Riot Games’ upcoming FPS title Valorant is aiming to compete with CS:GO for a share of the very saturated market, appealing to Counter-Strike players with a variety of features, but one crucial element could be missing when the game launches.
The developer has been vocal about 128-tick servers and the end of ‘peeker’s advantage’, as well as a hard stance against cheaters — all music to the ears of longtime competitive FPS players.
Bragging about these intentions so prominently, it’s clear that Riot know what people are asking for in a truly innovative title. There’s still lots to be announced though, and it looks like one crucial setting might be lacking in Valorant — the options for stretched resolutions.
In many PC titles, it’s possible to use a different aspect ratio and resolution to create a ‘stretched res’. This is often used by players who feel that it gives them an advantage, as targets appear wider, taking up more pixels, and are therefore easier to hit (in theory).
Stretched resolutions actually caused a big controversy among competitive Fortnite players, when Epic Games removed the option from the game and told players it was no longer going to be allowed in competitive matches.
It looks like Valorant may already be in for a bit of controversy of its own though, as Senior Game Designer Trevor ‘Classick’ Romleski has suggested that stretched res will not be an option in the game. As players have been trying to practice their aim before Valorant releases, Classick advised: “If you’re going to use 4:3, I would recommend NOT stretching if you’re practicing for Valorant.”
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The dev continues, “I know this will be a topic of discussion, and it will be a later conversation I’d like to have with you all.” This appears to leave the possibility of stretched res coming later, but for now, Riot are advising not to use stretched res in preparation for Valorant.
For some players, especially those coming from CS:GO, it’s possible this could be a deal-breaker for them, particularly those who currently play on a 4:3 stretched resolution.
It’s possible that Riot is preventing stretched res in the interest of balance, so that a player can’t get an advantage by switching their resolution. This was the case for Fortnite, but mainly because Fortnite is cross-platform, meaning console players didn’t have the option at all. Valorant is set to be PC only, so this shouldn’t be an issue.
In the interest of fairness, Riot has already confirmed that all the characters or ‘Agents’ will have identical hitboxes. The lack of stretched res could be another effort to maintain this consistency in gameplay.
