Counter-Strike 2 officially confirmed by Valve in a series of developer diaries
Valve suddenly dropped a number of developer diaries sharing behind the scenes details on Counter-Strike 2, as well as a summer 2023 release window.
A sequel to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has been one the worst kept secrets in gaming this last month, but now Valve has finally confirmed it. Counter-Strike 2 is officially a real thing and it’s coming this year. Strangely enough, Valve chose to officially announce the game not with a reveal trailer, but with a series of developer diaries showing behind-the-scenes details on how CS2 is being improved over CSGO. It was also confirmed that CS2 will launch as a free upgrade to CSGO.
Valve dropped these Counter-Strike 2 videos on its YouTube channel alongside an official Twitter announcement on March 22, 2023. While the sudden volley of videos might be confusing at first, the team went on to share more concrete details as well. Counter-Strike 2 will launch in summer 2023. What’s more, it will be a free upgrade to CSGO. Limited tests of early builds of the game are expected to run in the months ahead.
Counter-Strike 2 had been all-but officially confirmed and revealed up to this point. It began with rumors circulating about an announcement and closed testing launching at the end of March or early April. Files for CS2 were also discovered in a recent Nvidia software update. It was then discovered that Valve had also filed new trademarks for CS2, further fueling the rumors.
Source: Valve
The idea of Counter-Strike 2 replacing CSGO is a very odd one, but not without precedent. It’s similar to Blizzard swapping out the original Overwatch with Overwatch 2, for better or worse. Even so, it looks like Valve is going out of its way to upgrade and improve Counter-Strike for a new generation of players. Be sure to stay tuned for more details and updates as they become available.
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replyTJ Denzer posted a new article, Counter-Strike 2 officially confirmed by Valve in a series of developer diaries
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Counter-Strike 2 Announced.
Free Upgrade!
https://counter-strike.net/cs2-
Would be cool if there was a "demaster" mode where it makes the game look like classic 1.x Counter-Strike.
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Whoah, I don't think I've played Counterstrike in probably 15 years (no joke) Is it still popular? This engine upgrade looks pretty nice!
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Asking for maps to be retired in CS would be like asking id to remove maps from quake 3
CS is the most popular competitive shooter. A new version can’t do anything to jeopardize the feel of the game. This is why CS: source was a flop. It deviated too much from the winning formula that 1.6-
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they did level up the maps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExZtISgOxEQ-
2/3 of those categories only go as far as lighting adjustments and super minor changes. The third one is hard to gauge. I get that this is what a lot of people want and maybe that's what disappoints me. They don't really say anything about new stuff or actual gameplay changes (smoke effects? Really?) so I'll withhold judgment but I'll be disappointed if it's 90% the same game. You're welcome to enjoy it, of course.
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i dunno, i think it looks great. basically bringing it up to the fidelity of valorant, which is fine for that kind of game.
also they just recently hit their lifetime high for peak concurrent players (1.4mil i believe?), so i can appreciate them not wanting to fuck with the formula too much.
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I don't think CS:S being flawed should be taken as an indictment of all change to the game. Mistakes are always made along the way to progress. UT2003 was bad but we got 2004 as a result and it was great.
Anyway, I understand that my personal wishes don't line up with what will probably be reality here. That's fine.-
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yeah like asking the NFL to make football 2
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They'd adjust. They'll complain for a bit and be split on whether they like the changes or not but the world will keep spinning. The progression from beta until now is pretty substantial evidence of that; it's doing just fine. Changes can make a game better. Plenty of evidence of that.
For the record I'm not suggesting it change into a different type of game with radically different gameplay. I do think mixing thing up over time keeps things interesting and can make things better. CS has a pretty substantial history of change over time so I really don't think any argument saying it can't change because reasons holds any weight.
An actual sequel can live side by side with CS:GO. They have enough players to afford a split.-
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I should be clear that while I respect the hell out of Counter Strike, I fucking hate playing it, Valorant too. :)
I also recognize that the Zen mentality of polishing a rock to perfection is a core principle of Counter Strike. Its very different from a game like Overwatch where the constant addition of new characters and intentional changing of the meta through regular balance patches (like a MOBA does) is its core principle).
Mixing things up would have pretty severe consequences, especially with Counter Strike being bigger than its ever been. -
A bunch of added/rebalanced stuff hasn't been walked back so get out of here with that.
I didn't necessarily suggest maps be changed but that has also happened in the past and those changes were for the better. I'd rather a bunch be straight replaced for an actual sequel. That won't fly as is so consider it a personal desire than argument for doing so.-
CS always reverts to the mean. Usually Valve giving skeleton crew support to their games is a negative thing but in the case of something like Counter Strike where millions of players want the game to remain the same, its actually a positive.
To your last point though, maybe they should have just given it a different subtitle instead of a "2". There was backlash over Overwatch 2 being designated "2" even though there were substantial changes to its game design and balance. The "2" for Counter Strike feels way less earned because its basically an engine refresh while trying to keep the game what it is (which IMO they should).
