14 ms·

Counter-Strike 2 – Limited Test for select CS:GO players

451 points by swores 4y ago

maxbaines 4y ago
Imagine Garry’s Mod.
- ohgodplsno 4y ago
  So, S&box which is already made on Source 2 and already made by Garry?
  - c7DJTLrn 4y ago
    As a Garry's Mod veteran, S&Box looks like something entirely different. Although Garry says it's a kind of sequel, it doesn't look like it is. It's more like a meta game engine. Or metaverse (god I hate that word.) I don't expect it to be a hit sadly.
    - andrewmcwatters 4y ago
      S&box is so confusing to me coming from a guy who through early GMod releases released something as soon as possible and released updates frequently. It's the complete opposite strategy. Do nothing for several years, and then hope people buy it when it comes out.
      - c7DJTLrn 4y ago
        You took the words right out of my mouth. I think Garry overcorrected and became a perfectionist concerned more with the code and engine than making something that people will want to play. Garry's Mod was fun because it was silly. It was far from perfect but we were happy putting thrusters and balloons on jeeps and flying around. He's lost sight of that it seems. He wants to build something perfect and I fear that's going to make it a sterile experience.
      - n42 4y ago
        that's a fair point, but it's not exactly an audience of none. there's a fairly large play tester base. it's just invite only.
    - n42 4y ago
      after GMod was launched on Steam with much better support for Lua scripting, what we call Garry's Mod grew into just one game mode (the sandbox gamemode). with S&Box, I think Garry's idea is that the GMod sequel is just one of the game modes. he/they are focusing on the developer platform first and foremost. I think there will be a GMod 2 gamemode that resembles what we remember (balloons, thrusters, etc)
popcalc 4y ago
Those smoke effects are beautiful!
- polotics 4y ago
  Is it just me, or does the added colour saturation on some of the before/after pics make CS2 look like Fortnite?
  - mckirk 4y ago
    I'd say it's a lot closer to Valorant than to the max-saturation graphics of Fortnite. But I think they found a good balance, it still looks like you can take the world seriously imho.
  - haunter 4y ago
    Nah Fortnite is much more vibrant especially since the new Unreal engine update https://youtu.be/O6GC8TZbJmI https://youtu.be/O6GC8TZbJmI It’s more colorful for sure but still looks “pale”
  - tand22 4y ago
    The saturation and brightness looks overdone in my opinion. Too unrealistic and cartoonish.
  - fleetfox 4y ago
    It's an attempt to solve "player readability". It's common complaint in CS:GO. Many pros play with color vibrance cranked in driver or monitor settings.
  - jccalhoun 4y ago
    the new gui reminded me of Valorant.
  - skeaker 4y ago
    That would hardly be a bad thing in my opinion, given that Fortnite looks fantastic
asabla 4y ago
Pretty amazing how well the core concept of Counter-strike still holds up today. Really looking forward for the technical articles which will supersede this launch.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
Overtonwindow 4y ago
This is amazing. This is truly a solid upgrade.
time0ut 4y ago
I never thought I would be excited to play CS again, but here we are...
mckirk 4y ago
Amazing to finally see some work being put into CS, and just this smoke grenade sneak peek already makes me very curious to see how this will play in practice. It's clear at least that they aren't afraid of changing the meta in a rather substantial way -- which is of course dangerous on one hand, since I'm guessing CS is so popular precisely because of its timelessness, but also necessary on the other hand if we ever want to improve upon it.
- chrsig 4y ago
  if starcraft/starcraft 2 is any indication of what might occur, they'll just be treated as two completely different games.
  - toasteros 4y ago
    There's a part of the website that states it'll be an upgrade to CSGO. I wonder if that means we're losing CSGO, or if there will be some sort of "legacy mode" that either retains CSGO as an option or simply shims its gameplay into CS2.
  - pawelmurias 4y ago
    Starcraft 2 and 1 are very different games not slight variations of the same shooter
- birdyrooster 4y ago
  People still play 1.6 competitively so of course we will add one more flavor. Just like MTG players and new formats.
- barrysteve 4y ago
  CS does change substantially between releases. The movement has gotten slower and less nimble since CS:Source and the AK/M4 primary dominance is markedly reduced in CS:GO.
- calderknight 4y ago
  CSGO has had a lot of work put into it. It's a very different game than when I started playing it (over 10 years ago). I remember it wasn't even developed by Valve, originally. It was developed by Hidden Path Entertainment. For a long time after it was released, CS 1.6 and Source were still more popular than it. None of the maps in the current Active Duty pool were included in the initial CSGO release. They've either been re-made from scratch or are entirely new. Every weapon other than maybe the knife has undergone balancing changes in terms of cost, reload speed, movement speed, accuracy, etc. Various new weapons have been added to the game. New game modes have been added, including Danger Zone, which is pretty much an entire game of itself. Battle passes have been introduced. Skins implemented. Etc., etc. - and 1.6 and Source are all but forgotten. I think this is actually the key to understanding the significance of CS2. It looks very similar to CSGO. But, in 10 years time, I suspect many major changes will have been made that will distinguish it very much from CSGO, updates that would have been impossible if they'd stuck with the source engine.
sigmar 4y ago
I'm happy to see more game devs eschew realism for the benefit of gameplay. Does shooting a bullet clear a tunnel through smoke IRL? No. Does making it do that make for some cool gameplay? hell yes
- sph 4y ago
  We're also getting out of the 2008/Xbox era of FPS design where everyone was going for a gritty, brownish Desert War realistic look. Think early CS:GO or Gears of War. Finally we can return to having some colours on ours screens other than dark yellow and brown.
TheCaptain4815 4y ago
How do we get early access?
- 6581 4y ago
  https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81F4-0C18 https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81...
nonethewiser 4y ago
> As a result, regardless of tick rate, your moving and shooting will be equally responsive and your grenades will always land the same way. Is this a signal that they will reduce tick rate? Based off what they said, what would the reason be not to? I’m familiar with tick rate as a user but I’m not sure how it manifests in the code/hardware. Like, if it’s some setting they can easily change or if it’s the consequence of something else. I wonder if they can easily reduce it to lower costs or something.
- takoid 4y ago
  Valve is getting rid of tick rate entirely. Here is a video which explains it briefly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqhhFl5zgA0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqhhFl5zgA0
  - nonethewiser 4y ago
    Interesting, I will watch that when I get a chance. Maybe it addresses some of these thoughts already. I wonder how much this is just reframing the concepts though. It kinda seems like they are just increasing tick rate tremendously because the type of system we call tick rate has changed. I mean, there has to be some interval at which the game is updated right? Wouldn’t that be the tick rate?
  - Thaxll 4y ago
    There is no such thing as removing tick rate, the video is confusing, I think it's improvement with rollback and also gameplay improvements with how grenades work etc ...
  - haunter 4y ago
    Sounds more like rollback netcode to me. You can’t just remove tick rate.
    - bakugo 4y ago
      The concept of "rollback netcode" is something that generally only applies to fighting games, shooters with dedicated servers use lag compensation instead which just means that, every time you shoot someone, the hit detection is done on the server but the server rolls back the player's position depending on your ping to make sure their position roughly matches what you saw when you shot. CSGO2 is just improving this so the rolled back player positions can be interpolated between frames instead of only being able to roll back to wherever a player was on an exact tick, which is what it currently does.
sourcecodeplz 4y ago
Variable tick-rate, volumetric smokes, Source 2 engine. It will be AMAZING!
- matsemann 4y ago
  sub-tick updates is interesting. Remember it being a source of frustration 15 years ago, wonder how they're working around it.
Thaxll 4y ago
"Sub-tick updates are the heart of Counter-Strike 2. Previously, the server only evaluated the world in discrete time intervals (called ticks). Thanks to Counter-Strike 2’s sub-tick update architecture, servers know the exact instant that motion starts, a shot is fired, or a ‘nade is thrown." Not sure what it means but it's probably related to the rollback tech in the source 1 engine, which is pretty outdated.
- entropicdrifter 4y ago
  It means they're increasing the granularity of the timeline of events in order to improve accuracy and fairness.
  - JusticeJuice 4y ago
    Yeah, I'm interpreting this as instead of sending an integer of the tick that something occured on, they're sending a floating number of when it happened. I assume the float they send will have a limit in accuracy however. So really it's not like ticks are 'gone', they're just getting much much smaller.
    - _cenw 4y ago
      The ticks aren't going away. They're just sending exact timestamps for movement so the server side view of a hitbox is more accurate when rewinding hixboes. The difference on 60 tick was sometimes large enough to miss headshots on faraway targets. It'd of course help if their clock sync and anti-drift measures were better now. It's NTP hard mode.
    - Sniffnoy 4y ago
      Is there a reason you would expect them to use floats here instead of fixed-point? I would naively guess the latter.
      - gravitronic 4y ago
        They just meant that things now happen within fractions of a time slice, instead of always landing on exactly 1/60th of a second boundaries.
Sponge5 4y ago
I've been hearing about Source 2 port of CSGO since 2015. Now I can't believe it actually happened. When I quit playing a few years ago I was at over 5000h played. I might add a couple hundred for old times sake
- tiffanyh 4y ago
  To put 5,000 hours into perspective. There's only 2,000 hours in an entire year, if you work a typical 9-5 job, 5-days per week. This would be like play CS as a full-time job for 2.5 years straight.
  - izzytcp 4y ago
    [flagged]
  - tstrimple 4y ago
    Play times are often wildly inaccurate for me because I leave games up and running over long periods of time. Especially games like Dwarf Fortress or Rimworld. I could have them running for literally days at a time with me only hopping in between meetings or something to advance things a bit.
localplume 4y ago
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skilled 4y ago
Great work by the team. Let's see how it all feels when the game comes out. The new smokes will have a massive impact in competitive play, perhaps more so for the entertainment value which comes from all the live events throughout the year. Good for Richard Lewis who pretty much put his reputation on the line by calling out the fact that the release was coming. [0] [0]: https://richardlewis.substack.com/p/sources-yes-counter-strike-2-is-real https://richardlewis.substack.com/p/sources-yes-counter-stri...
Phelinofist 4y ago
HL3 when??? Jokes aside, Valve does awesome work. Proton alone is a gift. Steam as a platform is best in class.
- blueridge 4y ago
  Reminder: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time
- localplume 4y ago
  [dead]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
singularity2001 4y ago
https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81F4-0C18 https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81... How do I gain access to the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test? Players are selected based on a number of factors deemed important by the Counter-Strike 2 development team, including (but not limited to) recent playtime on Valve official servers, trust factor, and Steam account standing. How do I know if I've been selected for the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test? If you are chosen to participate in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test you will receive a notification on the main menu of CS:GO. If you receive an invitation select "ENROLL" and begin your download. When the download is complete launch CS:GO and select the "Limited Test" option to play the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test. How often are players added to the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test? More players will be added to the Limited Test over time. Keep checking your CS:GO main menu to see if you have received an invite. How long will the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test last? Counter-Strike 2 is expected to ship Summer 2023.
