Why Is Anti-Lag Such a Big Deal in CS2?

With all the fuss surrounding the release of Counter-Strike 2, you could be forgiven for wondering what on Earth is going on. With a flurry of negative reviews making, it one of the most controversial new games of the year, why is anti-lag such a big deal?

The Story of a Problematic Sequel

CS: GO is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series and was released in 2012. The predecessor made a massive impact in the gaming industry and is one of the most popular games of all time. Naturally, this means that it’s a hard act to follow in terms of creating a sequel that keeps everyone happy.

Yet, no one expected the launch of CS2 earlier in 2023 to result in such a bloodbath that it would leave some streamers wondering whether the series will end here. The initial reviews were gentle enough, but things turned ugly when hard-core players began to post tens of thousands of enormously negative reviews that left it floundering at the bottom of Steam’s list of Valve games.

What Is the Problem with CS2?

Newcomers to the Counter-Strike series and casual CS: GO players might not notice a lot of differences between that game and CS2. In fact, a large percentage of the early CS2 reviews mentioned improvements like better graphics and more useful grenades.

It seemed like a decent if relatively unambitious sequel that wasn’t going to cause any big problems. This early review at www.polygon.com points out that it’s been a smooth transition to the new game that the developers have done a wonderful job on. It also mentions how the number of players grew substantially in the build-up to the release of CS2.

However, when the more experienced players got their hands on Counter-Strike 2, they soon let the world know that it wasn’t what they expected. There was talk of the gameplay being “off” and shooting precision being a lot worse. This was reflected in a growing number of poor reviews and then in falling player counts.

The Anti-Lag Issue Exposed

As if this wasn’t bad enough, a massive issue blew up with the game’s anti-cheat system. Stunned players were getting banned from playing CS2, and they had no idea why this was happening.

It was a bit of a mystery until it was revealed that the AMD Radeon driver was causing the game to detect a form of cheating, as explained by as explained in this article by www.tomshardware.com. The problem appears to have arisen from the hardware’s Anti-Lag+ support, which supports Counter-Strike 2 but was making it appear that the players were cheating.

How Has CS2 Fared in Replacing CS: GO?

After all the excitement of the build-up to the new game, it turned out to be a huge disappointment when CS2 hit the shelves and people started writing intensely critical comments on it. Will this game replace CS: GO or will the bitter online backlash cause Valve to bring back CS: GO?

A sign of what will happen next can be seen in the competitive gaming world, where CS2 has already replaced the earlier game. You can start making a bet on CS2 at Thunderpick as the new title has already replaced CS: GO in esports events. For example, major tournaments across the planet and with the leading teams are all covered. You can also find alternative games such as shooters and sports to bet on.

The BLAST event to be held in January 2024 as part of the Copenhagen Gaming Week is a sign that Valve is ready to keep the faith with CS2 as we roll into the next year. The reaction of pro teams to the next game is going to be crucial in this respect.

What Happens Next?

AMD has withdrawn the affected driver from the market while they fixed the issue, with Valve promising that anyone who has been banned because of it will be identified and reinstated. This should resolve the immediate issue but the big question that remains is whether the game has already taken too much of a hit to be successful.

The reputational damage suffered by CS2 over the anti-lag issue might not be the game’s biggest problem right now, as it languishes on Steam with a rating that looks awful to anyone who might be considering trying it. However, perhaps the team at Valve see this as a being a chance to recover some goodwill in the gaming community by sorting out a potentially embarrassing issue swiftly and without any fuss.

Will CS2 recover from this setback to become as widely loved and played as CS: GO? It’s still a long road ahead for this game to turn around the early bad feeling that hard-core players talked about so bitterly in forums like Reddit.

Yet, the first reviews that were written before the problems arose suggest that at the heart of CS2 lies a slick and attractive game that isn’t too far removed from the hugely popular CS: GO. If the criticism settles down and no more problems crop up, it has every chance of still being a mid to long-term success.