Valve has released the Winter update for Counter Strike: Global Offensive, which sees the addition of a new pistol to the game. The update also introduces some changes that are intended to adjust the balance of the game. Oh, and casual mode players now get a killcam as well.
The new R8 Revolver is a secondary weapon that occupies the Desert Eagle slot. As expected, it is a high powered weapon with massive amounts of stopping power. While the double action revolver is generally a slow firing weapon, players can also use the alt firing mode to fan the hammer and spray with the gun. Naturally, there are also new pistol cases to be opened that contain new skins.
Interestingly, the addition of the new pistol has been accompanied by reducing the accuracy of other pistols while moving. All existing pistols have been affected by this change, except for the Desert Eagle and the R8. The AK47, M4A4, and the M4A1-S have had their recovery time adjusted to make burst firing more efficient at a distance.
Competitive Matchmaking will see the C4 timer changed to 40 seconds, while round times will be shortened to 1:55 minutes. Valve says that this change is to unify the professional and community experience “while addressing the exceptional strength of smoke grenades in the shorter rounds of professional matches.”
Casual modes will also see an instant kill cam, which will reveal to players just how they were killed and by who. Of course, this won’t apply to competitive matches; considering how much information ends up revealed by kill cams. However, it is a good way for more casual players to adjust their play style and maybe figure out where those sneaky snipers are hiding.
There are a few other changes made, but most of them are minor bug fixes and affect the back end of the game. Those curious about what else has changed can take a look at the changelog on the CS:GO blog.
[Source: CS:GO Blog]
