike and their respective updates is typically long, but the highlights include a couple of new maps, at least one old one with a makeover, various HLTV features for the dead and spectating, a number of important gameplay tweaks and the usual cheating countermeasures. CS 1.3, released many moons ago, was widely criticized for the gameplay imbalance it introduced. An anonymous friend who was playing Counter-Strike 1.4 until 7am this morning (hence wishing to remain anonymous - I believe he's bunking off work today too), described the update as "an enjoyable improvement," and said that "where the last one failed, this one seems to make amends, although he's probably broken some of the weapons again." A full list of changes to Counter-Strike is available on the mod's official website, and you can download the various HL / CS updates from the following locations.
Half-Life 1.1.0.9 full upgrade
Counter-Strike retail 1.0.0.3 to 1.0.0.4
Counter-Strike retail full upgrade
Counter-Strike mod full upgrade