Don We Now Our Gun Apparel: CS:GO's Winter Update

It seems like only yesterday that I was writing about development of new maps for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Which is fair but slightly inaccurate, as it was actually Tuesday that I wrote about that. Now the maps are available to play as part of CS:GO's Winter Offensive update, alongside the first batch of community-made weapon skins to be added into the game.

Over on the Winter Offensive's site, Valve outlines the additions. It includes the re-built Cobble, the brand new Overpass, the community-made Winter Offensive Case and the tournament-funding Esports Winter Case.

A few days ago I was feeling a little left out. I was looking at Dota 2's Frostivus event and feeling the sense of excitement and fun that I wasn't a part of. I was thinking back to the period when Team Fortress 2 was vibrantly alive, and Valve were releasing regular class updates that radically changed the way one of my favourite games played.

Now I feel included again. CS:GO's tactical semi-realism makes it harder to add new content to than those other games, but like nature and dinosaurs, Valve finds a way. Even if it means adding a strange 'admire weapon' button to the game, in which your character, in first-person, turns their implement of death around so they can gaze at the custom paintwork. Which actually only seems strange until you see the shotgun in the Winter Offensive Case that has a giant squid painted on the side. If I owned that, how many more times would I die because I was too busy sneaking an admiring peak?

Only kidding. It's impossible for me to die any more in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Although at least I've not started betting my weapons away yet, like our Stanton. (But only because I haven't had time).

If you want to get involved, CS:GO is £12/$15 on Steam, the tool for creepily replicating the gun varnishes for your own skins is freely available, or you can just spend time admiring the handiwork of the community at large on the Steam Workshop. I suggest you start with this murder of crows by Sir, You Are Being Hunted's artist. Partly because I'm biased, and partly because I want easy post-kill quips to make while playing the game.