"2" sets a different level of expectations, and now that I think about it I'm kind of surprised that they went down that road after seeing what happened with Overwatch 2 "looking the same" even though the core game itself was very different.-
On their site they said more would be revealed closer to release, could be some more stuff coming.
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The "2" will be complete when PvE will drop but the changes they made are the most substantial since going 2/2/2. I'd argue they're much more substantial since 5v5 and the rebalancing of tanks radically changed the shape of the game, especially in the metal ranks.
Optimal pre-2/2/2 comps still played more like regular 2/2/2 comps (ability rotations and stacking passives) while the OW2 format is substantially faster and clearly rewards playing for the map instead of just playing the objective. I've played diamond and masters in both games and its so insanely different.
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More features will be revealed up until launch they’ve said.
Doubtful the core gameplay will be significantly different at least in the standard modes in any case. I do wonder if they will ever play with bringing up the sights. Probably not.
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Maybe we should move Thursday night shackbattles to CS 🙂
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well that's cool. But I think I sort of quit playing around 2003 lol. Maybe worth revisiting after this
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I don’t play CS and haven’t played it in like 20 years but COOL!
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Seeing those CS_ITALY alleys gave me the warm and fuzzies. Haven't played Counter-Strike in well over a decade, but (at the height of my love for it) I was playing easily 6-8 hours a day, for a few years.
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Apparently I don't even own CS GO. I have CS. And CS Source.
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I look forward to an incredibly small number of people committing to their insistence that CS 1.6 was perfectly balanced in every way as all things should be.
I believe that in the year of our lord 2023 there are still people who prefer beta4? to all other versions. I remember being able to zoom and strafe jump with the knife out on cs_backalley and oneshopt HBPs something like 25 years ago, and I have nostalgia for those days, I would never try to pretend that is the version I want everybody else playing.
CS:S was such a wonderful execution of updating things, but IMO the community never really appreciated it. I do believe this is at least where Valve learned that if they were going to drag a beloved game from the aughties into the modern era, they would need to commit to becoming loving curators and we got DOTA2 out of it.
I felt like CS:GO never really reached it's full potential. The MOBA genre and collapse of non-playlist multiplayer into Halo/COD/Console FPS "lobbies" really threw a wrench into servers where you could play with people and evolve a community and train and fuck around and find out.
Anyway, wooo! Let's go, a new Counter-Strike!!!!!!!!-
GO is the most popular game on steam and is the most popular competitive shooter, probably ever. Didn’t reach its full potential?
There’s a reason why people that loved 1.6 and beta cs hated source, and why source was quick to be killed off in favor of GO. I think you have your minority backwards.-
Admittedly, I didn't do any actual investigation into how popular CS:GO is or was, and haven't considered myself a member of the CS community since well before it's launch, just old nerd vibes :)
I do know it's incredibly popular for skin trading and esports gambling, and was even broadcast on major cable networks, but I never shook the feeling that it could have and should have been much more mainstream than it ever was.
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People got older, got jobs, families etc.
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Wait, are you saying that CS:S was peak Counter Strike?
There's good reason why the community was split for almost a decade, it felt awful compared to 1.6. CS:GO did what CS:S never could, which was to unify the community under one version of the game.
As for CS:GO never reaching full potential, Counter Strike has never been bigger, its literally the biggest game on Steam, bigger than Dota 2 ever was: https://steamcharts.com/app/730#All-
I think what I was trying to say was: that to me, there is still a pretty big delta between CS:GO "having the most players on steam of all time" and CS:GO "being the premiere esport of our time; the esport that even a random person-on-the-street would be able to name if you asked them to name any esport ever".
When I was younger, I really did believe it had the potential to supplant the NFL or at least one of the leagues that was striking regularly like the MLB or NHL, that's all.
Lots of unrealized potential for esports, which is still fairly young compared to all of broadcasting.-
CS:GO is one of the largest esports out there, I believe in the top 3. LoL is still the king but CS:GO is bigger than Dota 2 at this point.
As for esports hitting the mainstream, that's a whole other discussion. They will always appeal to their player bases most of all, which makes sense because knowing the game is so important, so it follows that the bigger the game the bigger its viewership will be. Getting outside of that is a whole other issue but I don't know if its possible to redesign a video game like CS to be appealing to people who don't play it, let alone a person on the street who doesn't know what it is.-
Its worth noting that Counter Strike is probably the most accessible esport from a viewing standpoint, even for someone who's never played the game or even played an FPS.
Every game has a natural narrative arc that couldn't be easier to follow. One team tries to plant the bomb. Will the other team stop them? If the other team plants the bomb will the other team be able to defuse the bomb before time runs out?
Its maybe the sturdiest structure for an esport I can think of, short of Rocket League where you're literally playing soccer with cars.
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https://twitter.com/CSGO/status/1638580639988580352
Pretty cool how it works. Surprised nobody else tried this before
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The new smoke effects are amazing.
