menu, sir?
i think the first thing you'd notice is that the menu is now styled much like L4D's....not a big issue... till you realize that it takes some getting used to. right-click now functions like the escape button.
casual vs 'competitive'
eh.... so, i played the game
for 2 days. Not the best experience and not the worst. if you're
familiar with CS, don't play the 'casual play' mode. it's bad because
all the settings are dumbed down. never mind that you can't shoot
team mates and can walk through them. killing an opponent becomes
gambling, literally. this really isn't the same feeling as the old games as it takes more bullets to kill one another and the buy menu is also different. if you're familiar with the numbers or the layout, buying should not be a problem...still small insignificant thing to be expected from an update.
however, DO play the
'competitive play' mode. This is exactly like CS 1.6 or Source. the
new weapons are a nice touch even if they removed all the silenced
weapons. however,... the entire point of the Aug and the SG 445
....scoped assault rifles was to deliver accurate powerful shots on
full auto. they've dumbed it down so much now that its now useless. the entire point of such scoped rifles was to fill the niche between the full attack AKs and M4s and the sniper rifles like the G3 or the AWP. These rifles used to be able to deliver a punch that actually hurt while being mobile, a form of accurate fire to back up the attackers when a dedicated sniper rifle is unsuitable or unavailable. The rifles are now garbage. firing on full auto sprays the rounds randomly, firing slow and steady means that the other guy with an M4 can cut you down in a quick burst. you would also notice that when you purchase these rifles, they have a marked decrease in power. how useful is that?
new bag of flash bits
an interesting new weapon added for both sides is an incendiary grenade. this weapon blocks off a small area for a short while with a blanket of flames. useful for maintaining choke points or just burning the crap out of someone. some of the new weapons happen to include a shotgun that actually works for once, unlike the shotguns from previous CS games in my own experience. the CT semi-auto sniper rifle has been replaced with a SCAR for some odd reason and an odder thing is that the SCAR is semi - auto....a battle rifle now sniper rifle basically. people who favor the CT team would also notice that silencers on the M4 and USP are gone. in fact, the USP itself is gone. being replaced by something called the P2000 which isn't a bad hand gun. although all hand guns are overshadowed by the Desert Eagle which literally obliterates enemies in short to mid-range fights, even those with assault rifles. people who have indeed played CS 1.6 and or Source would also noticed the tactical shield is gone from the inventory. Not a bad thing since the shield was indeed, indestructible and therefore, one sided. the dev team have also swapped the TMP for an MP7, the MP5 for an MP 9 and they've added the bizon, a nice SMG with a large mag count but horrendous stopping power; stick to the P-90.
the misc. bits
the map choice in CS:GO looks limited to the same classic map packs that made it an icon in gaming initially. however, this being CS, expect people to create their own maps and then run them. so, the map shortage is actually remedied rather easily by its own community.
team balancing in game. is also an issue actually. there doesn't appear to be an auto-balance function, so expect to play matches with
teams of a 5 : 1 ratio.this seems unusual coming from valve, especially after tf2. but i suppose that its the dev team that came up with this. on the other hand, this is CS. kind of to be expected.
a nice touch i feel is the fact that the map now dictates which skin and voices the terrorist and CTs get. if you're in de_dust, you get the L337 krew vs SEAL team 6. each map has a different combination of CT and terrorist skins. the voicing isn't too shabby either, however the l337 krew seem to suffer because their voice actor for some reason decided it would be cooler to sound like a china man rather than a middle-easterner. still.... its just a small smidge.
the visuals have as to be expected as well, updated. it does look stunning if its compared to the older games and does look on par with CoD in that CS is cleaner and a tad more industrial looking than CoD's grungy, dirty and dark feel. no issues here other than the fact that in some maps, the CTs have a seemingly inadvertent added advantage in that their suits actually DO camouflage into the map's environment.
it should also be worth noting that CS:GO has an interesting method in finding games for you. it can now connect you to a random game online, connect you to a game with friends or you can manually select a server yourself, though be forewarned that this IS CS; expect to be booted from clanner servers. the issue here is that when connected to an official server when you're too lazy or confused to go find a server manually, the game has a tendency to disconnect you from the server rather haphazardly and randomly, but based on my own experience, you'd get in about 40 min worth of game time before that happens. what's up with that?
But....is it good?
in short, nothing has
improved besides the graphics. its pathetically average for a game
with such a lineage. this is not forgetting that the people who play
it are probably also the same prats who glory about CoD MW3
garbage, 4/10
pros:
- some new toys to play with
- somewhat better game balance than the earlier games
- VOICE ACTING!
- flashy graphics (like any other game upgrade)
cons:
- scoped rifles are now mushy garbage
- the community is pretty much still the same, full of prats
- team auto-balancing issues during matches
- rubbish 'casual mode'
- being timed-out from official servers rather randomly
- seemingly over-hyped with lack luster follow ups
