Counter-Strike is a game of skill and precision. In theory, it’s the sort of shooter where, if something goes wrong, you have only yourself (or your teammates) to blame. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
In the past, I’ve posted about how unreliable the game’s guns can be. Sometimes, shots that look like hits will miss… just because. That appears to be an intentional design decision on Valve’s part, for better or worse.
The game also has some bugs, however, that have been around for months and, in some cases, years. As 3kliksphilip outlines in this video, they affect the game more than you might think.
Here are the worst of the 11 bugs he highlights (one of which has since been fixed):
- Weapons can be picked up through walls, which is a) silly and b) leaves room for exploits.
- Game code that’s used to push people off ramps is busted.
- You can sometimes see through smoke grenades. Given that smokes are crucial to keeping enemies from zeroing in on your position, this bug can lead to disaster. Entire matches sometimes hinge on well-placed smoke grenades. A glimpse through the fog is akin to the heavens briefly parting to grant you a wallhack. It’s just not fair.
- If you kill someone while they’re throwing a grenade, they might spawn a duplicate grenade.
- Replay downloads are often corrupt.
Whether these bugs are game-breaking or simply very irritating comes down to individual experience, but they’re pretty glaring in a game as pure and skill-driven as Counter-Strike. They also tend to get a harsh spotlight from the community every time Valve adds a controversial feature like, say, the recent pay-to-spray update. Players look at things like that and say, “Why is Valve focusing on things we never asked for when we’ve been bringing up these bugs for ages?”
Granted, things aren’t always quite so simple. For one, the latest patch actually fixed one of the bugs the above video highlights (molotovs work better now). Second, I’m gonna invoke the ol’ Game Development Doesn’t Work That Way statute. A new feature like sprays does not necessarily directly detract from work on bug fixes, especially when they pertain to entirely unrelated features. Different people work on different elements of the game, and so on.
Still, it is kinda weird that some of these bugs have persisted for so long. Spray thing aside, though, it does seem like Valve’s been listening a bit more closely lately, so here’s hoping they get squashed sooner rather than later.
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