We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map skillfully captures real life Oregon stand-off

CS:GO Oregon map

A new CS:GO map from veteran layout creator Nipper depicts the ongoing, real life stand-off scenes at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. Although the occupation has never quite become this violent in reality, the recreation seems to depict the setting with a distinct degree of accuracy – certainly against the stills and videos that’ve been circulating on news media since the start of the year.

CS:GO stands to attention on our list of best PC games.

“A group of heavily armed patriots known only as ‘Vanilla Isis’ have decided to launch a rebellion against their tyrannical government!” explains Nipper on cs_wildrefuge’s Steam Workshop page. “Using their brilliant tactical mind they chose their first target: a mostly unoccupied bird sanctuary and wildlife refuge. After about 2 days of holding this territory from the feds they have unfortunately run out of vital supplies like slim jims, energy drinks and beer.

“In an act of desperation for more supplies they have taken a couple of orange jumpsuit wearing bird watchers hostage. Now with human lives at stake the feds have been forced to respond.”

With that, it’s fairly obvious Nipper’s intentions are to use the map as a satirical swipe at real life events, however what I find most interesting here is context. Replaying famous historical battles in any number of war-based games is something which is pretty commonplace in the world of videogame shooters, however depicting contemporary events – even if over-exaggerated or loosely connected, as is the case here – still feels a touch uncomfortable.

But it’s also quite remarkable, again, given the accuracy Nipper appears to ascertain here. For a closer look, here’s some footage as captured by PC Gamer:

Thanks, PCG.