PBBans

Next Gen Console, PC, and Mac Release Targeted for Early 2012

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO).

Targeted for release via Playstation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and Steam (for PC and Mac) in early 2012, CS: GO will expand upon the team-based action gameplay that it pioneered when it was launched exactly 12 years ago (CS beta 1, August 1999).

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."

CS: GO is being developed by Valve in cooperation with Seattle-based Hidden Path Entertainment. The title is targeted for release in early 2012 and will be playable at this year's PAX Prime and London Games Festival.

For more information, please visit the CS: GO Steam page

CS: GO will launch with five maps for Bomb/Defuse mode, and two for the other classic franchise mode, Hostage Rescue. Those combined seven maps are all based on classic Counter-Strike 1.6 and CS: Source maps, in other words, maps from the two most popular earlier incarnations of the game. The maps will be recognizable to series fans. Valve's designers have kept the best of them nearly intact, applying a graphical upgrade but leaving most of the level layout intact. The classic Dust 2, for example, looks improved but plays the same.

On PC and Mac, Counter-Strike: GO players can expect the standard options you get with a Steam game and any of the control options you would have with a computer. On the Xbox 360, players will use a game pad. On the PS3, players can use the game controller, the PlayStation Move motion controller or even a mouse and keyboard. PS3, Mac and PC players will be match-made against each other, clumped by skill, regardless of input device or platform. (Valve didn't demonstrate the PS3-PC.Mac cross-play to me today, but they confirmed that that enticing bit of networking is something they are striving to include in the game.)

rats......

reskinned CS:S beta,.,,,

I hope they change it a lot more than reskinning the L4D2 engine.

Valve has announced that it is working with the creators of the popular Counter-Strike: Source mod Gun Game to help develop new gameplay modes for the upcoming multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The game, which was announced earlier this summer, is a new version of the popular shooter series that started as a mod for Valve's first game Half-Life. In an email press release, Valve announced that the new gameplay modes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will be called Arsenal: Arms Race and Arsenal: Demolition.

The Gun Game mode for Counter-Strike: Source starts the player out with just a pistol but allows the player to level up to more powerful weapons if they kill more and more enemies. It's currently unknown how this mod will be adapted into the Arsenal: Arms Race and Arsenal: Demolition gameplay modes. Valve does say that these two mods will also come with eight new maps. Michael Barr, the project lead of the Gun Game mod team, said, "We are excited that Valve reached out and is working with us to ensure Arsenal Mode is the best version of Gun Game."

I really hope they make some more HD textures, for example.

http://www.hlportal.de/images/images/original/33271.jpg

That Brick texture is the SAME TEXTURE IN EVERY HL2 GAME.

The beta will be active for all current key holders starting Wed November 30th.

Working on/Testing the Linux dedicated servers for the beta