Office and Inferno unlocked in CS Xbox
They were on the DVD all along though, annoyingly.
Two of Counter-Strike's most popular original maps have been made available as downloadable extras for Xbox Live users today. Joining the rotation of slightly modified maps in the Xbox selection are Office and Inferno - both firm favourites amongst the game's PC followers.
However the notion that this is somehow bonus content for what is very clearly an online-only proposition is rather bizarre. Office and Inferno have been around for yonks on the PC, didn't really need any obvious tweaks (Office, certainly, was brilliant to begin with) and could just as easily have gone into the box with the other 18 maps. Which is a funny thing that had us wondering...
In fact, it turns out that once again the notion that they are being downloaded is extremely contentious. Like the Activision title Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War, Counter-Strike Xbox takes just a split-second to "download" these maps, which weigh in at four blocks each according to the downloadable content screen. Clearly they were housed on the game's DVD originally and simply unlocked at Microsoft's wishes - something we have strong feelings about - and it makes you wonder how many more maps there are to be released and when.
Still, they're there now and that's the important thing. A quick scout round reveals that Inferno has changed quite a lot, with a new palette and textures, one of the bombsites in a slightly different position and quite a few new corridors linking sections. Office meanwhile remains largely the same - a good thing given that's practically sacred!
Microsoft hasn't said what further plans it has for CS Xbox, but we'd bet our Christmas socks there are more treasures to be "downloaded" further down the line.