Leaning While Strafing - Where is it? I don't know about you guys, but I'm certain I'm able to lean to the left or the right and walk with a side step. Without simple character control of this nature, you're removed from the game. It doesn't feel natural as you fine tune your character's position just to lean out. Precious seconds can be wasted, seconds that could have been used to spot the enemy that was watching you screw around getting into position.

Unlimited Sprint - How many of you here can sprint nonstop while carrying many pounds of military equipment on your person? Yes, I know the people portrayed in the game have been trained to sprint distances, but they have limits and this needs to be reflected in the game. Limit the sprint time and enforce a max time limit that you can sprint at a time.

For instance, if a max sprint time of 5 seconds is set, then make sure the player cannot sprint again immediately after. Provide a "sprint penalty" by having your character gasp for breath. Perhaps this is just my experience with Red Orchestra shining through, but if you want realism, this is something that needs to be added.

Player Animations - There are times where I noticed the third person models will be "walking" but their steps do not move at the same speed their model is traversing the terrain. They "move" faster than their feet indicate they should. From what I have seen of the running and sprinting animations, they appear alright.

I have also noticed that there is no third person animation for players throwing grenades. I'm not sure if this is tied into a bug where you cannot sprint while throwing a grenade (unless you like not being able to do anything until you die and respawn) or not.

Iron Sights Obstructing View - Iron sights should be in every game. I love them, I really do, but only if done right. When you bring up the iron sights, most of the weapons in the game will obstruct a good portion of your view. This can be rectified by either moving the player's view back slightly from the iron sight view, or blurring the back portion of the iron sights (ala: Day of Defeat: Source). Just as a small point of reference, there were two Insurgent players hidden behind the area of the raised weapon, and this weapon really isn't the worst offender.

Along the same vein, the iron sight views while observing teammates between spawns seem a little off. They sometimes don't appear centered on the screen, but the most noticeable offender comes from the sniper. Maybe this is a design feature, but I somehow doubt it. When observing a person playing the sniper class, any time they look through the scope in first person, there is no magnification. In fact, the exact opposite occurs and the view through the scope makes objects appear further away.

Spawn Protection - Rather, the complete lack of spawn protection. With it quite easy for the enemy to venture into any of the spawn areas, you would hope that the mod team had the foresight to include some sort of spawn protection. Nothing kills the game faster than spawning only to die instantly from one or two guys sitting there with a machine gun. Further protections will also work against those who find it simply hilarious to team attack or team kill right from the start.

Obscure Objectives - They're right there on the loading screen. How many of you knew about them? Probably not many, and those that do know about them probably can't always find them once in game. You will occasionally see faint markers indicating an objective, but they're too faint. Squad leaders are supposed to place waypoints, but they usually do not. That is because pubbers (and I'm one of them, I'll admit) will usually not want to perform the micromanagement aspects of the game, they just want to shoot things until they die.

Obviously, this aspect tries to borrow from games like the Battlefield series. While this is great for the large scale maps common in that series, these are small, often close-quarters environments. Give us a map. If not a map, then make the way points more apparent both in our view and on our hud. Look at the picture here. Would you have any idea that right in front of me on this road is an objective I'm supposed to capture? Taking out the commander aspect may be a bit drastic, but perhaps a change in how it is handled is in order.

Having the commander emphasize a waypoint on each squad member's hud may be a viable option. Highlight a waypoint in a subtle "glow" effect that tells the player "we need you here more" might be something. Really, this is just a personal thought on the matter.

Random - Furniture physics objects indoors with little to no light? Not the best of ideas. It certainly disrupts the flow of the game when you go to look out a window and realize you can't simply because you couldn't see a chair or a table right next to you.

Do you see these steps? You'd think they go somewhere, but they don't. In fact, you can't even walk up them. These steps are in the spawn area for the U.S. Forces. Either remove them, or allow the player to walk up them and just have a door at the top that cannot be opened or something. I already know I'm in an arena type of setting, I just don't need to be further removed from the realism factor by being stopped by an invisible wall.