hed 4y ago
This is unorthodox but will it have something like func_vehicle in the original Counter-Strike? Discovering “fun maps” servers gave me a second wind with that game long after I was no longer a twitchy teenager doing 5v5
klarite 4y ago
Now for the love of all that is holy: revert or fix the weapon sounds! Half of the reason I love Apex Legends is the sound engineering and how it contributes to the experience and satisfaction of the overall gameplay.
- takoid 4y ago
  You might be getting what you wish for: "Counter-Strike 2 sounds have been reworked to better reflect the physical environment, be more distinct, and express more game state. They have also been rebalanced for a more comfortable listening experience." https://counter-strike.net/cs2 https://counter-strike.net/cs2
- TechBro8615 4y ago
  It's funny because "audio bugs" are one of the most frequent complaints in the Apex community. But that's probably just because the players have gotten so used to depending on spatial audio when it works properly, that they get especially frustrated when it doesn't.
  - TheCapn 4y ago
    I've always found the complaints about audio weird. It almost seems like something that plagues consoles or low end hardware? I only say this because I'm a day 1 player of Apex and can maybe think of a half dozen that audio has failed me, but for known things like the super quiet Octane pad landings having no audio or prior to Ashe's ultimate being made louder. But if you go to the Apex subreddit, especially daily threads there are dozens of users complaining about it as though it is a pervasive issue that everyone should care about. Is it random, but I've been lucky? Is it poor hardware? Is it only on consoles?
  - tym0 4y ago
    Doubly interesting knowing that both their engines are descendants of Source.
- isatty 4y ago
  Valve is usually pretty good at sound, atleast it is in Dota 2. I can follow an entire game with only sound effects (I also did play the game for 10 years, which contributes).
jacooper 4y ago
Hope it remains free and easy to run on light laptops
- lavela 4y ago
  I second this. From my youth where I just couldn't afford a better pc, to now where my gaming pc has been off for half a year again because I can't be bothered to switch computers, the relative undemanding nature of Counter Strike has been part of the core identity of the game and reason to stick to it for me. (And of course it's just nice for as many people as possible to be able to play it)
zppln 4y ago
As someone who has been holding ramp on Nuke for like 20 years I'm glad the upgrade looks dope.
zzixp 4y ago
Valve made a game again! TF2 when :)
- sophacles 4y ago
  15 years ago. TF3 when?
  - thulle 4y ago
    A few years after half-life 3?
- web3-is-a-scam 4y ago
  I’ve been replaying Portal 2 on the switch with my wife and Valve games really are something special. We need more of them. I want to play HL: Alex so badly but can’t justify the price of the VR headset, personally.
nonethewiser 4y ago
I don’t play CS anymore so I don’t appreciate this firsthand. Besides the smokes, it looks pretty much the same. Do the physics feel different or something? My understanding is that this is CSGO ported to source 2. I’m not clear on what the differences between the engines are, or if it was a rework of the original engine or completely new.
- jccalhoun 4y ago
  As I understand it, the real advantage is that it will make it easier to make and maintain mods and skins and things than the aged CS:GO version. So they want to make it so that it basically plays exactly the same except prettier.
  - emoII 4y ago
    Well the new smoke mechanics will definitely be a game changer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y9MpNcAitQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y9MpNcAitQ
  - Melatonic 4y ago
    The thing that always killed me about CS:GO was the lack of mods and custom maps. They exist, sure - but not in the amount and creativity that was available for CS:Source or CS 1.5 and 1.6 CS started as a mod so it only makes sense to have tons of cool custom maps
    - jccalhoun 4y ago
      Agreed. I played CS back in the beta days and I loved the different maps and things like the hostage and even the VIP scenarios. I miss that variety. dust2 is good but how about that one where you were small and you could turn the gravity down so you could jump all over? rattrap? something like that.
    - ceedan 4y ago
      CSGO does not cater to casual players at all. I hope that changes a bit with CS2. I started playing CS as a 24/7 cs_assault public server player before getting competitive.
Workaccount2 4y ago
I'm dubious about the changes to smoke. The volumetric stuff, is cool, but being able to shoot holes in it and blow it away with grenades is a really huge game play change. I suppose they have to shake up the game a little, but the CS community is very stubborn about change. We'll have to see how they take it.
- matsemann 4y ago
  If you look at the video, the smoke slowly fills the void again. https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/apps/csgo/images/csgo_react/cs2/smokes_vid2.webm https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/apps/csgo/images/csgo... I think it could be a cool new meta.
  - bravetraveler 4y ago
    I'm for it, and I know a few older-generation players who are as well Smoke grenades have been a sort of movable one-way mirror for too long; being somewhat counter-intuitive
- orbital-decay 4y ago
  I'm sure they had plenty of feedback on all new features from the selected pros. It doesn't necessarily mean the change is good, of course, but at least it can be reverted.
- johnchristopher 4y ago
  > I suppose they have to shake up the game a little, but the CS community is very stubborn about change. We'll have to see how they take it. Just learn from CS:Source and pour more money into tournaments et voilà.
dsab 4y ago
Nothing about new weapons and shooting model, it will be the same arcade joke
- make3 4y ago
  it's a game not a shooting simulator? and one of the most successful at that. i'm not sure making it more realistic would achieve anything at all
andrewmcwatters 4y ago
Sub-tick updates sound to me like they're still using a tick rate system, but specific CBasePlayer mechanisms will now undergo interpolation using UserCmd timestamps alongside their rewind buffer to understand specifically where you were during gameplay as opposed to looking backwards in the rewind buffer and not making interpolated calculations based on timestep. There is still an upperbound where additional granular game states don't occur and that upperbound is based on framerate, afaiu. We use a similar system in Planimeter Game Engine 2D.[1] Planimeter engineers are former Source Engine developers. [1]: https://github.com/Planimeter/game-engine-2d/wiki/Tick_rate_and_bandwidth https://github.com/Planimeter/game-engine-2d/wiki/Tick_rate_...
- tines 4y ago
  I love the promise of Planimeter but it's kinda intimidating to get started with. Are there any example games with source that I can tinker with?
  - andrewmcwatters 4y ago
    We were doing some experimentation with a future Planimeter Game Engine 3D product, but will be moving back to Game Engine 2D development this upcoming quarter, with a new website planned, a getting started tutorial path, and sample game code included from internal projects. The current version includes example code in the game folder. I am hoping that a getting started path will encourage new users to help one understand core workflows we've designed for developers, starting with creating entities in a test map, and then updating those levels, and finally, building your own fully-custom features which tie into premade systems.
    - tines 4y ago
      I'm really looking forward to this. The fact is that there's no game engine (that I could find after hours of searching) that offers out-of-the-box multiplayer for skilled programmers who just want to make a game, and if Planimeter can deliver that _and_ have good documentation and a clear ramp-up path, it would appeal to a huge audience.
kuntau 4y ago
It's CS2 not CSGO2?
glanzwulf 4y ago
Haven't been this excited about CS in a while. I'm coming back baby!
- metaltyphoon 4y ago
  Same! Heck yeah!!!
- stingraycharles 4y ago
  I have literally lost 1.5 years of college around 2001 - 2007 due to Counterstrike. We had a clan with several people in my dorm, and it was awesome. It was also around that time that I felt like I had a productive day if I did laundry, and I had to really force myself to remove it from my computer as I realised it was simply too addictive for me to start a few quick matches all day long. In hindsight, I don’t really regret it, it was probably one of the last times in my life I could procrastinate like that and get away with it reasonably well.
  - ksec 4y ago
    It is nice to hear these story, just to know I am not the only one with Gaming addition problem in Uni / College. And I think 3-4 years into the society I stopped all gaming completely. Working Life is exhausting.
    - pizza 4y ago
      Linux thinclient as my dormroom desktop: some of my best grades semesters Windows gaming machine: some of my flakiest semesters
    - lintimes 4y ago
      Incredible that shortly after many of us went through this, professional competitive gaming could later be a considered career.
      - vecter 4y ago
        Yeah but only 20-30 people in any region make it as a pro player. The odds are just about as bad as being an NBA player. You didn't miss out on anything.
pipeline_peak 4y ago
Source is showing its age, just switch to Unreal already… It’s not like Valve makes games anymore.
- esskay 4y ago
  Given unreal is owned by their biggest competitor theres little to no chance of that happeng. Valve arent really a video game developer anymore, they just tinker on the side for fun.
  - capableweb 4y ago
    Granted, last time Valve released a proper game was in 2020 (Alyx), but to say they are not a developer anymore isn't super fair. They take their time, and their priorities probably are elsewhere, they still do develop games.
- tapoxi 4y ago
  Valorant, CS:GO's closest competitor, is in Unreal and looks similar. These games are going for high framerates and running on the majority of PCs, even ones with integrated graphics. Switching engines wouldn't do them any favors, and it would severely cripple their modding tools.
mberning 4y ago
This is exciting. Guess I need to build another windows PC.
- blueridge 4y ago
  Me too!
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- tapoxi 4y ago
  Valve ships all their games on Linux and Mac, so you don't need to run Windows.
  - GormHouj 4y ago
    >Can I participate in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test on Linux or macOS? [1] No. The Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test is only available on Windows. I'm sure this will change with an official release though. [1] https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81F4-0C18#cs2ltos https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81...
    - awill 4y ago
      Wouldn't Proton let you run the Windows version?
  - mberning 4y ago
    Have you tried to play CS:GO on a Mac? I can tell you that it does not at all feel the same as a PC.
  - bravetraveler 4y ago
    If you wish to participate in CS2 testing however, you do need Windows I was hoping being a seasoned CS:GO player on Linux might bump me into a niche to get a ticket, but alas - Windows only for now
m3kw9 4y ago
I hope they don’t turn it into Modern warefare
ksec 4y ago
>Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a 2012 multiplayer tactical first-person shooter developed by Valve So that is a free upgrade after 11 years. How are they suppose to make money? Edit: Thank you for all the replies. No idea CS GO have loot box and cosmetics IAP. My impression of CS is still stuck in the 1999/2000 era. It is also amazing how long they kept the game running online. I guess since it is not a RPG there is very little things to store. Keeping running cost low. Purely from a Graphics POV Source is definitely showing its age. Not that it matters as much for CS players.
