If you're not quite sure how much spit and polish has been applied to Counter-Strike's more memorable levels as part of the game's upcoming Global Offensive update, check out these comparison shots.

Using official screenshots or trailer screengrabs as a base, players have staked out the exact same spots on existing versions of the maps, to give us all an idea of how much trash, debris and other assorted stuff is being added to breathe a little more life into the stages.

As you can see, some, like Nuke, haven't changed much! Others, like Dust, have changed a lot.

Note: Our gallery isn't playing nice with the portrait orientation of these, so click "expand" to see the images at their full-size.

Map comparison between CSS & CSGO [Steam, via PC Gamer]

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is Valve's retooling of the classic team-based first-person shooter Counter-Strike. Today, Valve revealed that the game will include "Arsenal Mode", which is based on the popular Counter-Strike: Source mod "Gun Game".

Valve is working with the Gun Game creators to create Arsenal Mode. "We are excited that Valve reached out and is working with us to ensure Arsenal Mode is the best version of Gun Game", Michael Barr project lead of Gun Game said in an official release.

"Arsenal: Arms Race" and "Arsenal: Demolition" will add eight new maps to classic Counter-Strike team play.

In August, Kotaku spent an hour with Counter-Strike: GO. Check out the coverage if you missed it.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will be out early next year.

The next Counter-Strike, the one coming out early next year called Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, won't be called Counter-Strike 2, because that game would be "something different", two of Valve's top people on the new game recently told Kotaku.

"A lot of Counter-Strike: GO is taking Counter-Strike: Source and Counter-Strike 1.6 and melding it into a product that every side likes and also expanding the base by putting it out on the consoles," Valve's Chet Faliszek said, referring to the two most popular incarnations of the game. "Whereas Counter-Strike 2, at least internally, we think about as something different."

During a recent interview at Valve headquarters in Bellevue, Faliszek and CS: GO project lead Ido Magal let me play Counter-Strike: GO (for an hour) and then helped me narrow in on what the new game is and isn't.

It's clear that the new game, which will be released as a downloadable title for PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 early next year, isn't a full-fledged sequel.

"Counter-Strike: GO has this kind of objective of homing in," Magal said. "We're taking that competitive experience that's very hard to organize in Counter-Strike: Source... We've taken that and let everyone experience the fun of a five-on-five [game] where everyone is equally matched. The product doesn't span all of Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike is zombie mods and all these different things. This is more narrow."

The new GO will feature several classic maps, new weapons and tweaks that range from modified maps to a new casual mode that removes the in-game money restrictions on which weapons and items players can buy. It also will be supported by Valve's in-house match-making, an option that allows Valve to promise a controlled, predictable multiplayer experience for all gamers.

GO is being developed in concert with Hidden Path Entertainment, which is located just a couple of blocks from Valve HQ. That team was initially been assigned to work on a straight Xbox Live Arcade port of 2004's Counter-Strike: Source.

"We wanted to see what that would look like," Magal said. It looked good.

"We realized there was something more there that we could do, something that the community would be interested in," Faliszek said.

"And we got excited," Magal added.

Valve had expected the 2004 Source version of the game to replace the previous year's 1.6 iteration, itself a successor to a game that had been evolving since the late 90's. But many of 1.6's most ardent fans, including those who played it competitively, as a sport, resisted the Source version. Source "didn't do what we thought it would do, but we weren't disappointed about what it did," Magal said. "We thought Counter-Strike: Source would replaced Counter-Strike 1.6 but instead it generated a community just as large as the 1.6 community on its own."

Faliszek called it "an amoeba-like split."

GO is supposed to bring those crowds together and rope in console players who have only had an original Xbox version to choose from. Valve also assumes it has lost some computer Counter-Strike gamers who have moved away from PC gaming and wants to reach them on the consoles those gamers may have moved to (fittingly, the PS3 version of the game will even include mouse and keyboard support; and all players on PS3/PC/Mac will be match-made against each other.)

The Valve guys describe two of the goals for GO as lowering the skill floor—making it easier for newbies to have fun with game, hence the casual mode—and raising the skill ceiling—making meaningful, subtle changes to maps and mechanics that only pro-level players will notice and appreciate.

Valve is not trying to necessarily turn GO into an e-Sport. "That requirement doesn't exist," Magal said. "If it happens, that's nice." They do want to make sure those highest-level players can enjoy GO, though, so Valve is launching a PC beta for the game in October and having what Magal calls an ongoing "dialogue" with hardcore CS players "to fix the things that everyone agrees is an issue." For example: "The way the smoke grenades used to work in Counter-Strike: Source. We changed the rate at which it blooms and dissipates and everyone preferred it." And another example, also from Magal: "The maps Dust and Aztec aren't played competitively at all because they were so imbalanced in Source. We feel very bullish on changing them, so we did. Dust 2 is a wonderfully balanced map that we didn't need to change. We just gave it a visual upgrade."

