Relax everyone, before you get ahead of yourselves, this is not Counter-Strike 2, the game we have all been eagerly anticipating for years now. Valve is calling this an “expansion” on the Counter-Strike series. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past decade, this description from the CS:GO Steam Store page pretty much sums up the franchise:
‘”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.’
From the descriptions and trailers that I’ve read and watched, this new addition to the CS series looks like CS:Source with updated maps, player models, weapons, and gameplay modes. The graphics look to be enhanced but only marginally better. It also looks like there will be new buy menus, new achievements (insert your favorite facepalm here), and other minor visual tweaks. It feels as if Valve gave CS:Source a new coat of paint to try to keep up with the popular Battlefield and Call of Duty series. Check out the official trailer:
Here’s a gameplay video from IGN:
It remains to be seen how different the gameplay will be compared to CS:Source. CS:S, im my opinion, will always be the benchmark for fun, competitive, team-based FPS’s. The reason the majority of our community has stopped playing the game was because it became too stagnant. The relatively recent additions of achievements and other “gimmicks” did not help. In fact, it may have made the game less fun to play. Add in the overwhelming number of cheaters and immature players and it became too frustrating to play at times. Hopefully, this “expansion” will give the game enough of a refresh so we can get back into it (for however long of a time period).
Valve is currently targeting an early 2012 release.