- jimbob45 4y ago
  How are they suppose to make money? Whales bring in far more money than upgrade fees.
- kbar13 4y ago
  it's a free to play game. they literally print money on cosmetic items.
- skyyler 4y ago
  I would be willing to bet that a single day of lootbox profits would be more than an entire year of game sales.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  You sweet summer child. CSGO is INSANELY profitable. Valve makes free money on every single cosmetic purchase, and takes a cut of EVER COSMETIC 2ND HAND MARKET SALE OR TRADE.
  - skeaker 4y ago
    Specifically 2nd hand sales that take place on their marketplace, which is Valve's own cash store. Players can still do items-for-items trades for free and that powers a lot of third party markets where there is no Valve cut.
gadders 4y ago
I wish some of these latest AI advances went into giving us better in-game bots so I can have fun playing on my own rather than be sniped by an expert player from half the game away who thought he would play on the newbie server for (his own) fun.
- aceazzameen 4y ago
  I might start playing FPS games again. I'm too old to compete with younger people with more time than me.
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    >I'm too old to compete with younger people with more time than me. Excuse when young: No wonder I suck, I'm competing with grownups with better computers than mine. Excuse when adult: No wonder I suck, I'm competing with youngsters with more free time than me.
    - a4isms 4y ago
      Sorry, are we talking about videogaming? Or a career as a programmer?
      - nathants 4y ago
        everything is the same.
    - aceazzameen 4y ago
      Haha, the sweet spot only lasts so long.
  - testHNac 4y ago
    In CS GO you really get better with Practice. I tried some Aim Practice Maps from the workshop. That helped improve my aim. Don't get that opportunity during the actual game. I used to play for 30-40 mins a day, that wasn't sufficient time in game to improve. Especially against players who are playing for the better part of a day.
danwee 4y ago
Is it just me or as the quality of the game improves, it's more difficult to spot the enemy? In CS 1.6, if you have a cop/terrorist standing against any wall, you definitely will notice it (mainly because walls/buildings/whatever didn't have that much quality regarding details). But in the video of CS 2, since the quality is so great (both for cops/terrorists and for the rest of the maps), somehow I think it's kinda difficult to distinguish others. Like in real life I guess?
- mrkeen 4y ago
  I had this experience when I played COD 4 (2007). It definitely felt different than the usual scanning for enemy player models.
- aeternum 4y ago
  I think you're right and it's generally a problem for gameplay. Real life scenarios often involve a lot of hiding and waiting. If a game becomes too realistic it starts to simulate that which leads to a boring game.
- hgs3 4y ago
  The situation was even worse when Valve added custom skins players could buy. Some of those skins blended in with their background a little too well. Their initial "solution" was to add more lights to the maps to brighten them up, but that approach is obviously not great so they added a system to boost player model contrast dynamically against the environment [1]. [1] https://imgur.com/gallery/P37nKBs#o3QNSgs https://imgur.com/gallery/P37nKBs#o3QNSgs
- mpsprd 4y ago
  If you check the video on maps they made everything brighter and made aesthetic changes to improve acquisition, so it was covered.
esskay 4y ago
It's always somewhat baffled me that Valve didn't do more with the CS brand, and instead allowed Call of Duty and (to a lesser extent) Battlefield to be the go-to FPS games.
- dgellow 4y ago
  Valorant, CS:GO, Apex are the most streamed FPS according to https://gamesight.io/leaderboards/fps-games https://gamesight.io/leaderboards/fps-games. The counter strike player base is really massive.
- capableweb 4y ago
  Is CoD and BF really more popular than CS? Hard to find numbers for CoD and BF, but CSGO currently have 1,000,000 online players right now, ~0.5 million viewers on Twitch. CoD Warzone + CoD MW 2 has ~50k viewers on Twitch, but unable to find number of online players, but I cannot imagine it being 1 million if there is only 50k viewers on Twitch.
- rejectfinite 4y ago
  If you play on consoles sure...
KronisLV 4y ago
I catch myself wishing for something that would mix the game up a bit - say, new or different weapons, or maybe a system where you could assemble your own weapon skins from multiple materials or customize parts individually for different looks. Then again, playing it safe because it's a popular competitive game title is probably a good idea and the improvements sound really good! Seems like a great way to modernize the game without changing it too much, while bringing people's items and such forwards.
- xracy 4y ago
  I think subtle changes are going to go a lot farther in this game. In particular, I'm imagining the smoke changes are going to be a bigger change than they seem...
  - Eji1700 4y ago
    This exactly. CS has a ton of established theory built in. Some of these changes are kinda equivalent to "pawns can take in front of them" level of disruptive to the established understanding/meta.
    - the_af 4y ago
      I'm fascinated about communities who play the same game for decades and don't want any changes to "the meta". Is CS truly so good that any change which forces someone to re-learn the ropes is unwelcome? Do they want to keep playing the same game for another decade?
      - Ekaros 4y ago
        I think in general the community can try games like Overwatch, Apex, Valorant, COD, BF etc. And be pretty certain that most of the features and game mechanics from those wouldn't really make CS a better game. I think they probably want to keep CS at least on core level same for more decades. It has been around this long so something must have been done right.
Melatonic 4y ago
So....anybody work for Valve and want to get me in on this? I do not have a ton of CS:GO playtime unfortunately but I do have an assload of CS:Source along with probably even more playing CS 1.5 and 1.6 (started in the early beta days). Also worked briefly as a video game tester and now I do system infrastructure - definitely good at finding bugs and gameplay improvements :-)
Melatonic 4y ago
So....anybody work for Valve and want to get me in on this? I do not have a ton of CS:GO playtime unfortunately but I do have an assload of CS:Source along with probably even more playing CS 1.5 and 1.6 (started in the early beta days). Also worked briefly as a video game tester and now I do system infrastructure - definitely good at finding bugs and gameplay improvements :-)
- CyborgCabbage 4y ago
  https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81F4-0C18 https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81...
TechBro8615 4y ago
Will there be a battle royale mode, or have we finally moved past the trend of adding one to every new FPS game?
- martinsmit 4y ago
  CS:GO already has this, it's called Danger Zone
m3kw9 4y ago
The way smoke moves out of the bullets way is comical
codeflo 4y ago
The smoke effects are cool, but otherwise, it doesn't feel like the graphics are really that much better, just different. Flatter dynamic range (everything is bright now). Busier textures. Exactly the same pixely shadows (most visible in the screenshot "Back Plat"), which makes me think the engine hasn't been modernized that much.
- tapoxi 4y ago
  I think the big upgrades in Source 2 are around tooling. The Valve Hammer editor for CS:GO is a glorified Quake map editor. I think it can even still edit Quake maps.
- awestroke 4y ago
  Why bother with high quality shadows if everyone will just turn them off immediately?
  - nebulousthree 4y ago
    If you turn off shadows in cs you're putting yourself at a significant disadvantage. Many games have been clinched on a shadow that was noticed.
    - awestroke 4y ago
      Not turning off shadows, turning off high quality shadows
  - metaltyphoon 4y ago
    Why turn off shadows when you can actually see your own by looking at it? You would be at major disadvantage when playing competitive.
    - Etheryte 4y ago
      I think you might've misread the parent comment, as far as I can tell they meant turning high quality shadows off, e.g. switching shadow quality to low, not switching shadows off altogether.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Aeroi 4y ago
Am I the only one who thinks the added "realities" to Counter-Strike have continually made the game worse? I feel like the simplicity and hard corners of 1.6 made the game fantastic for 5v5 gameplay and more competitive. I enjoy the lack of layers and features.
- JamesUtah07 4y ago
  I’ve been playing a lot of 1.6 at play-cs.com recently and enjoy it way more than csgo. I think cs source was maybe the sweet spot but I agree that the maps now are too busy and distracting and take away from the gameplay.
- yamazakiwi 4y ago
  This was my first thought when I read about lighting appearing on smokes. I understand they want to upgrade the look but I'm worried that too much will take away from the stripped down feel that makes CS so popular.
- ceedan 4y ago
  I prefer 1.6 as well. Nostalgia. I do love the simplicity, movement mechanics and simple map design.
- devnullbrain 4y ago
  This update makes it more stylized though
  - hyperion2010 4y ago
    The brighter colors feel like a return to a style much more like 1.6. Source and GO always felt too far along the realism slider for the visuals for some reason.
- mikkelam 4y ago
  CSGO has just had the most concurrent player count. The game is by no means dying or unpopular. I think the game is in a great state and valve seems to be delivering a lot of what people have asked for. Im intrigued by the new smokes.
smrtinsert 4y ago
The visual improvements definitely make me curious about logging in again as an old guy with glasses now
qwery 4y ago
There is only one feature I would need to see changed to get me into Counter-Strike again. Remove the loot boxes. At least make the game itself not include a slot-machine. Ideally, do something about the third-party gambling websites. The page says > Bring your entire CS:GO inventory with you to Counter-Strike 2 So, that's not ruling it out, right? (Yes, I am aware that this is essentially asking for the money tap to be turned off)
- capableweb 4y ago
  As long as the loot boxes don't impact actual game play, I personally don't mind. I don't care for my weapons to have a certain skin, so loot boxes doesn't impact me at all. Although without them, Valve would probably have to start charging for the game again, and that feels unlikely. Plus they probably earn more money on CS now than they ever did before so yeah, unlikely.
  - Hikikomori 4y ago
    Hopefully EU will make them illegal, its basically gambling for kids.
    - throwawaymobule 4y ago
      Even of it does get legislated as a form of gambling, I can see it continuing in CS behind some sort of age gate. I think it's more of a per-country thing. Real gambling is very legal in many EU countries.
- ascar 4y ago
  I don't really understand what's your problem with that? It has close to zero impact on actual gameplay. Considering it's how this game makes money and it's very effective at that, I highly doubt your wish is becoming a reality. I actually like how you can trade all the skins with other players, so if you don't enjoy gambling but want the skins there is a really convenient option.
  - 4y ago
baxuz 4y ago
I gave up on FPS games that use spray patterns. Makes no sense to aim at your feet to shoot an opponent after memorizing the spray pattern, or missing an opponent after shooting at them point blank for 3 seconds. Reminds me of Morrowind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNXYrAkUntU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNXYrAkUntU
- opan 4y ago
  Why not tap or burst instead of spraying then? "click heads", as they say.
- akhosravian 4y ago
  It’s certainly unintuitive, but surely it isn’t necessary for video game mechanics to map directly onto real world actions to be interesting.
- lbotos 4y ago
  you won't miss point blank unless you are moving :D source: my CS movement sucks
- potatoman22 4y ago
  The way I see it, the other two options are to have random spray patterns or have every shot be perfectly accurate. Both of those seem worse than current spray patterns.
  - Eji1700 4y ago
