CSGO fans have to check out this visually stunning fan film

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive might be made in Source, but one fan film shows what CSGO might look like in 20 years.

Created by Youtuber dysn, a CSGO fan film has users stunned with its depiction of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Set to the pulsing undertones of The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” with some added touches by sax players JK Sax, the five-minute video takes place in an alternate universe and follows a Counter-Terrorist named Kai.

There’s a quick explanation of the movie’s plot prior to its character’s rampage through some of CSGO’s most recognizable maps. cs_office, cs_cruise, de_vertigo, and de_train all make an aappearance in dysn’s film, recreated and remodeled to fit the story. They join other classic CSGO maps. It’s hard to call the prodution anything short of incredible.

The movie even features its own take on the infamous corridor scene from the movie Inception, with Kai running down a hallway flipped on its side. The gamous Garry’s Mod logo “g” is included, and fans even get a surprise villian to cap it off. Note that the villian’s reveal is spoiled in the beginning credits, so fans should skip that if they want to be surprised.

Note: There several ellpilespy warnings on the edit, as it features strong stobe effects during some moments.

CSGO and Unreal Engine show CSGO graphics potential

It’s much more than an edit and viewers can’t call “Blinding Lights” anything other than a full-fledged film. It’s a testament to both the power of the Unreal Engine and how much CSGO’s fans love the game and its competitive nature.

“Blinding Lights” may not be the first time CSGO has appeared in the Unreal Engine thanks to the dedication of its creator. According to dysn, the movie is for an entry into the Sparkles Editing Competition 3.0, set up by CSGO YouTuber Sparkles. This isn’t dysn’s first taste of CSGO movie-making, with the creator responsible for Beyond the Summit’s CS Summit 6 map flythroughs from earlier this year.

Unreal Engine and CSGO make for amazing screenshots

Viewers should definintely take the time to browse through dyns’s other edits, especially the behind-the-scenes peek at just how the creator pulled it off in the powerful Unreal engine.

This isn’t the first time that creators have taken a stab at porting CSGO into Epic’s engine, but those ports are normally static images that show what CSGO could look like if it leveraged Epic’s powerful suite of tools. In the past, both Cache and Dust2 have gotten the Unreal Engine treatment.

What engine does CSGO use?

CSGO uses the Source engine, but in the past several months many of CSGO’s pieces have made their way to using Valve’s Source 2 tools. Game files from Dota 2 and inside CSGO show that CSGO’s lighting and graphics are slowly making their way to Valve’s famous Source 2 engine. The game’s panaorama UI is technically a Source 2 tool, and a leak earlier this year shows that Valve was in the process of porting the shooter’s maps to Valve’s more powerful engine.

Is CSGO dead?

CSGO isn’t dead. If anything, stats show that the game is getting more popular as time goes on. Even with the release of Riot Game’s Valorant and several scandals that have rocked professional CSGO in the past months, the game has been at the top of Steam’s playercount charts for months.

In 2020, it hit a million concurrent players for the first time ever and has averaged over 900,000 players logged in at the same time for almost nine months. There were some concerns that Valorant could overtake CSGO with the new features it introduced to CSGO’s core concepts, but after a quick dip in Counter-Strike’s player counts during Valorant’s open beta, CSGO is very much thriving.