Last night CS:GO got its first update since Operation Shattered Web went live and as expected
it mostly tries to fix whatever the last update broke.
The new custom player characters have caused quite a commotion in the community. There
are many examples of them giving players using them an advantage as they blend into the backgrounds.
Valve wouldn’t want for this to happen, and with this latest update are taking the
first steps needed to stop them from doubling up as pay-to-win camouflage.
Valve has ‘fixed’ the skin tone’ of one of the elite crew characters, which I
assume is to help with visibility. I saw very little difference between stock models so
I assume it’s got to be one of the fancy new ones. Though this guy’s belt and shoes
changed a bit. As well as this they have brightened numerous spots around the official maps. I’m
not sure if this can be considered a proper ‘fix’ to the issue, or if it’s just
a stop-gap until they come up with a better solution. But it’s not just a problem in
Valve’s own maps - community levels will have to cater for so many more colour-schemes
and character types. FMPone, who expressed ‘dissatisfaction’ with the new skins’
visibility has since decided that at least some of the burden lies with him to make all
players more visible in his map, even though the problems arose after he had released it,
through no fault of his own. Whatever happens next, better visibility in
the levels is always welcome, with or without the new skin models. But I reckon this update
is Valve testing the community to see how much we care. I reckon that if we keep complaining
about it they’ll do something more. The new operation promises to drop us so many
new items that the account limit of 1000 items is starting to be a bit of a problem for some
users. So, to get around this arbitrary limit, Valve will let you store more… FOR A PRICE!
To store 1,000 more virtual items in virtual space, one of these virtual boxes will cost
you £1.65. That’s 1.75 Euros… and probably about $2.
As you’d expect from a storage container, it’s a simple thing to work. You just click
on it, choose whether you want to deposit or withdraw equipment, then in a single click,
items are transferred in and out of the box. Well done, Valve. You’ve effectively added
Skyrim companions to CS:GO. But can you store a storage crate inside a
storage crate? I went over this week’s youtubing budget for you, just to put this to the test.
No, it seems you can’t.
Triple monitor setups have been given some love. Before, the UI was stretched across
all 3, meaning you had to turn your head and pretty much look behind you to see your health
or the radar. In the game’s options is a new feature to shift all the important stuff
to the middle display. This will make it as though you’re gaming on a single monitor,
with everything important in front of you, leaving the other monitors with the sole purpose
of displaying the game’s environment. And it doesn’t discriminate either. If you
only have one monitor, but still want everything to be closer to the centre, then this feature’s
for you! It supports the menus and in-game. Brilliant.
Adjustments to the operation include adding a countdown until next week’s missions go
live… and making it easier to bring up the scoreboard at the end of the game. Using mouse
2 feels a lot more intuitive than failing to find the button until you read at the bottom
of the screen that it’s SPACEBAR. Like what was that about.
A re-zoom regression has been fixed. You may not have known about this bug, depending on
what kind of button-pressing OCD you have. A tweet 2 days ago stated that holding down
the fire button after shooting and then pressing the zoom button would immediately make it
skip to the second zoom level! But it’s been fixed.
…and so has the radar for Vertigo. Yeah I still haven’t covered the changes to this
map that shipped when the operation was released the same day as when Half Life 3 was announced.
They’ve fixed the ’rounds won with no purchases’ accolade appearing in Flying
Scoutsman’, cos obviously in that gamemode you can’t buy anything, so having it as
a stat at the end of a match is redundant. I actually ran through the whole training
level TWICE for you guys and didn’t have any problems. But just a day ago Official_sKoTT
posted on reddit saying that the training course was broken- for him the first room
refused to start, and no Morgan Freeman voice could be heard. Maybe he had been playing
some exotic dangerzone or flying scoutsman gamemode first, which might have broken the
training level’s scripted sequences in some way. I don’t know. And don’t care.
Also, check out the clutch mode key! This temporarily disables incoming chat until the
end of the round, which is useful when you’re the only person left and your teammates are
telling you how bad you are in a hundred imaginative ways.
How do you think this operation compares with Operation Hydra? Check out this video of the
previous operation to refresh your memory.