Nuke was among the original defuse maps ever to be released for Counter-Strike, now over
15 years ago.
The original version was set in a canyon, and although graphical and gameplay changes
have occurred, I'm amazed by just how recognisable this original version of the map is when compared
with the Nuke that we know and... 'love' today!
But there have been changes along the way, though it's nice to see that even in the latest
version of the map, there's still a tribute to the people who got it to where it is today,
hidden high up in ramp room.
In CS:GO the map is situated in Germany, which could be a tribute to the original designer
of the map, Jo Bieg...
-Nope, that's not right...
it's pronounced 'YO-BEEK'.
Learn how to say names, 3kliksphilips.
Oh, sorry Trilluxe.
Yeah, the maker of the map was German.
But maybe the location of the map is just a coincidence.
Who knows.
Interestingly, he only made one other map for Counter-Strike called de_fang.
I felt this is worth mentioning, because if I read what the Counter Strike wikipedia page
says about it, you may confuse it for nuke.
'Almost all roofs that are present in the map are actually accessible' 'There is also
an underground area and the general size of the map is quite huge'.
'A very high learning curve'.
And it was removed for being 'too large and complex, and ...generally confusing with its
many routes'.
The only thing that doesn't sound like Nuke is how it had 'numerous sniping spots that
the terrorists can use to their advantage'!
But any way, back to Nuke.
Turtle Rock studios were responsible for remaking it for Source and it was released on December
2nd, 2005- and even this is approaching 10 years ago now.
It was the last defuse map ever to be officially added to Counter Strike Source.
If you've played it for CSGO then this will all look very familiar, but I'll go through
some of the changes between the two versions.
Before Global Offensive, Counter Terrorists could reach B by going through this maze of
corridors here.
Instead of toxic being a small, cut-off room, it instead connects back to the main corridor,
letting players run around the site in a big circle if they please.
This remained in Nuke between 1999 and 2012.
There are other, more minor differences between Source and Global Offensive as well.
There used to be background mountains and the colour palette used to be a lot more garish.
In Source there were much darker corners and corridors and a lot of the crates were in
different places.
In particular, the cover in ramp room used to conceal approaching terrorists a lot more!
The bombsites used to consist of just a few generic crates rather than the huge nuclear
drums that we're used to.
Classic Counter-Strike.
Ambient sound-wise, I had completely forgotten about the scary background gurgling sounds
that used to be in Source; Global Offensive is a lot quieter in comparison.
And finally, the Source version used to have beautiful shiny floors.
It's a real shame that these were removed in my opinion.
In fact, if you're interested to see how much you've forgotten about the old Source version,
check out my comparison video here.
But the main purpose of this video is to compare the versions within CS:GO, mainly because
Valve have kept much better records for me to analyse.
Lag Veteran has kindly reuploaded the beta version of the map from back in 2012 and the
main difference between this and Source is found in Bombsite B. There's nothing there!
No toxic area and the doors on the other only lead up to the window area.
The vent system doesn't lead to any back area either.
The whole site feels a lot simpler and the only entrances to it are the vents and the
doors leading to ramp room.
But even before CS:GO was officially released in late August of 2012, a professional player
known as Volcano had already released his own version, named nuke_ve.
This version is pretty much the version of the map that we have today.
And yes, he was also the one who created Cache but that's another story.
He was the one who thought to put an entrance to B here.
And he improved on these horrible, horrible windows to make them easier to see through.
In December of 2012, Valve updated the official version of the map to feature these changes,
as well as others.
Strangely, the map originally had German GSG-9 skins but were replaced with British SAS ones
in this update, which have remained there ever since.
They also removed clutter from parts of the map, as well as changing the cover within
bombsite A. Not all of the changes were welcome, however.
Volcano's version didn't have any background noises, no steamy stuff in bombsite B and
NO MORE PRETTY BLUE LIGHTING!
Valve removed this last feature in their version as well.
At some point you have to draw the line between competitive and fun, but for the community
as a whole, this was taking it too far.
It wasn't until July of 2013 that the map got its next update, which added radar names,
improved visibility and 'bug fixes'.
I couldn't find anything that improved visibility other than slightly more contrast in general,
which I suspect means that they've toned down the colour correction.
The sun beams in bombsite A also made a return.
Yay.
Just over a month later, in August 2013, it got its next update which fixed some radar
names and made the bomb blast radius the same as other maps- don't get excited, the blast
radius is now the same across all maps.
More interestingly, this update widened the door in heaven and fixed a bug in ramp room,
though I honestly couldn't find it anywhere.
No clips were added, no props were moved, meaning that this railing glitch remains.
Although not mentioned in the notes, I did notice that the fog effect had been substantially
toned down, making it clearer outside and less blue inside.
7 months later in February 2014 we saw the release of another interesting update.
Apparently wallbanging through the large metal doors was made more consistent- but the only
time I could shoot through them at all was with an AWP and on the newer version.
I can only assume that the wallbang update in July of 2014 made these surfaces harder
to penetrate and that in early 2014 you'd have been able to shoot through them with
an M4 or AK.
This update also allowed players to throw grenades through the skylights.
You'd immediately think that they're referring to these, but no, those could be used even
before the update.
They're actually talking about this warehouse!
As well as fixing some more mysterious 'graphical bugs' that I can't be bothered to look for,
this update also added back the pretty lighting in bombsite B. Don't say that Valve doesn't
listen to feedback!
In July 2014, for Operation Breakout, the bullet penetration update came into play and
to celebrate, they doubled the thickness of the floor between bombsites A and B by lowering
the whole ceiling by a few inches.
They sealed up this gap between the nuclear thingies here with a makeshift bit of material.
And lastly, they further reduced fog to the point where it barely interferes with gameplay
outside at all.
The next update in December 2014 changed the floor material to metal in both the ramp room
and B to make it easier to tell where footsteps are coming from.
Apparently, this update also fixed a bug where only footsteps could be heard between bombsite
A and ramp room.
I tested this out but could hear gunshots and other noises correctly even on older versions
of the map, so can only assume that this change has been made to the game's engine and not
to Nuke specifically.
And lastly, in January 2015 they fixed this grenade exploit that Trilluxe nicely shows
in this video.
Then in March 2015, Valve announced that it was removing Nuke from the active map pool.
But it isn't the end.
There have been hints toward a remake, with this picture included in the tagging update
possibly showing a reworked version.
Who knows when we'll get this new and -hopefully- improved version of nuke?