Valve has released a surprisingly huge update for Counter-Strike: Source, over 20 years after the game’s initial release. Headlining the update is official 64-bit support, as well as various new visual effects that first appeared in Half-Life 2’s 20th Anniversary update.
What is the new Counter-Strike: Source update?
Released on 18th February, Valve has decided to revisit its classic title, Counter-Strike: Source. The additions are undoubtedly nice, even if it’s unclear as to why Valve has decided to update the game so long after its release. For context, the last update for the game of any form came in July 2021, which was a vague one-line patch note featuring “numerous security and stability improvements.” I’m not complaining – it’s just very random.
Not this update. This Counter-Strike: Source patch adds a ton to the 2004 title, most notably native 64-bit support. This will allow modern hardware to make use of additional RAM, as if you didn’t get enough FPS in the game already. On top of this, you can now use borderless windowed mode in the game, and the UI will automatically scale on higher-resolution monitors.
Bicubic lightmaps and radial fog have both also been added, a Source engine upgrade first seen in the Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary update. All in, it seems to be an update modernizing Counter-Strike: Source, which is good. However, there have been some reports so far of the update breaking various community servers which have worked fine for years. Only time will tell how this situation develops.
You can find the full list of patch notes for the new Counter-Strike: Source update below.
Counter-Strike: Source 18th February 2025 Patch Notes
- Added 64-bit Support. 64-bit binaries will automatically be launched on systems with a 64-bit OS.
- Added a borderless window option to video settings
- Added bicubic lightmaps (from Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update)
- Added radial fog (from Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update)
- Added support for Steam Networking
- Added UI scaling for high-resolution screens
- Made the default server name for listen servers include the player’s name
- Made the game launch in native resolution by default instead of 640×480
- Client-side prediction fixes (these fix ‘jank’/rollback in certain situations)
- Fixed a bug where when unducking, the view could glitch out if the player doesn’t have space to unduck
- Fixed gifts not randomly dropping when players are killed during the winter event
- Added sv_autobunnyhopping so bhop servers can have this wanted behaviour with client-side prediction
- Fixed a prediction bug where if the player was moved on the client, their input-based movement for that tick was not taken into account in non-player actions
- Improved prediction for walking on props and other entities
- Made certain client-side entities only trigger local prediction errors
- e.g. If the viewmodel experiences a prediction error, the player will not experience a prediction error
- Fixed prediction of viewmodel sway
- Fixed a prediction error regarding weapon idle animations
- Fixed certain breakable props not gibbing correctly
- Fixed an issue where certain variables like position would not be updated correctly to match the server in certain situations
- Fixed the player’s base velocity (eg. conveyors, moving items etc.) getting subtly out of sync from client/server