Valve Software has announced that the beta testing of Counter-Strike: Source has begun. All establishments that subscribe to Valve's cyber café program now have access to the beta, and Valve plans to extend the test to all owners of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero later this month.

　　CS: Source is a remake of the classic Half-Life mod and will essentially be the multiplayer portion of Half-Life 2, since the two games will ship together. The beta test will be the first opportunity for the public to get their hands on the Source engine, which will power Half-Life 2. The CS: Source beta will come with a bug-reporting tool, and the game will automatically report all game crashes to Valve's database.

　　The company's cyber café program allows owners of the gaming centers to receive all of Valve's games and mods--as well as all subsequent updates--via the Steam delivery service for a monthly fee. A list of all of the members of the program, which will carry CS: Source, is available at the Steam Web site.

　　For more information on CS: Source, check out GameSpot's recent preview.