Despite a decade without a sequel, spin-off or so much as DLC, Counter-Strike has received more beautiful retexturing than every Vogue cover put together.  Dedicated fans have crafted more custom items than TF2, and that game has a dedicated crafting screen.  If we seriously sought a sequel we wouldn’t need a new development team – just get Valve to weld together the top downloads from the fantastic FPSBanana: a community of modders more involved and able than most game companies.

These guys love guns more than the Punisher and show more knowledge of ridiculously custom weapons than the cast of Soul Calibur (aka “That game entirely about ridiculously custom weapons.”)  Let’s look at the five most popular weapons download for those who want to dominate de_dust in style.

(You can download  all the items in this article for free right here.)

We start with Wannabe’s “Raging Bull”, and we can only say: if this is what he makes as a wannabe, god help the globe when he feels like he’s something.

This incredible magnum is possibly the only way pistol-headshots could get even sweeter – pistol headshots which automatically make you Dirty Harry.  (Though the HUD would counter all the excitement, making it impossible to kinda forget how many shots you’ve fired.)  It even comes complete with custom shell-ejecting revolver reload imagination.  Because, just in case you missed the the big .44 on a barrel long enough to be reclassified as national monument, people who make guns like this aren’t messing around.

The M4′s one of the most recognisable weapons in any modern warfare game (like Modern Warfare, though we don’t mention its server-screwing sequel around these parts), but the Snark team’s version is stuffed with more technical detail than the Starship Enterprise.

From the high-tech laser sight to the field-functional taped-double magazines, this is everything a carbine could possibly be without being able to get up and shoot by itself.

No, I have no idea why it’s spelled “Skorpian”, but no, I won’t argue with anyone who makes a blade like this.

It’s entertaining proof that not everything added to a CS server has to be terrifyingly-detailed depictions of real firearms.  Fun works too!

It’s the most lethally unlikely weapon in all of history – you couldn’t so much as open a letter with this without cutting your own thumb off – but it’s spectacular.  And counter-strike knife kills, always enjoyable, become outright glorious with this lunatic piece of blade-based modern art.  Aka “The first piece of modern art not made by a pussy.”

Of course it’s here.  The undisputed Emperor of all CS server weapons, able to annihilate all it surveys, the sweetest of sniper rifles now styled in the slickest of metals: chrome!

It’s stupidly sweet, combining videogames, ultimate weaponry and “shiny things!” in the most powerful man-attracting vortex since  cheerleader/trampoline-testing conventions were banned.

Be warned that beauty comes with a price, as many people have problems installing this mod.  But if you don’t think it’s worth the effort it’s because you don’t think at all.

This knife isn’t just the Excalibur of stabbing, it features more glorious textures than a five-star buffet and includes an entire history lesson.  This knife is so good it can even take a stab at educating you.

The “M9 Phrobis III” features more numerals and made-up names than the average science-fiction movie, and every bit of it’s entirely real.  This is the official M9 bayonet, officially adopted by the US Army for situations where the enemy gets far too entirely close by half.

With almost a quarter of a million downloads, a rating of 9.6/10, and over 23 pages of comments all on the theme of “This is my favorite stabitty thing“, this weapon has done more for puncture-kills than the entire Predator race.  Download it.  Enjoy it.  Before other players  enjoy it on you.