Counter-Strike: Global Offensive closed beta has started
Are you on it? Have you shot many men? Does it still feel like Counter-Strike? The starting gun has gone off, head-shotting a terrorist twenty metres away and signalling the launch of the Global Offensive closed beta. COUNTER-TERRORISTS WIN.
There’s a video of the closed beta above, from Evil Avatar. It looks like Counter-Strike, it sounds like Counter-Strike, but does it taste like Counter-Strike? We won’t know until we’ve jumped in and licked the sand on Dust. Valve have said that they’ll gradually send out new beta invites until the closed beta is essentially an open beta, so don’t worry if you’re not in this round of testing.
Counter-Strike Global Offensive closed beta set to GO on November 30
Details are slowly emerging on Counter-Strike Global Offensive’s closed beta, which is due to start on 30 November. You’ll need a key to join in, and it will initially consist of two maps: the ever-popular Dust, and, er, Dust2. “Can’t wait to see people getting to play the changes in Dust,” said csgo_dev’s Twitter feed.
It’s very much a closed beta, though. To be in with a chance of playing you’ll need to have grabbed a key from PAX Prime or the Eurogamer Expo. There are likely to be beta key giveaways on certain popular gaming sites in the near future, too.
Don’t panic if you haven’t got a key. This initial closed beta is merely to nip any problems in the bud, and the testing period “will start small and grow until eventually everyone is in,” according to the Twitter feed. The Counter-Strike Global Offensive team are very open to feedback, too. “Everything. Everything is open to change in the beta,” they said.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta delayed
The Global Offensive closed beta was to kick off with 10,000 participants this month, but CVG report that Valve have pushed it back a while after criticism from the pro players they have testing the game.
“They gave us a lot of feedback on things we should get in the game before we release it, otherwise we’re going to be getting a lot of bug reports or a lot of feedback and it would just be redundant,” said Valve’s Chet Faliszeck.
Team Fortress 2 free-to-play shift increased player base “by a factor of five” says Newell
Valve co-founder Gabe Newell gave a fascinating insight into the pricing experiments Valve have been running with Steam at the WTIA TechNW panel in Seattle recently, revealing that Team Fortress 2′s shift to free to play quintupled its player base.
During the course of the seven minute aside, covered on Geekwire, Newell also revealed that the conversion rate of the number of free players who go on to buy something is “20 to 30 percent” for Team Fortress 2, much higher than the 2-3% conversion rate seen by other free-to-play games.
Newell said that he thinks the announcement of Team Fortress 2 as a “free-to-play” game, and not just outright “free” was part of TF2′s successful shift of payment model, perhaps underestimating the power of the raw, uncontrollable human drive to acquire and hoard sweet new hats.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive video shows hour long contest from the Intel Extreme Masters
Here’s an hour of competitive action from the recent Extreme Masters Global Challenge Counter-Strike: Global Offensive contest between Europe and the USA, spotted on VG247. The contest takes place on Counter-Strike classic, Dust, showing off the updated Source engine and some of Global Offensive’s new gadgets, including taser guns and decoy grenades. The decoy grenades do very little to fool these seasoned vets. There’s a moment where one backs off and looks it it, puzzled for a moment. Then he resumes his kill streak without hesitation.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta coming early October
Pro gamers and invited guests will make it onto the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive closed beta early in October. Valve’s Chet Faliszeck told The Reticule that they’re planning to grow the beta in the coming months, and he hopes everyone will have a chance to play by the end of the year.
Counter-Strike pros have already had a chance to go hands on with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive when they were invited to Valve HQ for testing earlier this year. A Counter-Strike: Global Offensive hands-on account from one of those testers uncovered new weapons like the molotov cocktail, and a tweaked and updated version of the Counter-Strike classic, de_dust.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Arsenal modes make Gun Game official, new screenshots out
Valve are incorporating the immensely popular Gun Game mod as official modes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Arsenal: Arms Race and Arsenal: Demolition are the two new modes. They’ll be playable across eight new maps created with help from the creators of the original mod.
Gun Game replaces Counter-Strike’s cash-for-guns system with a kills-for-guns system. Everyone starts with a pistol and gets a new weapon for every kill. Those unfamiliar with Counter-Strike might recognise a very similar mode appearing in Call of Duty: Black Ops, but the original CS mod was the real deal, and it will get official backing when CS:GO is released early next year.
