The latest CS:GO update introduces a lot of cosmetic and environmental innovations as well as a bulk of Chlorine fixes. The changes, while not looking like much at first glance, could affect gameplay quite a bit. Here’s what we mean.
More information in the kill feed
The very first patch note is also the one that deserves the most attention. New icons for a blind kill, a kill through smoke and a no scope kill have been introduced to the in-game kill feed. Now that might sound like a lot of fun and a cool feature, and I can confirm – it is, but it also implies a huge information advantage for the opposing team.
With the added info the killer’s opponents will now immediately know whether he’s flashed or hiding in a smoke, which is obviously a big deal. Confirming the enemy is either blind or at a relatively exact location is an immediate attack signal. This could be a double-edged sword as you never know how badly the player has been flashed or where exactly he is in the smoke, so while it may seem like these new icons could break the game a bit, there is room for balance somewhere in there.
There are many more visual and technical tweaks Valve made. Among them is bringing Nuke back as the menu background which brings any hopes of the map getting kicked from the Active Duty pool down a significant amount. Not that I’m among those wanting that to happen or anything.
The other asset to undergo a myriad of changes is the map Chlorine. Valve really dedicated themselves here, so if you wish to check out all that happened to Chlorine and the game as a whole, you can see the full CS:GO patch notes.