UPDATE ON THE UPDATE:
I'M WAS WRONG ABOUT BEING WRONG: the spray recoil for the rifles is grabage.
UPDATE:
UPON FURTHER REVIEW: I was wrong about the recoil, it's all in my head, I still think the SMG is useless though, I don't know what to do to fix it though, outside of upping the damage, but that might lead to more harm then good.
So i recently got into the CSGO beta and seems pretty legit so far, although there are definitely things that need to be tweaked in order for the game to recapture it's podium as the king of the eSports world - if it ever does. But before I go on my AVGN style tirade i'd like to mention what is good about this game.
THE GOOD
1) That it exists
Now most people in the CS community would see this game as a useless sequel that nobody wanted. And potentially they'd be right - if they haven't noticed the decreasing prize pots, the thinning out of the CS farm system or the fact that a little game called SC2 has taken over in EVERY SINGLE ASPECT in the last year or the fact that our collective CS community is fractured right through the middle and as long as that is the case CS as a game will never get the love and attention that it should simply because our blood feud over shit that occurred 7 years ago is more important to us than our game and our gametype living on(instead of the bastardization of it that we see in CoD, sorry guys, you guys are bros but SND as you play it is kinda horrendous). And too be honest i'd rather have any game with the words "counter-strike" in the name to be the king of the eSports world, even if it means that my beloved 1.6 has to drive off into the sunset.
2) The prettiness
The game is really pretty. That's basically it. It's desaturated, sure, and i love me some colors but overall i like it. IT's not CoD/battlefields' ALL BROWN ALL THE TIME yet but it's not nearly as colorful as CSS or CS1.6. And while there is some useless stuff scattered around the map I don't really give a shit about that. IF you do you need to go to the doctor and get yourself a prescription of Ritalin because you have ADHD.
3) The developers ACTUALLY SEEM TO CARE
Let me say that again: THE DEVELOPERS ACTUALLY SEEM TO CARE. THEY ACTUALLY WANT THIS GAME TO SUCCEED, AND FOR PEOPLE TO PLAY IT IN COMPETITION. THEY'RE ACTIVELY TAKING SUGGESTIONS AND FEEDBACK FROM PROFESSIONAL PLAYERS OR FORMER PROFESSIONAL PLAYERS ON THE MATTER. THEY ACTUALLY WANT THIS GAME TO BE GOOD. For valve to even want this is a massive step forward from the "oh esports exists, that's cool I guess" that we've seen before and now they're trying to do their best to make the game the best that it can be, and it seems just about every update is a MASSIVE improvement over the last.
Riot during their beta actually actively discouraged people from competing in League of Legends and Blizzard managed to ignore the fact that Terran, at every level and on next to every map, was completely overpowering. This does not seem to be the case with the CSGO developers - they've even changed 2 things that they were hardline on recently because the community wanted it so badly(the addition of chest armor and defuse kit).
Well now that the lovefest is over time to get to what everybody wants: RAW UNDYING HATRED.
THE BAD
1) The maps
Now while some things can be overlooked - as can be seen minor graphical updates or can be waved off with a collective "mleh." Others can be TOTALLY GAME BREAKING. Perfect example: Nuke. How the fuck is the cleanest map the one map I seem to despise the most? Because they took out what was a major advantage - and one of the only advantage the T's had over the CT's on that map - the fact they could attack from multiple angles and if you took outside the counter-terrorists had to stay on guard and watch an area which they might not otherwise - the actual lower bombsite rather than simply guarding ramp. By taking out green mile they took out that weapon in the T arsenal and now they have almost no way to actually take the lower bombsite other than to chance it and run directly into the death trap that is ramp, and upper is even safer now with the massive nuclear waste barrels and the the fucking forklift allowing upper floor to be really safe now. Oh yeah, also get ride of the crane thing. Shit needs to be gone.
Inferno i have a problem with as well, but it's less now than i thought it once was. The cubby/flophouse area at the end of CT side apartments kinda pisses me off but it's not as bad as i thought it would be, but I'd still rather it not exist. And then there's the fucking fountain. Now I get why it's there. Wait, no I don't. WHY PUT IT IN THERE, THERE'S NO REASON FOR IT TO BE THERE. TAKE THAT SHIT OUT VALVE GOD DAMN IT AND JUST PUT IN SOME MISSILE BOXES OR WHATEVER WE WERE FIGHTING OVER ON INFERNO. WHATEVER IT IS JUST TAKE OUT THE GOD DAMN FOUNTAIN. Also, get rid of the archway on banana to allow for CT's to be less dominating on that area. or simply widen banana. Whichever works.
