This week, something miraculous happened.

Something people had been waiting on for what felt like forever.

Something that seemed almost impossible.

No, Astralis are still sh*t.

We’re talking about the latest Counter-Strike update. For once, Valve finally managed to drop an update that the majority of the community agrees is good. That’s no small feat.

Maps, cosmetics, gameplay tweaks, performance boosts, quality-of-life fixes - everyone walked away with a little something.

One of the highlights of the update is the addition of nighttime versions for Ancient and Shoots, now playable in Casual, Deathmatch, and Arms Race.

Ancient, in particular, looks noticeably different, as Valve updated the maps’ shaders to the latest CS2 version, giving it a darker feel.

They also slipped in a few layout tweaks. The most impactful one is that you can no longer hold A Main from inside Temple, which used to be a very strong angle for CTs.

Luckily, the concept of smoke lineups still hasn’t made its way to FACEIT Level 5, so we don’t need to panic just yet. But you might want to revisit a few, as some of the old ones don’t quite land as intended anymore.

Animations were another major focus of this update. Several weapons received improved deploy animations, and Valve also addressed a handful of lingering animation bugs from the big update a couple of weeks ago. Although some animations still feel a bit rough - especially a few knife ones - this is a solid step in the right direction.

The [MISC] section of the notes mentioned “rendering performance improvements across most maps”, though we didn’t notice much of a difference. Of course, your mileage may vary. Maybe our trusty gaming toaster really is on its last breath…

Valve also gave the Armory a refresh, adding the M4A1-S | Solitude as the new limited-time item, along with a new music kit. Wouldn’t be a CS update without new cosmetics, would it?

Oh, and for the fellow gamers rocking the superior resolution, you’ll be happy to know that you can now alt-tab from 4:3 to 16:9 on desktop without delay. About damn time.

Look, we know we usually clown on Valve - and most of the time, with good reason - but credit where it’s due: this is a genuinely good update.

If you actually play the game, that is.