Valve released a beta version of its Panorama User Interface (UI) to commemorate CS:GO’s birthday yesterday, and the UI is as beautiful as players expected it to be.
With Panorama UI potentially set for a full release in the coming weeks, there’s a lot to look forward to in terms of game improvements. A quick run through the beta shows that drastic changes were made to the main menu, settings menu, scoreboard, loading screen, buy menu, and weapon inspection.
Related: Panorama UI is now available for beta testing in CS:GO
This upcoming shift to Panorama will be the update that CS:GO needs to elevate the game to the next level. Although the UI is purely cosmetic and doesn’t affect the in-game meta, it could mean that Valve can focus its attention on more pressing matters related to the game. Additionally, tournament organizers won’t need to outdo each other in terms of making a new but confusing user interface for viewers.
Since the start of 2018, the biggest updates that Valve released were the addition of the Clutch Case, the addition of Dust II into the Active Duty pool (which isn’t really an update), the Nuke changes, the CZ-75 nerf, and the Mirage changes.
Once Panorama UI is released, hopefully Valve listens to community feedback and requests more frequently and meticulously. This would be a huge change in image for the developer, as it’s gained a reputation for taking longer than expected with its game updates. To be more specific, the CZ nerf was a requested change by the community ever since the Tec-9 Terrorist pistol was nerfed last August.
Valve has also been a bit more active on its Twitter account with prominent community figures as well. For the most part, the developer just tweets GIFs and memes to interact with professional players and popular personalities—but at least it’s a start. Hopefully the meme of “Valve, pls fix” will no longer be a thing, assuming it takes initiative in proactively updating the game.
