CSGO gets new patch with stickers, pins for Half-Life Alyx release

By Nick Johnson

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Mar 23, 2020

Reading time: 2 min

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive got its first patch in eighteen days, bringing with it three new opportunities to roll the dice in the form of a patch pack, sticker capsule, and pin capsule to commemorate the release of Half-Life Alyx. The update also added an exclusive pin and music kit for anyone who had preordered Valve’s VR hardware, the Index.

The patch, sticker, and pin capsules are all available now in what Valve is finally calling a proper store, sitting where the coupon section used to be on CSGO’s main menu. The sticker capsule is available for 99 cents, as usual, with the patch pack and pin capsule selling for $1.75 and $9.99 respectively.

 

Half-Life: Alyx brings new items to Counter-Strike

Along with a grand total of 36 new items, those who purchased any of Valve’s VR Index hardware got some stuff too. Except it’s not exactly what they might have been hoping for.

At Valve’s announcement that those customers that had preordered the Index or its controllers would get exclusive Alyx-themed content, many lept at the chance. Unfortunately, their exclusive content seems relegated to a genuine version of one of Alyx’s already available pins, as well as a custom music kit.

 

To most, exclusive content means more than an available pin and a music kit, but there may still be hope. While not directly related to Counter-Strike that we can tell, the version of Half-Life Alyx that Index owners get for free comes bundled with something interesting.

According to SteamDB, the second depot, or file server, that Alyx will update from later today is called “Half-Life: Alyx Customer Only Maps.” So there’s still a chance owners can walk around Dust 2 as Alyx or Gordon Freeman, but it’s probably going to be in VR instead of in Counter-Strike.

 

The patch had little else in the way of updates, with the majority of Valve’s staff seemingly focused on the release of Alyx. The update’s stickers are a huge step down from those some Steam Workshop artists originally submitted for the capsule, like this awesome depiction of the G-Man from workshop contributor Apel.

After Alyx, is CSGO in Source 2 next?

Valve did fix two other issues with Sunday’s update. The developer added an engine command that cleared cached enemy AI behavior trees and renamed a mislabeled voice line for the terrorist agent Dr. Romanov.

That’s about all there is for Counter-Strike’s latest patch, but the good news is that now that Alyx is out, the devs will have some more time to dedicate to Counter-Strike. That, and the fact that Alyx looks amazing in Source 2 means that there’s always a chance that fans get the long-awaited CSGO Source 2 port that they’ve been looking for.

Hey, at least the Asiimov looks great with the Lambda stickers, right?