    Really it's a style thing. Arena shooters like Unreal have plenty of perfectly accurate weapons, but they have totally different mechanics to support that. Something like CS where the TTK is basically instant certainly can't have that, but at the same time I don't think it'd be "patterns" if it was done today. Changing something that fundamental at this point though would probably lose you the scene, as it's just "part of the game" at this point, and if you don't like it there's plenty of other options.
    - 4y ago
web3-is-a-scam 4y ago
Don’t really play competitive FPS so I dont know if that smoke tech is novel or not, but it sure does look cool as hell.
jacooper 4y ago
For anyone who doesn't like waiting for rounds to finish, try the Deatmatch mode! Its surprisingly fun! And more friendly to casual players.
Mizza 4y ago
I don't like the updated aesthetic, looks too cartoony.
- izzytcp 4y ago
  oh you're one of those guys who wants to take us back to real life through computers?
freshfunk 4y ago
Will people be able to build on the engine like the original? I used to love playing the Day of Defeat mod (ww2 themed) and could definitely see mass appeal for that on top of this new engine.
bmitc 4y ago
I didn't realize Valve was still actively developing new games aside from Dota. What was the last big non-Dota game they did? Portal 2? CS:GO?
- finfrastrcuture 4y ago
  Half Life: Alyx
- depr 4y ago
  Artifact came after Dota
broknbottle 4y ago
Really cool to see Valve finnaly announce CS 2 but it's somewhat sad knowing this will be the last CS..
- jjcon 4y ago
  Did they say that somewhere or are you just thinking that will be the case since valve isn’t doing tons of releases these days?
  - varun_chopra 4y ago
    OP is referring to a common joke that Valve doesn’t count over 2. Half Life 2 Team Fortress 2 …
    - jjcon 4y ago
      Woosh - went right over my head. Haha okay yep I’m tracking
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- palmtree3000 4y ago
  Don't forget CS2: Episode 1!
Ruq 4y ago
So...technically this is the 3rd entry in the series, right? Game immediately disappears as Valve cannot count to 3
- antris 4y ago
  Counter-Strike (Counter-Strike: Condition Zero) Counter-Strike: Source Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Counter-Strike 2 It's all pretty confusing.
  - ceedan 4y ago
    Counter-Strike 1.6 Condition Zero (1.7) Source (1.8) Global Offensive (1.9) Counter-Strike 2
  - iooi 4y ago
    It makes sense if you think of it like this: CS - 1.5 CS (Steam) - 1.6 CS: CZ - 1.7 CS: Source - 1.8 CS: GO - 1.9 CS - 2.0
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  I'm hoping it's a jab at Overwatch 2 because that was also just a major update that replaced the current game, but not different enough for many players to agree it warrants a "2", and CS2 is going to be a major update that replaces CSGO.
weird-eye-issue 4y ago
It is good that they will be keeping the same skins in the new engine I made a bet that they would and my skins have increased about $40k in value over the last two years :P
system16 4y ago
I haven't followed CS for some time so I might be missing something key about this announcement... but to my eyes the graphics and effects look smooth, but strangely outdated. The smoke effects look like something that would be exciting a decade ago, and the characters move awkwardly and unnaturally.
izzydata 4y ago
The smoke looks cool, but is there a way to play without cheaters?
- TheCowboy 4y ago
  People have been wondering if this would come with better management of cheaters, but it looks like it's unclear. The main reason I picked Valorant over CSGO is mostly because of how well they deal with cheating. But I think CSGO might be the better game, as Riot doesn't really seem to have good judgement when it comes to introducing meta breaking changes.
galkk 4y ago
Looking at announcement video that makes emphasis on smoke: have they ever seen smoke? Effect of a smoke grenade?
- ezekg 4y ago
  They stole their homework from Overwatch. So no. But yes. All kidding aside -- This type of unrealistic smoke adds a new mechanic to the second-to-second gun play, where small mechanics like this can be used to turn the tide of a game by a player simply understanding the game, and how to take advantage of its mechanics, better than other players. Personally, I think "unrealistic" mechanics like this are what make competitive games, well, competitive.
  - tstrimple 4y ago
    I'm reaching an age where I don't have the twitch reflexes to compete on that alone, so I'm all for mechanics like this which give "game sense" players a boost.
- 91edec 4y ago
  It is not meant to be a real life smoke grenade, its meant to be a gameplay mechanic. This new smoke grenade is great because it introduces counterplay and tactics.
- lbotos 4y ago
  Smokes in CS right now are one of the areas where people don’t love the current implementation. A few patches ago if you had your settings right you would get a competitive advantage on smokes due to the way they were rendered. This new rendering feels more like Valorant and ultimately for CS players everyone in my playgroup is excited about the new smokes. They seem better to play with
jareklupinski 4y ago
I'll playtest the new Reverse Gungame (read: Arms Race) for as long as you want me to if I can get enrolled :) Hope the issue with weapons not being assigned in the right order will be fixed...
Giorgi 4y ago
Why is their main point a smoke? Seriously, so many more could have been done.
- lbotos 4y ago
  Because this is a big complaint from the current player base? Do you play? I do and these new smokes will absolutely shift gameplay and I think towards faster more dynamic games.
snickerbockers 4y ago
It's hard to believe CSGO is already over 10 years old. I remember back at launch people were complaining that this was just CSS aimed at console-plebs (it actually had ports for the xbox 360 and PS3) and a lot of diehard Counter-Strike players were swearing they'd stick to CSS. There were of complaints about headshots being too easy because the hitboxes were a little larger than in CSS. Valve did an amazing job listening to feedback and supporting their product; I know there are still a lot of people who stick to CSS and even CS 1.6 and I don't mean to de-legitimize their preferences, but today it does seem laughable to suggest that CSGO is just CSS for casuals.
- Insanity 4y ago
  I'm one of those that still launches CS:S instead of CS:GO. My main reason - the dedicated server browser by default and non-core gamemode popularity seems to be better. (surf, custon gg, ..). I also disliked the loot boxes and skins. That said, I've also sunk in a lot of time in GO.
simlevesque 4y ago
Man this has been in the talks since at least 2015. Dota got Source 2 in 2016...
richsu-ca 4y ago
looking at the before/after of the scenes, looks like it went from action movie to a tourist brochure
beebeepka 4y ago
I like what I am seeing here. Same game but better. I don't want to sound inflammatory but CS: Source felt like the only iteration that didn't feel right. Graphics were much better but I wasn't satisfied until CS:Go. It's basically CS with the Left 4 Dead 2 engine build.
nathias 4y ago
amazing, it's everything we dreamt it would be
gigatexal 4y ago
they're so close to just giving us what we really want and that's HL3, at this point I'd just take HL2 Episode 3 to round out the story of Episode 2.
seabass-labrax 4y ago
The 'reimagined' blood and gore effects shown on the game's official website are truly abhorrent :( My interest has been continually been drawn to team-based first-person shooter games (like Counter Strike) for their potential in terms of strategy, tactics and team coordination, but the gore is enough to put me off most titles immediately. I can see that some effects like blood stains can form part of the games' mechanics, indicating the direction from which a shot came, but what if one simply does not want to see these graphics? CS:GO doesn't even have an setting to disable them, and this is not unusual in the genre - I hope this sequel adds such an option.
- Leader2light 4y ago
  Looks amazing to me. I wish the heads exploded and whatnot. Super satisfying.
  - ygra 4y ago
    You may find fun in Killing Floor 2. If wave-based horde survival shooter is your thing.
- josefresco 4y ago
  Maybe try Valorant which is a "cartooned modern take" on the CS model.
  - gigaflop 4y ago
    Valorant has an option to disable corpses, replacing them with little tokens on the ground that mark the spot of their demise. I think there's also an option to tone down blood effects, etc.
- JasonZ2 4y ago
  > [...] what if one simply does not want to see these graphics? CS:GO doesn't even have an setting to disable them [...] Yes it does. 1. Open up your console by pressing the ` key 2. Type in the following command: `cl_blood 1` 3. Press enter
awill 4y ago
I'm very surprised they aren't prioritizing the Linux build during the test. I get most players are still on Windows, but Valve literally have a Linux console, and they've ported essentially all their games to Linux. If Valve don't even prioritize Linux, why would other devs?
- ho_schi 4y ago
  My expectation was actually a Linux-First-Approach to push Linux and the Steamdeck. Delaying tests on Linux feels really bad because this means we will unnecessary bugs upon release.
LinAGKar 4y ago
Shouldn't this be Counter Strike 5?
uxcolumbo 4y ago
Please do Day of Defeat next!
apatheticonion 4y ago
I am probably in the minority with this, but I would love for CS2 to have VR support
kirso 4y ago
I kind of miss the 1.6 version :(
0cVlTeIATBs 4y ago
Back when CS: Source came out beta access was offered to CZ owners. I found it worth it to buy CZ just for that access, and in those few months people made some wild maps to test the new physics engine. If there's a point to my story it's that the beta time is a special time. I haven't ever experienced that feeling in a game since. Physics is just meh these days. You never see those early maps anymore. Make sure to save whatever custom maps pop up in this beta and keep them in a time capsule!
WirelessGigabit 4y ago
I love Counter-Strike. Played 1.5, 1.6, (Not Zero), Source and Global Offensive. Of course with changes there are things that you don't like at FIRST, but you learn to get used to them. Except for the R8 Revolver in Global Offensive. Of all the realism in this game they put in a revolver where we need to wait to cock the hammer and we cannot keep it cocked. It does NOT make sense at all. Feels like some kind of Gauss gun that needs to charge and shoot at 100%, but if you don't make it to 100% nothing happens.
4r43f34g3g22 4y ago
I recently got back into CS (CS:GO) after over a decade long "hiatus". I've been enjoying it, but I really do miss some of the community servers and banter. I know there's a community server browser, but if I search for UK servers, there's only a couple and they are all empty. What happened? I used to join 64 player university servers and the chat was half the fun. Now it's all Russian language and it feels so lonely. I think it all got lost in the auto-queue/matchmaking stuff, and it's a shame
rldjbpin 4y ago
having seen gameplay of some csgo personalities, it seems like the game looks and feels different but still plays more or less the same. there are some silly bugs, but over all not too bad so far. can't wait to test myself, but at least the subtick system does not seem that much impressive. i really hope they optimize the performance a bit as i see people getting signifcantly lower fps than before (i get 400 is still a lot, but we are talking about people getting 600+ in csgo). although staring inside a volumetric smoke does not drop fps like it used to in the current version.
fennecfoxy 4y ago
Eh, this'll be cool but I hope they've changed a bit more than just getting parity with graphics/effects from more than 10 years ago. We talk about bad games companies like EA, Blizzard, etc. But Valve is honestly taking the piss as well. They literally do nothing except prey on people with microtransactions/shoving lootboxes & gambling down childrens' throats. The problem is, they do all the above for pure profit; there's not even the benefit of all that dough funding beloved games sequels or improving their services. Tbh I'm more excited for whenever the hell the next (source 2) gmod is going to come out.
Serenity-Now 4y ago
Is this an official Valve project?
dusted 4y ago
Wow, that's graphically impressively unimpressive.. That smoke effect looks like a proof of concept from 2003 (by someone who either didn't know what wind is, or didn't have the processing power to do it).. The fire from molotows look better in Postal 2.. It's almost as if a new generation of gamedevs are starting from scratch, not building upon, but re-inventing everything from scratch (but with higher system requirements)
wisie 4y ago
Aww, I wish this was coming to consoles but get why it's not.

