Strike News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Laid-off employees of Keywords Studios are planning to strike outside BioWare Edmonton's headquarters today.

French game workers union STJV (Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo) is organising a strike today across three Ubisoft studios.

This week's solar storm prediction models claimed that today, November 4, is likely to be the worst affected by solar activities. The prediction will likely come true as three separate coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are headed for the Earth. The first two of them are slightly off-target but the forecast says it can deliver glancing blows to the planet. But things can quickly change if they combine to form a cannibal CME. The third one is the riskiest, which is directly headed for the Earth. Overall, there is a chance that we may see a G2-class storm later today.

Counter-Strike 2 now allows for players to use custom maps in their games. As part of a new update, the Maps workshop is now live, allowing community map makers to upload their custom maps for Counter-Strike 2.

Counter-Strike 2 has received a much-needed update with the arrival of custom maps.

Over a month since the game's release, community maps finally return to Counter-Strike with the launch of the newly revamped maps workshop.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a FLASHBANG COMING RIGHT AT YOUR FACE - QUICK, LOOK AWAY oh wait it's just a bird after all. That's not just me hallucinating after one too many cups of Joe - it's a description of recent events in Valve's bomb-fiddling FPS Counter-Strike 2, where players keep mistaking the avian decorations on certain maps for bouncing balls of death.

No solar storm strikes were seen on Halloween, thankfully. Most astronomy enthusiasts must remember the 2003 solar storm that struck on Halloween and resulted in NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory dropping altitude temporarily, and Sweden losing power for an hour. But trouble for the Earth is not over yet. A new coronal mass ejection (CME) was released as a result of a magnetic filament eruption on the region of the Sun known as the ‘canyon of fire'. NASA spotted it first, but its initial models predicted that it may miss the planet. But now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast has said that it will sideswipe us, triggering a solar storm.

 New York Times Co. technology workers plan to mount a half-day strike Monday afternoon, accusing the media company of trying to unilaterally force them back to the office without negotiating in good faith.

Just a couple of days ago, a sneaky solar storm struck the Earth, sparking auroras in the Arctic Circle. The reason for the storm was not known since no coronal mass ejection (CME) was expected to hit the planet. It turned out that a crack opened up in the magnetosphere, allowing solar radiation to easily pass through. Now, another similar incident is on the cards, only at a much higher intensity. A massive hole has opened up on the Sun this time which is releasing a stream of solar winds. It is expected to reach the Earth on October 30, when it can trigger a solar storm, as per the forecast. The NASA Solar Dynamic Observatory images show the hole through which solar winds are escaping.

Counter-Strike 2, the first direct sequel to one of the most important games in PC history, released on September 27 after roughly six months in a limited test period. PC Gamer recently had the chance to ask the Counter-Strike 2 development team at Valve wide-ranging questions about the game, and one of those was about the modes CS2 doesn't have.

Counter-Strike 2, the first direct sequel to one of the most important games in PC history, released on September 27 after roughly six months in a limited test period. PC Gamer recently had the chance to ask the Counter-Strike 2 development team at Valve a wide-ranging bunch of questions about the game, its history, and its future: and one of those was about the in-game hardware. Does Valve have plans to introduce new weapons over the game's lifespan?

Cyberpunk's 2.02 patch has hit, bringing with it a surfeit of tweaks, fixes, and improvements to Night City in the wake of the game's sweeping 2.0 update and accompanying redemption arc. As usual there's a whole lot of bullet points here, and I'll put the full patch notes below, but there are a couple of entries worth highlighting in particular.

Counter-Strike 2 players are being banned for moving their mouse too quickly.

The multiplayer-defining perks and unlocks of the best Call of Duty games were originally seen as a parallel to Fallout, and they helped define the progression system that ultimately convinced the series' developers to stop trying to beat Counter-Strike at its own game.

Just days after Valve started reversing bans for those who used AMD's Anti-Lag+ feature in Counter-Strike 2, players have discovered a reproducible method for triggering a VAC ban on your account: moving your mouse very, very fast.

