CS Global Offensive suddenly becomes prettier and better Counter-Strike 2

It’s totally, definitely a new game. See, there’s a 2 at the end and everything.

Image: Counter-Strike 2 / Valve

When a game is as popular as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the developers tend not to want to make too many changes over time. However, after 11 years of CS:GO, it was time to give it a bit of a facelift with modern technology.

Counter-Strike 2 was suddenly released today as both a replacement and sequel to Global Offensive. If you go to your game on Steam, it’s now very clearly Counter-Strike 2.

Anyone who’s been paying attention to the game already knows that the sequel was in the works. It was treated as an update for a limited technical playtest for a while now.

In fact, they announced it back in March for a summer release, albeit without an official date for launch. But, the game itself looks leaps and bounds better than its 2012 iteration.

I jumped into a few matches, where it was still apparent that you definitely need your own set of cheats and aim-bots set up in order to even make a dent in the competition. The top player in my first match had 67 kills total in the match, with 67 headshot kills.

I can’t be mad, though. The game is free and looks great for being a new paint job on such an old game, as well as the performance upgrades under the hood. Plus, it’s as chaotic as ever.

If you’ve had the game for years, you earned some new goodies in your inventory, so check those out. It’s nothing special, but the music track kit and medal are nice for those who played prior to today.

I’m sticking with my Halo: The Master Chief Collection music though. Nothing weirder and more chaotic than hearing the Halo soundtrack coming from the wrong game.

NVIDIA and AMD have both given their thumbs up on the new Counter-Strike 2 update as well. After my matches earlier, I can say that the game runs smoothly on my slightly older AMD gaming PC.

If you are looking to give Counter-Strike 2 a (CS) go, it’s free on Steam. If you already have Global Offensive, look for it in your library instead.