We wanted to know more about the 6.5 BETA version of Half-Life's popular mod - Counter-Strike, so once again we asked our friend Cliffe to fill us in on a few things. The latest interview contains such topics as: new details on the smoke grenades, maps, and 'skin-cheating.' The latest version is set to be released tomorrow. It was previously delayed due to a bug found in the Half-Life source update, which will be incorporated in the Counter-Strike beta.

First off Cliffe, a few things about the new 'smoke grenades' in BETA 6.5:

BN: How long does the smoke effect last?

Pretty long -- about 10 seconds or so. Perhaps a tad longer (I've never 
counted).

BN: How does the effect come across? Do things gradually get clearer like it would in reality?

Yes, it looks pretty realistic. Of course, it's a bit tough on your  framerate so you can put in a new console command to get less CPU intense smoke. Of course, it won't look quite as good.

BN: Are there any new levels to correspond with the new guerilla player model you showed off on friday?

Not specifically. However, he should fit in quite well with just about any  map. Speaking of maps, we're really excited about the 6.5 map rotation.  We've added some new ones that we think are going to be very fun to play.  Namely, Narby's new map de_aztec is great -- especially when you get struck by lightning.

BN: Will there be more server-side options? If so, name a few important ones...

There's a bunch of new console commands. The most important ones are those  that will limit the new SDK 2.0 features so you framerate and cpu don't  get bogged down. You'll be able to limit things like smoke puffs, smoke  quality, shell ejections, etc. We've made it a point to be very customizable