On October 28, 2023, the Call of Duty series will be 20 years old. While it's now one of the most impressive and well-resourced development projects on the planet, with three core studios (as well as support studios) dedicated to keeping its annual release cycle spinning, the foundations for its success were laid by Infinity Ward which, after developing the first two games in the franchise, was given the time to make something really special, and produced what is still the series' defining entry with 2007's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

After a bit of a lull, will be meeting this week to resume negotiations involving the ongoing strike.

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Valve has confirmed that it will shortly begin «reversing» VAC bans for Counter-Strike 2 players who were banned from the game for using AMD’s Anti-Lag+ feature.

AMD's Anti Lag+ integration in Counter Strike 2 was responsible for player bans but Valve has now started reversing them & also added a driver check.

Ryan Reynolds took to social media on Thursday to jokingly respond to ‘s guidelines on members who may want to dress up and celebrate Halloween this year.

Deadpool 3 has officially been delayed due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

We now have a nice little update on the long reported Bioshock movie.

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you could flip the view model of your weapon by typing 'cl_righthand 0' into the console, letting you play left-handed. However, when CS2 shadow dropped, the command was removed entirely, leaving left-handed players stuck with a right-handed view.

As reported a few days ago, Counter-Strike 2 players using Radeon Anti-Lag+ technology in the latest GPU drivers were finding that it didn't help matters at all. In fact, it resulted in accounts being banned as Valve's anti-cheat system didn't like the latency reduction system. AMD's response to the whole problem? Yank the drivers off the download page.

The highly-anticipated Counter Strike 2 finally launched last month for PC gaming platforms. This latest version of the game replaces CS:GO, and brings with it a series of graphical and gameplay upgrades to its competitive player base. However, going forward, macOS users won’t be able to play the brand-new iteration of the Valve FPS.

As a result of community feedback and user data, Blizzard has decided to reduce the effectiveness of Critical Damage and Vulnerable Damage in Diablo 4's overall damage calculation. During last week's Campfire Chat livestream, Class Designers Adam Jackson and Charles Dunn broke down the planned changes and their design intentions. Diablo 4 Season 2 Campfire Chat Liveblog Summary We try to break down this monumental change, the core issues that caused it, Blizzard's intentions, and the reasons why bringing down Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage will be good for Diablo 4 in the long run.

If you’re playing Counter-Strike 2 on a rig with AMD’s latest graphics driver you could accidentally get yourself banned from the game.

By Wes Davis, a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020.

Some Counter-Strike 2 players are receiving VAC bans after installing the latest AMD driver update, and Valve says the culprit is an anti-lag feature. Driver update 23.10.1, released earlier this week, fixed stuttering and crash issues with CS2, and added driver support for Assassin's Creed Mirage, Forza Motorsport, and The Lords of the Fallen. It also added CS2 support for Anti-Lag+, AMD's Nvidia Reflex-equivalent tech that lowers input latency.

If you're a Counter-Strike 2 player with an AMD GPU, pay attention: Valve has warned that the company's latest GPU driver has introduced a new feature that, if activated, will result in a Steam VAC ban. So, basically, proceed with caution.

Yesterday, AMD rolled out Anti-Lag+ support in Counter Strike 2 through its latest Radeon drivers but you should probably avoid enabling it as it can lead to a potential ban.

«Release notes for today are up» began the fairly typical message from the Counter-Strike 2 dev team, before things take a turn: «Shamone.» The world's greatest competitive shooter has in recent days been delighting players with a bug that has been christened the «Smooth Criminal», after Michael Jackson's dance moves that accompany the song of the same name, and feature exaggerated leaning postures. In-game players have been strafing and, thanks to this glitch, would sometimes appear to glide with the top half of their body leaning out in an odd manner: no doubt a thriller for them, but plain bad and dangerous for those on the receiving end.

Counter-Strike 2 built up an unbelievable amount of excitement for itself prior to its recent launch. Fans have waited years for Valve’s new shooter after exhausting hundreds and thousands (maybe even hundreds OF thousands) of hours in CSGO. Now that CS2 is finally here and open to all players, the developer has been releasing steady updates to address bugs, tackle other issues, and implement features. The most recent update fixes what could be one of the funniest bugs ever, much to our dismay.

Valve has announced that it will be discontinuing Counter-Strike 2support on older hardware and Mac so it can focus on 64-bit Windows and Linux.