Train is well, train. But what I really hate is how people could actually get over z-hallways and get to a spot of the map that really they shouldn't be able to(EDIT: noticed the ladder...I still don't like it though). That annoys me. But what really is something they should change is the ability to go under-neither the trains and make most of the trains lower and move the ladders to the back so that it's easily accessible. I like what they did on the T side of mid and i get why that ladder is there, but I liked getting on top of 5 train, and I'm sure that 6 train would be a pretty awesome angle too. On inside I'd like the trains to be slightly closer together and for them to add the flatbed back to right next to ladder. That'd be awesome. I'm sure the more I play it the more I'd find more things to hate about it, but right now I don't like it for these reasons.
Dust2 has some minor changes i'd like to occur but overall it's pretty good. One such change would be them making the triangle boxes on A plat or the double stack boxes on CT side cat. Both would be nice, but from my playtime and experience with the map so far it doesn't seem like a big deal.
2) The recoil
The recoil is kinda broken. It's better than it was in the original beta but it's still pretty bad. While every update they make it less and less terrible it's still pretty terrible. Now the bursting is spot on and the tapping is getting better every update - at least for the main 2 rifles the AK/M4 - it still has a major problem in that the hold down mouse 1 and pull down spray is still TERRIBLE. About 4-5 times every match I've noticed that a close range spray whiffs and sometimes both the CT and the T player hold down mouse 1 and both waste both of their entire clips. That needs to change. Right now.
The same thing could be said about the SMG's, the whole strategy of the SMG - historically and in my persoanl experience at least - is for the player to spray down their opponent with simple mass of bullets and that leads them to pick up a more powerful weapon. It's a gamble but it works some times. as of right now EVERY SINGLE SMG is useless because even if you're close range and you spray your entire clip you'll end up missing far more then you hit. and it'll often lead to embarrassing moments where you spray a guy whose not looking at you and you'd hit 2-3 shots and they'd just turn around and shoot you in the face with whatever rifle they had.
3) The weapons
SMG's are useless as stated above - they don't do enough damage or have a good enough spray in order for them to be useful.
Rifles are kinda broken, but from my estimation it's a simple fix. Lower the recoil for the AK/M4 and it should be alright. The AUG and the Kreigg are fucking AMAZING...although the spray is useless and the only successful way to fire the gun is single shot. So far the AUG and the Kreigg are the best guns in the game in my estimation, but i haven't played with them enough to really tell. The awp and the scout are effectively the same.
The real problem, so far at least, has been 2 things and 2 things alone. The pistols and the shotgun. BOTH starting pistols are pretty weak and I dread pistol rounds because I can't tell when i'm hitting shots or when i'm totally off. And when I do hit shots it doesn't seem to be doing a lot of damage or it seems to do INCREDIBLE amounts of damage. One of the other,but not the perfect middle it should be at. Oh yeah, the deagle is better than all the SMG's and now the shotgun. This leads me to the shotgun. Oh nova, you were so great in the last beta. What happened? They must have patched you...and they should have. But now it seems like an overnerf, an over reaction to the awesomeness. Basically they made one of the most cost efficient weapons in the game to a gun which is barely usable. Poor gun, it was so awesome too.
4) Grenades
So let me do a fast summary of everything that's wrong with the grenades so far. This is way longer than I originally thought it would be so i better wrap this up fast before you guys get bored and watching some of the amazing cat videos or something.
HE grenade: Either devestating or no damage. If it's dead on it does like 3/4 of the opponent's health, if it's off by like 2-3 feet it does 4 damage. that needs to be balanced out
Flashbang: The flash's flash need to be shortened, only a little and much more important the fucking double vision needs to be tweaked shorter or needs to be taken out completely. It's too long IMO, and quite annoying. I should also see the crosshairs while flashed.
Smoke; seems pretty alright, but it needs to a little less dense. Minor tweak, not much needs to be done really.
Molotov/incendiary: the AOE is a bit big but the damage over time seems pretty big. Overall I don't see it as a big deal, but the area it effects that it takes up is a bit big.
Decoy: it went from "oh wow, thats not a human at all" to "wow, that's pretty convincing...if you're a bit thick." I've been confused by it occaisonally, but usually it's useless.
OVERALL
It's pretty alright right now, but it still needs a lot of work before it can considered ready for competition. The grenade damge, the recoil and the maps needs serious tweaks before this game is even close to being ready for either competition or for the average consumer. That being said it's definately better than it looked originally and it's definately better now then it was at the last beta. I just hope they don't release it before it's almost perfect and it causes a splintering in the community - causing the scene to go from 2 60-70K communities to 3 30-40K communities.
