Counter Strike Source Updates

[Doretta Castoe]

Valvereleased its first major update to Counter-Strike: Source in almost four years today. The patch is live and playable to Steam users, and includes a heap of UI improvements, engine updates, and 144 achievements. A full list of changes, and my take on the major updates, within.

The update is a modest modernizing of Counter-Strike: Source. Valve has integrated some of its existing tech and design seen in other Source engine shooters (like Team Fortress) into its most-popular multiplayer game. That includes: bloom-tastic high-dynamic range lighting, a redesigned scoreboard, a killcam that spotlights who killed you after you die, multicore rendering, a domination and revenge system (net four kills of the same player, and you're dominating them), persistent stat-tracking and a buffet of 144 achievements.

The most original enhancement is a small one: end-of-round trivia. At the end of each round, an MVP is highlighted, but there's also a note about an interesting action taken by a player during that round--kill someone with a grenade after dying or rack up a pile of damage while using nightvision, and you might be mentioned. This is a small counter against how symmetrical rounds of CS:S can feel--running the same bomb route on de_dust hour after hour can be tedious, and having a tiny factoid at the end is a welcome, albeit token, change.

The set of achievements are disappointingly straightforward: most of them are map- or weapon-specific milestones like accruing 200 kills with a Desert Eagle, or earning $50,000,000 in cash. There's a handful of difficult ones--I think these three will be the hardest to nab.

It's tempting to see the patch as housecleaning that precedes additional content for CS:S--it is, after all, consistently one of the most-played games on Steam, often doubling or tripling the peak players of Team Fortress 2. I'd speculate that it's merely a long-overdue gift to CS:S players for their years of support: Valve contracted the creators of Defense Grid, of all things (Hidden Path Entertainment), to help produce the update, so it doesn't seem like there's a dedicated team within Valve that's working on Counter-Strike at this time.

Evan's a hardcore FPS enthusiast who joined PC Gamer in 2008. After an era spent publishing reviews, news, and cover features, he now oversees editorial operations for PC Gamer worldwide, including setting policy, training, and editing stories written by the wider team. His most-played FPSes are CS:GO, Team Fortress 2, Team Fortress Classic, Rainbow Six Siege, and Arma 2. His first multiplayer FPS was Quake 2, played on serial LAN in his uncle's basement, the ideal conditions for instilling a lifelong fondness for fragging. Evan also leads production of the PC Gaming Show, the annual E3 showcase event dedicated to PC gaming."}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Evan LahtiSocial Links NavigationGlobal Editor-in-ChiefEvan's a hardcore FPS enthusiast who joined PC Gamer in 2008. After an era spent publishing reviews, news, and cover features, he now oversees editorial operations for PC Gamer worldwide, including setting policy, training, and editing stories written by the wider team. His most-played FPSes are CS:GO, Team Fortress 2, Team Fortress Classic, Rainbow Six Siege, and Arma 2. His first multiplayer FPS was Quake 2, played on serial LAN in his uncle's basement, the ideal conditions for instilling a lifelong fondness for fragging. Evan also leads production of the PC Gaming Show, the annual E3 showcase event dedicated to PC gaming.

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