Despite being a long-time staple of PC gaming, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive isn't the most accessible game to newcomers. Fortunately, Valve is finally taking a stab at fixing that in its latest update by making enemies more immediately visible to the player.
A new option has been added to the game's advanced video settings called 'Boost Player Contrast'. This tweak enables a host of small visual tweaks to ensure that players can see enemies from any distance without it impacting too heavily on the visual design or providing too much of an advantage.
Enemies will appear sharper at greater distances, fog intensity on character models has been halved, and some maps (like Dust 2) have been modified slightly as well. If the model is in front of a background that is a similar colour to them, a small halo will also be used to make them pop out more.
To get a sense of how long this has been a problem for the game, back in the days of Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source there used to be modded character models that would be bright, garish colours to increase visibility. They were considered cheating by most people, so it's nice to see Valve finally addressing this issue officially.
Counter-Strike is a brutal game where one slip-up can take you of an entire round of play; anything that gives people a fighting chance without totally upending the competitive nature is a good move. It probably won't turn a newcomer into a sharpshooting pro, but with any luck it might keep them with the game long enough for it to no longer be an issue.
The Boost Player Contrast update is available now.
