LambdaGeneration Community Join our new Community Platform — Share Half-Life news and community content. Built by fans, for fans.
We Are The Lambda Generation. LambdaGeneration is a website dedicated to the video game Half-Life. ( We're basically really passionate about crowbars, headcrabs and anyone who has goatee with a PhD in theoretical physics… )

“Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” Unveiled, Planned Release In Q1 2012?

News & Rumors Other

Back in July, we reported that a number of competitive CSS players had been invited to Valve HQ, and that Iikka Keränen, a Valve level designer, had begun work on some “Counter-Strike” stuff. We assumed this was a mere CSS update, if a larger one. Turns out it’s more than that!

“Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” Unveiled, Planned Release In Q1 2012?

Through a pretty large number of separate sources, we can now confirm that a new Counter-Strike title has been unveiled. This is the first Counter-Strike title to be released in Western markets since 2004’s CS:S (I say Western markets because Asian markets saw the release of Counter-Strike: Online in 2008).

Yes, Gabe’s awkward response from a few months back really did carry more than meets the eye. One of the first places where people found information was the ESEA Facebook page, which stated:

“Counter Strike: Global Offensive… More info tomorrow!

The page also featured pictures from the competitive players’ trip. The only pictures seen were from the lobby, as filming and photography are currently prohibited at Valve’s offices, most likely due to this very project (note that the playtesters received no NDA, but were told not to film or take photos, as were any folks who simply happened to be visiting Valve at the time). Soon after, ESEA News jumped into the fray, firing on all fronts with some pretty substantial info:

Rumors:

  • Planned to be released Q1 2012
  • Focuses on 5v5 competition
  • Press release within 24 hours from VALVe
  • Plays on an updated source engine
  • Individual & Team rankings
  • New Guns added
  • New Grenades
  • Dust & Aztec major revamp
  • Spamming still viable
  • Ammo is free

Interesting! We can definitely see some CS:S influence in this new project. Not convinced of the veridicity of these reports? Thinking it’s just a massive joke? Well, let’s take a look at a thread on the CS:S Steam forums, where a confused poster called the project “Global Operation”, as the ESEA Facebook page originally featured that instead of “Global Offensive” (the game had been referred to as simply “CS:GO” during most of the playtest). Guess who responded to the thread, with nothing more than:

Global Offensive

Yes, Jess Cliffe, the original co-founder and lead dev of Counter-Strike did post just that, practically confirming the fact that these reports are authentic, and that a new CS game is indeed, on the way.

But the trail of info doesn’t stop here! Steffen “3k2” Markussen, one of the playtesters, has posted on Reddit, as part of an IAmA with himself. Let’s see what he said:

Ammo is free as in source, it was debated a couple of times through the day though, so it might not be how it’s going to be in the final version, even though I personally think it won’t have ammo-buying.

There are a few new guns (and all the guns have been changed more or less, but their current versions aren’t at all final). There are also a couple of new nades, which are pretty cool. There are molotov grenades, which create a fire-blanket that slows players are little. It sounds crazy, but it actually played really well I think, even though the size/dmg might need a bit tweaking. The other new nade is a decoy-nade, that can play firing-sounds, so it can be used to fake that a player is in a position. Not sure how usable it is, but the idea is pretty nice I think.

In the current build armor is also free, but I am pretty sure this will be changed, at least for the competitive mode, since most people here thought it was a bad idea and there basically was no point to even have armor in the game, if it was given for free every round.

Because of this armor-change they also revamped the money system, which wasn’t too nice, you didn’t really get enough money, so sometimes you would end up needing to have 3-4 ecos or having won 5 rounds in a row and still only have 4k left xD This was also down to more grenades and other equipment being available though.

All the maps have names you know, but most of them have been altered. Dust2 only has very minor changes from the source version, but the other maps have some pretty big changes (most importantly dust and aztec have been changed to try and make them more usable for 5on5 play)

The deagle is about as powerful as in source, but it’s hard to tell after such little playing time, we spent more time trying out other guns/stuff mostly.

Intriguing stuff! Let’s take a look at another one:

Recoil was a bit weird, since it was actually made more random from how I understood it, but since they made it be random in a circle instead of a square it ended up being easier to control. Anyways, they’re going to change it, since right now spraying is just the only way to really go about playing the game.I didn’t really notice the ladder movement, de_train isn’t finished, so the only ladder we encountered was the nuke one and I played ramp in the game we played on it, so I didn’t get to go up there too much 😛 I think it was just like in source though.

Currently they didn’t have money and health on the scoreboard, but they weren’t done with the User Interface in general, so what it looks like now isn’t going to be in the final product. I think info about money and health will be included one way or another, at least into competitive mode, since pretty much everyone can agree it would be nice.

Check out the Reddit IAmA right here, for more info.

According to the playtesters, who are posting on Twitter (stay tuned to the #CSGO hashtag), they will be coming back in tomorrow, to playtest Hostage Rescue maps. So, expect to get more information over the next couple of days! You can also check out CounterStrikeGO.com, who’ve rounded up most of the information. They’ve also got some unconfirmed reports of a beta in September or October.

That’s all we’ve got for now, but we are staying tuned for an official announcement from Valve.

10 Comments

  1. I Can’t wait for CS:GO next year, And I also can’t wait for DoD2 the year after…… then mabby we’ll get Ep.3, or Possabully after Ricoshet 2.

    • No, Episode Three will only come after Deathmatch Classic 2. And Gunman Chronicles 2. And Prospero. And F-STOP. And Brotherhood of Arms. And Invasion. And the submarine game. And the fairy game.

  2. ANNOUNCED! http://store.steampowered.com/app/1800/

  3. How much will it cost?

  4. Hl3 shipping with CS:GO anyone? Seems logical to me. They just can’t hold the release of HL3 for year longer.

  5. I think Spetsnaz will return from CZ in GO (hence the word “global”).

    • The Spetsnaz may make an appearance, but supposedly, there is no player model choice in GO. Like the Xbox version of CS (and similar to the old CSS), there will be only one CT model and only one T model per map.

  6. These are great news, I hope they will update some of the least played maps like cs_havana, de_tides and de_chateau, I also hope to see a change in the hitboxes, especially for headshots.

  7. Goddamnit valve, no one is waiting for this…

    Half-Life 3 please

  8. That’s… That’s awesome. But Valve, I want Half-Life.

Leave a reply


Sign in via Steam to skip spam and contact fields.