Counter-Strike is one of the world’s most famous shooters and despite being ancient compared to today’s standards, CS 1.6 is still being played by millions of PC owners worldwide. If you have played or still play CS, you’ll know that de_dust2 is a legendary map and is one of the key aspects of the game that distinguish CS from every other shooter online.

We’re not sure if Valve has the same level of high security that Apple has over their IPs, but Gabe Newell and his team may want to take a closer look at this blatent ripoff once they find out about it. How many of you have heard of Webzen and their new shooter called Arctic Combat?

The game is currently in beta and is due for release soon, but one of the maps included in the game called Sand Storm has become quite a talking point online with the FPS community. This is because the map quite essentially is a carbon copy of Valve’s de_dust2 map and Webzen surely had to be joking if they thought they could pass this off as their own by simply moving a few crate locations.

The map layout is exactly the same with both A and B bombsites, double doors at mid, catwalk at short A, almost bordering on the ridiculous. So far, the South Korean developer has yet to comment on the claims and there is some discussion that the map is just paying ‘homage to’ CS, rather than passing it off as a new map.

Check out the gameplay footage below courtesy of PC Gamer and let us know your thoughts on it. As a CS player, have you ever seen a blatent rip off like this before? Don’t be surprised if we see Sand Storm make a sudden departure from the final release of Arctic Combat.

Yeah that’s right, Valve’s classic shooter has now been sucessfully ported to Android and you’ll be pleased to hear that Counter-Strike 1.6 is now available as a free download from the Android market. There are two versions available – one which has support for older Android devices, while the one that you should get is called 6p and is for Android devices running Android 2.3 Gingerbread or later.

Just like its PC counterpart, you’ll be able to enter online servers on the Android version and compete against others just like on PC, at the moment there’s only a few maps supported but more are being added as we speak. To give you an idea of how the game handles on Android, we’ve included a video below showing the fy_pool_day map being run on the Sony Xperia Play smartphone.

As you can see, commands are being input via the touchscreen only which may seem a bit strange since the device supports a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and D-pad. Anyway, the famous Counter-Strike sounds are all in-tact, as are the Quake add-on sounds for when a player gets a headshot or goes on a killing spree.

If you’re interested in giving this a go, head to the Android Market and let us know what you think of it. It doesn’t look particularly stunning from a graphics point of view but it is still great for bragging rights nevertheless. With Counter-Strike Global Offensive on the way to consoles at somepoint this year, how fantastic would it be if Valve decided to remake 1.6 for the PlayStation Vita as well? Playing a handheld version of 1.6 with other Vita users online would be immensely popular we feel and would be another great reason to pick up the handheld.

What are your thoughts on seeing CS 1.6 ported to Android? Would you love to see it on Vita as well?

Let’s start with the launch date, if you already have a beta key you can begin playing the beta on November 30, however don’t worry if you don’t have a key as eventually it will become an open beta where everyone can play it. This news was revealed on Twitter and it has also been confirmed that the beta is PC only.

When we attended this year’s EuroGamer Expo we managed to get some hands on time with Global Offensive and we were very impressed with it, visually it was by no means up their with CoD or Battlefield, however anyone who plays CS knows it’s all about gameplay. After playing the game at the Expo we were given some beta keys, obviously we are going to be testing out the beta ourself – however we still have two going spare (and we have been promised more by Valve).

So how can you stand a chance of winning yourself this key? Well it is very simple, but you do need a Google+ account (get one here). Once you are logged in all you have to do is click on this link and click share, share it with your circles and you will be in with a chance of winning a beta key.

At the moment we only have two keys, but we have been in touch with Valve and they have promised us more. We will not be doing a separate giveaway for other keys, so when they are emailed across to us we will randomly pick people who followed the giveaway instructions which we told you about in the previous paragraph. To prove we are not messing you about here are the two cards which the keys are printed on:

We will randomly select winners of the keys the day before the beta launch (November 29), so get on Google+ and click share on this post!

You can see the video at the end of this post, as this is a downloadable title do not be put off by the mediocre graphics, instead remember why millions of people are still playing Counter-Strike around the world – we are told that CS: GO will ensure match balance and if you want to do well it’s about skill, you won’t get unrealistic rewards for camping, nor will you unlock better weapon attachments as you progress (see our previous article).

The video shows the first-ever match between Europe and America, the first round is a taser round, whichever team wins chooses which side they play as – prior to this knife-only rounds decided this. Early on we get to see a great new spectator view, also we get to see just how powerful and accurate the desert eagle (deagle) is, apparently each gun in CS: GO has its own unique spraying pattern, so this is something which the pros will be attempting to master.

