I feel the grafix changes are not worth paying for a new game not really much different than what we already got. Most of the changes are just different sprites and animations.

Weapon models feel like toys.

Corsshair changes too much makes it worthless.

Game would almost be better with no corsshair at this point. I find not using the chrosshair leads to more kills. Trying to use it to determine where your shots go is pointless so why have it.

I see how trying to make it more realistic would sound nice but it is a game and reality is not very fun.

As a result the game now is dramatically more favored toward campers. If you like camping you will be really good at this game.

A lot of the "fun" kills and things people have enjoyed doing in css or even cs will no longer occur and will actually be virtually impossible due to the way gameplay is structured.

cs and css were more movement oriented. This game is dramatically different and it is more about shot spacing and box spray patterns. This is dramatically more realistic but is it more fun? On the plus side this means all real life aiming and shooting rules not apply and are very effective. This is also why the crosshair is pointless as it does not really indicate anything. Good players already have a sense for where the general center of the screen is. You simply need to make the player you want to kill be in that general area and then hold fire down for a second or so while drawing a box around the players center of mass. Just as in real life this leads to very effective kills and the recoil and natural inaccuracies of your weapon will trigger hs by doing this depending on the kick back. Once again very realistic but I did not really have a lot of fun.

Could I pwn noobs at this game, yes. Would it be as much fun as it is now, no.

I just do not see the point why even call it CS the game is now dramatically different. CS never was nor should be a realistic shooter. It is the king of fps not for realism but for fun and those are not the same thing. Realistic shooters were a fad and people liked it more b/c it was a break from the classic fps style. However trying to make every game like that is not the answer.

For this I would say to look at other games like NS2 and the newly released Tribes Assend. Now I have a lot of problems with Tribes but the actual gameplay is not one of them and the reason is not because it is realistic it is becuase it is fun and challenging and the pacing of the game. NS2 is similar in that the game is fun becuase of the pacing of action and how you could be attacked at any time from any direction. Realism in these two games would take the fun out and cause players to focus on how real it is rather than the fun experience. I am afraid that valve is losing the point of what a game is supposed to be by trying to hard to cater to the general console fad of the decade crowd.