Seeing that reinforcements have been depleted is quite disheartening. Once they're gone and you die, your fun becomes a huge waiting game. I've seen a number of people just disconnect once this occurs in a round, while others opt to switch to the other side (http://csnation.totalgamingnetwork.com/image.php?id=43139) for some point stacking, and with there being an integrated ranking system (also much like Battlefield 2), stat whoring is already beginning to become apparent.

There are also a few exploits in the mod. Server crashing exploits that were patched in games like CS: Source back in mid-2006. Also, and again, this one might just be on my end, but why does this happen during a map change (http://csnation.totalgamingnetwork.com/image.php?id=43142)?

[ad]Make the crouch an option you can toggle to either "hold c to crouch" or "press c to crouch and stay crouched until you hit c again." When you're on the streets, chances are, if you aren't sprinting between cover points, you'll be crouching down behind some cover. You don't want to have to constantly hold down a button to do this.

The smoke grenades just disappear just a second after the smoke begins to appear. The smoke doesn't even make an effort to come from the grenade either, it just appears. It seems to be taking after CS: Source in this regard.

So you chose the support class and you've deployed your bi-pod on the ground or another surface. Why is it that you can quite freely look and move your weapon? Often times, the bi-pod will leave the surface you deployed it on but you are still benefiting from the more steady aim. Restrict the view freedom a LOT when you have deployed your bi-pod. Yes, you have some movement restrictions in place, but it doesn't much matter with the amount of freedom you've given the player. Bi-pod = keeping the weapon steady and near stationary while deployed.

One last thing that comes to mind is that the kill notices and chat area are in the same location on your screen. You'll often ignore the text that says "BingleDerry was KIA", and in the process you'll miss the notice from your squad leader that 5 enemies are converging on your location. Seperate these two or remove the "KIA" notices completely. They are far more distracting than they are useful.

[ad]Likes
Free Aim and Iron Sights - I love this. My honest, first taste with free aim was in Red Orchestra, and while it took some getting used to, I found it to be quite enjoyable. Naturally, a feature like this should only be implemented in games that are striving for some semblance of realism. While the free aim isn't as "free" as it is is in Red Orchestra, it is still a very welcome addition.

To those who do not know what I'm talking about, I'll give a quick overview. Instead of having a crosshair pasted on the middle of your screen, your character will aim where the weapon is pointed. If you move your mouse to the right slightly, your view may not move much, but your weapon will and you will shoot more towards the right with respect to your view. To have true aim, you'll want to raise the weapon up to look down the sights of the gun. This should be the only time you will come across a "centered" shot where the middle of your screen should correspond to the view in the iron sights and the final location of your fired bullet.

Graphics and Detail - A lot of detail has gone into the maps we've seen so far. It looks like a dry, arid locale, just as you would expect for some locations in the middle east. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing the same attention to detail ported over to CS: Source maps Dust and Dust2. However, there are some graphical glitches as well. You'll often see shrubbery clipping through the corners of walls, which can take away from the immersion factor.

The weapon models look great as do most of the animations. Little details like the sniper opening up the cover to his sniper scope when he switches to the weapon is a neat touch. The Source engine looks quite beautiful in this mod to the point where you may forget you are playing a Source engine modification.

The effect that occurs when a blast goes off near your person is quite nice. We've all seen the disorienting effects of a flashbang in CS: Source or a grenade explosion in DoD: Source. This effect gives you a three way split of your view with the two outer "ghost" views slowly coming back together to give you a perfect view sight again as the effect wears off.

Who Killed Me - The whole "unknown" factor is quite nice. Danger can, and will, lurk around every corner so you constantly have to be aware of your surroundings. One or two shots is all it takes to kill or be killed.

Random - I do enjoy the squad based aspect of the game. You are sometimes forced into a role or class that you may not want to play as, or one that you are not familiar with. This really almost forces you to become a well-rounded player, more-so than in some other games.

The fact that the game takes place in a modern setting is also a big plus. I really don't know about you guys, but there's only so much of the constant WWII rehashes I can take before I need to move on to something else.

There's bullet ricochet in the game! You can see this in one of the below screenshots. I'm aiming at the side of the tank and the bullet bounces off and impacts the dirt at the appropriate exit angle.