During the video the commentators talk about the CS: GO beta, no date is given, but they do say it will arrive “in the next month”. Getting hold of beta keys should be easy (we have some to give away), Valve is keen to stress that you must not pay for a key as they are free, initially limited keys will be handed out to ensure that servers can cope with the demand, then more keys will be given out.

At the end of the match (which Europe won) one of the pro gamers talks about his first-impressions with CS: GO, on the whole he was impressed, but suggested that it needs to be more clear when you kill someone, also he suggests that weapon balance is slightly out (auto snipers are too strong) and smoke grenades are too effective, that said he was a fan of the flash grenades. He goes on to say that Global Offensive should attract more gamers to Counter-Strike, as it is hard convincing current-gen gamers to try out CS 1.6 and CSS.

Perhaps his biggest complaint related to the game’s sound, the pro suggested that it is hard to determine which sort of weapon you are being shot at with, obviously you may learn the sounds of particular guns the more you play CS: GO, but to his trained ear the AK sounded “nothing like an AK”.

Remember the video can be seen below, are you impressed by what you have seen?

Recently MediaKick.org spoke to Valve’s Chet Falisek regarding the upcoming release, here we found out some interesting information regarding the game and how it will compete with likes of Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3.

Let’s start with what interests us the most, balance, CS: GO will feature a match-making and rank system which is based on skill, this means that you will only face people of the same skill level as you, this should allow for realistic battles, rather than seasoned pros meeting noobs in an unbalanced game. When asked how Global Offensive will most modern-day shooter Chet said:

If you want a pure competition of skill, where it is you versus the other guy, this series is the one to play. There are pro-leagues that use the game for competitions, because it has good clean matches where the man with the most skill wins. When you die here, it isn’t because someone is exploiting a glitch or someone has put in so many man hours into the multiplayer that he has unlocked a lot of perks, it is how good you are at that moment of time.

Towards the end of the Q&A we heard something very promising from Chet, to summarize he basically said that all of the ideas the dev team have between now and its release will go into the game, rather than leave it out and charge for it as DLC at a later date – we wish more game developers took this unselfish stance – do you?

Do you think the match-making / rank system will set a new standard for other first-person shooters to follow?

Currently no specific date has been set, but we can confirm that the CS: GO beta for PC will kick off sometime during October, sadly there is no sign of a beta for PS3 or Xbox 360 just yet – but we do know that people who want to play the PC beta will need to install Steam and have a beta key.

Below you can see a couple of cards which Valve staff handed to us during the expo, each has a Counter Strike: Global Offensive beta key printed on the rear – we have been promised more and we will soon be handing out beta keys to some of our lucky readers.

On the rear of the card it clearly states that to redeem your beta access you must download Steam from here (if you don’t already have it installed) and then install it on your PC, once installed create or log in with a Steam account and once in check out the Games menu – here you should be able to select “Activate a Product on Steam”, this is where you enter your beta key, it’s that simple!

One thing which hasn’t been confirmed just yet is the exact date that the beta will start, all we know is that it will start something in October – with Battlefield 3′s beta kicking off in late September it will be interesting to see how popular the CS: GO beta is – we got some hands on time with the PS3 version of the game and despite witnessing a few minor bugs we were more impressed than we thought we would be – in fact it exceeded our highest expectations, especially after posting this video back in late August – yes visually it is no BF3 or MW3, but in terms of gameplay it was great fun.

Stay tuned if you want to find out more about our hands on time with Counter Strike: Global Offensive, or if you want to get your hands on a Counter Strike: Global Offensive beta key for PC. It may be worth Following Product-Reviews on Twitter, Liking Product-Reviews on Facebook or adding me to a Circle on Google+ – as soon as we get the codes we will announce the giveaway!

We’re not joking either, as we have some preview images to show you as proof. The official map name is called fy_abbottabad, and according to the map’s description, it can be played on as either a hostage or bomb map.

Another version is thought to be on the way soon, titled de_abbottabad. You can download the first map now though, over at GameBanana, as reported from Kotaku. There’s also a few images as well, giving you a chance to see what Bin Laden’s resting place looks like in the world of Counter-Strike.

How many of you have already downloaded this, or now plan to give it a shot? At the moment, this map is for Counter-Strike Source only, but a version for CS 1.6 will probably get made too after this.

What are your thoughts on the Bin Laden Counter-Strike Map? Bad taste or a genius creation?