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Counter-Strike 2 Officially Announced by Valve for Summer 2023 Launch, Limited Test Incoming Today

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THE NEXT ERA OF COUNTER-STRIKE BEGINS THIS SUMMER

Counter-Strike 2 is the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike's history, ensuring new features and updates for years to come. All of the game's new features will be revealed when it officially launches this summer, but the road to Counter-Strike 2 begins today as a Limited Test for select CS:GO players. During this testing period, we'll be evaluating a subset of features to shake out any issues before the worldwide release.

Counter-Strike 2 arrives this summer as a free upgrade to CS:GO. So build your loadout, hone your skills, and prepare yourself for what's next! Read on to learn more about some of the features of the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test.



CLEANER, BRIGHTER, BETTER

Maps in Counter-Strike 2 are receiving upgrades and overhauls which leverage all of the new Source 2 tools and rendering features. From upgrades to overhauls, maps are cleaner, brighter, better. The overhauled maps have been fully rebuilt from the ground up, leveraging all of the new Source 2 tools and rendering features.


GAME CHANGER

Smoke Grenades are now dynamic volumetric objects that interact with the environment, and react to lighting, gunfire, and explosions.

Smoke now has the ability to interact with other gameplay events, creating new opportunities. Bullets and HE grenades can push smoke to briefly clear sightlines or expand occlusion. Now the smoke will seep out of opened doorways and broken windows, go down and up stairs, as well as expand in long corridors and combine with other smokes. In Counter-Strike 2 smoke particles work with the unified lighting system allowing for more realistic light and color.


WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET

Tick rate no longer matters for moving, shooting, or throwing.
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.

As a result, regardless of tick rate, your moving and shooting will be equally responsive and your grenades will always land the same way.


HI-DEF VFX

From UI to gameplay, all visual effects have been reimagined.
All of the visual effects have been updated in Counter-Strike 2. With Source 2 lighting and particle systems, there's an all-new look and behavior for water, explosions, fire, smoke, muzzle flashes, bullet tracers, impact effects, and more.

In Counter-Strike 2 the most critical gameplay visuals have been redesigned with readability in mind. Bullet impacts can be easily viewed at a distance, and directional blood impacts (that fade over time) give you more information as you move through the world. Experience completely reauthored explosions, fire, C4 lighting, and more. Leveraging the Source 2 Engine and modern hardware, environmental effects in Counter-Strike 2 feature improved visual fidelity and greater consistency.

The UI in Counter-Strike 2 has gotten a complete overhaul, including fresh visual effects throughout the HUD. Not only do these improvements look nice, they also communicate important game state.

ACCURATE AUDIO

Reworked, Rebalanced, Reverbed - 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.

SOURCE 2 TOOLS

The Source 2 tools and rendering features will be available for community map makers to make it easier to build, experiment and iterate. And stay tuned for the Source 2 Item Workshop, which will be available later on in the limited test.

THERE'S MORE TO COME

The Limited Test only evaluates a subset of Counter-Strike 2's features, so that major issues can be resolved before the summer. But there's much more to come. In just a few months we'll reveal all of the details of Counter-Strike 2, and we can't wait to share it with you.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
 
Nice, Source 2. Would be cool to see other devs working in that engine. Apex was a huge game and that was in Source 1.
 
honestly cool stuff and dont you just love how they keep they "Valve cant count to 3" meme alive?
 
To bad CS isn't a game for me. I love competitive play and from a technical perspective it sounds seriously impressive.
 
So Valve finally ran out of money and want to milk the next generation of kids.
 
Not interested in games more than 10, 5 GB size.
 
Enjoy it, this will be the last CS game, as Valve doesn't know how to count to three
After it will be CS 2.6 or Condition One.
 
So the game will support DX12/Vulkan , 10x times better graphics?
That's all i care about is better visuals.
 
So the game will support DX12/Vulkan , 10x times better graphics?
That's all i care about is better visuals.
You are in the minority. This is Counter Strike not Cyberpunk.
 
So the game will support DX12/Vulkan , 10x times better graphics?
That's all i care about is better visuals.
Makes no sense on a game like CS, but whatever. Anyway as much as i started hating Valve, this i'm pretty excited about - surely going to play it, i'm also quite sure it'll be f2p, that really doesn't make stuff better.
 
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So Valve finally ran out of money and want to milk the next generation of kids.

I was just thinking - "Fortnite is going to finally die off."
 
I wonder how much of a boost to PC sales this will drive? I'm thinking a sizable amount of people will need fresher potatoes to run it, if this is the minimum spec for CS2.

[Quad core Sandy Bridge + 8GB RAM + GTX660/HD7850] is quite a jump from [Conroe + 2GB RAM + "any 256mb DX9-capable graphics card"]
 
I wonder how much of a boost to PC sales this will drive? I'm thinking a sizable amount of people will need fresher potatoes to run it, if this is the minimum spec for CS2.

[Quad core Sandy Bridge + 8GB RAM + GTX660/HD7850] is quite a jump from [Conroe + 2GB RAM + "any 256mb DX9-capable graphics card"]
If you really have the barely minimum yeah but all those new requirement are components older than 10 years old. When CSGO came out, the minimum configuration required was less than 10 years old.
 
If you really have the barely minimum yeah but all those new requirement are components older than 10 years old. When CSGO came out, the minimum configuration required was less than 10 years old.

The thing is though, most people would want more than the minimum to have a more consistently decent playing experience. A person who's sitting on something close to the minimum, like a GTX 750Ti (pretty sizable amount according to Steam survey, 0.62%), or someone who's been chugging along with a Vega iGPU might be prompted to get something better.
 
The thing is though, most people would want more than the minimum to have a more consistently decent playing experience. A person who's sitting on something close to the minimum, like a GTX 750Ti (pretty sizable amount according to Steam survey, 0.62%), or someone who's been chugging along with a Vega iGPU might be prompted to get something better.
It'll run on their $365 steam deck so I wouldn't worry about low end specs too much. If your desktop is slower than a steam deck then I implore you please care for your PC.
 
It'll run on their $365 steam deck so I wouldn't worry about low end specs too much. If your desktop is slower than a steam deck then I implore you please care for your PC.
Theirs a lot of poor country that like to play video games too and they take care of 10+ years old hardware that we first used better than we could ever bother too
 
Theirs a lot of poor country that like to play video games too and they take care of 10+ years old hardware that we first used better than we could ever bother too
That's true. No disrespect there.
 
I am only interested in anti cheat and anti toxic updates regarding modern CS.
 
Sorry, but on what I've saw, the graphics seems to be a big downgrade over CS:GO. The maps now are overbrighted, shadows are gone, all maps look like all the lights are turned on!!! WTH is going on Valve? Did you forgot your shaders and shadow maps???
 
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