Reports have been floating around for weeks now, but Valve have now made it official, Counter Strike 2 is finally happening and set to release this Winter for PC.

The game is a free upgrade to all owners of Counter Strike: Global Offensive and is being made on Valve’s Source 2 gaming engine. The original Source engine is what powered Half-Life 2 and Counter Strike: Source way back in the day, so it has been a while.

The game is going to enter a testing period, in order to test out a few elements that the game is bringing to the series for the first time. One such item is that of the smoke grenades, we have all been there you are rushing down the middle of Dust and someone lobs a smoke grenade at your feat. Previously they worked like giant jpg’s, just sort of there, but that won’t be the case here.

Smoke is all well and good, but it is how it will interact with the world that should make all the difference and for that, we need to look at maps. There is no denying it, some games just have maps that scream the game, like Nuketown for Call of Duty and Counter Strike has them as well, Dust 2 being a favourite for 2 decades now.

The maps in the Counter Strike 2 have been improved, but not changed for the sake of changing things, the team have gone ahead and made improvements if the maps needed them, but otherwise recreated what already worked, check out the video to see more.

Below you will find some screens of three maps, all taken from the new Source 2 engine, the first up is Dust 2:

Now Nuke:

Finally Overpass:

Just like how many of the maps that players love are coming across, Counter Strike 2 will bring all of the cosmetic items as well, meaning those rare skins and charms that you spent ages attempting to earn, they will be with you from day one.

Something that will likely only matter to the die hard players, though casual fans should take not as well, the game will now offer up a sub-tick rate. So for all those times you shot and the game didn’t register a hit, that should no longer be the case, check out the video below to see what it all means.

As for the testing period, access is being granted at random to selected players. Access will be based on three factors, recent time on Steam, Steam community standing and trust factor. There maybe more or less, but the basic result is you won’t be able to apply and those who do get in, will find a notification within Global Offensive. The full breakdown of the test and more, can be found on the official FAQ.