208.100.45.53:27015

The gaming community I admin for is running a server for this. Laid back, mature crew. I'll mostly be playing there once I'm bothered to download the mod.

</shameless plug> 

I want to like this, cause I like the universe (the soundtrack is also very good), but it feels too much like counter strike for me. =( 

I've been looking forward to this one for a very very long time, simply for the visual style of it, as im not a CS fan or a tactical shooter fan.

The maps are simply gorgeous! Its a joy to just walk around and take everything in. I love all the futuristic Japanese contraptions all over the place, and the detail lavished on everything is immense. My favourite has to be the Ghost production factory map, very sterile and high-tech locations, and it actually feels like it could really function if it were a real place.

I love all the different corporate logo's adorning everything as well, its all these little things that help bring it all to life!

Gameplay wise it is very much like counter-strike with a few novel twists and quirks. Each of the 3 classes has its own distinct "vision mode" that you can toggle on and off. The recon gets nightvision, assault gets motion detection and the support class gets thermal vision. They all come in very useful in different situations and add another tactical layer to things.

The recon & Assault class also get a very time limited invisibility ability, that recharges slowly, if you stay still you are nearly invisible but while moving the cloak ripples and distorts and its much easier to spot. The vision modes help in spotting cloaked players as they still show up in motion & thermal vision.

There is no weapon purchasing like in CS, instead you are rewarded with upgraded guns buy killing enemy players and completing objectives, or by simply surviving a round. The weapons themselves are all very cool and look & feel just as great as the environments.

There is only 1 game mode currently, "capture the ghost". You take the ghost back to your capture point to win the round. Anyone carrying the ghost can be tracked by everyone on the server, but while carrying the ghost you can see the location of all enemy players.

The gameplay isn't my cup of tea at the end of the day, but it was worth the download just to be able to walk around the beautiful locations. I'd say that if you enjoy CS however, this may be your new addiction =) 

The screenshots look awesome. I might just dl it just to check out the map design.
The snowy screenshot even looks like a real photo 

gonna look under her skirt
see if it's ripe enough 

this is a very well realised mod, but the gameplay is dull dull dull (and I enjoy Counter-Strike, so that's gotta be saying something right?).

I see this happening more and more these days. Really well polished mods get released amidst loads of hype, but when you actually fire it up it feels as though a bunch of talented artists decided they'd like to have a go at making a mod without even considering the fact that a game needs to have interesting ... well ... game bits.

Ah-well. 

But I'm a shameless whore for pretty mappage, and it is worth the download to look at. Let's one know what all could be done with Source is properly inclined.