In any case, even though the Finnish newspaper's de_voyna map was launched in line with World Press Freedom Day to reach the millions of Russians playing Counter-Strike , it's worth noting that Valve wasn't consulted prior to the community-made map going online. So it will be interesting to see how long the downloadable map will remain online, should the company take any act

The war in Ukraine continues to make a distinct impact on many industries across the spectrum, including the gaming sector. Over the course of 2022, companies ranging from Take-Two and Ubisoft to Sony have restricted Russia from its services with others like Riot Games, Microsoft, and Epic even going on to raise funds for Ukraine. In one of the latest developments, one community is reportedly utilizing a CS:GO map in an effort to reach the Russian masses to report on the present circumstances of the

A new CS:GO patch details the removal of bots that would otherwise replace players who are disconnected or kicked out of "classic competitive and wingman modes." Whenever an entire team leaves any given match, they will now be replaced by a single bot that idles in the team's original spawn location. However, they still appear in Warmup arenas, as patch notes posted to the official Counter-Strike Blog outline a fix to bot navigation in this part of the g

Counter-Strike players have often found creative means of using the game's community map aspect with some CS:GO players recreating popular locations from franchises like The Witcher . Now, a Finnish newspaper called Helsingin Sanomat is using the same feature to share details about the war in Ukraine among Russian gamers owing to the title's popularity within the community. A custom-made map dubbed "de_voyna," a fictionalized Slavic city, was released today that aims to echo some of the cities that have been destroyed over the course of the war. More interestingly, the map contains images and voice recordings captured by the newspaper's journalists on the ground situation, all of which players can interact with in-g

The lack of feedback was described as a "worse form of a Cease and Desist," and the Classic Offensive team stands frustrated over the sudden halt. Adding to their grievances, the CS:GO mod's developers shared that many Valve employees were aware of the project but provided no indication that their work would ultimately face rejection. Keeping this in mind, the Classic Offensive team felt "required" to inform any modding teams working on Valve-related projects to reconsider their release strategies should they plan to rely solely on Steam as their primary distribution platf

One of the game's newest additions allows terrorist and counter-terrorist operatives to vacation at Kaer Morhen, the home base of Geralt of Rivia. The map is an impressively detailed recreation of The Witcher 3 's fortress and the witcher training ground, which functions as a surprisingly good playground for firefights. While the map may not represent a radical gameplay shift, like CS:GO 's Mad Max custom map , the blind corners, ramparts, and courtyards of the keep provide an interesting mix of cover and vantage poi

One community-made Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map is seemingly offering Russians an alternative view of the war in Ukraine. While Valve's Counter-Strike has been among the most popular live-service titles to date, the game is currently seeing a notable uptick in interest thanks to the recent reveal that Counter-Strike 2 is officially in the works . Now, it appears one community is looking to leverage this popularity to shed light on the situation in Ukra

Steam updated its guidelines for users to add more restrictions regarding online gambling, leaving the future of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin gambling uncertain a few months before the release of its highly anticipated sequel Counter-Strike 2 . These guidelines, gathered under the name "Steam Online Conduct," describes the activities Steam users cannot perform on Valve’s platform, such as posting illegal or inappropriate content, engaging in unlawful activities, or harassing other users. The update to this policy impacts Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players, who are now unsure of the future of their skin gambling activit

While this policy update may not have direct consequences for players, it may indicate Steam’s decision to take a better look at the websites offering the option to use in-game skins to gamble. Players engaging in this kind of activity could face sanctions from Steam, especially as Valve is both the owner of this platform and the publisher of all Counter-Strike games . In the announcement published by Steam alongside this guidelines update, Valve stated that it was simply meant to provide more information on the regulations already in place on the platf

Although CS:GO (now CS2 ) is widely regarded as one of the best multiplayer first-person shooters on PC, many of its fans yearn for the series' early days, which inadvertently gave rise to the team behind the Counter-Strike 2 Guide|Https://Counterstrike2Zone.Com/: Classic Offensive mod. Having commenced development in 2016, Classic Offensive seeks to recreate the nostalgic feel of Counter-Strike 1.6, complete with classic weapons, physics, audio effects, etc., all within the modern rendition of Valve's Source engine used for CS:GO . The project has existed on ModDB for several years, with regular progress updates and support from the CS:GO modding community. Classic Offensive even made it through Valve’s Steam Greenlight program in 2