Its been a very long time since the last CS:GO operation and competitive map shake-up so this update, as far as I'm concerned, couldn't have come any sooner.

Operation Wildfire brings with it two new campaigns, timed missions, a bunch of bug fixes, map changes and most importantly the triumphant return of Nuke which has gone through quite the rework. Here's a bit more info and the patch notes:

Unlike Operation Bloodhound's more solo focused campaigns Wildfire brings something for both the lone wolves and the team players out there. 

The Gemini Campaign allows you to team up with a friend in order to complete some challenging missions and potentially even compete on the leaderboards if chasing high scores is something you desire. The Wildfire Campaign on the other hand contains a mixture of Casual, Arms Race, Deathmatch and Demolition missions designed around the idea of hopefully teaching players to use a wide variety of weapons and tactics.

Along with the campaigns Valve has added Blitz missions which are global events that appear periodically and task you with completing some sort of a challenge before the timer runs out and mission disappears. Beating Blitz assignments will grant you large amounts of experience and potentially items so if you do manage to catch them its well worth the effort. The only caveat is that you need to be Private Rank 3 before you can access them but that shouldn't be much of a problem given the experience gain in campaigns.

de_Nuke in all its shiny glory

The final big addition is the return of Nuke, one of the most iconic Counter-Strike maps that has been around since 1999. I'm nowhere near good enough to give you a proper analysis of the changes so if you're interested in what exactly is different head over to the CS:GO website where Valve has done some side-by-side comparisons. 

What I can tell you is that the visual redesign is gorgeous, as you can see in the image above. Gone are the days of brown, gray and gray-brown as they've been replaced with a much more lively and contrasting color pallet. This should be especially relevant when it comes down to recognizing silhouettes as its much easier to spot someone against an orange railing than it is in a dark-brown corner. But whatever the balance ramifications of these changes I'm glad Nuke is back in to the rotation.

If you're interested in the patch notes, here they are:

[OPERATION WILDFIRE]

- Operation Wildfire is LIVE: http://counter-strike.net/operationwildfire

-  Seven community maps available in Competitive Matchmaking as well as other game modes via the Operation Wildfire map group

-  The Operation Wildfire Access Pass ($5.99) is now available giving access to the following features:

-  The Operation Wildfire coin, upgradeable through the completion of challenge missions

-  An Operation Journal that tracks your stats in official competitive matches and includes a Friends Leaderboard

-  The cooperative Gemini Campaign, featuring replayable missions with individual mission leaderboards.

-  The Wildfire Campaign, featuring 30 missions in Casual, Arms Race, Demolition, and Deathmatch modes.

-  Blitz Missions, global events that grant bonus XP for completing a specific action (must be Private Rank 3 or above to participate in Competitive Blitz Missions).

-  Access to weapon drops from Operation collections: Cobblestone, Cache, Overpass, Gods and Monsters, Chop Shop, and Rising Sun

-  Exclusive access to the Operation Wildfire Case featuring 16 community-created weapon finishes and the all-new Bowie Knife.

-  Nuke has returned (available in Matchmaking included in the Operation Wildfire map group). For more details, visit: http://counter-strike.net/reintroducing_nuke

 

[GAMEPLAY]

-  ARMS RACE

-  The leader’s glow in Arms Race no longer shows through walls.

-   M4A1-Silenced has been added to the rifle section of available Arms Race weapons.

 

[UI]

-  Fixed AWP icon to better represent the weapon’s silhouette.

-  The English string “ALIVE” in the playercount hud element is now a localized token.

-  Inventory filter for All Weapons now filters out display items and music kits correctly.

-  Inventory sorting by Quality now better groups items within the same quality by their slot.

-  Updated the Nuke loading screen icon.

 

[MISC]

-  Fixed particle rain not following the “in eye” player if you were spectating someone.

-  Detail sprites (like grass) have been improved so many more can be rendered for much cheaper.

 

[SDK]

-  [vbsp.exe] increased MAX_MAP_ENTITIES to 20480 from 16384 to compile bigger maps.

-  Maps can have multiple radar images based on player height.

-  Added several features to support a new mission type: Co-op Strike (game_type 4, game_mode 1)

-  Added Co-op Strike items: Heavy Armor, Tactical Awareness Grenades, and Medi-Shot.

-  Added new spawn point (info_enemy_terrorist_spawn) for use in Co-op Strike missions to spawn enemies which can specify somethings like unique models, loadouts, behavior, etc.

-  Added an Exploding Barrel entity for use in the Co-op Strike missions.

-  func_hostage_rescue entity is now able to be disabled.

-  Added a Heavy Phoenix enemy.

-  Added item_coop_coin entity that displays how many (of 3) you’ve collected.

-  In Co-op Strike mode, bots will no longer try to path through “blocked” nav areas.

-  Bots can be set to “asleep” in Co-op Strike mode and they will stay put until they see an enemy, take damage or are the last enemy alive.

-  Added a game_coopmission_manager entity to help manage and relay data to other entities/vscript for Co-op missions.

-  The game_player_equip entity has been updated to allow maps to give any weapon to the activator with an argument.

-  prop_door_rotating now blocks nav when closed, locked and unbreakable.

-  Fixed an assert in prop_door_rotating where it tried to play a “locked” activity regardless of it had it when the player used it when locked.

-  Added OnFirstPickedUp, OnDroppedNotRescued, OnRescued outputs to hostage entities.

-  Added a convar (mp_c4_cannot_be_defused) that when enabled, prevents C4s from being defused.

-  Resurrected the HL2 env_gunfire entity.

-  Added two new convars for managing dropped weapons

-  weapon_auto_cleanup_time “If set to non-zero, weapons will delete themselves after the specified time (in seconds) if no players are near.”

-  weapon_max_before_cleanup “If set to non-zero, will remove the oldest dropped weapon to maintain the specified number of dropped weapons in the world.”

-  Added a third option to mp_death_drop_grenade which makes all held grenades drop on death (used in Co-op Strike)

-  Updated weapons in Hammer fgd to use weapon models that match the ones used when spawned in the world. Plus added some missing weapons.

-  Added env_sprite_clientside entity which is just a clientside sprite (doesn’t use edicts).

 

[MAPS]

-  Nuke

-  Now available in Competitive Matchmaking, and other game modes in the Operation Wildfire Map Group

 

-  Cache:

-  Fixed DM spawns

-  Improved radar polish

-  Improved visual polish

-  Added physics to fence in Sun room

-  Fixed numerous “pixel walks”

-  Fixed one-way wallbang at mid (thanks TomCS!)

-  Fixed fencing at T-spawn being non-solid (thanks JoshOnTwitch!)

 

-  Mirage:

-  Removed wall-lamps that blocked visibility from ticketbooth to mid in bombsite A

-  Removed shelf inside market near bombsite B (thanks TheWhaleMan!)

- Added a plywood board to bomb-crate in bombsite A to make throwing grenades under scaffolding more consistent

 

-  Slight adjustments to Safehouse, Lake, and Shoots