What are Counter-Strike Rankings?

Valve has dropped yet another update to the highly anticipated successor to CS:GO, announcing a number of changes to Counter-Strike 2 late last night. The developer wasted far less time between updates this time, with the addition of Mirage coming at the start of June, over two and a half months from the initial launch of the limited test. That said, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of what Valve has added to CS2.

CS2 goes nuclear

A trademark of the CS2 updates thus far has been the replacement of one map for another. Starting out with the legendary Dust 2, the ever-polarising Mirage was added in its stead in the second update. With the third update, we have been granted the opportunity to gaze upon the beauty of Nuke in all its Source 2 glory.

One thing that has become clear from the addition of new maps one by one, rather than all at once, is that the community has the chance to go in-depth and find all the new features of the map.

For example, players who had access to the Limited Test quickly found on Mirage that the ability to wallbang connector from middle was overpowered, leading to its removal; while another user found a game-breaking glitch that allowed you to walk around on the skybox before it was patched. While it is too early to say what issues will be found on Nuke, you can rest assured that devoted CS fans will find them.

Nuke is looking gorgeous

Casual Friday at the Office

While the addition of Nuke is a big addition for us esports diehard fans, there were also map and mode additions for the casual audience. The casual game mode has been added into CS2 for anyone who wants to jump into a game with a more traditional structure than Deathmatch, but less serious than Competitive.

For Casual, two maps will be available to play. The first of these maps is obviously Nuke but the second sees the debut of the hostage game type to CS2 with the introduction of Office. As was mentioned previously with the gradual implementation of maps, the introduction of Office gives CS players a chance to find any inherent flaws in the hostage rescue game type right off the bat.

Just have to pop into the office

Float like a butterfly

A consistent issue that many people have had with CS2 since the launch of the limited test has been the movement. Described as “clunky” by many, there have been calls from the majority of the community for a movement system that feels closer to our beloved CS:GO, and to the developer’s credit, that seems to be their goal.

Within the release notes for the latest update under movement, it states “Bunny hopping feel should now closely match CS:GO running at 128 tick.” A step in the right direction overall, it seems clear that Valve is listening to the feedback and trying to improve the game as much as possible ahead of the official release.

While it is clear that there has been an effort to step up the movement in CS2 to be closer to CS:GO, it is not fully there yet from testing. While certainly a step in the right direction, Valve will hopefully continue to build on the mechanics with the next several updates that we can expect to arrive soon.

Grenade skins when?

In one of the most surprising tidbits added to the game, you can now inspect your grenades in CS2. This addition changes absolutely nothing in terms of the gameplay but it’s a fun little update that will help make those with jittery hands that love to spam inspect their weapon every chance they get a little bit happier.

A nice little addition

There were multiple other minor tweaks added to the game such as fixing rare cases where bullets would not follow the spray pattern which had been a problem with the GALIL in particular, as well as fixing cases of unintended slow crouch/uncrouch and overall audio updates. Overall, there were fixes and changes across the board in this update.

CS2 soon?

Upon its launch in March, we were told to expect a full release of CS2 in the summertime. As we enter July it looked as if the release date would be closer to Autumn time at the rate at which updates were being pushed. Now having four maps total added to the game, can we expect the pace to continue and for CS2 to release close to the end of summer? Either way, make sure to keep an eye out here at BLAST.tv for everything CS2!