Counter-Strike 2 announced – Limited test starts today
After a couple weeks of rumours, speculation and leaks, Valve has announced Counter-Strike 2! The full game release will arrive this summer as a free upgrade to CS:GO on PC, but a limited test is kicking off today for select CS:GO players.
Counter-Strike 2 is a major ovehaul of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, taking the game forward to feature more modern visuals with the Source 2 engine, remade versions of the game’s maps, new reactive smoke grenades, and behind the scenes improvements such as a ‘sub-tick update’ architecture for the servers.
Valve is enhancing maps in three ways. Touchstone maps will have improved lighting, but remain effectively unchanged so that players have solid foundations to figure out how gameplay mechanics have evolved from CS:GO to CS2. Upgrades make more significant use the new engine’s graphics capabilities, while the oldest maps have been rebuilt from the ground-up.
The Source 2 engine allows for physically based rendering, improved and more accurate audio and the new smoke grenades that allow for dynamic volumetric effects that react to fill the environment, react to lighting and even have gunfire and explosions push it around and carve gaps through it, offering some neat new tactical possibilities. This will also be more consistent for all players seeing the same smoke clouds.
As interesting as that might be, keen CS:GO players will be more concerned with game responsiveness, and the ‘sub-tick update’ looks to be the solution to this ever-present online gaming issue. Now servers will be informed as soon as you take an action and of the exact moment in time instead of waiting for each tick to occur. There will still be a server tick, it just won’t be the determining measure of time.
This is
Read more on thesixthaxis.com
