The folks at Valve have sent along a note for an update on Counter-Strike: Condition Zero which went gold recently for the US version. Here's what the deal is as of now straight from Jess Cliffe at Valve:

I've been getting questions about the release of Condition Zero, and wanted to put out an update. We're done with development on the English version and have submitted a replication master to Sierra for manufacturing. Right now, we're doing some additional work on the foreign versions and are hoping to have those wrapped up and submitted to Sierra this week. Sierra has not confirmed retail release dates for the product but we're hopeful it will be available shortly.

On the Xbox front, Microsoft has released Counter-Strike for the Xbox in North America and it is in stores. It will be shipping in all other territories in the coming days. CSX is getting strong reviews (e.g, "This is the shooter / combat title of the holiday season"), and we've already surpassed our initial load-in forcast on the game.

As stated in this story, the expected shelf date was actually yesterday which is why we have this update.

At Half-Life.org they have a new Counter-Strike Condition Zero Q&A, asking Jess Cliffe about the long in development singleplayer game.

1UP has posted a Q&A with Turtle Rock's Mike Booth, asking him about his company's version of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. Thanks Blues News.

New on HomeLAN Fed today is this Q&A with Michael Booth of Turtle Rock Studios, asking him about the Counter-Strike bot and his company's work on Condition Zero.

Valve's Gabe Newell has posted on the HalfLife2.net forums again, this time offering an email from Turtle Rock's Michael Booth about the new AutoBuy/ReBuy system in Condition Zero. The AutoBuy system will make it easier to get all the equipment you need, while ReBuy gives you the exact same equipment you had in the previous round. Update: for info on bot customization go here.

CSNation has posted a new Counter-Strike: Condition Zero preview, offering all the info you want on the version of the game that's actually shipping next month. While apparently some content developed by Ritual Entertainment will be in the game, others parts of the game have been developed by upstart Turtle Rock Studios (the fourth developer to work on this game).

All of your enemies and teammates are CPU bots. Each has a unique name and personality. The personality consists of four attributes: skill, co-op, bravery, and favorite weaponry. So if your teammate has a low co-op level, he might tell you to screw off when you give him an order. Yes, tell you. Your teammates will use voice communication to tell you what's going on in the map and respond to your orders. With hundreds of sentence fragments, the bots can deliver numerous unique messages. The voice and pitch of each bot is unique, and will always match the bot's name and personality.

Well here's some news from Valve Software that wont make gamers cry quite so much. Condition Zero is going gold this Friday and Gabe Newell was kind enough to pass along this update and screenshot:

Condition Zero is going gold this Friday, and will be available via Steam and at retail on November 18th.

The AI that we were testing via the Steam beta has been more successful than we had originally expected, so it has allowed us to build some more flexibility into the mission authoring.

A typical mission in CZ looks like this:

- you have to win at least three times, and have won at least two more than your opponents
- in easy mode, you have to get one kill with a pistol
- in normal mode, you have to get one kill with a five seven
- in hard mode, you have to get three kills with a five seven without dying which may take multiple rounds
- in expert mode, you have to get three head shots with a deagle without dying

Mission MODers (I can't think of a better name off the top of my head) will be able to create their own missions. The UI and gameplay is data-driven, so once the missions are installed, they automatically appear.

We've upgraded all of the maps (see attached shot of ), and mappers can get the higher resolution textures

Here's a simple set of missions [document]

Sierra has released a new Counter-Strike: Condition Zero trailer, showing a minute and sixteen seconds of mostly gameplay footage. Thanks 3D Gamers.

Ritual has opened their Counter-Strike: Condition Zero webpage, offering a look at characters, locations, weapons and vehicles that can be found in the game. No word on when the game will finally ship though.

Boomtown has posted a new Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, offering hands-on impressions of this CS project that still isn't out yet. New screenshots are included.

Ritualistic has posted a bunch of new media from Ritual's upcoming Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. There are weapon and character renders as well as the box art. The game is nearly done. Really, it's true this time.

CS Nation's Q&A with Levelord is online, asking Ritual's level designer about the upcoming Counter-Strike: Condition Zero which should be out this June. Some new screenshots are included.

PC.IGN is the latest site with a Condition Zero preview, taking a hands-on look at what Ritual has done with this single player Counter-Strike project. The game is now due June 2, up a bit from the previous mid to late May release date.

Ritual fan site Ritualistic has posted some Condition Zero info which they obtained from a new preview of the game in the latest issue of Computer Gaming World. There is also a forum thread with some screencaps of a trailer included with the previous April issue.

Ritual Entertainment's Levelord has been interviewed by GameHelper. The GH guys ask all about Ritual's work on the upcoming Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.

Computer & Video Games has published a new Condition Zero interview, asking Valve's Erik Johnson about Ritual Entertainment's upcoming retail Counter-Strike game. Questions are about changes that Ritual has made to the game since taking over development, work that has gone into player models, the multiplayer options and future Counter-Strike updates among other things.

Ritualistic has posted two pages of a mix of old and new screenshots from Counter-Strke: Condition Zero, showing various models and locales from Ritual's upcoming first person shooter.

There are some new Counter-Strike Condition Zero shots out, showing more from this single player Counter-Strike game currently in development at Ritual Entertainment. According to a recent Vivendi press release (thanks Ritualistic), the game is currently slated for a third quarter 2003 release - up from the earlier May release date. Also, some model shots are available on GameSpot.

The guys at Gamestar.de have posted part of the Counter-Strike: Condition Zero preview found in the latest issue of their magazine. Though the article is in German (insert bad translation link), there are four new screenshots you can look at. Thanks Ritualistic.

As I mentioned the other week, I had a little visit to Ritual Entertainment recently to have a look at the latest incarnation of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero as it's now being developed there in downtown Dallas. A new direction has been taken with the project along with the new developer leaving behind the 'challenges' system similar to Tony Hawk that Gearbox went with for a bit more traditional missions system. It goes like this:

Condition Zero is now comprised of a set of various unconnected missions where you play a part of a Counter-Terrorist team. How these missions and environments will be presented to you will vary between scenarios and locations. Some will include the lead in with cinematics such as you are flying in on a helicopter and you get a briefing from your commander on board. Other situations you will just be thrown right in to the middle of a scenario and be given vague details of what is going on and a limited time to escape or complete whatever else your objective may be. An example scenario as described by Erik Johnson ... [snip]

If you're feeling nostalgic, here's the old preview from back when Gearbox was working on the title.