Counter-Strike 2 News

Are CS:GO games too long?

For roughly two decades Counter-Strike has been a game of 30 rounds - it is as much a part of the identity of the series as de_dust2. Changing that would be like making football games shorter - so why does the debate surrounding the game's supposedly overindulgent length resurface every year?

Solving this issue could be as simple as switching back to a max rounds 12 (MR12) system used in early CS 1.5-6 and repopularised by Riot Games' Valorant - but with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive it might not be that simple. Unlike other esports game where balance adjustments are commonplace, CS:GO is sensitive to change: it is, after all, a formula that has largely stayed the same for 20 years now.

However, the competitive scene is at a crossroads, with the most recent return to LAN at IEM Cologne 2021 reigniting conversations surrounding the length of games. Valorant has offered the first real challenge in a long time to CS:GO's title as the top tier FPS esport, and it will be up to Valve (and even the tournament organisers) to decide whether the length of the games are a necessary sacrifice to stay at the top.

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Counter-Strike Global Offensive is 9 years old

Valve's competitive first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive turned nine years old today. It remains the most popular game on Steam - a little bigger than Dota 2, and around four times bigger than the 3rd and 4th placed games. Not bad, eh.

Read patchnotes on SteamDB...

Sound Tactics

Today we’re shipping the Tacticians Music Kit box, featuring six new Music Kits from Austin Wintory, Chipzel, Jesse Harlin, Laura Shigihara, Leonard Paul (Freaky DNA) and Sarah Schachner.

There’s no better tactic than sharing your new MVP anthem with the rest of the server!

Release Notes for 8/12/2021 can be found below:

[MUSIC KITS]
– Added the “Tacticians” Music Kit Box, available in regular and StatTrak™ variants, featuring 6 new music kits:
— Austin Wintory, Mocha Petal
— Chipzel, ~Yellow Magic~
— Freaky DNA, Vici
— Jesse Harlin, Astro Bellum
— Laura Shigihara: Work Hard, Play Hard
— Sarah Schachner, KOLIBRI

[MISC]
– Added a designation of bombsite A and B to game events generated when player begins to plant the bomb and finishes planting the bomb.

CS:GO gets new music kits, with polka-metal and Star Wars game composer's tunes

Music kits are a nifty feature that let you switch up the tunes you listen to in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with custom tracks created specifically for CS:GO by various game composers. New music kits don't come around all that often, but there are usually some real treats when they do - and a new, just-launched batch does indeed bring some goodies, including a polka-metal mashup, plus some tunes by a Star Wars game composer. Oh, and there's a bonkers disco music video, too.

Valve's latest CS:GO blog post announces the new Tacticians music kit box, which includes six new kits by variouos artists. First up, we've got one called Mocha Petal by Austin Wintory - a name you might be familiar with as he was behind the music of games like Journey, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, and John Wick Hex among others, as well as a bunch of films and shorts, according to IMDB.

For this kit, he's "decided to try and merge two things which seemingly can't mix: polka and metal", as he explains in the track's clip on YouTube (below). It's a pretty bonkers combo, but a lot of fun - just imagine that blasting in the background as you tackle your next CS:GO match.