It has been almost eight years since the release of “Counter-Strike: Source” in November of 2004. Valve Corporation on Aug. 21 brought it back with “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.”

PC players, who are a fan of first-person shooters, have been expecting this game for quite a while, and a lucky few had the chance to test out the beta version after they were able to receive the online keys at the Penny Arcade Expo, Eurogamer Expo or by doing a survey.
I wasn’t able to get the Beta until I pre-ordered the official copy on Steam, not that I gave the Beta a go.  I waited until the week of the release and got my chance to get an insight on what had changed in the game. Let me tell you right now that there wasn’t much change in the game.
The list will start off with the changes, which I noticed from the start.  Valve has yet to disappoint me with their graphics when it came to their games’ sequels, such as “Half-Life 2”, “Team Fortress 2”, and “Left 4 Dead 2”.

So the jump within the graphic change was a huge difference, unlike “CS:Source”, where the players were rather edgy and not smooth to look at. “CS:GO” was able to come back with much more realistic and smoother looking graphics.

Now don’t get me wrong, you can still change the level of your graphics through the option setting, but with an old graphics card in your PC, you won’t get far into a mission. You’ll most likely die without getting a kill.

With the addition to their update on graphics, they also updated their environmental outfits.  In “CS:Source”, there were less environmental outfits, such as being in a cold environment and the players were wearing  short sleeve shirts and shorts.  In “CS:GO”, Valve changed this so that the outfits will now match the settings the players are on.

There was also the upgrade in which many of us anticipators were waiting for: updates in guns. The current game has, from what I see, is a good 25% increase in different guns.

Another thing that changed and is welcomed by many “CS” players out there are the fast and accurate matchmaking servers.  Previously in their copy of “CS:Source”, the players would have to match and hope to get the server they want, and one way or another be happy or disappointed. “CS:GO” on the other hand, allows you to specifically pick which types of game you want, which narrows the search down from, as an example, 100 to 30.

A feature of change that I liked was that campers now can be forced to get moving with an incendiary grenade (to the terrorists it would be the molotov cocktail).  The flame burns the camper or the enemy and keeps burning for a while.

The last of the updates ends with two official additions to the gameplay family: “Demolition” and “Arms Race.”  In “Demolition,” Counter-Terrorists’ mission is to defuse the bomb that the terrorists set up, and the terrorists’ mission is to set the bomb and prevent the counter-terrorists from defusing it.  In the “Arms Race,” your mission is to kill the enemy with all the level of weapons you are given.  Each time you kill, your weapon changes, and the last weapon you have to use is a knife.  The catch of the “Arms Race” is that if you are killed with a regular knife and not the leveled up knife, you will go back to the previous weapon you were wielding, which technically means that you have been set back to the previous level you were on.

It may be a more difficult and more realistic game to play than the “Call of Duty” franchise, but added content to “CS:GO” is far greater then Call of Duty, and for budget minded gamers  “CS:GO’s” $15  price point is much more attractive then “CoD’s” $60  price. Overall, my thoughts are that if you already have “CS:Source” and have the cash to spend $14.99 on a graphic boosted and slightly upgraded game. Then I say that it is worth it. “CS:GO” is available online through Steam, X-Box 360, and PS3.