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May 24, 2013

Valve’s CS: GO Overwatch Are Always Watching

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Craig Pearson)

staring eye! Did you wake up this morning feeling more judged than usual? Don’t panic. Just look around the room and see if you can spot the RPS Staring Eye of Judgement? Well done, you have chosen, or been chosen, to take part in our little experiment: the RPS Staring Eye of Judgement will, eventually, monitor your every move to ensure that when you sit down and make a comment on the site that you’ve made the correct decisions in life up to that point. I say “eventually”, because right now it’s just a helium balloon with an eye drawn on it. Could you just drag it around and pretend, maybe making whirring and clicking noises? Thanks! We got the idea from Valve, who’ve decided to hand the matter of CS: GO’s policing over to the community. The sinister sounding Overwatch will be community members who have the power to review cheating cases reported by players and ban those responsible. (more…)

May 23, 2013

CS:GO community to regulate itself through “Overwatch”

PC Gamer

Valve are beta testing a community-run self-regulation system for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It will allow certain experienced players to review reports of "disruptive behaviour", watch replays, and issue temporary bans where necessary. Naturally, Valve have called this program "Overwatch", which was also the title of the transhuman Combine soldiers of Half-Life 2. Not that there are any parallels. This is just an enforcement squad, working under a larger body that has ultimate power over... Oh...

Valve explain how the Overwatch will function in a post about the now-live beta. "Prospective Overwatch Investigators are presented with an active Overwatch button in the main menu, which indicates that there is a pending case for them to evaluate. The investigators can then choose to participate by watching a replay (eight rounds’ worth or roughly 10 minutes) and selecting a verdict.

"If the investigators collectively agree that an offense has occurred, a ban will be issued. The ban duration will depend on the severity of the offense and the suspect’s history of convictions, if any."

Investigators are selected around a variety of conditions, including account age, game time, and a low report history. And the more an Overwatch member participates, and the higher their resulting accuracy, the more weight their decisions will carry in the future.

For now, though, the scheme is just being trialled. Overwatch cases will be reviewed and analysed before any bans are enforced, giving Valve the chance to ensure they aren't creating a force of power-mad storm troopers.

You can read the full details of the Overwatch program here.

May 22, 2013

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Update Released

Product Update - Valve

Release Notes for 5/22/2013

[ OVERWATCH ]
- Started the Overwatch beta http://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/overwatch/.

[ MISC ]
- Added two new convars, cl_crosshair_drawoutline and cl_crosshair_outlinethickness, that will enable a black outline to draw around the classic crosshair pips for better visibility.

May 17, 2013

CS:GO free weekend starts today, runs until Sunday

PC Gamer

It seems a bit unfair that the only multiplayer FPS that's been burdened with a gross sounding nickname is Codblops. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should stop, just that we shouldn't single Black Ops out. Surely there are other icky contractions to find. For instance, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, which were currently letting off lightly with the totally normal CS:GO. I say we start calling it GlobOff instead.

Whatever we choose, it's having a free weekend on Steam. You can install it now by clicking these words.

In addition to the trial, the game is also on sale, making it $7.50/£5.99 until Monday. It's a price just low enough that it might tempt the most committed of card traders, now that that's a thing Steam does. On the plus side, the influx of newbies might make me look halfway competent for once. So see you in Globoff. Nope, I've gone off it already.

May 15, 2013

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Update Released

Product Update - Valve

Release Notes for 5/15/2013

[ MAPS ]
- de_train: Fixed grenade collision bug, other minor bugs.

[ MISC ]
- Added a convar sv_vote_allow_in_warmup defaulting to off and controlling whether votes are allowed during warmup.
- Shooting through a nodraw surface now doesn't count as a gun penetration (you can always shoot through nodraw).
- Consolidated Map Groups in Classic Casual and Demolition modes.

May 15, 2013

Steam Trading Cards releases in beta, introduces game badges, XP, and leveling

PC Gamer

If you don't have beta participation turned on in your Steam settings, go do that so you can start collecting trading cards, earning XP, and leveling up. Yup, Steam just got gamified.

The games participating in the Trading Cards beta are Don't Starve, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, and Half-Life 2, and "up to half the card set" for each can be earned by playing them. The other half of each set is "earned through your collecting prowess," which presumably means trading with Steam users who got different drops.

Once you collect a complete set, you'll be able to craft a game badge which will appear on your profile and unlock "marketable items like emoticons, profile backgrounds, and coupons." Badges can be leveled up by collecting the required trading cards again, and all badges—including any you already have—now give you XP which contributes to your "Steam Level." Leveling up has its own benefits, awarding you "non-tradable items like profile showcases, extra friends list slots, and more."

Now that playing games on Steam is a game, are you bothered that someone out there is already beating you? If so, the PC Gamer Steam group may be a good place to start looking for trades.