451 points by swores 4y ago

maxbaines 4y ago

Imagine Garry’s Mod.

ohgodplsno 4y ago
So, S&box which is already made on Source 2 and already made by Garry?
- c7DJTLrn 4y ago
  As a Garry's Mod veteran, S&Box looks like something entirely different. Although Garry says it's a kind of sequel, it doesn't look like it is. It's more like a meta game engine. Or metaverse (god I hate that word.) I don't expect it to be a hit sadly.
  - andrewmcwatters 4y ago
    S&box is so confusing to me coming from a guy who through early GMod releases released something as soon as possible and released updates frequently. It's the complete opposite strategy. Do nothing for several years, and then hope people buy it when it comes out.
    - c7DJTLrn 4y ago
      You took the words right out of my mouth. I think Garry overcorrected and became a perfectionist concerned more with the code and engine than making something that people will want to play. Garry's Mod was fun because it was silly. It was far from perfect but we were happy putting thrusters and balloons on jeeps and flying around. He's lost sight of that it seems. He wants to build something perfect and I fear that's going to make it a sterile experience.
    - n42 4y ago
      that's a fair point, but it's not exactly an audience of none. there's a fairly large play tester base. it's just invite only.
  - n42 4y ago
    after GMod was launched on Steam with much better support for Lua scripting, what we call Garry's Mod grew into just one game mode (the sandbox gamemode). with S&Box, I think Garry's idea is that the GMod sequel is just one of the game modes. he/they are focusing on the developer platform first and foremost. I think there will be a GMod 2 gamemode that resembles what we remember (balloons, thrusters, etc)

popcalc 4y ago

Those smoke effects are beautiful!

polotics 4y ago
Is it just me, or does the added colour saturation on some of the before/after pics make CS2 look like Fortnite?
- mckirk 4y ago
  I'd say it's a lot closer to Valorant than to the max-saturation graphics of Fortnite. But I think they found a good balance, it still looks like you can take the world seriously imho.
- haunter 4y ago
  Nah Fortnite is much more vibrant especially since the new Unreal engine update https://youtu.be/O6GC8TZbJmI https://youtu.be/O6GC8TZbJmI It’s more colorful for sure but still looks “pale”
- tand22 4y ago
  The saturation and brightness looks overdone in my opinion. Too unrealistic and cartoonish.
- fleetfox 4y ago
  It's an attempt to solve "player readability". It's common complaint in CS:GO. Many pros play with color vibrance cranked in driver or monitor settings.
- jccalhoun 4y ago
  the new gui reminded me of Valorant.
- skeaker 4y ago
  That would hardly be a bad thing in my opinion, given that Fortnite looks fantastic

asabla 4y ago

Pretty amazing how well the core concept of Counter-strike still holds up today. Really looking forward for the technical articles which will supersede this launch.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

Overtonwindow 4y ago

This is amazing. This is truly a solid upgrade.

time0ut 4y ago

I never thought I would be excited to play CS again, but here we are...

mckirk 4y ago

Amazing to finally see some work being put into CS, and just this smoke grenade sneak peek already makes me very curious to see how this will play in practice. It's clear at least that they aren't afraid of changing the meta in a rather substantial way -- which is of course dangerous on one hand, since I'm guessing CS is so popular precisely because of its timelessness, but also necessary on the other hand if we ever want to improve upon it.

chrsig 4y ago
if starcraft/starcraft 2 is any indication of what might occur, they'll just be treated as two completely different games.
- toasteros 4y ago
  There's a part of the website that states it'll be an upgrade to CSGO. I wonder if that means we're losing CSGO, or if there will be some sort of "legacy mode" that either retains CSGO as an option or simply shims its gameplay into CS2.
- pawelmurias 4y ago
  Starcraft 2 and 1 are very different games not slight variations of the same shooter
birdyrooster 4y ago
People still play 1.6 competitively so of course we will add one more flavor. Just like MTG players and new formats.
barrysteve 4y ago
CS does change substantially between releases. The movement has gotten slower and less nimble since CS:Source and the AK/M4 primary dominance is markedly reduced in CS:GO.
calderknight 4y ago
CSGO has had a lot of work put into it. It's a very different game than when I started playing it (over 10 years ago). I remember it wasn't even developed by Valve, originally. It was developed by Hidden Path Entertainment. For a long time after it was released, CS 1.6 and Source were still more popular than it. None of the maps in the current Active Duty pool were included in the initial CSGO release. They've either been re-made from scratch or are entirely new. Every weapon other than maybe the knife has undergone balancing changes in terms of cost, reload speed, movement speed, accuracy, etc. Various new weapons have been added to the game. New game modes have been added, including Danger Zone, which is pretty much an entire game of itself. Battle passes have been introduced. Skins implemented. Etc., etc. - and 1.6 and Source are all but forgotten. I think this is actually the key to understanding the significance of CS2. It looks very similar to CSGO. But, in 10 years time, I suspect many major changes will have been made that will distinguish it very much from CSGO, updates that would have been impossible if they'd stuck with the source engine.

sigmar 4y ago

I'm happy to see more game devs eschew realism for the benefit of gameplay. Does shooting a bullet clear a tunnel through smoke IRL? No. Does making it do that make for some cool gameplay? hell yes

sph 4y ago
We're also getting out of the 2008/Xbox era of FPS design where everyone was going for a gritty, brownish Desert War realistic look. Think early CS:GO or Gears of War. Finally we can return to having some colours on ours screens other than dark yellow and brown.

TheCaptain4815 4y ago

How do we get early access?

6581 4y ago
https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81F4-0C18 https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81...

nonethewiser 4y ago

> As a result, regardless of tick rate, your moving and shooting will be equally responsive and your grenades will always land the same way. Is this a signal that they will reduce tick rate? Based off what they said, what would the reason be not to? I’m familiar with tick rate as a user but I’m not sure how it manifests in the code/hardware. Like, if it’s some setting they can easily change or if it’s the consequence of something else. I wonder if they can easily reduce it to lower costs or something.

takoid 4y ago
Valve is getting rid of tick rate entirely. Here is a video which explains it briefly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqhhFl5zgA0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqhhFl5zgA0
- nonethewiser 4y ago
  Interesting, I will watch that when I get a chance. Maybe it addresses some of these thoughts already. I wonder how much this is just reframing the concepts though. It kinda seems like they are just increasing tick rate tremendously because the type of system we call tick rate has changed. I mean, there has to be some interval at which the game is updated right? Wouldn’t that be the tick rate?
- Thaxll 4y ago
  There is no such thing as removing tick rate, the video is confusing, I think it's improvement with rollback and also gameplay improvements with how grenades work etc ...
- haunter 4y ago
  Sounds more like rollback netcode to me. You can’t just remove tick rate.
  - bakugo 4y ago
    The concept of "rollback netcode" is something that generally only applies to fighting games, shooters with dedicated servers use lag compensation instead which just means that, every time you shoot someone, the hit detection is done on the server but the server rolls back the player's position depending on your ping to make sure their position roughly matches what you saw when you shot. CSGO2 is just improving this so the rolled back player positions can be interpolated between frames instead of only being able to roll back to wherever a player was on an exact tick, which is what it currently does.

sourcecodeplz 4y ago

Variable tick-rate, volumetric smokes, Source 2 engine. It will be AMAZING!

matsemann 4y ago
sub-tick updates is interesting. Remember it being a source of frustration 15 years ago, wonder how they're working around it.

Thaxll 4y ago

"Sub-tick updates are the heart of Counter-Strike 2. Previously, the server only evaluated the world in discrete time intervals (called ticks). Thanks to Counter-Strike 2’s sub-tick update architecture, servers know the exact instant that motion starts, a shot is fired, or a ‘nade is thrown." Not sure what it means but it's probably related to the rollback tech in the source 1 engine, which is pretty outdated.

entropicdrifter 4y ago
It means they're increasing the granularity of the timeline of events in order to improve accuracy and fairness.
- JusticeJuice 4y ago
  Yeah, I'm interpreting this as instead of sending an integer of the tick that something occured on, they're sending a floating number of when it happened. I assume the float they send will have a limit in accuracy however. So really it's not like ticks are 'gone', they're just getting much much smaller.
  - _cenw 4y ago
    The ticks aren't going away. They're just sending exact timestamps for movement so the server side view of a hitbox is more accurate when rewinding hixboes. The difference on 60 tick was sometimes large enough to miss headshots on faraway targets. It'd of course help if their clock sync and anti-drift measures were better now. It's NTP hard mode.
  - Sniffnoy 4y ago
    Is there a reason you would expect them to use floats here instead of fixed-point? I would naively guess the latter.
    - gravitronic 4y ago
      They just meant that things now happen within fractions of a time slice, instead of always landing on exactly 1/60th of a second boundaries.

Sponge5 4y ago

I've been hearing about Source 2 port of CSGO since 2015. Now I can't believe it actually happened. When I quit playing a few years ago I was at over 5000h played. I might add a couple hundred for old times sake

tiffanyh 4y ago
To put 5,000 hours into perspective. There's only 2,000 hours in an entire year, if you work a typical 9-5 job, 5-days per week. This would be like play CS as a full-time job for 2.5 years straight.
- izzytcp 4y ago
  [flagged]
- tstrimple 4y ago
  Play times are often wildly inaccurate for me because I leave games up and running over long periods of time. Especially games like Dwarf Fortress or Rimworld. I could have them running for literally days at a time with me only hopping in between meetings or something to advance things a bit.

localplume 4y ago

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skilled 4y ago

Great work by the team. Let's see how it all feels when the game comes out. The new smokes will have a massive impact in competitive play, perhaps more so for the entertainment value which comes from all the live events throughout the year. Good for Richard Lewis who pretty much put his reputation on the line by calling out the fact that the release was coming. [0] [0]: https://richardlewis.substack.com/p/sources-yes-counter-strike-2-is-real https://richardlewis.substack.com/p/sources-yes-counter-stri...

