A new Half-Life has been announced! Oh and
CS:GO got its 9th operation, called ‘Shattered
Web’. But also, a NEW HALF LIFE has been
announced- something I think potentially shattered
the web.
There’s so much to cover, so this video
will be just a brief overview. In case you
didn’t know, just over 2 years have passed
since the last operation. A load of ‘map
updates’ were rolled out late last week
so I think Valve were trying to release this
back then, but Valvetime and now here we are.
Previous operations cost $5.99. But this one
costs a lot more, being £12.49! And in America
it’s $15… before tax.
But it works a little differently this time.
It seems you have access to all of the stuff
without buying the pass, but you won’t get
the mission rewards until you buy it. The
pass merely allows these mission rewards,
XP boosts from completing missions, and the
Shattered Web coin, which can be upgraded
from bronze all the way up to diamond level,
similarly to Operation: Hydra. 33 stars are
needed for silver, 66 for gold… and 100
for diamond. On the first week you can earn
up to 10 stars, then for the remaining 15
weeks the maximum is 6. This neatly adds up
to 100 stars in total- so you’ll have to
100% complete it if you want diamond. Or you
can just buy the stars. But then you don’t
get the sense of pride and accomplishment…
The big new thing in this update are the 22
‘Shattered Web Agents’, who are character
models you can equip on any map. These are
unlocked by completing missions and earning
stars. You can be a WOMAN. Or this guy. You
can also buy them on the community market.
These new custom player skins also tie in
with the end-of-game ‘Accolades’ screen,
which looks like this and tells you all the
cool facts about the game, like how in this
bot game I played, Dean was the most fearless
because he committed suicide 8 rounds in a
row.
The way the drops work during this operation
is different. Just click on the Shattered
Web logo and you’ll be taken to the rewards
screen and all is explained there.
Along the top are 100 boxes, representing
the 100 potential stars you can earn in this
operation. There are little ‘stars’ in
the boxes, indicating which ones will give
you a reward. So upon reaching, say, 2 stars,
I’ll get myself this AWESOME graffiti lightbulb.
And 3 will get me this INCREDIBLE sticker
collection.
28 will drop me a distinguished agent skin
and so on, working all the way up to 100.
If you earn a perfect 100 stars in this operation
you’ll be awarded one of the highest ‘Master’
tier agent skins, who come with unique cheers
and voices.
And for each of the 16 weeks, there are 6
missions which can be completed in any order-
these will encourage players to boot up the
casual gamemodes, as well as the new Guardian
Strike missions, the first of which is set
on… Sirocco. I haven’t even tried it yet,
I suggest you get a friend and try it out
for yourselves.
Unlike previous operations, this one doesn’t
come with a traditional collection of new
maps. Instead, we get 3 new maps, each for
a different gamemode.
The first is a community-made defuse map,
‘Studio’, set in and around a movie set
in Holly…waf. I’ve seen this map around
for years so it’s nice that it’s finally
been included.
The second new map is a flying scoutsman one
called… Lunacy. Which is a bizarre map.
It’s TINY and mirrored. It would double
up as a great CTF map actually. And I can’t
get my head around how they’ve done this
effect. You’re not actually on the moon.
You’re actually in a dome in… LOLLYwood.
You can’t get out of the dome, though. All
that’s just for show.
And the last new map is Jungle, being the
first community-made dangerzone map to be
added to the game. I happen to be familiar
with this map, having just spent all of day
making a video about it and why it would be
suitable to be included in the game. RIP.
In short: Jungle is very professionally made,
and should be a familiar experience to fans
of the existing Dangerzone maps as it’s
the same size and sports similar features,
like an underground area, a tower to climb
and so on.
Also, a new Half Life has been announced!
The SG553 has become a little bit OP in recent
Counter-Strike meta, so its price has returned
back to $3,000, which was what it cost originally.
But now people are more familiar with it,
perhaps it will be bought more often than
it used to be before the price-drop in the
first place.
And the Famas and Galil have had their prices
dropped, AND had improvements to their spraying
accuracy- this should definitely encourage
players to pick up these budget rifles! The
galil now costs just $1,800. That’s SMG
territory!
A stealth change has been made to their other
accuracy stats, the Famas’s burst fire when
crouched has finally been fixed, and the AWP
and SSG’s animations have changed, so recoil
when firing scoped in looks less dramatic.
There’s a new Paracord, Survival, Nomad
and Skeleton knives, as well as 4 new weapon
cases:
The Shattered Web case, the Norse collection,
the St Marc collection and finally, the Canals
collection. And there’s a Shattered web
sticker collection, a new Shattered Web Graffiti,
a new WEAPON FINISH that skin makers can use
called the ‘Pearlescent coating’.
It shows how big this update is when I’m
skimming through entirely new things like
this, but there is so much to take in and
I want to do it properly in later videos.
But the new Cache is now playable in competitive
matchmaking, Vertigo has had some changes,
Zoo and Seaside have been removed, and Dangerzone
has received these updates. Ugh, it’s too
much…
…HALF LIFE CONFIRMED.
