Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Update Nerfs AWP, Brings More Map Tweaks

Operation Vanguard is over, but not without fanfare. A new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update was pushed yesterday, bringing several changes both large and small to the game's weapons, maps, and more.

First off, tagging values have been updated to the point where they've provided a guide to explain how the system works. Read it on the Steam Community page.

Among the tweaks made to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's arsenal is a decrease in players' scoped movement speed with the AWP and Autosnipers, effectively making peeking around corners while zoomed-in a riskier move.

The Tec-9's magazine size was also cut to 24 rounds, down from 32, and the MP7, MP9, and Mac-10 now have improved accuracy. The M4A1-S got bumped up in price slightly, costing $3200 instead of $3100.

Several maps were tweaked as well. Dust2's skybox around Long A doors, Catwalk, and Short have been opened up, granting some additional space up in the air for long-distance grenade tosses. Mirage got a similar skybox treatment behind the apartments among other fixes.

Overpass, Cobblestone, Train, and Cache were also updated, and Shorttrain has been re-added to map rotation. Check out the extensive list of map tweaks on the official Counter-Strike blog.

One of the most notable new features in the update is the StatTrak swap tool, which lets you transfer the StatTrak value between two weapons. No more losing your kill count when selling or trading a skin. You can buy the swap tool on the Steam Community Market.

StatTrak weapons can now be used in trade-up contracts as well.

Finally, chicken kills are now registered in server event logs, displaying info for both the attacker and weapon used. Temporary April Fools' joke or not, let's hope that one's here to stay.

Chloi Rad is a Staff Writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @_chloi.