Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a great game. A team shooter that is easy to start but very hard to master and a thriving esports title. But it also has head problems. CS.MONEY Blog tries to find the source of the game’s current headache. By the way, we have these agents cheaper than Steam Marketplace at CS.MONEY!
Head Animations
Heads are special body parts in CS:GO. They require separate armor, and each headshot deals increased damage. Moreover, heads have some issues within the game. For example, it twitches when shot from behind: the animation itself does not look very cool as the player model lowers its head too quickly and jerky before abruptly returning to the original position.
To make matters worse, it makes headshots from behind the target much more difficult! Considering that most of the guns in the game can’t kill through a helmet on the first hit, this jerky animation has led to ridiculous misses and frustration more than once!
There’s another factor: most models do not keep their heads straight. As a result, it is tough to hit the backs. Combined with the twitchy head animation, it looks buggy and unrealistic—unpredictable, which is more important. Even the best players, literally the best in the history of CS:GO, sometimes miss the back of the head. Not even to mention ordinary LEM players. What a headache!
Head Camo
There are even more CS:GO head problems. Model heads come in different shapes and hitboxes. To give Valve some credit, the development team dug into the game seven years ago and swapped out the horrendous hitboxes for less horrendous hit-dogs (haha, got it? It’s because they have a form of a sausage). Back then, it significantly improved the quality of the game, as the new hitboxes were much closer to models’ visuals, with a few exceptions: Vertigo Drip Gang Attack Squad and Dust 2 Defenders. The former had bags sticking out that could treacherously peek around the corner and uncover positions.
The latter is much worse. In real life, mitznefet (the helmet bag used by the Israel Defense Forces) is needed to blur the head’s silhouette. As a nice bonus, this thing also creates a shadow. In CS:GO, it’s useless and only gets in the way: hitting it does not cause damage. And speaking of balance, Dust 2 Attackers do not wear such things and subsequently do not mislead enemies.
This problem has a simple solution. A few years ago, the Rainbow Six Siege community sighed in relief: the developers finally reduced some Operators’ head hitboxes. In particular, Blitz, a GSG 9 Operator, got HSed when hit in helmet ridges, but the patch fixed it. CS:GO developers can resolve the mitzvahs thing even in a more straightforward way: just remove them and leave the helmets! It’s unlikely the community will start whining about it much.
Head Shape
Hitman’s main protagonist Agent 47, has an elongated face. Wikipedia says he is dolichocephalic, which means his face is noticeably long vertically. CS:GO models have oval heads rather than football-shaped ones. And their hitboxes are oval. It’s natural and realistic, but in CS:GO and its shooting mechanics, ovals work in peculiar ways.
Here’s the deal: you might’ve noticed that CS:GO weapons have the range parameter, indicating the distance at which a shot hits a 30cm plate. But the caveat is that we’re talking plates, a round thing, while CS:GO heads are oval! As a result, the range parameter loses its usefulness.
Perhaps the development team should change the vertical inaccuracy to be higher than the horizontal inaccuracy. And the models themselves, specifically their heads to be higher, not wider. Such a change will reduce the randomness of shots. Wouldn’t it be an excellent idea for a competitive first-person shooter?
Head Hitboxes
You already knew Number K The Professionals is the best agent in the game. And not only because he is memed about or got on stickers in the recent capsule. The fact is that this is a pay-to-win skin: it can be an Attacker on any map, and this guy’s head is the smallest in the game. And not because of the tight stockings, but because of the tiniest hitbox.
It wasn’t always like that. Before the hitbox update, when they were still boxes, all models had heads (as well as other body parts) of the exact hitbox sizes. But after the update and thanks to the development team’s efforts, everything changed. The new hitboxes were adjusted to the shape of the head, and at the same time, they became different for different factions.
Gameplay-wise, it means that SAS models have the largest heads, and the Professionals have the smallest. And we’re not talking about a measly 0.00N percent. The difference in head size between a British commando and an American terrorist is almost 17%! That’s huge. Here’s another example to ease understanding: today, the difference in damage between M4A1-S and M4A4 is about 15%. That 15% has shaken up the meta a lot. And the difference in head hitboxes is even greater. For a competitive shooter, it’s just too big. To make things right, all models should have the same hitboxes as they were before. It’s been seven years; Valve, please take action!
As you can see, CS:GO has enough headaches. Therefore, if you are a real tryhard, we advise getting yourself a Number K to reduce the percentage of headshots received. And a couple of skins to set up some style. So just visit CS.MONEY and go for it.