Phelinofist 4y ago

HL3 when??? Jokes aside, Valve does awesome work. Proton alone is a gift. Steam as a platform is best in class.

blueridge 4y ago
Reminder: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time
localplume 4y ago
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deleted 4y ago

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singularity2001 4y ago

https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81F4-0C18 https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81... How do I gain access to the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test? Players are selected based on a number of factors deemed important by the Counter-Strike 2 development team, including (but not limited to) recent playtime on Valve official servers, trust factor, and Steam account standing. How do I know if I've been selected for the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test? If you are chosen to participate in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test you will receive a notification on the main menu of CS:GO. If you receive an invitation select "ENROLL" and begin your download. When the download is complete launch CS:GO and select the "Limited Test" option to play the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test. How often are players added to the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test? More players will be added to the Limited Test over time. Keep checking your CS:GO main menu to see if you have received an invite. How long will the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test last? Counter-Strike 2 is expected to ship Summer 2023.

hed 4y ago

This is unorthodox but will it have something like func_vehicle in the original Counter-Strike? Discovering “fun maps” servers gave me a second wind with that game long after I was no longer a twitchy teenager doing 5v5

klarite 4y ago

Now for the love of all that is holy: revert or fix the weapon sounds! Half of the reason I love Apex Legends is the sound engineering and how it contributes to the experience and satisfaction of the overall gameplay.

takoid 4y ago
You might be getting what you wish for: "Counter-Strike 2 sounds have been reworked to better reflect the physical environment, be more distinct, and express more game state. They have also been rebalanced for a more comfortable listening experience." https://counter-strike.net/cs2 https://counter-strike.net/cs2
TechBro8615 4y ago
It's funny because "audio bugs" are one of the most frequent complaints in the Apex community. But that's probably just because the players have gotten so used to depending on spatial audio when it works properly, that they get especially frustrated when it doesn't.
- TheCapn 4y ago
  I've always found the complaints about audio weird. It almost seems like something that plagues consoles or low end hardware? I only say this because I'm a day 1 player of Apex and can maybe think of a half dozen that audio has failed me, but for known things like the super quiet Octane pad landings having no audio or prior to Ashe's ultimate being made louder. But if you go to the Apex subreddit, especially daily threads there are dozens of users complaining about it as though it is a pervasive issue that everyone should care about. Is it random, but I've been lucky? Is it poor hardware? Is it only on consoles?
- tym0 4y ago
  Doubly interesting knowing that both their engines are descendants of Source.
isatty 4y ago
Valve is usually pretty good at sound, atleast it is in Dota 2. I can follow an entire game with only sound effects (I also did play the game for 10 years, which contributes).

jacooper 4y ago

Hope it remains free and easy to run on light laptops

lavela 4y ago
I second this. From my youth where I just couldn't afford a better pc, to now where my gaming pc has been off for half a year again because I can't be bothered to switch computers, the relative undemanding nature of Counter Strike has been part of the core identity of the game and reason to stick to it for me. (And of course it's just nice for as many people as possible to be able to play it)

zppln 4y ago

As someone who has been holding ramp on Nuke for like 20 years I'm glad the upgrade looks dope.

zzixp 4y ago

Valve made a game again! TF2 when :)

sophacles 4y ago
15 years ago. TF3 when?
- thulle 4y ago
  A few years after half-life 3?
web3-is-a-scam 4y ago
I’ve been replaying Portal 2 on the switch with my wife and Valve games really are something special. We need more of them. I want to play HL: Alex so badly but can’t justify the price of the VR headset, personally.

nonethewiser 4y ago

I don’t play CS anymore so I don’t appreciate this firsthand. Besides the smokes, it looks pretty much the same. Do the physics feel different or something? My understanding is that this is CSGO ported to source 2. I’m not clear on what the differences between the engines are, or if it was a rework of the original engine or completely new.

jccalhoun 4y ago
As I understand it, the real advantage is that it will make it easier to make and maintain mods and skins and things than the aged CS:GO version. So they want to make it so that it basically plays exactly the same except prettier.
- emoII 4y ago
  Well the new smoke mechanics will definitely be a game changer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y9MpNcAitQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y9MpNcAitQ
- Melatonic 4y ago
  The thing that always killed me about CS:GO was the lack of mods and custom maps. They exist, sure - but not in the amount and creativity that was available for CS:Source or CS 1.5 and 1.6 CS started as a mod so it only makes sense to have tons of cool custom maps
  - jccalhoun 4y ago
    Agreed. I played CS back in the beta days and I loved the different maps and things like the hostage and even the VIP scenarios. I miss that variety. dust2 is good but how about that one where you were small and you could turn the gravity down so you could jump all over? rattrap? something like that.
  - ceedan 4y ago
    CSGO does not cater to casual players at all. I hope that changes a bit with CS2. I started playing CS as a 24/7 cs_assault public server player before getting competitive.

Workaccount2 4y ago

I'm dubious about the changes to smoke. The volumetric stuff, is cool, but being able to shoot holes in it and blow it away with grenades is a really huge game play change. I suppose they have to shake up the game a little, but the CS community is very stubborn about change. We'll have to see how they take it.

matsemann 4y ago
If you look at the video, the smoke slowly fills the void again. https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/apps/csgo/images/csgo_react/cs2/smokes_vid2.webm https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/apps/csgo/images/csgo... I think it could be a cool new meta.
- bravetraveler 4y ago
  I'm for it, and I know a few older-generation players who are as well Smoke grenades have been a sort of movable one-way mirror for too long; being somewhat counter-intuitive
orbital-decay 4y ago
I'm sure they had plenty of feedback on all new features from the selected pros. It doesn't necessarily mean the change is good, of course, but at least it can be reverted.
johnchristopher 4y ago
> I suppose they have to shake up the game a little, but the CS community is very stubborn about change. We'll have to see how they take it. Just learn from CS:Source and pour more money into tournaments et voilà.

dsab 4y ago

Nothing about new weapons and shooting model, it will be the same arcade joke

make3 4y ago
it's a game not a shooting simulator? and one of the most successful at that. i'm not sure making it more realistic would achieve anything at all

andrewmcwatters 4y ago

Sub-tick updates sound to me like they're still using a tick rate system, but specific CBasePlayer mechanisms will now undergo interpolation using UserCmd timestamps alongside their rewind buffer to understand specifically where you were during gameplay as opposed to looking backwards in the rewind buffer and not making interpolated calculations based on timestep. There is still an upperbound where additional granular game states don't occur and that upperbound is based on framerate, afaiu. We use a similar system in Planimeter Game Engine 2D.[1] Planimeter engineers are former Source Engine developers. [1]: https://github.com/Planimeter/game-engine-2d/wiki/Tick_rate_and_bandwidth https://github.com/Planimeter/game-engine-2d/wiki/Tick_rate_...

tines 4y ago
I love the promise of Planimeter but it's kinda intimidating to get started with. Are there any example games with source that I can tinker with?
- andrewmcwatters 4y ago
  We were doing some experimentation with a future Planimeter Game Engine 3D product, but will be moving back to Game Engine 2D development this upcoming quarter, with a new website planned, a getting started tutorial path, and sample game code included from internal projects. The current version includes example code in the game folder. I am hoping that a getting started path will encourage new users to help one understand core workflows we've designed for developers, starting with creating entities in a test map, and then updating those levels, and finally, building your own fully-custom features which tie into premade systems.
  - tines 4y ago
    I'm really looking forward to this. The fact is that there's no game engine (that I could find after hours of searching) that offers out-of-the-box multiplayer for skilled programmers who just want to make a game, and if Planimeter can deliver that _and_ have good documentation and a clear ramp-up path, it would appeal to a huge audience.

kuntau 4y ago

It's CS2 not CSGO2?

glanzwulf 4y ago

Haven't been this excited about CS in a while. I'm coming back baby!

metaltyphoon 4y ago
Same! Heck yeah!!!
stingraycharles 4y ago
I have literally lost 1.5 years of college around 2001 - 2007 due to Counterstrike. We had a clan with several people in my dorm, and it was awesome. It was also around that time that I felt like I had a productive day if I did laundry, and I had to really force myself to remove it from my computer as I realised it was simply too addictive for me to start a few quick matches all day long. In hindsight, I don’t really regret it, it was probably one of the last times in my life I could procrastinate like that and get away with it reasonably well.
- ksec 4y ago
  It is nice to hear these story, just to know I am not the only one with Gaming addition problem in Uni / College. And I think 3-4 years into the society I stopped all gaming completely. Working Life is exhausting.
  - pizza 4y ago
    Linux thinclient as my dormroom desktop: some of my best grades semesters Windows gaming machine: some of my flakiest semesters
  - lintimes 4y ago
    Incredible that shortly after many of us went through this, professional competitive gaming could later be a considered career.
    - vecter 4y ago
      Yeah but only 20-30 people in any region make it as a pro player. The odds are just about as bad as being an NBA player. You didn't miss out on anything.

pipeline_peak 4y ago

Source is showing its age, just switch to Unreal already… It’s not like Valve makes games anymore.

esskay 4y ago
Given unreal is owned by their biggest competitor theres little to no chance of that happeng. Valve arent really a video game developer anymore, they just tinker on the side for fun.
- capableweb 4y ago
  Granted, last time Valve released a proper game was in 2020 (Alyx), but to say they are not a developer anymore isn't super fair. They take their time, and their priorities probably are elsewhere, they still do develop games.
tapoxi 4y ago
Valorant, CS:GO's closest competitor, is in Unreal and looks similar. These games are going for high framerates and running on the majority of PCs, even ones with integrated graphics. Switching engines wouldn't do them any favors, and it would severely cripple their modding tools.

mberning 4y ago

This is exciting. Guess I need to build another windows PC.

blueridge 4y ago
Me too!
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
tapoxi 4y ago
Valve ships all their games on Linux and Mac, so you don't need to run Windows.
- GormHouj 4y ago
  >Can I participate in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test on Linux or macOS? [1] No. The Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test is only available on Windows. I'm sure this will change with an official release though. [1] https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81F4-0C18#cs2ltos https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81...
  - awill 4y ago
    Wouldn't Proton let you run the Windows version?
- mberning 4y ago
  Have you tried to play CS:GO on a Mac? I can tell you that it does not at all feel the same as a PC.
- bravetraveler 4y ago
  If you wish to participate in CS2 testing however, you do need Windows I was hoping being a seasoned CS:GO player on Linux might bump me into a niche to get a ticket, but alas - Windows only for now

m3kw9 4y ago

I hope they don’t turn it into Modern warefare

ksec 4y ago

>Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a 2012 multiplayer tactical first-person shooter developed by Valve So that is a free upgrade after 11 years. How are they suppose to make money? Edit: Thank you for all the replies. No idea CS GO have loot box and cosmetics IAP. My impression of CS is still stuck in the 1999/2000 era. It is also amazing how long they kept the game running online. I guess since it is not a RPG there is very little things to store. Keeping running cost low. Purely from a Graphics POV Source is definitely showing its age. Not that it matters as much for CS players.

