Previously, Valve secretly convened a team of testers consisting of commentators, anchors, and professional players to test the new game content of CS2 at Valve’s headquarters in Washington. This group of testers includes former CS: GO legend f0rest, commentator Hugo, Machine, SPUNJ, and anchor fl0m. After the official lifting of the ban, they also talked about more about the new smoke bombs, character movements, maps, and so on.
About the new smoke bomb
“Incendiary bombs and smoke bombs are visually different from before. Smoke bombs have always been one of the core props of the game, playing a crucial role in map control, organizing attacks, and defending back,” SPUNJ said.
JustHarry commented, “Smoke bombs now have a color code, with the CT side being blue and the T side being yellow. The more central change is that smoke bombs have become an adaptive prop, which means that now when smoke explodes, it will be affected by other props on the field, such as grenade explosions and the instant a bullet passes through the smoke, causing the smoke bomb to dissipate briefly.”
“Firing one shot at the smoke may not have much impact, but once you start strafing, the bullets will tear a temporary visible crack in the smoke, which will have a lot of impact on the game,” Machine added.
About Maps
Maps have also been adjusted to varying degrees based on their previous update progress. For example, recently reworked maps such as De_Dust2 have only been fine-tuned in terms of details such as characters and lighting. The De_nuke resulted from the acquisition of new lighting and rendering systems under the blessing of Source 2, resulting in more realistic materials, lighting, and reflections.
About Tickrate
“Whether it’s the official 64tick or the third-party service 128tick, these will no longer exist in the new CS2. This means that the target points for props on different servers and professional competitions will be exactly the same in the future. Of course, it’s not surprising that we have to start learning props from scratch again,” Hugo said.
About Character Movement
“The new engine has brought about changes in the movement of characters, and now characters are more responsive and feel better. Incidentally, the movement details of characters have also been improved, such as the slight movement of the head independent of the chest, and the addition of some independent movements of the arms.” JustHarry said.
Visual effect changes
”Overall, the visual style of the game has not changed much, but it has undergone a lot of adjustments and upgrades. For example, the new physics engine renders water much more realistically than before. “JustHarry said.
“When you run in the water, you can see the ripples of the water and leave a ripple on the route. Therefore, just observing the ripples, it is possible to know if there are enemies passing nearby, and even in which direction,” Hugo said.
About Sound Effects
“The biggest problem during the testing process came from the redesigned audio, which also made us realize the importance of subtle cues brought by sound in the game, as well as the changes in the entire game experience after losing them. For example, there is no sound for shooting the head in CS2 now, which makes us very confused, and many times we are not sure whether to kill the enemy or not at all. Let me evaluate it, the sense of attack in the game starts with sound The sound perspective is missing, and the lack of sound feedback even makes me feel like this is not like a CS series game. SPUNJ commented.
About subsequent version updates
Source2 will greatly improve the development environment, making subsequent updates more efficient for development. Justharry said, “We saw a live demonstration by a developer who completely changed the way the model was moved in just 5 seconds. This means that V Club can update the game faster, more effectively, and more easily.”
