Valve officially releases Counter-Strike 2
by Danny Craig
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Valve
Valve has officially launched the successor to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, allowing players to transfer their inventories over to the latest version of the classic shooter after a six-month testing period.
The details:
- The free-to-play shooter has now completely replaced its legendary 2012 predecessor, which is no longer available. Skins, knives, gloves, and stickers in player inventories have all been transferred over to the Source 2 title. A total of ten classic franchise maps have been given a makeover so far, including Mirage, Inferno, hostage map Office, and the iconic Dust 2.
- Valve announced CS2 earlier this year, promising that it would be a significant improvement over CS:GO in terms of both visuals and gameplay. The game features improved lighting and textures, cleaner audio, upgraded visual effects such as the ability to create gaps in smoke clouds, "tickless" servers designed to make gunfights more consistent, and reworked maps.
- Following its announcement, select players were granted access to a limited test of the game beginning in March, giving them a taste of what to expect from the new entry before its "Summer" release. Although some players have reported several issues and changes that the community did not approve of, such as the new buy menu, things appear to have gone well overall.
More gaming news:
- Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis is coming to Steam after being released on mobile earlier this month. With a chibi art style and a new battle system, the game is an episodic retelling of the story of the original FF7 and its many spin-offs.
- Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, believes game streaming will "take off" within the next decade, comparing the current disdain for cloud gaming to how Netflix's transition to becoming a movie streaming service was frowned upon in the 2000s.
