Wildfire

A short rundown of the new operation wildfire

Operation Wildfire is spreading like wildfire through the Counter Strike community. Pun intended. After a long drought and the disaster of the winter update, which caused Valve to undo the changes from all the backlash it was receiving, we are finally getting a new operation, case, many needed game changes, and perhaps most importantly the return of Nuke. I'll get into all that in detail in just a moment.

Let’s start off with the operation itself. Alongside the main Wildfire missions they now have co-op mission in the Gemini campaign. While neither of them require you to play competitive Valve has added a third type of mission which are called Blitz missions. They happen for two hours three times a day. They are your standard competitive matches, but set on the new maps.

Speaking of the new maps there are seven of them. Thanks to an awesome group of people I met playing Casual; I have seen them all. It was literally the most fun I've had in CS:GO in ages. We played soccer and went on tours of the maps.

Cruise was the first map I played on, and the one where the soccer matches happened. It is the only hostage map introduced in Wildfire but it is very pretty. The map feels huge but you can easily get from one side to the other. It is easy to rush with a SMG and trap the enemy.

Coast was the second map I had the pleasure of playing and it seems to be the most popular since I've had to play it the most in four hours of DM and Casual. It’s set in a small Italian village and is a surprisingly good map. At first glance it doesn't seem like anything special but in the game modes I tried I never fell victim to some of the more annoying aspects of CS:GO. Like the terrible spawns on Deathmatch, how Casual can be a cluster of mess if both teams are rushing.

Tulip seemed like a city in Venice with its canals and the night time setting really made this map stand out to me. It was the first map I felt like AWPing was more of a prominent role. The natural curvature to the map always seemed to have both teams scored towards the A side of the map. I think in two games of Casual I saw B side of the map once and that was because of the aforementioned tours myself and my new friends did rather than actually playing.

Royal reminded me of a few other maps I've played. The castle look, and the snow are two of my favorite themes. If it would of been set at night like Tulip I could see this being my favorite map based solely on looks. I really liked the fact it was a map that promoted quick games. It seemed like within less than a minute after round started we had already engaged the enemy team but it never felt like being forced down a hallway into a confrontation. There is plenty of room to maneuver around and gather intel before engaging or if you need a way out of a sticky situation.

Mikla’s aesthetic definitely felt inspired by the map Italy in some way. Maybe that’s just my imagination, but I really liked it. It looked like a bit of a slum but you could tell it used to look pretty. I didn't like this map that much outside of the look. It has some great spots for gameplay but I felt lost playing this map. I had this problem with another map but liked playing on the other one much more since I was able to do decently well. That map is Empire.

After several matches I still haven’t seen B site. As I mentioned before, I liked this map overall and I was able to do well somehow but I still feel like I should not have that much of a problem getting to a bomb site quickly. Maybe it’s for balance. Maybe I suck. Either way the map in my opinion is still a good map.

Santorini is an actual island in Greece located in the Aegean Sea. After some images on Google I now see where this map gets its good looks from. This map felt a little bit slower paced from the rest. Maybe people were just learning the map or it promotes a more cautious play style; I don't know. It did feature some very nice spots the get into fights though. I can't think of a single time the enemy was able to get a jump on me while approaching.

The last map left to talk about isn’t necessary a new map but the evolution of an old fan favorite. That’s right everyone Nuke is back and better than ever. The vents have been simplified, outside has been modified heavily giving T’s better protection, and there is now a ladder going to silo. I think the biggest change of comes from the much increased graphical fidelity of the map. It looks very sleek, and modern. The community has long harped that this map was CT sided but I actually feel the opposite is now true. This map even though a new take on a classic will take some getting used to and learning but that has never been a bad thing in CS:GO. If you have never been a fan of Nuke then this might actually change your mind.

That’s all for the maps now let's take a look at the new Wildfire case. It introduces a new knife to CS:GO. The bowie knife. I am still not sure if this is a tribute to the late great David Bowie but I can't shake the feeling it is. This is actually the first case in a long time where I liked most of the skins. I know not every skin will be unanimously liked by everyone. Though the best part about this case is that it adds skins like the AWP Elite Build to go along with the P90 and AK-47 versions of the skins. A lot of these skins are from the same collection of previous ones. I really like that idea. I'm still holding out for an all snake themed collection or a new ECO collection skin. The skins and cases are still a little high right now, but as per protocol with each new case. Some really good skin deals should be popping up over the next week. I was able to snag a AWP Worm God StatTrak for around $4.50 USD.

That’s about wraps everything up. There is more to talk about in the update log for CS:GO but I've covered the most interesting bits and the subject matter. Now get out there and complete some missions! Don't forget to check back here for more news, and updates in the world of video games.