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The next chapter in one of the greatest first-person multiplayer shooter franchises the PC has to offer, now with added console support.
Computer and Video Games
Counter-Strike:
Global Offensive
Logo
Developer

Valve Corporation
Hidden Path Entertainment

Publisher

Valve Corporation

Platform(s)

Microsoft Windows
OS X
Linux + SteamOS
PlayStation 3 (PSN)
Xbox 360 (XBLA)

Release Date

August 21, 2012

Genre

FPS (First-person shooter)

Mode(s)

Multiplayer

Rating(s)

ESRB: M
PEGI: 18

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a first-person shooter video game in the Counter-Strike series. It was announced to the public on August 12, 2011, and developed by Valve Corporation and their partner, Hidden Path Entertainment. The game was later released on August 21, 2012 for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, and OS X, as a downloadable title. A battle-royale game-mode, "Danger Zone", was introduced in 2018. A major update bringing the game to the Source 2 engine, titled Counter-Strike 2, was announced on March 22, 2023 and is slated to release in summer 2023, with limited test access being made to select players.

Overview[]

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is the fourth Counter-Strike series developed by Valve Corporation and Hidden Path Entertainment that was announced on August 12, 2011 and released on August 21, 2012 at $14.99. Originally released as a retail product, Global Offensive became free to play in December 2018.

About[]

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) will expand upon the team-based action gameplay that it pioneered when it was launched 12 years ago.

CS: GO features new maps, characters, and weapons and delivers updated versions of the classic CS content (de_dust, etc.). In addition, CS: GO will introduce new gameplay modes, matchmaking, leader boards, and more.

"Counter-Strike took the gaming industry by surprise when the unlikely MOD became the most played online PC action game in the world almost immediately after its release in August 1999," said Doug Lombardi at Valve. "For the past 12 years, it has continued to be one of the most-played games in the world, headline competitive gaming tournaments and selling over 25 million units worldwide across the franchise. CS: GO promises to expand on CS' award-winning gameplay and deliver it to gamers on the PC as well as the next gen consoles and the Mac".

Development[]

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive began as a port of Counter-Strike: Source to the Xbox 360 by Hidden Path Entertainment. Valve saw the opportunity and decided to expand the game since Counter-Strike was their least updated franchise at the time.

Jess Cliffe confirmed the name on the official Steam forums on August 11, 2011, while Valve confirmed it in an official announcement on August 12, 2011.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is designed on the latest version of the Source engine, and is not built off Counter-Strike: Source. Valve developed the game to be both casual and competitive, including both a matchmaking system as well as support for dedicated servers.

Valve announced that the beta would begin in October, but they later delayed it due to feedback from VIP players. The closed beta started on November 30, 2011. Starting August 14, 2012, the beta was open to everyone who had pre-ordered the game.

PC System Requirement (as CSGO)[]

  • OS: Windows® 7/Vista/XP
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom™ X3 8750 processor or better
  • Memory: 1GB XP / 2GB Vista
  • Hard Disk Space: At least 7.6GB of Space
  • Video Card: Video card must be 256 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for Pixel Shader 3.0

PC System Requirement (as CS2)[]

MINIMUM:

  • OS: Windows® 10
  • Processor: 4 hardware CPU threads - Intel® Core™ i5 750 or higher
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Video card must be 1 GB or more and should be a DirectX 11-compatible with support for Shader Model 5.0
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 85 GB available space

Mac System Requirement (as CSGO)[]

  • OS: MacOS X 10.6.6 or higher
  • Processor: Intel Core Duo Processor (2GHz or better)
  • Memory: 2GB RAM
  • Hard Disk Space: At least 7.6GB of Space
  • Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 2400 or better / NVidia 8600M or better

SteamOS + Linux System Requirement (as CSGO)[]

  • OS:Ubuntu 12.04
  • Processor: Dual core from Intel or AMD at 2.8 GHz
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Hard Disk Space: 8 GB available space
  • Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8600/9600GT, ATI/AMD Radeon HD2600/3600 (Graphic Drivers: nVidia 310, AMD 12.11), OpenGL 2.1

SteamOS + Linux System Requirement (as CS2)[]

MINIMUM:

  • OS: Ubuntu 20.04
  • Processor: 4 hardware CPU threads - Intel® Core™ i5 750 or higher
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD GCN+ or NVIDIA Kepler+ with up-to-date Vulkan drivers. Support for VK_EXT_graphics_pipeline_library highly recommended.
  • Storage: 85 GB available space
  • Sound Card: Highly recommended

Weapons[]

There are a lot of new weapons in Global Offensive, and there will be several changes to returning weapons, such as firepower, rate of fire, accuracy, and movement rate. As confirmed in gameplay videos, silencers will also be available. Weapons in bold are new weapons that never appeared in a previous game. Weapons in italic are weapons that replace guns that appeared in the previous games.

