Riot laat je betalen om je Valorant Guns in Counter-Strike Guns te veranderen

Heruitgegeven door Plato

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Valorant’s next cosmetic bundle is looking eerily familiar. The Black Market pack, arriving on April 12, is an unsubtle homage to Counter-Strike conveniently timed with Valve’s recent announcement of Counter-Strike 2.

Interessant, de Zwarte Markt-bundel (opent in nieuw tabblad) is the exact opposite of Valorant’s typical style of loud, impossible-looking magical skins. The five included skins transform default Valorant guns into a close approximation of their Counter-Strike equivalents. For example:

De Vandal wordt een AK-47
De Bulldog wordt een FAMAS
De Marshal wordt een Scout (deze twee leken al behoorlijk op elkaar)
De Classic wordt een Glock-18
Het mes wordt een vlindermes

In case you’re still unsure if the similarities are a coincidence, the Black Market bundle even references Counter-Strike’s terrorist/counter-terrorist format by changing each skin’s appearance when you’re attacking or defending. If the reference holds up, I assume you’ll only see that wood-grain Vandal on attack.

Wissel van kant // Wissel van skin. De Black Market Bulldog, Vandal, Marshal, Classic en Butterfly Knife Melee hebben unieke verdedigers en aanvallers. Bundel ligt op 12 april in je winkel. pic.twitter.com/MIKsW9Z0QD10 april 2023

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Reacties op de bundel zijn op passende wijze gemengd. Sommige spelers genieten van de brutale Counter-Strike-make-overs, terwijl anderen dit opvatten als een teken dat Riot wordt geïntimideerd door de buzz rond Counter-Strike 2 (opent in nieuw tabblad). Personally I think these skins, while simple, are a huge improvement over Valorant’s dreadfully boring all-black default skins. It’s a shame that they’ll probably be wildly overpriced: official pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but judging by the way Valorant tends to price bundles, expect to pay anywhere from $60-$80 for all five skins (or $16-$23 per skin).

“I mean guess it’s fine, but I can’t justify paying money for generic skins for weapons I’ve used in every FPS shooter for the last 20 years,” wrote Redditor xStickyBudz (opent in nieuw tabblad).

Another common reaction is disappointment that the attack/defense skin swapping feature will be exclusive to this bundle. Valorant players have been asking for a similar feature that works for any skin for years, but according to Riot, it hasn’t materialized because of the potential strains on hardware requirements.

“More skins and more memory = more load times,” wrote associate art director Sean Marino in a antwoord (opent in nieuw tabblad) on Reddit. “We want players to get in the game quickly and not have a bunch of things going on in the background preventing you from doing that—more memory means bigger hardware memory requirement.”

Fair enough, but if I were a Valorant player I don’t think I’d be satisfied. Would players really mind slightly longer loading times if it means more freedom to show off the skins they’ve paid hundreds or thousands of dollars on?

Riot blijft zich inzetten om Valorant voldoende low-spec te houden om overal op te kunnen draaien, maar dat brengt offers met zich mee.