Time to kill flying to Computex in Taipei? Being cradled in the comfort of an Airbus A380? Why not whip out a notebook and blast away terrorists in a multiplayer game of Counter-Strike?

The above photo shows Josh Collins (tech writer for Atomic, who I bossed around during my last couple of months as editor), Nick Ross (editor, PC Authority) and an Atomic sales girl doing just that. Maybe not the most politically correct thing to do on a plane, but hey, I wouldn't stop them.

Atomic fights aircraft terrorism [Atomic]

Most of us kill a lot of people in digital worlds, and don't think much about the consequences of death. Artist Riley Harmon addresses that topic with "What it is without the hand that wields it," a sculpture on display at the University of Oklahoma School of Art until April 4th.

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Counter-Strike's super-popular and constantly-updated. So Valve could be forgiven for just endlessly patching and improving it, like an MMO. But that's boring . They could also do something a little more exciting. Valve's Doug Lombardi:

With Counter-Strike 2, there's a big question between, do we go start over from scratch and build a whole new game, do we do something that looks more like Team Fortress 2 that is rooted in the old game but has a ton of new stuff, or do we just sort of take everything that's new that we've released and put that out in a new box.

I think we're leaning more towards the two more radical places than just sort of rolling up the new box and re-skinning the box and putting out all the new stuff.

The New York Post, not exactly a bastion for accurate and fair reporting, decided that "sick shooter" Steven Kazmierczak's interest in Counter-Strike three to four years ago made a better headline than the fact that he was off his medication when he decided to go on a rampage in an Illinois classroom.

The man who gunned down five people and wounded 16 in an Illinois classroom rampage was a loner who preferred studying to partying and was obsessed with an ultra-violent video game, dormitory mates said yesterday.

Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, played the wildly popular game Counter-Strike while studying sociology at Northern Illinois University in 2003 and 2004.

"He played a lot of video games, especially Counter-Strike, really loud," said dorm mate Ben Woloszyn, 24.

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The South American nation famous for its ability to create great soccer players, attractive swimsuit models and land that used to be rainforests has brought the banhammer down upon two of the world's most popular online games. Both Counter-Strike and EverQuest, each now nine-years old, were said to promote "the subversion of public order, were an attack against the democratic state and the law and against public security" by the judge enacting the ban.

According to the AFP report on the matter, the prohibition on selling CS and EQ was actually passed in October of 2007, but was only recently enforced by PROCON, the national consumer protection agency. Good work, Brazil. Glad all of your problems are sorted out now that the video game police are tackling the tough issues!

Members of the Kotaku Brazilian Connection wrote in to let us know about the ban. Their letters are after the jump and provide some insight into the local video game market.

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Game Watch are reporting that Counter-Strike Online, Valve and Nexon's shot at total Asian gaming domination, just enjoyed a successful three-day closed beta. Around 170,000 Korean CS players took a shot at the upcoming, heavily localised, Steam-free version of the classic FPS, which among other tweaks features some new maps and new weapons. CSO is scheduled for release in Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan.
[Game Watch]

The Chinese government may not want kids playing it for hours, but Counter-Strike is good enough for police to play - as anti-terrorism training games. Over 300 members of the Tianjin police force took over an Internet cafe on Wednesday for a three-day competition (including a team of judges to ensure no one was 'cheating'), and took to heart the mantra of "Enhancing police forces through technology":

After the competition was announced in March, Zhang [Bin, one of the competition organizers] said, police officers were enthusiastic. Now almost half the total Tianjin force are regular players.

"Of course, they play, or should I say train, after work," he added.

Officers reported noticeable improvement in self-protection on field missions after the play, Han said, stressing the game was only "a supplement to their traditional means of training."

Now all they need is an outpost in Second Life to recruit officers, and they'll be in business.

Counter-Strike, China police's latest tool of anti-terrorism [People's Daily Online]

Valve has opened the floodgates on its Steam Community upgrade to the digital delivery platform, giving Steam users a chance to beta test its new social networking capabilities available from within any Steam-based game. Users can opt in to the Community by going to File > Settings > Beta Participation and downloading the latest client update. They'll then have access to new features like Friends, Groups, Chat (via IM or voice) and Events, allowing gamers to schedule matches and tournaments. The rest of the new beta features are listed in the press release after the jump.

Who's up for some Counter-Strike tonight?

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