Valve has rewired Counter-Strike 2's bomb to make it more spectacular, but potentially less deadly

have huge ramifications. There aren't many games where the addition of volumetric smoke grenades would be a headline feature. But in CS2's hyper tense battles, true 3D smoke cover has game changing consequences.

Now, with the advent of Season 5, Valve has made another tiny-yet-huge change. Put simply, it's changed how the bomb works, giving players more of a chance to survive after it detonates. Valve detailed the changes in a Steam post (via PCGamesN). "Now, when the bomb detonates, an explosive wave of destruction will flow from the bombsite through the map."

This won't make much difference if you're standing close to the bomb, with Valve emphasising that "you're toast". However, Valve explains that "the shockwave dissipates around corners and doesn't go through walls" meaning that a bit of canny positioning will keep you alive after detonation, preserving your precious gear into the next round.

But how will you know if your hiding spot will keep you alive? Well, Valve has thought about that too. As the bomb counts down, your health bar will flash to highlight how much damage you'll receive in your current position once it goes off. The shockwave effect has been pre-calculated for all defusal maps, which presumably means it'll be the same each time.

Valve hasn't posted any clips showing the new bomb tech in action, but Valve YouTuber Gabe Follower has uploaded a video detailing the changes in Season 5, alongside some footage of the shockwave. He also discusses another new feature which, currently, is only available in private testing: A new console command that enables players to detonate grenades remotely by shooting them. You can imagine the knock-on effect such a system would have in a Counter-Strike match, so it'll be interesting to see whether Valve implements it more widely.

Alongside the bomb changes, Season 5 also introduces two new weapon and sticker collections, one with an Arabian theme and another that's all about spy tech. There's also a new map, Cache, which replaced Overpass in the active-duty map pool, plus five community maps that have been added to various modes.

While Counter-Strike 2 remains the biggest game on Steam, it's not the only entry in the series that's doing well for itself at the moment. Its predecessor, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, has racked up an impressive player count after it was de-absorbed from CS2, attracting tens of thousands of players despite not being listed on the steam store.