Well this update came out of nowhere, and while I welcome its changes its still a bit strange Valve would push this update out only a short time before the the finale of a rather big tournament. There are a lot of far-reaching changes here and I can easily see the pros being thrown off balance.

The Winter Update is bringing us a new weapon, the R8 revolver, a reduction to pistol accuracy while moving, an increase in rifle recovery when it comes to long ranged bursting and a few more changes that will really shake up how the game plays. Here's a quick overview of the patch:

First of all, the new R8 revolver, functions very differently compared to any other weapon in the game. In order to shoot what feels like a 100% accurate shot you need to hold left mouse while you wind up and pressing right click allows you to shoot quickly but without much accuracy. There is a small problem however.

The revolver might be a biiiiiiiiiiiiiit overpowered given that it can instantly kill people, through armor, from even medium distance and has perfect accuracy while moving. It feels less like a revolver and more like a pocket AWP (one of the strongest snipers in game) which I don't think was the intended effect. It isn't just strong in long range firefights though, if you end up close quarters with it you can always spam right click which allows your revolver to double as a shotgun.

I have a feeling Valve is going to be working overtime in order to get the revolver down to a reasonable power level, otherwise expect to see a lot of cowboys at the among the pros.

Interestingly enough, the revolver with its 100% moving accuracy comes in the same patch as a nerf to the moving accuracy of every pistol which is going to change how pistol rounds play out quite significantly. On a similar note, the three main rifles now suffer from a higher recovery time with the main goal of this change being to promote tap shooting over long ranged spraying, something I do appreciate because its always more fun to watch precision aiming than two guys sending a hail of bullets each-others way.

Your rifle might be handle a bit worse, but at least it can still be pretty

And the final competitive change is another odd one, turn timers are now 1:55 minutes long and the bomb detonation time is now 40 seconds. This change, most of all, is going to throw off pro players because they've been playing with 35 second detonation times for years now but as far as non-pro competitive matches go this is a welcome change given that the detonation time in those was far too long at 45 seconds.

The reason I'm saying this change is an odd one is because instead of going one way or the other, Valve has decided to compromise. The given reason is that they want the power of smoke grenades reduced with slightly longer bomb timers but has anyone really complained about smoke grenades?

There is also one more change, although this one doesn't affect competitive matches, and that is the addition of a Kill Camera. Did you ever want to re-live your failures, see your disappointments from another angle and with a cinematic view? Well now you can with the brand new kill camera! I kid, I kid, this change is a welcome one and out of all the others has the prestigious position of "only one that won't mess up the tournament tomorrow".

And that is it as far as the major changes go, you can read the full patch notes here. The overpowered revolver aside I really do like these changes (*cough* mostly because I can't spray long distance) but I just find their timing really strange. When you have a game with a competitive scene as long lasting as CS you really don't want to start blindsiding them with changes right before a tournament because a lot of the tactics they trained for might go completely out of the window.

But for us casual players, these are some most welcome changes. Also, chickens now wear festive sweaters!