Valve has finally officially announced its overhaul of CSGO for the Source 2 engine, with the brand new moniker Counter Strike 2.
After teasing the imminent launch of Counter Strike 2 this week, Valve has finally announced what's next for Counter Strike. The company took to its newly renamed @CounterStrike Twitter account, saying that it's excited to announce Counter Strike 2. The tweet goes on to describe Counter Strike 2 as "an overhaul to every system, every piece of content, and every part of the C-S experience." Alongside this announcement is the reveal that the game will be arriving in summer 2023 and that will be a free upgrade to CSGO – which is already free to play.
That summer date is later than the original rumoured launch at the end of this month, but fret not as Valve took to the Counter Strike Website to announce a limited test for the game is live right now for a select number of CSGO players. According to an official F.A.Q being chosen to participate in the test is determined by a few factors including "recent playtime on Valve official servers, trust factor, and Steam account standing".
You can check if you've been selected to join the limited test for Counter Strike 2 by launching CSGO and checking for a notification in the games main menu. Fret not if you don't have one as Valve has confirmed that more players will be added to the limited test over time ahead of the full-scale launch in summer 2023.
PrAWPer upgrade
Alongside the announcement Valve released a series of videos to show off some of the upgrades that are coming as a part of the Counter Strike 2 experience. First off is a video on upgrades for the in-game maps.
The map changes are split into three approaches. Touchstones are maps that haven't been changed at all outside of lighting. Upgrades which use new lighting and rendering systems to produce realistic materials, lighting and reflections for the maps in question. Finally there's overhauls which fully rebuild the map from the ground-up to take advantage of the new Source 2 tools.
The other major announcement in this set of videos is that the games tick rate will no longer matter. In previous Counter Strike titles the game calculates shooting or movement in small miniscule intervals, with the time in-between not being recognised. This is something most players might not notice, but for Counter Strike 2, Valve has gotten rid of this so there's no longer a margin of error for inputs.
Valve seems to be making all of the correct moves with this upgrade to CSGO while not messing with what makes the original so good. It's bound to get players back into the game in a huge way.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to check my account for an invite to the limited test.
