Counter-Strike: GO Revives Nuke, All Prettied-Up
Spring is in the air!
Counter-Strike level de_nuke is 15 years old, which means it has the legal rights to have a part-time job and to watch films containing adult themes, foul language, and strong violence. 15 is also an age for reinvention, and Nuke is coming back from the half-term hols with a new look. Valve last night launched Operation Wildfire for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive [official site], bringing the usual Operation challenge jazz and the rebuilt Nuke. It is bright and colourful and makes me feel like spring is coming.
Go have a look and fiddle with the sliders on the before/after screenshots. That's lovely, isn't it? Places are recognisable, but it's all much more interesting. I especially enjoy the details of pipes and wires - look at that efficient plumbing, those carefully tacked cables! It's not just a makeover, mind. The overhaul also adds a new path and makes a few layout tweaks, and I like how small but clever some are. Such as:
"The vents that connect Bombsites A and B have been reconfigured to adjust rotation times between the sites. The vents have been converted from an "H" shape to an "S" shape, slightly lengthening traversal time and making it easier for defending T's to hold the site."
I'm always happy to hear folks talk about these sorts of changes. Balancing levels is such a complex and wonderful art - sheesh, Nuke is 15 years old and still being worked on - but when folks talk about balance it's usually the numbers of weapons, skills, characters, and so on. All developers, please talk more about teeny but important level changes. I promise we're interested.
Also you can open and close vent slats, as someone on Reddit pointed out. All developers, please also add more fiddleable things. I promise I'll fiddle with them.
Anywho! $5.99 would get you an Operation Wildfire All Access Pass, which brings challenges and missions and other tasks to complete, along with a new Bowie Knife and loads of new weapon skins. Seven community-made maps are now in rotation on Valve's official matchmaking servers too.
Check the patch notes and Wildfire rundown for all that's new.
