Counter-Strike 2 has released, and with it comes some fixes and updates from the limited test mode that was available to players.
In a lighthearted moment, the Valve developers have decided that the chickens that infest the maps can now fall off Vertigo. Previously, they’d just walk up to the edge, but now they can full sprint off of it like a failed run-boost. There’s also another bell on Inferno, giving players another opportunity to annoy their teammates with incessant noise.
For a more serious change, Wingman, the two-vs-two mode of the game, has been added. Additionally, there are penalties for those who queue with cheaters, and high-ranked players can no longer queue with lower-ranked players. Both of these changes are sure to be beloved by the competitive-minded community. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a change to the left-hand model, which players were clamoring for.
Weekly drops have been replaced by the Care Package system, allowing players to choose between four different rewards once a week. Possibly the biggest update for competitive players is the demo viewer is back: Matches can now be reviewed, just like in CS:GO. The update was announced in a Valve blogpost titled “Welcome Home.”
Here is the full list of patch notes.
Full CS2 update patch notes
Counter-Strike 2
- Counter-Strike 2 is now available and free to play
- Season One of Premier has begun
Gameplay
- Enabled Competitive matchmaking
- Enabled Wingman matchmaking
- Enabled Private Matchmaking
- Added Training Day, a brief introductory experience for brand new players
- Improved player-against-player movement collision
- Improved consistency of bullet penetration
- Player reflections in water are now occluded by smoke
- Molotov fire now floats above the water
- Fixed character ambient occlusion being visible through walls
- C4 bomb lights don’t reflect through walls
- Fixed some rare cases of viewmodel lighting corruption
- Adjusted smoke behavior to cover cases where smoke would stop less than a player’s height above the ground
- Fix various bugs with switching teams in the middle of offline Deathmatch
- Fixed Famas reloading too early
- Chickens can finally fall off Vertigo
Sound
- Added the new CS2 default music kit
- Added new audio customization settings
- Various mix tweaks and adjustments
- Various bug fixes related to music kits
- Updated the game startup sound
- Added background ambience to main menu scenes
- Restored the clutch_mode_toggle function
- Fixed a bug where sometimes c4 defuse and planting sounds could not be heard in certain locations
- Fixed some surfaces being incorrectly tagged, causing incorrect footstep sounds in certain locations
- Fixed a bug where attackers could not hear headshot feedback through wallbangs or smokes
- Body damage feedback for attackers will now play within the same distance as it does for onlookers through smokes and wallbangs
- Fixed a bug where scoping in affected directional sound
- First person damage sounds are now more impactful
- Removed several legacy audio convars that existed in CS:GO but never had an effect in CS2
Animation
- Adjusted character additive lean animation
- Adjusted jump animation, particularly when repeatedly jumping
- Adjusted jiggle-peeking animation
- Adjusted animated character head position relative to camera position
- Added bullet belt to negev
- Reduced foot sliding when carrying slower weapons
- Fixed character momentarily standing during crouch-planting animation
- Fixed incorrect viewmodel deploy speeds
- Fixed pops in some weapon inspect animations
- Inspecting weapons may now interrupt deploy animation
Matchmaking
- When one or more party members get convicted of cheating and are permanently banned, all their associates will be penalized with loss of Profile Rank and CS Rating
- In Premier, players with a very high established CS Rating are not allowed to party with accounts that do not have an established CS Rating
Maps
- Various bug fixes and tweaks for all shipped maps
- Adjusted vertical audio occlusion boundaries in Nuke and Vertigo
- Added an extra bell in Inferno
- Casual and Deathmatch maps are now separated into multiple map groups
Miscellaneous
- CS:GO Players who started playing more than a week ago will receive a commemorative CS:GO coin and CS:GO Music Kit
- Added Store tab to main menu
- Enabled all interactions with inventory items
- Replaced weekly drops with a weekly Care Package. Choose from weapon cases, weapon finishes, and graffiti
- Added demo playback support
- Added the ability to favorite and shuffle loadout items
- Added new item icons
- Office and Vertigo are available as main menu scenery
- Various updates for weapon finishes, including fixing overly strong wear on several Custom Paint Job finishes
- Reworked Phoenix Street Soldier balaclava texture to resolve visibility issues
Enabled animated eyes on agent character models
Workshop tools
- Game clients running in workshop tools mode are not allowed to connect to VAC secure game servers
- Added a new help system featuring contextually relevant guides and information. Guides include gray scale value ranges for alpha channel masking, paint-by-number mask color assignments based on current finish type, and more
- Removed dynamic props from solid color inspect backgrounds
