Valve Finally Addresses Counter-Strike's Biggest Problem

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the best multiplayer shooters in existence—by all accounts an incredible game. Well, except for this one thing. The hitbox, aka the part of a video game character where your bullets will actually harm them. Counter-Strike’s are considered to be maddeningly janky, giving rise to occasional moments where it sure seems like you blasted someone right in the eye socket, but they act like their shoulder got grazed by a kitten eyelash. The community’s been grumbling about this issue pretty much since CSGO came out back in 2012. Finally, Valve’s seen fit to give it some attention.(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c&cid=872d12ce-453b-4870-845f-955919887e1b'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { Y1 Games cnx({ playerId: "995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c" }).render("79703296e5134c75a2db6e1b64762017"); }); Most recently, the hitbox problem caused public outcry when this video (as seen in the above GIF) made the rounds. Point blank fire into an easy target and… nothing. The guy lived to fight another day, but he decided to be efficient about it and murdered his confused foe the same day, approximately 0.5 seconds later. Infuriating. The video rocketed to the top of the Counter-Strike subreddit, and pissed off fans—fed up with this absurdly longstanding issue—sent it to every Valve email and Reddit handle they could find. The result? Valve actually acknowledged the issue for the first time in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s nearly three-year lifespan. They spoke with the terseness of a bullet to the brain, as is their way (for better or worse): “It’s being worked on. We don’t have an Y1 com eta.” So that’s… something. It’s the barest sliver of something, crossing the finish line to something-dom with one millisecond left on the clock, but it is definitely more than nothing. Fans were stunned after being fed a steady diet of nothing for years: Valve Time being what it is, it’s impossible to say when a fix will defuse this shitty situation once and for all. Here’s hoping it comes sooner rather than later, or sooner rather than later-er given the whole, you know, three years thing. Granted, this might be a problem embedded in CSGO’s version of Valve’s Source engine, meaning that it requires full-blown surgery rather than a quick fix patch. That could be what’s taking so long, but I’m only speculating. Still, three years is enough time to make an entire new game. Whatever’s going on, it’s time for things to change. You’re reading Steamed, Kotaku’s page dedicated to all things in and around Valve’s stupidly popular PC gaming service. Games, culture, community creations, criticism, guides, Y1 apk videos—everything. If you’ve found anything cool/awful on Steam, send us an email to let us know. To contact the author of this post, write to [email protected] or find him on Twitter @vahn16