Valve have just released a new Counter-Strike operation called Vanguard. These things always get me back into CS. If you haven’t taken part in one before I’d recommend giving this one a go. Sure it costs $6 but I find I tend to make my money back from selling the additional drops that it brings on the Steam market. This Operation they have expanded on the idea of missions from Operation Breakout and taken it even further. Buying a ticket to Vanguard gives you the usual journal but includes two maps that have chains of missions on them and completing each mission grants you a drop. One of the second missions needs you to kill 20 of the chickens floating around the new maps and has turned most of the DM servers into a chicken hunting mini game. The best thing thing so far has been killing a chicken right in front of someone and gloating about it and then at the end of the game they were one chicken short. Many laughs were had.
My impressions of the new maps so far; Bazaar is my favourite seems like it should be good, Season is a nice reskin of a favourite, Workout seems a bit too large and open, I have never liked Backalley and I haven’t had a chance to check out Marquis and Facade. There have been only two downsides for me; you’re only allowed to complete so many missions before they are locked for four days and Valve has launched an additional two mission maps but requires an additional fee for each of them. That seems a bit greedy to me.
Overall it looks like a lot of fun.