CS:GO - CounterStrikes Next Step

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) will expand upon the team-based action gameplay that it pioneered when it was launched 12 years ago.
CS: GO features new maps, characters, and weapons and delivers updated versions of the classic CS content (de_dust, etc.). In addition, CS: GO will introduce new game play modes, matchmaking, leader boards, and more.

That is the Spin that Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment have taken in their press release. Here is my opinion as a long time player, level designer and supporter of CounterStrike from its conception.

CounterStrike has been many things, has had many faces, from Condition Zero, to 1.6... thought to be the best of the CounterStrike versions in history, if you ask the majority of Players that is. So many ways and ideas on how to improve the game, many over look the fact that it draws thousands if not a million+ players daily. So there must be something right about the game that does not need improving. But “Hidden Path” has made some major changes, and I for one don't think they are all good.

I got my hands for the first time on CounterStrike Global Offensive ( CS-GO ) at the Penny Arcade Expo ( PAX ) 2011. For standing in a long line, I got a kick ass t-shirt and a card to be part of the closed beta. The game we played at PAX and the game they put on steam were two very different games, they down graded what they put out on Steam, why I don't know... but we had to live with 4 weapons 2 maps and a really bad physics model. Recently they have updated the game for us closed beta players, adding more weapons and classic maps, and that brings me to my next point
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Why fix what is not broken. Many of the maps they have introduced are the classic maps we have all grown up with, de_nuke, de_dust, and so forth. They have removed many of the paths from the old game entirely, changing not only the tactical play but the whole feel of the environment. The Game feels cartoony now, more BattleField 2 and less CounterStrike. The Models are bloated and fat, although still kinda cool looking if you can get past the bloated look.

The Environments are nice, the way the maps are closed in now on some of the maps like de_dust and de_dust two feel more real world, it is not just a wall and then sand dunes like in the older version. The buildings and models used feel more natural in these two maps. Even though I find it kinda funny to see an old 1.6 CS Model still being used in this version of the game, they look dated and out of place. Oh and please for the sake of all that is sane, get rid of the big ugly plastic nuke bottles as the bomb sites, every defuse map has had the same ugly nuke logo and the plastic thing in the bomb site.. the overview map is more than enough of a clue as to where a person plants the bomb, and besides it just looks so out of place in some of the maps. In dust and dust2 how about setting up a scud missile site, in train any kinda cargo will do, also on train why did you remove so much of its tactical play?


Shooting is wild and uncontrolled. I do like the yellow tracer fire, so you see where your shots are going, but the shots are so wild, we look like 3rd graders holding small arms for the first time without any prior training or instruction. In other words its so random and scattered walls fear us more than an enemy should. The new weapons we have seen and the ones we hear about coming are great, the Molotov cocktail is a great addition. But the buy menu I am not a fan of.

The Game is in closed Beta, I understand that this is testing, and from this they will make changes and improvements. The rumors we hear daily from Hidden Path and Valve about game options and play, make this long time fan a bit nervous. Some I look forward too, others I slap my forehead and ask myself what are they thinking, as an example only one CT with a defuse kit.. what the hell are you thinking?

That is one thing I am liking about the game, is the many new formats of play, from the casual to the hard core, gun game is now included as a mode of play. The fact it will now be cross platform, maybe its biggest bane or greatest achievement, this will only be seen with time.
That is a quick run down and opinion of the new CS:GO game. More to come about this in future writings, thanks for reading.