jimbob45 4y ago
How are they suppose to make money? Whales bring in far more money than upgrade fees.
kbar13 4y ago
it's a free to play game. they literally print money on cosmetic items.
skyyler 4y ago
I would be willing to bet that a single day of lootbox profits would be more than an entire year of game sales.
mrguyorama 4y ago
You sweet summer child. CSGO is INSANELY profitable. Valve makes free money on every single cosmetic purchase, and takes a cut of EVER COSMETIC 2ND HAND MARKET SALE OR TRADE.
- skeaker 4y ago
  Specifically 2nd hand sales that take place on their marketplace, which is Valve's own cash store. Players can still do items-for-items trades for free and that powers a lot of third party markets where there is no Valve cut.

gadders 4y ago

I wish some of these latest AI advances went into giving us better in-game bots so I can have fun playing on my own rather than be sniped by an expert player from half the game away who thought he would play on the newbie server for (his own) fun.

aceazzameen 4y ago
I might start playing FPS games again. I'm too old to compete with younger people with more time than me.
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  >I'm too old to compete with younger people with more time than me. Excuse when young: No wonder I suck, I'm competing with grownups with better computers than mine. Excuse when adult: No wonder I suck, I'm competing with youngsters with more free time than me.
  - a4isms 4y ago
    Sorry, are we talking about videogaming? Or a career as a programmer?
    - nathants 4y ago
      everything is the same.
  - aceazzameen 4y ago
    Haha, the sweet spot only lasts so long.
- testHNac 4y ago
  In CS GO you really get better with Practice. I tried some Aim Practice Maps from the workshop. That helped improve my aim. Don't get that opportunity during the actual game. I used to play for 30-40 mins a day, that wasn't sufficient time in game to improve. Especially against players who are playing for the better part of a day.

danwee 4y ago

Is it just me or as the quality of the game improves, it's more difficult to spot the enemy? In CS 1.6, if you have a cop/terrorist standing against any wall, you definitely will notice it (mainly because walls/buildings/whatever didn't have that much quality regarding details). But in the video of CS 2, since the quality is so great (both for cops/terrorists and for the rest of the maps), somehow I think it's kinda difficult to distinguish others. Like in real life I guess?

mrkeen 4y ago
I had this experience when I played COD 4 (2007). It definitely felt different than the usual scanning for enemy player models.
aeternum 4y ago
I think you're right and it's generally a problem for gameplay. Real life scenarios often involve a lot of hiding and waiting. If a game becomes too realistic it starts to simulate that which leads to a boring game.
hgs3 4y ago
The situation was even worse when Valve added custom skins players could buy. Some of those skins blended in with their background a little too well. Their initial "solution" was to add more lights to the maps to brighten them up, but that approach is obviously not great so they added a system to boost player model contrast dynamically against the environment [1]. [1] https://imgur.com/gallery/P37nKBs#o3QNSgs https://imgur.com/gallery/P37nKBs#o3QNSgs
mpsprd 4y ago
If you check the video on maps they made everything brighter and made aesthetic changes to improve acquisition, so it was covered.

esskay 4y ago

It's always somewhat baffled me that Valve didn't do more with the CS brand, and instead allowed Call of Duty and (to a lesser extent) Battlefield to be the go-to FPS games.

dgellow 4y ago
Valorant, CS:GO, Apex are the most streamed FPS according to https://gamesight.io/leaderboards/fps-games https://gamesight.io/leaderboards/fps-games. The counter strike player base is really massive.
capableweb 4y ago
Is CoD and BF really more popular than CS? Hard to find numbers for CoD and BF, but CSGO currently have 1,000,000 online players right now, ~0.5 million viewers on Twitch. CoD Warzone + CoD MW 2 has ~50k viewers on Twitch, but unable to find number of online players, but I cannot imagine it being 1 million if there is only 50k viewers on Twitch.
rejectfinite 4y ago
If you play on consoles sure...

KronisLV 4y ago

I catch myself wishing for something that would mix the game up a bit - say, new or different weapons, or maybe a system where you could assemble your own weapon skins from multiple materials or customize parts individually for different looks. Then again, playing it safe because it's a popular competitive game title is probably a good idea and the improvements sound really good! Seems like a great way to modernize the game without changing it too much, while bringing people's items and such forwards.

xracy 4y ago
I think subtle changes are going to go a lot farther in this game. In particular, I'm imagining the smoke changes are going to be a bigger change than they seem...
- Eji1700 4y ago
  This exactly. CS has a ton of established theory built in. Some of these changes are kinda equivalent to "pawns can take in front of them" level of disruptive to the established understanding/meta.
  - the_af 4y ago
    I'm fascinated about communities who play the same game for decades and don't want any changes to "the meta". Is CS truly so good that any change which forces someone to re-learn the ropes is unwelcome? Do they want to keep playing the same game for another decade?
    - Ekaros 4y ago
      I think in general the community can try games like Overwatch, Apex, Valorant, COD, BF etc. And be pretty certain that most of the features and game mechanics from those wouldn't really make CS a better game. I think they probably want to keep CS at least on core level same for more decades. It has been around this long so something must have been done right.

Melatonic 4y ago

So....anybody work for Valve and want to get me in on this? I do not have a ton of CS:GO playtime unfortunately but I do have an assload of CS:Source along with probably even more playing CS 1.5 and 1.6 (started in the early beta days). Also worked briefly as a video game tester and now I do system infrastructure - definitely good at finding bugs and gameplay improvements :-)

Melatonic 4y ago

CyborgCabbage 4y ago
https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81F4-0C18 https://steamcommunity.com/faqs/steam-help/view/5ED2-ED8E-81...

TechBro8615 4y ago

Will there be a battle royale mode, or have we finally moved past the trend of adding one to every new FPS game?

martinsmit 4y ago
CS:GO already has this, it's called Danger Zone

m3kw9 4y ago

The way smoke moves out of the bullets way is comical

codeflo 4y ago

The smoke effects are cool, but otherwise, it doesn't feel like the graphics are really that much better, just different. Flatter dynamic range (everything is bright now). Busier textures. Exactly the same pixely shadows (most visible in the screenshot "Back Plat"), which makes me think the engine hasn't been modernized that much.

tapoxi 4y ago
I think the big upgrades in Source 2 are around tooling. The Valve Hammer editor for CS:GO is a glorified Quake map editor. I think it can even still edit Quake maps.
awestroke 4y ago
Why bother with high quality shadows if everyone will just turn them off immediately?
- nebulousthree 4y ago
  If you turn off shadows in cs you're putting yourself at a significant disadvantage. Many games have been clinched on a shadow that was noticed.
  - awestroke 4y ago
    Not turning off shadows, turning off high quality shadows
- metaltyphoon 4y ago
  Why turn off shadows when you can actually see your own by looking at it? You would be at major disadvantage when playing competitive.
  - Etheryte 4y ago
    I think you might've misread the parent comment, as far as I can tell they meant turning high quality shadows off, e.g. switching shadow quality to low, not switching shadows off altogether.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Aeroi 4y ago

Am I the only one who thinks the added "realities" to Counter-Strike have continually made the game worse? I feel like the simplicity and hard corners of 1.6 made the game fantastic for 5v5 gameplay and more competitive. I enjoy the lack of layers and features.

JamesUtah07 4y ago
I’ve been playing a lot of 1.6 at play-cs.com recently and enjoy it way more than csgo. I think cs source was maybe the sweet spot but I agree that the maps now are too busy and distracting and take away from the gameplay.
yamazakiwi 4y ago
This was my first thought when I read about lighting appearing on smokes. I understand they want to upgrade the look but I'm worried that too much will take away from the stripped down feel that makes CS so popular.
ceedan 4y ago
I prefer 1.6 as well. Nostalgia. I do love the simplicity, movement mechanics and simple map design.
devnullbrain 4y ago
This update makes it more stylized though
- hyperion2010 4y ago
  The brighter colors feel like a return to a style much more like 1.6. Source and GO always felt too far along the realism slider for the visuals for some reason.
mikkelam 4y ago
CSGO has just had the most concurrent player count. The game is by no means dying or unpopular. I think the game is in a great state and valve seems to be delivering a lot of what people have asked for. Im intrigued by the new smokes.

smrtinsert 4y ago

The visual improvements definitely make me curious about logging in again as an old guy with glasses now

qwery 4y ago

There is only one feature I would need to see changed to get me into Counter-Strike again. Remove the loot boxes. At least make the game itself not include a slot-machine. Ideally, do something about the third-party gambling websites. The page says > Bring your entire CS:GO inventory with you to Counter-Strike 2 So, that's not ruling it out, right? (Yes, I am aware that this is essentially asking for the money tap to be turned off)

capableweb 4y ago
As long as the loot boxes don't impact actual game play, I personally don't mind. I don't care for my weapons to have a certain skin, so loot boxes doesn't impact me at all. Although without them, Valve would probably have to start charging for the game again, and that feels unlikely. Plus they probably earn more money on CS now than they ever did before so yeah, unlikely.
- Hikikomori 4y ago
  Hopefully EU will make them illegal, its basically gambling for kids.
  - throwawaymobule 4y ago
    Even of it does get legislated as a form of gambling, I can see it continuing in CS behind some sort of age gate. I think it's more of a per-country thing. Real gambling is very legal in many EU countries.
ascar 4y ago
I don't really understand what's your problem with that? It has close to zero impact on actual gameplay. Considering it's how this game makes money and it's very effective at that, I highly doubt your wish is becoming a reality. I actually like how you can trade all the skins with other players, so if you don't enjoy gambling but want the skins there is a really convenient option.
- 4y ago

baxuz 4y ago

I gave up on FPS games that use spray patterns. Makes no sense to aim at your feet to shoot an opponent after memorizing the spray pattern, or missing an opponent after shooting at them point blank for 3 seconds. Reminds me of Morrowind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNXYrAkUntU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNXYrAkUntU

opan 4y ago
Why not tap or burst instead of spraying then? "click heads", as they say.
akhosravian 4y ago
It’s certainly unintuitive, but surely it isn’t necessary for video game mechanics to map directly onto real world actions to be interesting.
lbotos 4y ago
you won't miss point blank unless you are moving :D source: my CS movement sucks
potatoman22 4y ago
The way I see it, the other two options are to have random spray patterns or have every shot be perfectly accurate. Both of those seem worse than current spray patterns.
- Eji1700 4y ago
  Really it's a style thing. Arena shooters like Unreal have plenty of perfectly accurate weapons, but they have totally different mechanics to support that. Something like CS where the TTK is basically instant certainly can't have that, but at the same time I don't think it'd be "patterns" if it was done today. Changing something that fundamental at this point though would probably lose you the scene, as it's just "part of the game" at this point, and if you don't like it there's plenty of other options.
  - 4y ago

web3-is-a-scam 4y ago

Don’t really play competitive FPS so I dont know if that smoke tech is novel or not, but it sure does look cool as hell.

jacooper 4y ago

For anyone who doesn't like waiting for rounds to finish, try the Deatmatch mode! Its surprisingly fun! And more friendly to casual players.

