The Counter Strike: Global Offensive Winter update generated a lot of discussion within the gaming community shortly after it went live. The problem lay with the introduction of the R8 Revolver, a pistol that replaces the Desert Eagle slot, which was tied for the highest damage per shot. Thankfully, Valve has reacted quickly to the community outcry and has published a new patch that will reduce the power of the R8.
Valve clearly admitted that it made a mistake while balancing the new pistol, and said “it’s clear that we got the damage wrong”. For now the damage of the R8 is being dropped from 115 to 86. This means that it will take two shot to kill someone, instead of just one (not including headshots). The shot delay for the pistol has also been increased, making it harder to aim the pistol and snap off shots.
The developers apparently expected to have more time to collect data on the new weapon, and incrementally adjust its performance. It turns out that the initial effort was so far off the mark that they had to do something about it or face an even worse backlash. However, credit should be given to Valve for addressing the problem so quickly. The new patch should be available by now, and concerned CS:GO players should really get to updating their game.
[Source: CS:GO Blog]