Valve have sent over nine new screenshots, showing some lovely jungle areas. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive doesn’t seem to be pushing the Source engine especially hard, but it’s a significant step up from Counter-Strike: Source.
Intel Extreme Masters New York: world’s best CS 1.6, LoL and StarCraft 2 players to fight for $93k
The best Counter-Strike 1.6, StarCraft 2 and League of Legends players will clash in New York next month, hoping to win a share of the enormous $93,000 prize pot up for grabs at the Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge event. It all kicks off on Thursday October 13 and runs through until the finals on Sunday October 16. The best teams will also win the chance to participate in the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in Hanover, Germany next year.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive screenshots arrive
A Steam page has popped up for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and it’s full of new screenshots. It looks as though CS: GO has received quite a substantial visual upgrade over its ageing predecessors. Head below for shots of men, often holding guns, standing and shooting each other in some reworked versions of classic CS maps. If you’d prefer some moving images, check out the first trailer.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive trailer reveals cross-platform play, Valve to host official servers
The first trailer for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has landed on Gametrailers. In between messages mentioning the new weapons, maps and game modes, one pop up confirms that CS:GO will have cross platform play, giving us an opportunity to playfully shoot Playstation 3 and Mac players in the face.
Kotaku have spent some time with CS:GO, and can confirm a few new facts. Global Offensive will have a “casual mode” which will give players funds to buy whatever they like between rounds. This mode will also support cross team chat and let you spectate enemy team members. “Competitive mode” will provide a more traditional Counter-Strike set up.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro hands-on reveals new Dust, molotov cocktails, more guns
On Friday, Valve confirmed the existence of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a new multiplatform, standalone version of Counter-Strike with new maps, weapons, matchmaking and leaderboards. Co-founder of the ESEA, Craig Levine is one of the many top members of the Counter-Strike community Valve flew out to see CS:GO in action. He’s written about his experiences on the ESEA site. Read on for a summary of the main points.
Valve announces Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, playable at PAX
As rumor confirmations go, this one’s pretty quick. Valve just issued a press release announcing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a standalone release that seems to be a full update of Counter-Strike: Source with new weapons, maps, matchmaking, leaderboards, and more. No screenshots have been released, but from Valve’s language, it seems like more of an “anniversary edition” of CS:S that dresses up the existing content than a full-on sequel. CS:GO will also be released on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. Read the full press release within.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teased on Twitter
In the middle of a thread on the Steam forums speculating about the possibility of a new Counter-Strike game, Valve employee Cliffe dropped two lone words “Global Offensive.” Elsewhere, CVG report that anti-cheat providers ESEA post on their Facebook page with another simple message “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive… More info in the morning.” Just below the post there’s an image of ESEA man Craig Levine turning the gigantic valve in the lobby of Valve’s headquarters in Seattle.
Finally, ESL Pro manager Bastian Vieser tweeted saying “Just spend all day playing the new Counterstrike Global Offensive #CSGO at the #Valve HQ ! God I love my job.”
These strong hints appear in the midst of a sea of rumours suggesting that Valve have been flying out top Counter-Strike community members out to their HQ over the course of the past month.
Team Fortress 2 overtakes Counter-Strike to take Steam most-played top spot
For the first time in as long as we can remember, Counter-Strike has been knocked off the top spot on the Steam most-played list. Team Fortress 2 has stolen the crown. That means that overnight, TF2 has leapt from a top ten position to the very top, gaining tens of thousands of players in the process
It’s a resounding indication of the success of TF2′s move to free-to-play. Counter-Strike is routinely the most played game on Steam, often boasting twice the number of players of its nearest rivals. For a four-year-old online shooter to suddenly leapfrog the Counter-Strike is a big deal.
FY_abbottabad lets you play Counter Strike: Source in Bin Laden’s secret(ish) lair
A map has been released for Counter Strike: Source that give you opportunity to play in, and around, Osama Bin Laden’s compound.
As reported on bitthirty, the map is available to download from gamebanana now.
According the map’s creator, Fletch, “What a lot of people don’t seem to understand is that the only thing this map has in common with Osama is location.” Fletch is planning on evolving fy_abbottabad into a bomb or hostage map later. At the moment, you’re restricted to aimlessly shooting your chums around the final resting place of a deceased terrorist.
