Quote Originally Posted by Bolivar View Post
Look, here's the thing, Vivi: I care about you. I know you like to put on this whole persona where you uncaringly dismiss people's opinions as if they're objectively wrong, but the truth is, it doesn't need to be like that. I don't want to hurt your feelings or cause disagreement or discord. I want EoFF to be a gaming utopia.
I honestly can't tell how much you're serious with most of this post or how much you're trolling but whatever, let's run with it in the interests of healthy discussion.

But the other day, when I was wondering why I died, I saw one of my teammates circle-strafe around a dude and unload an entire clip on fully automatic to take a guy out.

I don't know what game this is, but it certainly isn't Counter-Strike.
So your teammate sucked and as a result this isn't Counter-Strike? That sounds like the definition of Counter-Strike to me.

But there are major compromises that need to be addressed. Like why so many of the playlists deviate from what CS actually is.
Not sure what the issue is. Arms Race and Demolition essentially worked in one of the most popular server side mod in CS:S as well as a new game mode. How adding extra modes in addition to the classic competitive mode is a bad thing is beyond me. If you don't want to play them then don't. If you don't want to play a CS with them, then play CS:S. This is really a complaint about a non-issue.

Or why you don't have to buy Kevlar and a helmet in most of them.
Well, seeing as you don't buy equipment in the two new game modes and classic casual is meant to ease new players into CS it kind of makes sense. Again, classic competitive mode is still in there so if you want to play that then just play that.

Or why, to my knowledge, the MP5, arguably the most used weapon in competitive play, is absent from the game.
I don't know what servers you were playing on, but in CS:S the MP5 is the weapon you take when you can't afford anything better. Play actually revolved around the M4A1, AK-47, and the AWP with some people occasionally using other weapons. I can gladly say that a lot more weapons are viable in this game.

But the most baffling, offensive middle-finger to the fans is the fact that the Terrorists are wearing skinny jeans on the Office map. Is there a single person out there who can rationalize to me why the Terrorists are wearing skinny jeans on the Office map? I'd really like to know if there is. Because I would be absolutely stunned if anyone can explain to me why the Terrorists are wearing skinny jeans on the Office map.
Now you just be trolling. But in case you're not, who honestly cares?

But what I really want to know is if Valve or the team I am unfamiliar with who updated the game have offered any explanation for why the graphics are so horrible.
Care to elaborate? Because the game looks as good as any Source game. Actually, it'd be fair to say it looks better than most. Definitely better than CS:S.

You know what, I might as well say it, Call of Duty can run at above 60 fps on most PCs that are used for gaming nowadays (not even necessarily "gaming PCs") yet it looks like Crysis, ultra realism mod compared to this game.
This criticism might bother me a bit more if I thought any of the recent COD titles had art styles that actually looked good. But based on what I've seen watching a few competitive matches during MLG events that isn't the case. Sorry Bolivar, but we'll have to agree to disagree here. I'll gladly take any CS where the art style is fairly clean and easy to read on screen over any of the recent COD titles where everything kind of runs together in a non-distinct visual mess. And this is coming from someone who owns two copies of COD4 and dumped a few hundred hours into that games multiplayer. Things have been downhill since then for that series visually.

I'm not confronted with the unjustifiable lag,
I've had a couple of instances of really bad lag, but for the most part the experience has been quite smooth. I expect this will get ironed out in time. If not with the full release then sometime after.

the confusingly unfamiliar gameplay
I really need to ask so I can understand this complaint: if you don't want to play the new game modes, then why are you? Just play classic competitive if that's all you want to do.