Going forward, Valve says Counter-Strike 2 will only be playable on hardware that supports Linux and 64-bit Windows. The developer revealed support for Mac and older hardware like DirectX has been discontinued. 

Valve, the renowned game developer, has recently made a significant decision regarding one of their flagship titles, Counter-Strike 2. In a move that reflects the ever-evolving landscape of gaming technology, Valve has officially dropped support for Mac and older PCs. The future of Counter-Strike 2 lies exclusively with 64-bit Windows and Linux operating systems.

Movella launched its character digitization software Obskur as an all-in-one broadcasting application built in Unreal Engine 5 to make it easy for streamers to create their own VTubers, or virtual YouTubers.

Competitive shooter players have for years peeked around corners to try to get a jump on their opponents. But one method players are currently using in Valve’s Counter-Strike 2 is just criminal.

Counter-Strike 2 players have discovered a novel method of peek-shooting, the Michael Jackson Peek, which makes them look like the King of Pop, doing one of his slip-slidey dance moves. You might say there's been an outbreak of Smooth Crime, hee heeee! Sorry, I wish I were cool enough to explain this properly. It's probably best you just watch the footage below.

Counter-Strike 2 bugs and exploits are a regular source of comedy. In CSGO, I watched players deflect bullets by suddenly dropping their gun, so the shot would hit the rifle instead of their head. And I remember fondly some of the best trick kills, like players with one HP getting dinged in the face by a smoke grenade, and ragdolling to the ground. But a new CS2 bug is so extreme it’s prompted a response, of sorts, from Valve itself. As CSGO becomes once again available on Steam, Counter-Strike 2 might have its first legitimate meme.

We need to do some kind of wellness check on the Team Fortress 2 community. Sure, the game might have gotten a big summer update and smashed its all-time concurrent player record in the last year, but it's hardly the apple of Valve's eye in 2023. Players of the venerable shooter were left to gaze forlornly over at Counter-Strike 2 when that game was announced back in March, wondering if TF2 might get similar treatment «in another decade».

After the WGA writers' strike finally came to an end after over 100 days, you might have been anticipating the SAG-AFTRA actors' strike following suit as the union and studios headed back to the negotiating table. 

Valve has ended Counter-Strike 2 support for Mac and older PC hardware.

Players looking forward to enjoying a few rounds of on macOS or an older Windows PC will soon be out of luck, as Valve announces that support for both platforms will be dropped moving forward. The announcement comes just weeks after the launch of Valve’s long-awaited shooter sequel on the developer and publisher’s wildly successful Steam platform.

Since its release back in September, Counter-Strike 2 has gone on to become one of the rare titles for developer Valve where the critical reception doesn’t match expectations. At the time of publishing, the game currently sits at an aggregate of mixed user reviews on Steam.

Counter-Strike 2 has been out for a few weeks, which means players have had ample time to find exploits. The latest of which is... Michael Jackson leaning. Around corners. To peek enemies. It sounds ridiculous, but it's a big problem.

After years of hope, Valve finally released Counter-Strike 2 towards the end of September. The game – which sees it replacing CS:GO – exploded in popularity overnight. However, for those on older systems, the updated version of the iconic FPS will no longer be supported.

Counter-Strike 2 has enormous boots to fill, and it’s still early days. As the successor to the most popular multiplayer shooter of all time, Valve’s new FPS naturally needs a little time to settle and ease in. CS2 could be better than CSGO, but perhaps, less than a month after launch, we’re not there yet. At the same time, Counter-Strike players have been understandably frustrated about CSGO being – seemingly – removed from the internet forever. But actually, that’s not the case. If you’re not a fan of Counter-Strike 2, or maybe want to give it a bit more time before making the transition, you can still play CSGO on Steam.

Valve has released a new statement revealing its plans for Counter-Strike 2 moving forward. The studio has revealed that, owing to the technological needs of the recently-released titles, the game will only support 64-bit Windows and Linux.

Are you a Mac player who's been hungrily looking forward to the eventual Mac port of Counter-Strike 2, released last month, after sinking many hours and much pocket money into the preceding Counter-Strike: Global Offensive? Fantastic news, it's been binned off! In the course of making what they're calling "the largest technical leap in CS history", Valve have decided to discontinue support for MacOS. They're also doing away with support for older PCs, including DirectX 9 and 32-bit operating systems - in future, the game will be exclusive to 64-bit Windows and Linux systems.