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Seems pretty complicated for an online game. They’ve got some pretty good experience with physics in multiplayer. Between their expertise, the magnitude of this game, the source 2 update, and likely also their networking improvements it was probably a perfect storm
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Only thing that is maybe odd… the bullets wizzing through the smoke creates a window through the smoke, essentially, feeling like it basically renders the smoke maybe kinda useless?
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I think that's one of the more brilliant parts. It looks amazing and offers some interesting tactical ideas. The smoke tube doesn't appear to persist after the bullets are done so it will be good fun to see how this tweak to the mechanic works out. Super cool!
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Exactly. No more cheesy smoke bangs. If you are going to commit to shooting blind through the smoke you are going to give away your position.
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Yeah that looks badass
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What kinds of things would you prefer to see polished? I think they've hit some import criteria with their smokes. It's consistent across all clients, it fills a volume in a logical and sensible manner, it reacts to lighting in a logical manner, and the bullet smoke tube adds a mechanical layer while still behaving in a convincing manner. Outside of letting me put some pork ribs or a brisket in there for a long slow cook I think they've got the best smoke mechanics I've seen yet in an online competitive FPS game.
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They're a step up but it's too static and the way it fillsnitslef back loops like it's made of memory foam.
I would like the smoke to spray from inside out than their implementation which makes it start like a muffin top and fills outside in.
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Now I understand how casual Overwatch players felt when they said Overwatch 2 is just the same game. I haven't played Counter-Strike in over a decade. Looking at these videos now and evaluating it as a modern game, it's jarring seeing the mix of modern tech and decades-old anachronisms. The player animations look janky and everyone is still running around with their knives out. I guess these sort of weird quirks give the game its own character which isn't a bad thing.
If the last time I looked at the game was CS:GO launch day, are there any major changes to the formuila I need to know about?-
Unlike OW2, CS2 is literally just the same game with a coat of new paint.
This is the way it should be btw. OW2 is an evolving game while Counter Strike needs to be a game that is set in stone (which is why its actually good that a company like Valve devotes minimal resources towards evolving it)-
It would be franchise suicide for them to make drastic and sweeping changes HOWEVER putting new paint and some slight tweaks with an entirely new foundation (engine) that allows for a lot of interesting things moving forward is not only brilliant but the correct way to handle things. Also, keeping it free of charge as well.
Hello UBI and Rainbow Siege developers, take a BIG HINT. That's how you move to a new game engine and get your player base to come along with it.-
It might also allow them (or someone) to build new modes. The Battle Royale mode that they added four or five years ago was designed specifically around the limitations of the Source engine.
The engine couldn't handle the distant sightlines or the triangle counts for a map of that size so it was designed around a hill in the center that would guarantee that sightlines could never go past a certain point. Its definitely a creative solution but its also one that other engines don't have to worry about.
I don't know for certain but maybe Source 2 doesn't have those sorts of limitations, we'll see-
I'm a bit excited for the future. It would bring great joy to my heart to see a tidal wave of game mods on a new Source engine. The lack of mods for AAA games really feels like we've all been backed into a corner and starved for innovative content.
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I'm not sure total conversion mods are coming back. Game development is a lot more accessible than it used to be. If you can make a solid total conversion mod, it's better for you to just make a new game in whatever engine. Mods are still good when you just want a new mode or feature in the existing game.
I think if you want something really involved, but not a full game, the solution you want is probably a standalone template like this: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/fps-multiplayer-template-v-1
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It should be noted Quake 4 multiplayer did this and it fell flat on its face. The casual audience didn't like that there wasn't anything new and the hardcore players got burnt out.
CS is a different audience that hates change though so probably a better fit.
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I think it's not a bad thing, but it's really going even further in the philosophy that a sequel to a live service game is essentially a rebranding. They could have just patched all this stuff in, but they know that a new numbered sequel has a special meaning, and they want to draw the attention of a wider audience.
I think more and more we're going to be seeing fewer "true" sequels to online games and more of these types of sequels. Successful live service games never really die, they could keep going for generations. There will probably be a WoW 2 in this model for example.-
Yeah, I think they choice they're making to preserve the core game is totally correct. The branding may be incorrect though since it implies that there are lots of substantial changes. Overwatch 2 got a lot of backlash for being called Overwatch 2 (some of it deserved because the unreleased PvE mode will be the meat of it) despite making substantial changes to the PvP.
CS2 is correctly being faithful to a mature game that doesn't need to be mixed up. Perhaps a different subtitle would have been better, but we're already here so who knows.
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invites should be based on who downloaded the 1999 cs beta
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Don’t torture yourself! Lol
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Hope for CS3 if anything
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Any Campo Sanyo devs working on it? sadlol
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chris remo did the opera part of cs italy /s
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Does he even work for valve? Or is he a contract composer?
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Hah he’s still doing a daily crossword on YouTube complete with YouTube thumbnails
https://youtube.com/@ChrisRemo
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