VALVE

It's official, Valve confirms Counter Strike 2

It didn't take long for it to be confirmed, just a few hours ago we were talking about a hypothetical Counter-Strike 2, as a result of several related trademarks that were recently registered by Valve, and now the company has confirmed this and also with very good news for current players of CS:GO. It still doesn't have a specific date, but it has a season (and we won't wait too long), a beta that starts earlier than you might think, and although Valve has some surprises in store for its release, it has also advanced some of the latest news. . highlights of this new generation of one of the most successful shooters of all time.

As it should be, Counter-Strike 2 will represent a significant leap in terms of its technical aspect, which in turn will translate into significant improvements in the game compared to the current version. To this end, CS2 is being built with the Source 2 graphics engine introduced in 2015 to replace the veteran Source, from 2004, and which is the same used by other titles from the company such as DOTA 2 and Half-Life: Alyx, among others from the company .

Pending more news from Valve, one of the most notable new features in Counter-Strike 2 is that smoke grenades are now dynamic volumetric objects that interact with the environment and react to lighting, gunfire and explosions. And what does that mean? Well, they will be context sensitive and therefore can be shot through by bullets, creating holes in the smoke. They will also be affected by other grenades, such as incendiary or stun grenades, changing their shape and duration. Another novelty is the elimination of the tick rate of the servers, that is, the frequency with which the information between the players and the server is updated. The game will now use sub-tick updates, which will allow for smoother and more accurate communication between the clients and the server, eliminating issues such as lag or peeker's Advantage.

As I said at the beginning, there is very good news for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players, and the first is that Counter-Strike 2 will include all the maps we already know from CS:GO, although the jump to Source 2 will be translates into a great improvement in the visual section, as you can see in the image below, as well as in the interactive examples published by Valve on the official page of the games. In some cases, moreover, the map improvements will not only be aesthetic.

Another good news for those coming from CS:GO is that Counter-Strike 2 will be a free upgrade for them, who will also get weapons, skins and other digital assets. In this way, the jump to Counter-Strike 2 will be completely free for them and, in addition, it will not imply the loss of everything they have accumulated in Global Offensive over the years.

Valve has announced that Counter-Strike 2 will be released in the summer of 2023, although it hasn't specified an exact date. However, the most impatient players will be able to try the game starting today, as a closed beta has been enabled for a limited number of users that will be expanded over time. To access the beta, players need to have CS:GO installed on their computer and request an invite via the game's official website.

by David Salces