Valve Entertainment on Wednesday officially released Counter-Strike 2 (CS2), the sequel to its ever-popular multiplayer first shooter game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), for PC players on Steam.
Counter-Strike 2 Officially Launches On Steam
CS2, a free upgrade to CS:GO, has been part of limited technical testing for almost six months since Valve first announced it in March 2023.
Back then, Valve promised Counter-Strike 2 to be an “overhaul to every system, every piece of content, and every part of the [Counter-Strike] experience.”
Valve says the updated game is “the beginning of an exciting new chapter and the largest technical leap in Counter-Strike’s history.”
— CS2 (@CounterStrike) September 27, 2023
Powered by the company’s Source 2 engine, the Counter-Strike 2 game is upgraded with realistic physically-based rendering, state of the art networking, and improved Community Workshop tools.
Besides the classic objective-focused gameplay that comes with Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike 2 also comes with the below additional features:
- All-new CS Ratings with the updated Premier mode
- Global and Regional leaderboards
- Upgraded and overhauled maps
- Game-changing dynamic smoke grenades
- Tick-rate-independent gameplay
- Redesigned visual effects and audio
- All items from CS:GO moving forward to CS2
To run Counter-Strike 2, Valve has provided the minimum system requirements below for OS platforms, such as Windows and SteamOS + Linux:
Windows
- 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
Steam OS + Linux
- 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 is highly recommended.
- Storage: 85 GB available space
- Sound Card: Highly recommended
Counter-Strike 2 is now available for download and play for free on PC via the Steam Store.