May 10, 2013

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Update Released

Product Update - Valve

Release Notes for 5/10/2013

[ MISC ]

- Fixed an exploit of CTs boosting and picking up hostages through thin floors.
- Restored proper grenade interaction with breakable surfaces.

May 8, 2013

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Update Released

Product Update - Valve

Release Notes for 5/8/2013

[ GAMEPLAY ]
- Mag7 - reduced cost to 1800.
- Mac10 - increased price to 1050.
- XM1014 - reduced damage to 20.
- Body parts penetration code will not register headshot damage when penetrating into the neck hitbox through the chest hitbox, only chest damage will be dealt in this case.

[ MAPS ]
- Updated de_favela to latest version.
- Fixed some bugs in de_inferno where the player could get stuck on geometry, fixed some minor bugs (Thanks Wλve!).

[ MISC ]
- If a player was vote kicked from too many recent competitive games the matchmaking system will assign them a competitive cooldown.
- Added sever command line support for -net_port_try 1 to prevent servers from trying to climb ports if the request port was busy.
- Fixed a rare grenade physics interaction that could cause grenades to spin in place when thrown at certain kinds of physics props or players.
- Adjusted default value of sv_maxusrcmdprocessticks server convar to 16 for community servers with default settings to successfully process all user commands from even lowest tickrate and framerate clients.
- When going to overtime players who survived in the last round will start with empty inventory even though teams don't switch sides.
- Fixed flashbang number not updating on the hud if you had set "close after buy."

May 1, 2013

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Operation Payback

Announcement - Valve

Operation Payback is LIVE

25 Apr 2013 -

Since we launched the CS:GO Maps Workshop back in February, over 1,400 maps have been uploaded. The CS team has been consistently blown away by how complex, well thought out, and just plain fun so many of these maps have been.

We really wanted these maps to reach a wider audience, and also get the people making these amazing new gameplay experiences rewarded for their efforts. But how? Luckily, in the time it takes a CT to hold up a flashbang and announce that it’s a flashbang, we hit upon the answer.

“Operation Payback” marks the first of an ongoing series of limited-time updates aimed at giving a well-earned financial reward to some of CS:GO’s most popular and prolific mapmakers. For a limited time, you can buy a pass half-priced for $2.99. That’ll get you unlimited access to a Classic Casual map group featuring seven of the highest-voted Workshop Maps. Invite your friends (even if they don’t have a pass) and enjoy uninterrupted low-ping play on official servers—all while rewarding CS:GO’s top-voted virtual mapmakers with real money. Buying a pass also gets you a one-of-a-kind challenge coin, upgradable by playing and viewable wherever your avatar is shown. “Operation Payback” will be live from now until July 31st, and it’s currently half-priced, so get in there!

And remember: “Payback” is just the beginning. Future Operations will highlight all-new collections of popular maps. So stay tuned, keep mapmaking, and keep upvoting!

May 1, 2013

Counter-Strike Global Offensive Update Released

Product Update - Valve

Release Notes for 5/1/2013

[ GAMEPLAY ]
-Tweaked weapons
   DEAGLE: Reduced inaccuracy.
   Mag-7: Increased cycletime. Increased cost.
   XM-1014: Increased ArmorRatio. Increased cycletime.
   UMP-45: Reduced price. Reduced recoil angle variance.
   Mac-10: Increased maxspeed. Reduced price.
-Classic Competitive now allows 2 flashbangs and 4 grenades total.
-Implemented bodygroups penetration for maximum damage, now shooting through arms at the enemies head will apply headshot damage, or shooting through arms at the stomach will apply stomach damage multiplier.
-Removed aimpunch resulting from getting shot in the arms or legs.
-Auto switch when dropping a weapon (or after throwing a grenade) avoids weapons with 0 bullets in the clip.
-Reduced environment fog when scoped with a weapon.

[ MAPS ]
-CS_Militia: Fixed collision in CT spawn, added radar names
-CS_Assault: Added radar names
-CS_Museum: Fixed and updated radar and overview scales.
-DE_Library: Fixed bug where some clients would crash on bomb explosion.
-DE_Favela: Fixed bug were a prop was causing server lag, other gameplay tweaks
-DE_Seaside: Fixed bug were players would get stuck near Terrorist spawn.

[ MISC ]
-Weapon inventory HUD now displays the number of grenades held of a single type.
-Fixed a sound bug that resulted in ghost footsteps when taking over bots.
-Fixed player money getting set to the wrong value if the player took over a bot in competitive and survived to the end of the round.
-Added a server convar "sv_maxusrcmdprocessticks" to limit maximum number of user commands backlog, defaulting at 3; observed player speed by others will now always be within max movement speed even when user is cheating, experiencing high packet loss or exteremely low fps.
-Vote kick will record user's SteamID in the banlist and remove user from ongoing competitive match even if the user disconnected from game server before required number of votes have been collected.
-Spectating Operation Payback games via GOTV is now allowed without Operation Payback pass.
-Fixed crash on exit.

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Operation Payback is LIVE

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