The Counter-Strike series has been around for decades, giving players countless hours of entertainment, frustration, and luck. Valve developed many kinds of games over the years, with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive being the most played and popular in the community. Strangely enough, their most well known title is still using an engine that was created back in 2004! This is why some players feel CSGO is dead or lacks updated features. Who can blame them? However, there’s another engine that’ll revolutionize the entire game for everyone to enjoy. This is known as Source 2, an upgraded counterpart of its older version. There’s been thousands of rumors since 2014 to the present about this being implemented into CSGO. This is extremely amplified now, as recent news were leaked and officially announced to the public. How will this impact the gameplay? What about our beloved weapon skins and stickers? There’s a lot of questions without answers, but we’ll try our best to break it all down for you. Let’s begin!
The Engine’s History
The Source engine is the main driving force behind many of Valve’s games, such as Half-Life. It’s been around for a long time, but has been improved upon by developers during its lifespan. At the moment, the engine is still being used across several games with CSGO being the main one. Before this title was released, Counter-Strike: Source was a huge success and made fans love the engine. Players from this era absolutely enjoyed the character movement and physics, among other aspects.
In CSGO, these features were modified and soon became accepted in the community as another great hit. Sadly, there’s only so much developers can do with an extremely old game engine. This is why Valve officially released Source 2 into the public as a beta to begin enhancing their biggest first-person shooter title.
Source 2 Rumors and Leaks
Before the official announcement for Source 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was reaching all new records for its player count without releasing large updates. This is interesting enough as it is, but more users may come around in the near future due to the engine being added in CSGO. When will it be released? There’ve been many speculations over the years, dating back to 2014 about Source 2’s date. Only recently, a journalist by the name of Richard Lewis revealed the answer to the public. He stated the beta will be live within March or the first of April, which sparked large amounts of hype at the time. Countless influencers reviewed his article and made their own assumptions about the Source 2 update, increasing the community’s interest in CSGO.
While all this was going on, people with Nvidia drivers found that the control panel revealed a new executable file called csgos2.exe. Many people suspect this is Source 2 for the game, especially since it contains “s2” within the name. Data miners, such as Gabe Follower, have contributed to the hype and leaks through digging up code and developer history. An example of this is finding out some devs played completely different versions of the game or locating unique DLC for it in the database. Combining these findings with Lewis’s article, the entire community is up in arms over Source 2.
Suspected Improvements
Once the dust settled, many professional and average players started suspecting new improvements from Source 2. This was mainly fueled by Lewis’s article, but also through obvious changes brought about by the update. These include 128 tick servers, improved performance, map optimization, bug fixes, new matchmaking system, and increased graphics or better visuals. Sadly, part of CSGO’s community believes this update will not be completely game changing.
Regardless of this, the upcoming features and patches from the new engine will greatly enhance everyone’s experience. Whether we finally play on better servers or simply get better graphics, it’s certain this update will get headlines across the internet.
Possible Rebranding
Instead of the current title of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, it’s been rumored to be a lot simpler for friendlier sponsorships. The official CSGO twitter account changed its background many times leading up to the Source 2 announcement, making people believe a branding is imminent. For example, “Counter-Strike” was displayed for a short period of time. In other words, Valve is throwing out the terrorist language to mimic other games’ easy going tone. This will be a controversial change, as our beloved title will cease to exist in mainstream media.
Source 2 Skins
One of the biggest concerns of CSGO’s community is the impact of Source 2 on skins. Some users think they’ll be removed or greatly improved upon. We’ll place our bets on skins staying in the game, as Valve makes way too much money on them. Due to this, it’s highly probable that Source 2 will not remove them, but rather enhance their appearance or remain the same to avoid negatively impacting the game’s economy. However, the Source 2 announcement made it clear that skins will be safe and completely enhanced by the new graphics.
Counter-Strike 2
On March 22, 2023, Valve announced Source 2 for the first time in history! They released lots of information about the new and upcoming changes, including a timeframe for its debut in CSGO. Almost everything that was rumored came true, but with some tweaks. For instance, a statement made by them contradicts the 128 tick suggestion, “Tick rate no longer matters for moving, shooting, or throwing.” Additionally, every single map was built from the ground up with Source 2 in mind for the best in-game results. This includes physics too, such as smokes being dynamically felt while playing matches. When can you expect this update? The answer is clear as of now, Source 2 will be released in the Summer of 2023. Unfortunately, not every piece of information is available at this time. Regardless of this, we’ll break down the major changes introduced by this update.
Dynamic Smokes
Any smoke grenade thrown in the game now interacts with its environment, meaning more realism for players. This makes new opportunities to engage enemy targets, as bullets and explosives briefly create openings. Additionally, it’ll act more naturally compared to its old counterpart. In Source 2, players can expect smoke to go down stairs and expand outwards into corridors, among other aspects. Besides this, it’ll react to lighting and make the particles feel more alive in the map.
New Map Designs
As many CS players know, the maps can either look really old or semi-updated. In Source 2, all of them are enhanced and built from the ground up with newer mechanics. You can expect brand new textures and rendering features on your favorite maps like Overpass, Dust 2, Nuke, and more! These changes implement realistic lighting, which improves visibility for characters and brings new life to the game. This will make all the maps last longer in Counter-Strike, but expect some bug fixes here and there.
Better Performance
Briefly hinted above, ticks are no longer an issue with this new engine! This introduces sub-tick updates that make every in-game interaction instant. In other words, if you see someone and shoot them, it’ll happen before you blink. Everything about this will improve everyone’s competitive experience, as it doesn’t matter what tick rate is being used on the server. Valve’s motto is “What you see is what you get”, which makes them extremely confident with this change.
Enhanced Skins
Yes, skins still exist in Source 2! These will be greatly enhanced due to the lighting changes, but also have model alterations too. This means your favorite AK-47 will look different, but appear better than before. Some players may think this will impact the market, which is a reasonable assumption. Expect to see some interesting trends with certain Counter-Strike skins, stickers, and other items due to this update. However, you can be assured that any bugs or visual glitches will be resolved before Source 2’s official release.
Conclusion
The most hyped CSGO update is here and ready to play, but only for a few select players. Remember, Source 2 is in the beta phase for fixing any bugs, issues, or glitches. Once this passes, the summer of 2023 will be the official date for its release. Valve has been working hard on Source 2 for this game, which is why ten years have passed without any huge transition to their newest engine. The upcoming features will be amazing to experience, especially if you’re bunny hopping with improved physics or inspecting your favorite skin with special lighting. We hope this blog helped you learn more about Source 2 and the upcoming changes thousands of players are looking forward to enjoying. Have a good one, gamers!
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