CS:GO Loot Box X-Ray System Explained

Even the most popular multiplayer games sometimes need to implement AI-controlled "bot" characters. These can play a number of roles, including filling out extra spots to get more game lobbies running, or giving beginning players easier targets in the case of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds implementing bots on PC last year . Valve's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has used bots to replace players who are dropped from a team, but as of today that is no longer the c


In order to further contain CS:GO 's French marketplace, perhaps to avoid market manipulation through the use of X-Ray Scanners, Valve is making one additional change. Loot boxes can no longer be purchased from the Steam Community Market in France. All CS:GO players in the country will have to earn their own loot boxes. Though, naturally, Valve will still allow those players to sell their loot boxes to those in other countr


Here's how the full feature technically works. In CS:GO , players are able to either earn loot boxes through gameplay or buy them from other players. However, these loot boxes can only be opened by paying for a key. The new feature is called the X-Ray Scanner and allows players to place one loot box into it to reveal the item inside. However, and here's the trick, once an item has been scanned by the X-Ray Scanner, players will have "claim" the item buy purchasing a key to unlock it before being able to look inside another loot


The era of CS:GO skin gambling may be coming to an end as Steam updated its Online Conduct policy to prevent users from engaging in this type of activity. More specifically, the latest update to this policy states that Steam users shall not engage in commercial activities such as running contests, buying or selling Steam accounts, posting advertisements, or gambling. This last element is the most crucial one for Counter-Strike players , as it explicitly states that the action of gambling skins is now frowned upon by St


One community-made Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map is seemingly offering Russians an alternative view of the war in Ukraine. While Valve's Counter-Strike has been among the most popular live-service titles to date, the game is currently seeing a notable uptick in interest thanks to the recent reveal that Counter-Strike 2 is officially in visit the up coming document works . Now, it appears one community is looking to leverage this popularity to shed light on the situation in Ukra


However, this isn't the first time a Valve product or service was indirectly involved in the war efforts. It was recently reported that the Ukrainian military is using the Steam Deck to remotely control turrets . Here, the Steam Deck runs a custom UI that allows the operator to be up to 500 meters (1,640 feet) away from the turret. The custom version is reportedly capable of installing any anti-personnel or anti-tank weapon as w


It's currently unclear why Valve moved forward with these changes in France, in particular. So far France has not enacted any new regulations to account for loot boxes in video games, though French courts did recently rule that Steam has to allow users to resell their digital games . In 2018, the French online gambling regulatory body even assessed that loot boxes were not gambling under the country's current regulation. Perhaps Valve is using France as a testing bed or perhaps the decision is intended to shift discourse within the country or Europe. Either way, Valve certainly appears to be taking steps to protect the profits it receives from loot boxes amid the growing international controve


Another contentious change in the latest patch is the removal of the ability to highlight weapons during competitive matches using "pings." Twitter user unhappy_an suggests this alleviates a concern in which players could use discarded weapons to track when opponents are in a given locale, but at the same time it removes functionality for online matchmaking teams that want to tell allies where they can pick up suppl


In any case, even though the Finnish newspaper's de_voyna map was launched in line with World Press Freedom Day to reach the millions of Russians playing Counter-Strike , it's worth noting that Valve wasn't consulted prior to the community-made map going online. So it will be interesting to see how long the downloadable map will remain online, should the company take any act

While many have taken issue with the contents of this patch, it's unlikely to have a major effect on Valve's team-based shooter. CS:GO was one of the best-selling and most-played games on Steam in 2020 , though given the title is free-to-play "most-downloaded" may be a better descriptor. Either way, it should remain popular, even if multiple live tournaments have reportedly been cancelled due to the coronavirus pande


As if that isn't frustrating enough, Valve has apparently "preloaded" the X-Ray Scanner with an item already. Meaning that players will have to purchase this item, regardless of whether they want it, in order to use the X-Ray Scanner on a loot box. The X-Ray Scanner may appear to be beneficial to players, but ultimately is just another effort at encouraging players to begin purchasing microtransactions . There's little reason to believe it's significantly beneficial over