Valve Now Taking Pre-Orders for Counter-Strike: GO
PC gamers can now pre-purchase Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Steam.
The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive website states that Valve is now taking pre-purchases for the PC version on Steam. The game is slated to launch on August 21, but fans can save 10-percent on the $14.99 price tag by purchasing the game now ($13.49). Want the complete Counter-Strike experience? Valve is currently offering the CS: Complete package (CS, CS: Condition Zero, CS: Source, CS: GO) for 66-percent off the retail price of $54.96 until August 9 ($18.69)... not too shabby.
"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."
The pre-order news follows an update on August 2 which discussed the upcoming map workshop for Global Offensive, a repository where submitted maps can be evaluated, discussed, and rated by the community. Valve said that server operators will be able to subscribe to -- and automatically update -- these maps, ensuring that they have the author’s most recent version throughout a map’s development.
"The map workshop is the perfect place for pros and other players to develop maps with their communities," the company said.
For those who refuse to play Global Offensive on the PC, Sony's PlayStation Store will open the doors to pre-purchases of a downloadable version for the PlayStation 3 console starting August 14. Previously Valve planned for cross-platform multiplayer gameplay between the PS3, Mac OS X and Windows platforms, but the studio limited the feature to the non-console platforms due to the inability to release simultaneous updates across all three. However the PS3 version will include support for Move and the mouse/keyboard combo.
So far there's no word on when Xbox 360 owners can pre-purchase CS: GO, so keep checking back with the official website. The worldwide release on Steam, the PlayStation Store, and Xbox Live Arcade is August 21.
UPDATE: Valve sent over an email stating that all players who pre-purchase on Steam gain early access to the beta on August 14th in addition to the 10-percent discount.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.... I wanted to stomp some console kiddies.
I guess I just don't know what differentiates CS from other online FPS games.
As for comparison to BF3, there is none. At least with the CS and CS source. CS is good because it is for people who want to quickly go into a match and shoot. BF3 is a whole new ballgame since you have tanks, cars, boats, planes, helicopters, etc that you have to utilize as well. The modern warefare multiplayer games where sucessful because they used a similar model to CS. BF3 also recognized the simple approach and has recently released a close quarters update that is similar to CS and MW style gaming.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.... I wanted to stomp some console kiddies.
Counter strike took the world with competitive play. Its not about INSANE graphics or kill streaks.
Counter strike is fun because its SUPER simple. You can make it more complex by adding in team strats.
Worth the $.
You die, you don't respawn until the end of the round. There is no running and gunning here. You peek out of cover in sustained fire, you're dead. Unlike BF or COD, you don't look for a hardcore server to get that extra challenge - you're on hardcore from the start. 1 Life, 1 round, and the overzealous need for being able to detect the slightest footstep.
Oh and for anyone who hasn't or doesn't understand why CS is so popular, it's because you just haven't played it yet.
Kinda hard to put in words to some degree. CS is just one of those games like WoW and nowadays Call of Duty that just got it right, at the right time. It was a free mod based on the Half-life engine. It's graphics were low-end enough that you could play it on just about anything. It just had a cool play-style too it. And has it grew in popularity, it became a game that proved to be highly competitive, even with all it's faults and glitches.
Even CSS didn't fully capture what made CS great and is probably why CS shows more people playing it on-line than CSS. Pretty strong evidence that pretty graphics, Achevements, and all those other things aren't the only thing that makes a game great.
The orginal point of CS:GO was to combine the best parts of every version (recoils from 1.5, hit boxes from 1.6 and graphics from css). Ive been in the beta since april and it still has some problems but supposidly they have a huge update coming before/for launch that should fix most if not all of the current problems. Although Im not really sure why valve is giving a weeks worth of beta for preordering instead of just releasing the game a week earlier...
thats what they say... but if you look back in the past and cross platform play was bad.
not because of updates or anything else but because PC gamers would DESTROY the console gamers.
That and consoles have a different update process, lots of red tape.
Ya valve is sooooo much like EA and Activision its not even funny. /Sarcasm