The upgrade is free, the test starts today

Valve is notoriously stingy with sequelsbut met multiplayer shooter Counter Strike Global Offensive finally got one. Counterstrike 2 will be released sometime this summer as a free update to the existing game, with a limited playtest starting Wednesday. The Steam maker calls it the “biggest technical leap forward in counterstrikeStory.”

What radical new improvements and game-changing upgrades will the sequel feature? Valve doesn’t say so, at least not yet. “All of the new features of the game will be revealed when it officially launches this summer, but the way there Counterstrike 2 begins today as a limited test for Ascended CS:GO players,” the company wrote on the game’s website. “During this testing phase, we will evaluate a subset of features to resolve any issues prior to global release.”

Still, Valve has revealed a number of more detailed improvements to come Counterstrike 2. They might not excite newcomers, but they will surely be a big deal for hardcore fans who have poured thousands of hours into the game over the past decade. Some of these upgrades include:

• Volumetric smoke grenades
• The tickrate doesn’t matter anymore
• Completely redesigned maps
• New Source 2 tools for modders
• Higher resolution models for weapons
• Improved Blood Spatter
• “Fully Rewritten Explosions”
• More accurate audio

Smoke grenades are the heart and soul of tactical gameplay in CS:GO, so it’s not entirely surprising that Valve spends much of the sequel’s reveal talking about how smoke effects now affect lighting and interact with other elements like orbs. Even long-time players will be happy to know all this existing CS:GO skins being transferred Counterstrike 2complete with more detailed images.

But the biggest technical change, at least for competitive players, might be what Valve calls the game’s “sub-tick update architecture.” counterstrike has traditionally measured players’ actions at regular intervals called tics and processes them in that order, introducing some inaccuracies. Under the new system, “servers know the exact moment to begin movement, fire a shot, or throw a needle,” Valve writes. “As a result, your movements and shots will be equally responsive regardless of the tick rate, and your grenades will always land the same way.”

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The original counterstrike came in 2000 and was born from a half-life Mod. Despite a few other spinoffs in the series, it was 2012 Counter Strike Global Offensive that became the de facto CS game ahead. It’s routinely the most-played game on Steam, with nearly 1 million simultaneous plays, though it doesn’t have the big regular seasonal updates like other live-service blockbusters. We’ll see if Counterstrike 2 doubles down on what existing fans love or can attract new players.