The original Counter-Strike mod is 25 years old, Valve calls it 'the greatest videogame ever made'

The official Counter-Strike account has posted to celebrate 25 years since the release of the mod that changed the competitive FPS forever. 

«Happy 25th birthday to the greatest videogame ever made, Counter-Strike,» says the contemporary Counter-Strike 2 team. «A Half-Life mod which has spawned communities, created memories, and established the greatest esport of them all. We're grateful to have the most passionate players in gaming.  

»Here's to 25 more!"

Counter-Strike was a Half-Life mod developed initially by Minh «Gooseman» Le, who was finishing up at university and wanted to make a game project that would help with his career prospects. Le had previously built various mods for Quake but with this wanted to branch-out and hit upon Valve's GoldSrc engine. Le has said in the past that once Valve had made the GoldSrc software development kit available, it took him around a month and a half to program «beta one» of Counter-Strike, by which time co-creator Jess «Cliffe» Cliffe had joined the project to work on various elements including the maps.

Counter-Strike's theming was inspired by Le's own interest in special military units, as well as videogames like 1998's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. The first beta was released on June 19, 1999, with others following at a rapid pace before, by the time of the fifth beta, interest in the project had become so great that Valve made an approach to the pair. Valve bought the Counter-Strike IP and employed both of its creators before, in September 2000, releasing the first retail version of the game.

Since then, Counter-Strike has seen various iterations: Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (2004); Counter-Strike: Source (2004); Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012); and Counter-Strike 2 (2023). But whatever version is your particular poison, there's a reason Counter-Strike has shown such longevity. The game is and always has been just great fun.

Funnily enough, some players' memories of the game's early days are bound-up with PC