CS:GO has its fair share of cheaters. Always has and, let's face it, always will. But what happens when the game itself allows for such easily accessible exploits that if you know about it, it's almost more difficult not to cheat? We can see that story thread unravel right now as a new (not really) game-breaking smoke exploit has raised the question over Valve's level of dedication towards CS:GO.
Update: Valve have reacted. Valve have reacted fast! Less than 24 hours after the smoke exploit went viral, the CS:GO publisher made the necessary adjustments to take it out of the game in the latest CS:GO patch notes. Now you can't use smoke and mirrors without VAC detenting the shenanigans.
A Smoke for the Enemy, a Clear Path of Vision for You
We've had some issues with grenades before, including smokes. HE's not dealing accurate damage, Molotovs not spreading when they should or not appearing at all, smokes giving out player positions, etc. It's all been annoying, it's all held the potential of "breaking CS:GO". This latest one, though, beats all of it.
This smoke exploit is not even that new. According to various sources, it's been in the game for anything between a few weeks and an entire year. Of course, the longer that period is, the worse it makes Valve look. For once, I'm not going to focus on their unmatched levels of laziness, but on the issue itself.
- READ MORE: CS:GO Trusted Mode Is Bollocks
By tweaking literally a couple of data files, you can make your own smokes disappear from your own view while acting perfectly normal for everyone else. In other words, you create an invisible wall for yourself from which to shoot the unsuspecting enemies.
Richard Lewis gave some much-needed popularity boost to the topic. You can see exactly what the effect of the smoke exploit is here:
You can make that magic work frighteningly easy. Touch a couple of data files and it's done. Just like Lewis, however, we'd rather not spread this poison knowledge among the public. If you really, really want to do it yourself, you'll find it, but it won't be from us. Beware, however, as FACEIT have already gone on a witch hunt for smoke exploiters.
The most bizarre part of it all is that everyone who has tried to post about this on Reddit has been silenced with lightning swiftness. I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but what the hell is going on here? It's a bug, one that's been made as public as possible in the CS:GO community, especially after Richard Lewis got involved. Agknowledge it, fix it, move on. Why the hell mute the ones raging against it?
- READ MORE: Trusted Mode Set to Deal with CS:GO Hacking
Maybe the idea is to limit the spreading of this smoke exploit until it is fixed, but come on now. If a cheater wants to cheat, he's gonna cheat.
It is also interesitng how this comes up following an extended course of implementing the new anti-cheating software Trusted Mode. Keep in mind that Trusted Mode is supposed to deal with third-party files and not ones already in the game, but it's still rather funny, isn't it?
Valve, please fix.
