CS:GO was already treading on thin ice for most of its life, perpetually unsure what it was, should be and making game-breaking changes weekly.

CS 2.0 is only a partial fix for fundamentally broken:
- Physics + smokes + molotovs/incendiaries
- Aspects of the UI - e.g: Per-player VOIP volume controls etc.

... but there's a huge set of catches.
In fact more side effects that make it objectively worse than the predecessor from a core game play standpoint.

Too many things have not been fundamentally fixed or otherwise made worse:
- No obvious settings to ensure RAW mouse input
- Subtick leads to worse back-tracking than in CS:GO and general motion feels like you are moving through a swimming pool.
- Sound design is worse overall, occluded sounds are fine, what is not fine is the utterly broken directionality (stereo imaging), heck CS:S had better directional sound and that is saying something.
- Worse visibility at all added to which hyper-brightness looks like cheap image processing gimmicks that an iPhone does, overly bright and saturated to make everyone's game look like garbage tier NVidia Digital Vibrance got baked in to the game locked at maximum.
- HUD is overall worse in design
- Sprays are worse, almost zero visual feedback on the vast majority of weapons.
- MR12 is objectively worse because it reduces chances of come-backs, leading to more force-buy-rush/give up behaviours. But then again the average audience probably has a shorter attention span now too.
- No custom game servers
- No ability to change key settings for servers or clients.
- Particle effects that nobody asked for that randomly float in places that make zero sense causing distraction at certain angles due to shimmering (No image scaling on, that ♥♥♥♥ needs to die in a fire too).

Things that have not changed between CS:GO and CS 2.0:
- Peering has long been utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, especially for any UK players, and this is not an ISP-thing this is the decision of Valve to use the garbage tier peers+VPS's.
- Months of "work" pending release to deliver essentially nothing and a future bug set that will likely only grow.

This is living proof Valve long ago gave up on improving the fundamentals of the game or series at all.
At the very least falls well short of the vast majority of its own goals plus promises to class as a full release - And for sure it isn't because they do not have the money to pay the right folks to do this stuff.

The only thing that will make game play any more interesting is the smoke changes, but this is offset by MR12 making it less fun to play and will impact majors since it takes away many chance of exciting comebacks / equalisers to make it a close match.

The only part of Valve that is doing anything good towards the future of gaming ecosystems, I feel, is the contributions to WINE/developing Proton and SoC/hardware platforms such as the Steam Deck + other peripherals.

I can no longer take Valve seriously about any of their future game releases.
Too much trust has been burnt at this point and the bare minimum core gameplay fix hopes for CS 2.0 fell well short.

CS:GO was already treading on thin ice for most of its life, perpetually unsure what it was, should be and making game-breaking changes weekly. CS 2.0 is only a partial fix for fundamentally broken: - Physics + smokes + molotovs/incendiaries - Aspects of the UI - e.g: Per-player VOIP volume controls etc. ... but there's a huge set of catches. In fact more side effects that make it objectively worse than the predecessor from a core game play standpoint. Too many things have not been fundamentally fixed or otherwise made worse: - No obvious settings to ensure RAW mouse input - Subtick leads to worse back-tracking than in CS:GO and general motion feels like you are moving through a swimming pool. - Sound design is worse overall, occluded sounds are fine, what is not fine is the utterly broken directionality (stereo imaging), heck CS:S had better directional sound and that is saying something. - Worse visibility at all added to which hyper-brightness looks like cheap image processing gimmicks that an iPhone does, overly bright and saturated to make everyone's game look like garbage tier NVidia Digital Vibrance got baked in to the game locked at maximum. - HUD is overall worse in design - Sprays are worse, almost zero visual feedback on the vast majority of weapons. - MR12 is objectively worse because it reduces chances of come-backs, leading to more force-buy-rush/give up behaviours. But then again the average audience probably has a shorter attention span now too. - No custom game servers - No ability to change key settings for servers or clients. - Particle effects that nobody asked for that randomly float in places that make zero sense causing distraction at certain angles due to shimmering (No image scaling on, that shit needs to die in a fire too). Things that have not changed between CS:GO and CS 2.0: - Peering has long been utter dogshit, especially for any UK players, and this is not an ISP-thing this is the decision of Valve to use the garbage tier peers+VPS's. - Months of "work" pending release to deliver essentially nothing and a future bug set that will likely only grow. This is living proof Valve long ago gave up on improving the fundamentals of the game or series at all. At the very least falls well short of the vast majority of its own goals plus promises to class as a full release - And for sure it isn't because they do not have the money to pay the right folks to do this stuff. The only thing that will make game play any more interesting is the smoke changes, but this is offset by MR12 making it less fun to play and will impact majors since it takes away many chance of exciting comebacks / equalisers to make it a close match. The only part of Valve that is doing anything good towards the future of gaming ecosystems, I feel, is the contributions to WINE/developing Proton and SoC/hardware platforms such as the Steam Deck + other peripherals. I can no longer take Valve seriously about any of their future game releases. Too much trust has been burnt at this point and the bare minimum core gameplay fix hopes for CS 2.0 fell well short.