Melee[]

Pistols[]

Terrorists
Counter-Terrorists

Shotguns[]

Terrorists
Counter-Terrorists

Submachine guns[]

Terrorists
Counter-Terrorists

Rifles[]

Terrorists
Counter-Terrorists

Machine guns[]

Factions[]

Terrorists[]

ProfessionalCSGO

The Professionals, A new faction in the game

Counter-Terrorists[]

GSG9CSGO

One of the many revisions of the GSG-9's Models

Equipment[]

  • Kevlar costs money in Competitive mode, while it is free in Casual mode.
  • The defuse kit was no longer purchasable in early betas. It is randomly given to two Counter-Terrorist at the start of the round. In Casual mode, every Counter-Terrorist will automatically be given the Defusal Kit.
  • There is new equipment, including Molotov cocktails, Incendiary grenade, decoy grenades, and the Zeus x27 (taser).
  • In the March 21, 2013 update, the Rescue kit has been added to allow a Counter-Terrorist pick up a hostage within one second instead of four.
  • In the Arms Deal update, the USP-S and the M4A1-S have been added due to the requests of the community.
  • The C4 has been tweaked to maintain balance.
  • An alternative fire has been added for grenades. Players can now throw a grenade within a very short distance and these grenades can set off faster.
  • A new automatic pistol, the CZ75 Auto, has been added, replacing the FN57 if equipped for Counter Terrorists, and replacing the Tec-9 if equipped for Terrorists
  • The scope mechanics of the AUG and SG 553 have been changed. Instead of zooming in the player's vision like the older games, the user of these weapons will have a magnified view by looking at the rear of the scope.

Maps[]

In total, Global Offensive has 16 official maps. The game contains 8 updated classic maps which are available in Casual and Competitive mode:

There are also 8 new maps for the new Arsenal game mode, two of which are for Arms Race mode whilst the other six are Demolition mode maps:

  • Baggage (Arms Race)
  • Monastery (Arms Race)
  • Shoots (Arms Race)
  • Short Train (Demolition)
  • Bank (Demolition)
  • Lake (Demolition)
  • Safe House (Demolition)
  • Sugarcane (Demolition)
  • St. Marc (Demolition)
  • Blacksite (Danger Zone)
  • Sirocco (Danger Zone)

Miscellaneous[]

  • Competitive and Casual modes.
  • New Arsenal game mode, based on the popular Gun Game mod for Counter-Strike: Source. It has two variations: Arsenal: Demolition and Arsenal: Arms Race.
  • Bullet penetration through some walls, materials and objects.
  • New factions and changes to classic ones.
  • Matchmaking system based on skill.
  • Support for dedicated servers.
  • Leaderboards.
  • The money system has been reworked to better accommodate the weapon and equipment changes.
  • Model size as well as hitboxes slightly reduced.
  • Players have soft collision (can walk through each other) in Casual mode while in competitive mode, players have hard collision (are solid objects).
  • Cross-platform multiplayer between Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. PlayStation 3 was previously said to be included, but later dropped.
  • The hand models for Counter-Terrorists and Terrorists have been graphically updated and look different for each team.
  • The HUD, crosshair and buy VGUI has been updated.
  • The PlayStation 3 version supports the DualShock 3 controller, PlayStation Move or a USB keyboard/mouse, while the Xbox 360 version is limited to a controller.
  • Split-screen against and with a partner for the console versions has been confirmed by Chet Faliszek during Interviews.
  • Offline play with bots.
  • When dead, players will have the ability to assume the role of a bot if no other players are using it.
  • When a player throws a grenade, different radio messages will appear in the chatbox, such as:
    • "Fire in the hole!" for HE Grenades.
    • "Flashbang out!" for Flashbangs.
    • "Smoke out!" for Smoke grenades.
    • "FireBomb on the way!" for Molotov cocktails and Incendiary grenades.
    • "Decoy out!" for Decoy grenades.
  • Danger Zone - A fast-paced Battle Royale-type game mode where players fight with others to stay alive.

Misc[]

  • Added support for ATI X1000-series GPU.

Free version[]

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Free (or CS GO - Free or just Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Free Edition) is a special edition of game which is limited to offline play against bots and spectating matches through GOTV added to Steam store page as part of August 29, 2018 Update.

Later, the game became completely free. Also, a Prime Status Upgrade was added for players who want to participate in matches that include Prime-exclusive items.

Counter-Strike 2[]

In March 2023, Valve announced an update to Global Offensive, titled Counter-Strike 2. Using Valve's Source 2 game engine, Counter-Strike 2 features major technical improvements over Global Offensive. The game was released on September 27, 2023, with a limited technical test beginning on March 22, 2023 for select players.

Counter-Strike 2 features major technical improvements over Global Offensive. The Counter-Strike 2 update moved the game from the Source game engine to Source 2, introduced "responsive smokes" that could be interacted with, and redesigned versions of classic series maps.

Counter-Strike 2 replaced Global Offensive in Steam, but it remains possible to play Global Offensive on community servers by selecting an older build version in a Steam configuration panel. Additionally, the Xbox 360 console release was not updated, and Global Offensive remains playable there.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was announced on August 12, 2011, 12 years (exactly 146 months or 4,444 days) after Counter-Strike was originally released as a modification (June 12, 1999).
  • The cinematic trailer takes place on Nuke map.
  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive did not arrive on the PAL version of PlayStation Store on the offical release date, causing fans of the region to react with anger. Sony apologised for the delay and promised to solve the problem as soon as possible but failed to provide an explanation.
  • Counter Strike: Global Offensive is the only Counter Strike game to be rated 18+ by PEGI.
  • In the CS:GO icon, a CT can be seen holding a SCAR-H, a weapon that isn't in the game.
  • Unlike the other games in the Counter Strike series, the color of the Terrorist team in CS:GO seems to be a darker yellow with a bit of orange mixed into it, instead of red.
  • The original Steam App id in steam store was 1800, but was later changed to 730.

External links[]

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