OMG OMG OMG OMG

I just loaded up steam for the first time in a few days and I noticed I had something in my inventory so I go check and low and behold I find an invite to nothing other than the CS:GO beta. So as you may have guessed by the title I am very quite excited about this. I don't know why I got a key I don't think I signed up for it at any point, but none the less I am not going to sit here and complain about it. So long story short I have CS:GO beta  and I am very very happy about it to say the least.

CS:GO Beta Expands

Just a swift little update. It would appear that the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta is set to expand. Those looking to get in on some new Counter-Strike action may be in luck according to a tweet from the CS:GO developer twitter about an hour ago.

CS:GO at Intel Extreme Masters

Here we have some competitive CS:GO gameplay on an updated version of Dust2 along with some incite in to the game from Chet Faliszek. The map itself hasn't changed all that much, there has been some boxes moved slightly and some scaffolding put up to climb on which I don't remember being there in previous versions of Counter Strike though don't quote me on that. The guns used in this footage seem to vary from the standard mp5, ak, carbine and awp which most people tend to use in CS:S.

Gun game is official game mode in new CS:GO

The popular mod for Counter Strike is become an official part of the newest rendition of the game. Valve have named two "new game modes"; Arsenal: Arms Race and Arsenal: Demolition. What these two new modes will entail is yet to be seen, I am guessing 'Arms Race' will be your standard gun game, as for Demolition I am not sure. Anyway these two modes will be accompanied by eight new maps, some screen shots said maps can be found here. Valve have also got the creators of this fun little mod on board to help them along with development as well. A mod of a mod getting backed by a big named company like Valve is quite an achievement those guys, saying that gun game has been immensely popular since it's first incarnation back in the days of the original CS and has been used in other games such as Black Ops, so it does make sense for Valve to do this. I hope they do the same with team death match and possibly surf as well. Whether they do or not these will no doubt be making a reappearance when the game is released.

Cross platform gaming with Steam for CS:GO

As we all know Valve are bringing out a new version of Counter Strike under the name Global Offensive. There is now use of cross platform being implimented between Playstation and PC, with Xbox hopefully joining suit in the near future. The PS version of CS:GO will have keyboard and mouse support, along with Playstation move (although I'm not sure how good/accurate this feature will be but fair play to Valve for using peripheral devices available to them) and of course Dual Shock Controllers, so you can play on PS however you choose.

For years there have been debates over which is better consoles or pcs. Now with Valve implimenting this we will be able to find out. While keyboard and mouse are obviously more accurate than controllers, I do think there will be some guys on PS that will give PC gamers a run for there money. Hopefully Valve can work things out with Microsoft and have Steam over on Xbox as well and we will have fully cross platform compatibility. So you can play against your buddies no matter what platform you happen to play and prefer. I do hope this is a sign of things to come and that we see more cross platform games in the future. Microsoft could (and should of IMO) have started cross platform play with GFWL and XBL. All they had to do really was put in keyboard and mouse support for Xbox, so they at least have the choice of having the same as PC guys, and just chuck a few ports of Xbox games over to Windows. While they did start porting over with the likes of Gears of War, and the first two Halos, which were all (apart from the original Halo I reckon anyway) were quite poor ports of the original Xbox games.  Hopefully Valve and MS will work something out as this would be great to see more games playable with people across all three platforms. We shall see soon enough.

I can see a lot of die hard PC gamers complaining about Valve branching out. I applaude them for forming this bridge between gamers. This imo is the first step to creating a bigger, better and greater gaming community for everyone. A chance for Xbox gamers to play with friends that only have a Playstation or PC and vice versa. And for Valve to be doing this is amazing as they do have great PR and actually listen to what customers want (except hiding away a certain Freeman but that's a completely different story. But everyone knows Valve uses Valve Time and gets things done when they get it done). I can see this making us a little more competitive and can prove once and for all who is better, Consolers or PC gamers.

A little more news about cs go

Apparently there won't be new game modes as rumoured, but there are new weapons and old ones aswell. All weapons appear to have been tweaked to make the likes of shotguns and sub machines more viable purchases so maybe everyone won't be sitting about with aks and m4s all the time. We also have new grenade types firstly we have molotovs which I can see being quite annoying. Secondly we have a decoy grenade which emits gunfire sounds that should confuse people, again will be quite annoying. There may even be full kevlar as the standard player load out, which would change up the money system quite alot which has been changed aswell somewhat. Which will more than likely lead to alot of the guns prices changing.

Official annoucement for new Counter Strike

So we have a new Counter Strike heading our way, at the moment coming some point early 2012. We will see new maps, game modes (what modes I don't think has been said as of yet) and leader boards to name a few things, and no doubt updated graphics aswell.
I saw that they will also be releasing the game on Playstation and Xbox aswell. While most people will more than likely sit and complain about this with "ah man it's a pc game crappy consoles shouldn't get to play it yadda yadda bullshit" It's not that big a deal. As Valve being Valve have always been PC based, with a couple minor exceptions. But they no doubt will put the PC version as there priority and keep the majority of there fan base (ie pc gamers) happy. And yes there are going to be a lot of people complain about it just like they did when source was released but people get over that and end up playing the game anyway. If they don't they like this new version they will just return to there favourite version of the game. It's not going to die any time soon. There is still people who play 1.6 and even cz to this day. Hopefully we will hear more about this in the not to distant future.

News on the Valve front.

First of all L4D campaign Blood Harvest is coming along to L4D2 tomorrow I believe I read. So I know what I'll be doing as soon as the game updates.
Secondly there has been word of a new Counter Strike called Global Offensive. Hopefully it will be on a brand new source engine with fancy new graphics. Hopefully accompanied by a certain game containing a certain freeman. I know I can always hope.
Anyway talking of Half life there is a little protest at Valve HQ for the release of the next Half Life game yesterday the Gman came out and brought them lunch. How long it will last, I'm not sure but I hope it'll encourage the guys at Valve to at least make a statement about the whereabouts of Mr Freeman. We shall soon see.