Mizza 4y ago

I don't like the updated aesthetic, looks too cartoony.

izzytcp 4y ago
oh you're one of those guys who wants to take us back to real life through computers?

freshfunk 4y ago

Will people be able to build on the engine like the original? I used to love playing the Day of Defeat mod (ww2 themed) and could definitely see mass appeal for that on top of this new engine.

bmitc 4y ago

I didn't realize Valve was still actively developing new games aside from Dota. What was the last big non-Dota game they did? Portal 2? CS:GO?

finfrastrcuture 4y ago
Half Life: Alyx
depr 4y ago
Artifact came after Dota

broknbottle 4y ago

Really cool to see Valve finnaly announce CS 2 but it's somewhat sad knowing this will be the last CS..

jjcon 4y ago
Did they say that somewhere or are you just thinking that will be the case since valve isn’t doing tons of releases these days?
- varun_chopra 4y ago
  OP is referring to a common joke that Valve doesn’t count over 2. Half Life 2 Team Fortress 2 …
  - jjcon 4y ago
    Woosh - went right over my head. Haha okay yep I’m tracking
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
palmtree3000 4y ago
Don't forget CS2: Episode 1!

Ruq 4y ago

So...technically this is the 3rd entry in the series, right? Game immediately disappears as Valve cannot count to 3

antris 4y ago
Counter-Strike (Counter-Strike: Condition Zero) Counter-Strike: Source Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Counter-Strike 2 It's all pretty confusing.
- ceedan 4y ago
  Counter-Strike 1.6 Condition Zero (1.7) Source (1.8) Global Offensive (1.9) Counter-Strike 2
- iooi 4y ago
  It makes sense if you think of it like this: CS - 1.5 CS (Steam) - 1.6 CS: CZ - 1.7 CS: Source - 1.8 CS: GO - 1.9 CS - 2.0
squeaky-clean 4y ago
I'm hoping it's a jab at Overwatch 2 because that was also just a major update that replaced the current game, but not different enough for many players to agree it warrants a "2", and CS2 is going to be a major update that replaces CSGO.

weird-eye-issue 4y ago

It is good that they will be keeping the same skins in the new engine I made a bet that they would and my skins have increased about $40k in value over the last two years :P

system16 4y ago

I haven't followed CS for some time so I might be missing something key about this announcement... but to my eyes the graphics and effects look smooth, but strangely outdated. The smoke effects look like something that would be exciting a decade ago, and the characters move awkwardly and unnaturally.

izzydata 4y ago

The smoke looks cool, but is there a way to play without cheaters?

TheCowboy 4y ago
People have been wondering if this would come with better management of cheaters, but it looks like it's unclear. The main reason I picked Valorant over CSGO is mostly because of how well they deal with cheating. But I think CSGO might be the better game, as Riot doesn't really seem to have good judgement when it comes to introducing meta breaking changes.

galkk 4y ago

Looking at announcement video that makes emphasis on smoke: have they ever seen smoke? Effect of a smoke grenade?

ezekg 4y ago
They stole their homework from Overwatch. So no. But yes. All kidding aside -- This type of unrealistic smoke adds a new mechanic to the second-to-second gun play, where small mechanics like this can be used to turn the tide of a game by a player simply understanding the game, and how to take advantage of its mechanics, better than other players. Personally, I think "unrealistic" mechanics like this are what make competitive games, well, competitive.
- tstrimple 4y ago
  I'm reaching an age where I don't have the twitch reflexes to compete on that alone, so I'm all for mechanics like this which give "game sense" players a boost.
91edec 4y ago
It is not meant to be a real life smoke grenade, its meant to be a gameplay mechanic. This new smoke grenade is great because it introduces counterplay and tactics.
lbotos 4y ago
Smokes in CS right now are one of the areas where people don’t love the current implementation. A few patches ago if you had your settings right you would get a competitive advantage on smokes due to the way they were rendered. This new rendering feels more like Valorant and ultimately for CS players everyone in my playgroup is excited about the new smokes. They seem better to play with

jareklupinski 4y ago

I'll playtest the new Reverse Gungame (read: Arms Race) for as long as you want me to if I can get enrolled :) Hope the issue with weapons not being assigned in the right order will be fixed...

Giorgi 4y ago

Why is their main point a smoke? Seriously, so many more could have been done.

lbotos 4y ago
Because this is a big complaint from the current player base? Do you play? I do and these new smokes will absolutely shift gameplay and I think towards faster more dynamic games.

snickerbockers 4y ago

It's hard to believe CSGO is already over 10 years old. I remember back at launch people were complaining that this was just CSS aimed at console-plebs (it actually had ports for the xbox 360 and PS3) and a lot of diehard Counter-Strike players were swearing they'd stick to CSS. There were of complaints about headshots being too easy because the hitboxes were a little larger than in CSS. Valve did an amazing job listening to feedback and supporting their product; I know there are still a lot of people who stick to CSS and even CS 1.6 and I don't mean to de-legitimize their preferences, but today it does seem laughable to suggest that CSGO is just CSS for casuals.

Insanity 4y ago
I'm one of those that still launches CS:S instead of CS:GO. My main reason - the dedicated server browser by default and non-core gamemode popularity seems to be better. (surf, custon gg, ..). I also disliked the loot boxes and skins. That said, I've also sunk in a lot of time in GO.

simlevesque 4y ago

Man this has been in the talks since at least 2015. Dota got Source 2 in 2016...

richsu-ca 4y ago

looking at the before/after of the scenes, looks like it went from action movie to a tourist brochure

beebeepka 4y ago

I like what I am seeing here. Same game but better. I don't want to sound inflammatory but CS: Source felt like the only iteration that didn't feel right. Graphics were much better but I wasn't satisfied until CS:Go. It's basically CS with the Left 4 Dead 2 engine build.

nathias 4y ago

amazing, it's everything we dreamt it would be

gigatexal 4y ago

they're so close to just giving us what we really want and that's HL3, at this point I'd just take HL2 Episode 3 to round out the story of Episode 2.

seabass-labrax 4y ago

The 'reimagined' blood and gore effects shown on the game's official website are truly abhorrent :( My interest has been continually been drawn to team-based first-person shooter games (like Counter Strike) for their potential in terms of strategy, tactics and team coordination, but the gore is enough to put me off most titles immediately. I can see that some effects like blood stains can form part of the games' mechanics, indicating the direction from which a shot came, but what if one simply does not want to see these graphics? CS:GO doesn't even have an setting to disable them, and this is not unusual in the genre - I hope this sequel adds such an option.

Leader2light 4y ago
Looks amazing to me. I wish the heads exploded and whatnot. Super satisfying.
- ygra 4y ago
  You may find fun in Killing Floor 2. If wave-based horde survival shooter is your thing.
josefresco 4y ago
Maybe try Valorant which is a "cartooned modern take" on the CS model.
- gigaflop 4y ago
  Valorant has an option to disable corpses, replacing them with little tokens on the ground that mark the spot of their demise. I think there's also an option to tone down blood effects, etc.
JasonZ2 4y ago
> [...] what if one simply does not want to see these graphics? CS:GO doesn't even have an setting to disable them [...] Yes it does. 1. Open up your console by pressing the ` key 2. Type in the following command: `cl_blood 1` 3. Press enter

awill 4y ago

I'm very surprised they aren't prioritizing the Linux build during the test. I get most players are still on Windows, but Valve literally have a Linux console, and they've ported essentially all their games to Linux. If Valve don't even prioritize Linux, why would other devs?

ho_schi 4y ago
My expectation was actually a Linux-First-Approach to push Linux and the Steamdeck. Delaying tests on Linux feels really bad because this means we will unnecessary bugs upon release.

LinAGKar 4y ago

Shouldn't this be Counter Strike 5?

uxcolumbo 4y ago

Please do Day of Defeat next!

apatheticonion 4y ago

I am probably in the minority with this, but I would love for CS2 to have VR support

kirso 4y ago

I kind of miss the 1.6 version :(

0cVlTeIATBs 4y ago

Back when CS: Source came out beta access was offered to CZ owners. I found it worth it to buy CZ just for that access, and in those few months people made some wild maps to test the new physics engine. If there's a point to my story it's that the beta time is a special time. I haven't ever experienced that feeling in a game since. Physics is just meh these days. You never see those early maps anymore. Make sure to save whatever custom maps pop up in this beta and keep them in a time capsule!

WirelessGigabit 4y ago

I love Counter-Strike. Played 1.5, 1.6, (Not Zero), Source and Global Offensive. Of course with changes there are things that you don't like at FIRST, but you learn to get used to them. Except for the R8 Revolver in Global Offensive. Of all the realism in this game they put in a revolver where we need to wait to cock the hammer and we cannot keep it cocked. It does NOT make sense at all. Feels like some kind of Gauss gun that needs to charge and shoot at 100%, but if you don't make it to 100% nothing happens.

4r43f34g3g22 4y ago

I recently got back into CS (CS:GO) after over a decade long "hiatus". I've been enjoying it, but I really do miss some of the community servers and banter. I know there's a community server browser, but if I search for UK servers, there's only a couple and they are all empty. What happened? I used to join 64 player university servers and the chat was half the fun. Now it's all Russian language and it feels so lonely. I think it all got lost in the auto-queue/matchmaking stuff, and it's a shame

rldjbpin 4y ago

having seen gameplay of some csgo personalities, it seems like the game looks and feels different but still plays more or less the same. there are some silly bugs, but over all not too bad so far. can't wait to test myself, but at least the subtick system does not seem that much impressive. i really hope they optimize the performance a bit as i see people getting signifcantly lower fps than before (i get 400 is still a lot, but we are talking about people getting 600+ in csgo). although staring inside a volumetric smoke does not drop fps like it used to in the current version.

fennecfoxy 4y ago

Eh, this'll be cool but I hope they've changed a bit more than just getting parity with graphics/effects from more than 10 years ago. We talk about bad games companies like EA, Blizzard, etc. But Valve is honestly taking the piss as well. They literally do nothing except prey on people with microtransactions/shoving lootboxes & gambling down childrens' throats. The problem is, they do all the above for pure profit; there's not even the benefit of all that dough funding beloved games sequels or improving their services. Tbh I'm more excited for whenever the hell the next (source 2) gmod is going to come out.

Serenity-Now 4y ago

Is this an official Valve project?

dusted 4y ago

Wow, that's graphically impressively unimpressive.. That smoke effect looks like a proof of concept from 2003 (by someone who either didn't know what wind is, or didn't have the processing power to do it).. The fire from molotows look better in Postal 2.. It's almost as if a new generation of gamedevs are starting from scratch, not building upon, but re-inventing everything from scratch (but with higher system requirements)

wisie 4y ago

Aww, I wish this was coming to consoles but get why it's not.