Counter-Strike 2 seems to have got off to a solid start, but a few weeks after launch Valve has announced some big decisions. These will only affect a small number of players, but even so this is a real line in the sand that reflects the developer's ambition to develop this game for a decade or more.

Valve has achieved something remarkable with Counter-Strike 2, and has done it almost under-the-radar. The developer has managed to transition one of the largest and most change-averse competitive playerbases around from CS:GO to CS2 without any significant pushback, large-scale complaining, or splitting that playerbase. OK sure, it did rather brutally disappear CS:GO when the time came (and the recent 'mixed' reviews are mainly complaining about that), but the fact remains CS2 is out, it's great, and the vast majority of CS:GO players have moved onto it without a peep.

Mere weeks after release, Counter-Strike 2 is now the worst rated game that Valve has ever released. What has happened?

Based on recent Counter-Strike 2 Steam reviews, the much-anticipated sequel to CSGO has a lower rating than any other Valve game, including Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and its episodes, Portal, Dota 2, and Left 4 Dead. Counter-Strike 2 players cite issues with missing game modes, CS2 cheaters, and the total removal of Counter-Strike Global Offensive. The drop in Counter-Strike 2’s Steam rating arrives alongside a new CS2 update, which aims to address recurring problems with hitboxes and detection.

Counter-Strike 2 games can go on for a while, so there’s nothing quite as frustrating as losing a game you had in the bag for reasons outside your control. We’ve all been there; you’re pretty sure you’ve got the other team beat but one person on your team suddenly drops. You’re already close to victory, though, and the four of you can probably close it out – but one of your teammates decides otherwise, and forces a surrender vote through by themselves. No more, however, thanks to the latest set of CS2 patch notes.

Magnar Jenssen is a level designer with serious pedigree, starting his career at Grin before stints at Starbreeze, Avalanche, and then from 2013 onwards working for Valve. This was an auspicious year for Counter Strike: Global Offensive, with the Winter Offensive update in December 2013 adding two new maps to the game, Cobblestone and Overpass.

In the months following the announcement of Counter-Strike 2in March, the average number of active Global Offensive players grew by nearly 30%. That number is still holding, as the new edition has completely revitalized the game, adding some sheen to a shooter that was beginning to tarnish. It has re-entered the zeitgeist and asserted itself in a genre that’s been co-opted by battle royales and extraction shooters. Counter-Strike is back, baby.

Update: 02/10/2023: Subsequent to publication, the ban on St4ck's account has been lifted. 

Brian Jacques' Redwall books were my greatest obsession between the ages of approximately eight and 12-years-old. They're sort of The Lord of the Rings, but with talking woodlands animals, and their appeal for me consisted of three things 1) comedy British accents, 2) big fights, and 3) big feasts. I couldn't get enough, to the point that I tried to have one of my unborn siblings named after a badger warcry from the novel Salamandastron.

New World's first expansion arrived yesterday, and along with the addition of flails, the ability to turn into some kind of vengeful nature monster, a transformed zone and another expedition, it also solves one of my big launch bugbears: it's finally added mounts. 

Fans of the original (CS:GO) will be happy to learn that you can get the soundtrack of the iconic FPS in its sequel, , through a special music kit. This collection contains five nostalgic themes from the game with an extremely dedicated audience. Those looking to recapture the sounds behind their greatest moments from are able to equip this kit to change the sounds of a match.

New World is back, at least for now. The once-fallen MMO is again climbing the Steam charts, as Amazon’s first expansion, New World: Rise of the Angry Earth, releases on Steam. With doubled concurrent player count numbers and both the base game and its DLC climbing up the Steam charts, even pushing ahead of Valve’s own Counter-Strike 2 in some regions, it’s a promising early jolt to life.

is planning to raise the price of its ad-free service a few months after the SAG-AFTRA strike ends in Hollywood, according to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal.

