Counter-Strike: GO's Crimbo chickens are nice and cosy

We can all agree that the Christmas season doesn't begin just because John Lewis tries to punch you in the heart or because Ian Starbucks cracks open the syrups again. That's crass commercialism denigrating the season where people buy me presents. No, the only corporation I trust managing Christmas is Valve Corporation, who each year put cute little festive jumpers on the chickens in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive [official site]. That's real Christmas to me. Ladies and germs, Christmas is here.

Oh, and Valve added some fancy technology to improve positional audio to help folks play the game better but look, the chickens are what really matters.

Valve explain that CS:GO now uses head related transfer function algorithms to "enhance 360-degree vertical and horizontal sound positioning while using headphones." In short, your sense of where sounds are coming from will be improved.

I don't play CS enough to feel HRTF's improvements here but Devil Daggers added HRTF support in a patch and that's a game I could almost play blindfolded so yes, from my limited understanding it's good stuff.

HRTF defaults to on but you can disable if you want.

My favourite festive fowl in CS is probably still the ghosts wearing little sheets but I do like how collecting a gang of chickens makes me feel like I'm out for Christmas Eve drinks with my pals.