And just like that, Valve surprised all by releasing the long-awaited sequel to Counter-Strike: Global Offense. That’s right, after years of speculation, a juicy leak and subsequent beta launch, Counter-Strike 2 is now available to download on Steam for free. Now that’s a good price.
In classic Valve fashion, instead of going the traditional route and announcing the release date via flashy pre-launch trailer – like say, Call of Duty – instead, last week the CS2 team began dropping subtle hints across its social media platforms.
It first started on September 20, when the CS2 X account asked its followers if they had any plans next wednesday. Then, six days later, it was announced that CS2 was leaving beta, followed up by a banner change that reads: Dawn of The Final Day.”
CS2 brings the 23-year-old competitive FPS into the modern era and has updated all of CS: GO’s assets into Valve’s Source 2 Engine, as well as bringing updated visuals, a new rating system, volumetric lighting, and dynamic smoke grenades, updated maps, a new 128-tick multiplayer server architecture, enhanced audio, and much, much more.
Sadly, it doesn’t seem like Valve will be continuing support of CS:GO as an option for players who prefer the old version as it has subsequently been removed from Steam, and the CS2 team all but confirmed this with a teary-eyed gif.
Also, seeing as CS2 is a live-service game, with all player-earned and purchased content brought over from its predecessor, there’s a very slim chance CS:GO will be released as a separate game like the original, the CS:Source sequel, and Condition Zero. Bummer, at least we have the memories.
Though, it’s not like you’re going to miss it anyways, according to the SteamDB top concurrent players chart, the game has so far peaked at a whopping 1,362,423 within the last 24 hours! Counter-Strike 2 is now available on Steam, and you can count me in once I’m off the clock. You take the point.