Valve have released a small Counter-Strike 2 update that, amongst other things, stops mud slowing you down and stops incendiary grenades forming fiery rings in mid-air, like excitable kids with sparklers. There are also fixes for a shader compilation bug that may, nonetheless, still exist for AMD GPUs when playing this latest iteration of the developer's free-to-play team and objective-based shooter. Many of the larger issues returning players have, such as the absence of Mac support, are yet to be addressed.

The latest version of Valve's Counter-Strike series of online shooters was the biggest money generator on Steam last week.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists () has issued a statement now that the organization is resuming negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

Counter-Strike 2 has finally arrived and as the name suggests, it is the sequel to the original Counter-Strike which launched over 10 years ago. Due to Counter-Strike’s competitive nature, every step you take matters. If you’re a fan of first-person shooters, you might’ve heard the term tick rate before, but you may not know what it means. Counter-Strike 2 has made an array of exciting updates, including changes to the tick rate. Below, we’ve explained how tick rate works in Counter-Strike 2.

The latest Counter-Strike 2 Steam reviews have reduced the Valve shooter’s official rating, as the new iteration of the iconic multiplayer FPS draws criticism from players as compared to CSGO. Following the full launch of CS2, a variety of players cite issues regarding missing match modes – including Gun Game – and frustration that Counter-Strike Global Offensive has been completely unavailable. The amount of negative reviews directed towards CS, since the launch of Counter-Strike 2, has increased considerably, though the shooter still retains a positive rating.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most popular games on Steam if not the most popular. If this game currently isn’t in your Steam library you should head over to the Steam store right now and download it. I’ll give you a few minutes to take care of that and you can resume reading this article after you’ve made your purchase. Welcome back. What’s this, you didn’t get Counter-Strike: Global Offensive? Oh, you say it’s because it’s not listed in the store anymore but there are a number of other Counter-Strike titles like Counter-Strike: Source and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. My bad, I probably should mentioned that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was taken out via tactical air strike a couple days ago and replaced with Counter-Strike 2. Apologies for the clickbait title and misleading opening paragraph.

After a surprise announcement earlier this year, Valve surprised players once again by suddenly releasing Counter-Strike 2 as an update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Wednesday after a long beta period. Along with several new gameplay aspects, Counter-Strike 2 brings a few major changes, like weapon refunds and overhauled graphics, to the model that helped its predecessor become one of the most-played Steam games of all time.

Counter-Strike 2 has finally arrived, and it’s one of the biggest games to come out of this year’s long list of massive releases. The game dropped as a free upgrade to Counter-Strike Global Offensive, but its player count did the opposite. After just an hour, CS2 had more players than all of Steam’s other top nine played games behind it combined. It has now been a full day, and the popularity is only soaring higher. Valve has just revealed that the server capacity was exceeded in multiple regions.

Counter-Strike 2 was released to the public just yesterday, but Valve has already dropped the sequel’s first minor patch. 

With the release of Counter-Strike 2 players are swarming to see what this latest iteration has to offer. Unfortunately, that has led to a selection of errors during the launch period where players have been unable to access the game or enter a match.

It looks like cheating doesn’t pay, and Valve is out to prove it in Counter-Strike 2. In its first set of patch notes, Valve doesn’t mince words; it’s banning cheaters and penalizing parties caught benefiting from their activities.

Valve has launched Counter-Strike 2, marking the start of a new era for the competitive tactical first person shooter. The game is now available as a free-to-play game via Steam, a free upgrade and full replacement to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – CS:GO is no longer playable.

Take heed, Counter-Strike 2 players: Valve has issued a warning that not only will cheaters be dealt with harshly through permanent bans, those who merely «associate» with them will be punished for their bad behaviour too. What does that mean, exactly? We're still waiting to find out from Valve, who may be keeping details about this aspect of its anti-cheat program deliberately unclear to avoid circumvention.

Counter-Strike 2 has finally arrived and as the name suggests, it is the sequel to the original Counter-Strike which launched over 10 years ago. With so many players trying to get into Counter-Strike 2, it’s not a surprise that errors are popping up. If you’re unfortunate enough to be hit with an alert that says “an error occurred while updating Counter-Strike 2,” we’ve got some fixes for you to try out.

At the time of writing, Counter-Strike 2 has 7.5 million reviews on Steam, 88% of which are positive. That's pretty good going for a game that released less than 24 hours ago.