And then there are the Halo and Call of Duty gamers out there, the FPS hordes who may wonder why a new Counter-Strike is at all relevant to them. What's the appeal of CS:GO for that crowd who already have plenty of first-person shooting to do in their favorite series? CS may have sold 25 million copies already (according to Faliszek), but Valve might still have trouble pulling those folks from their beloved franchises. What's a CS have to offer those people?

Magal describes the essence and value of CS in one word: skill. "I think where Counter-Strike differentiates itself is what impact skill has on your success."

It's the way skill factors into a CS match that makes it feel different from other shooters, Faliszek added. "It's clean. You died because you made the wrong choice." He explained that beginner CS players tend to use lots of grenades, but that veterans don't since it is "super-easy" to kill a player who is holding one. "There's not a lot of spam in there," he said. "There are a lot of clean kills. Most kills are gun kills. And it's about, 'Oh I didn't check that corner before I entered this room. I made the bad choice of trying to defuse the bomb before clearing the area. We rushed around this corner and we got ambushed.' It's always about making those kinds of decisions and not about, ‘Oh man, why did I die? What the hell? That's bullshit kind of thing."

"A small difference in skill between two players, the impact of that on the game will be accentuated," Magal said. "My experience in other games is that's not the case."

That's what Counter-Strike is: a game of skill. And this is what CS:GO is: an effort to put anyone who has or should play Counter-Strike into the same game. That's a big enough goal but not a grand enough one to merit the name Counter-Strike 2.

As we discussed possible names for this new Counter-Strike, I had to ask if they'd considered one other name, one that would be an inside joke for fans of Valve's Half-Life series whose third episodic sequel has been missing in action for years. Did anyone suggest, during those brainstorm sessions, Counter-Strike: Episode Three?

"No," was Faliszek's quick reply. Then a quick inhale of breath. This new GO may not be a full-fledged Counter-Strike sequel, but it's no joke.

You've seen the debut trailer, you've read Totilo's take on the game, now see the first eight screenshots for Valve's upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

In case you're only just joining us, CS:GO is a new take on the venerable multiplayer shooter promising a few tweaks to the system, new weapons, new maps and even a casual mode for those either new to the game or returning after a long layoff brought about by fear and/or dislike of the game's experienced, hardcore fans.

There'll even be cross-platform multiplayer between PC and PS3, the latter able to use a mouse and keyboard (though the game will also be released on Xbox 360).

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive booth at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle is a madhouse. People are waiting on long lines to play it. But if you can't get in, you can at least watch it played on the big screen, through the largest crosshairs in town.

In case you need a little visual reference to go with Totilo's extensive hands-on with Valve's latest shooter, here's a debut trailer for the upcoming Counter Strike: Global Offensive.

I've played Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and can now say it's for me, too.

On the eve of the public debut of its newest game, Valve Software let me into their ever-expanding offices in Bellevue, Washington to give me a sampling of four classic Counter-Strike maps as they've been remade for 2012's Counter-Strike: GO.

This was, I dare admit, the first time I've ever played Counter-Strike.

Forget my shame, and let me tell you how terrific an experience it was. There is a lot to this game that will be interesting to veterans and newcomers.

Even I knew before I put my hand to mouse and keyboard in a Valve testing lab today that Counter-Strike is a classic team-based first-person shooter. One side plays terrorists; one are counter-terrorists. The most popular mode and the one I played today is Bomb/Defuse. One of five terrorist players randomly gets the bomb and can place it; any of the five counter-terrorists can try to defuse it. The match ends when one team is wiped out or the bomb goes off.

CS: GO will launch with five maps for Bomb/Defuse mode, and two for the other classic franchise mode, Hostage Rescue. Those combined seven maps are all based on classic Counter-Strike 1.6 and CS: Source maps, in other words, maps from the two most popular earlier incarnations of the game.

The maps will be recognizable to series fans. Valve's designers have kept the best of them nearly intact, applying a graphical upgrade but leaving most of the level layout intact. The classic Dust 2, for example, looks improved but plays the same.

Another map, Nuke, has had some of its dead space removed, Valve's project lead on CS: GO, Ido Magal, told me. Areas where players would get lost have been tightened. The classic map Aztec has been altered to give terrorist players more cover and quicker paths to bomb placement areas. Dust has had a "sniper alley" fixed so that players can now run through a trench in that map while trusting that some bridges that span it and other obstructions will give them some cover.

If you're like me and a Counter-Strike novice, you'll notice none of the subtle changes in the game's maps. Valve is partially making the game for us, but also vetting many of their big and little changes through pro players in the massive competitive Counter-Strike community.

Players like me can cheer for the game's new Casual mode. In it, money is no object and players can buy weapons for each round without worrying about cost. They will be playing with voice-chat open to all players, on both sides and the ability to spectate any player's actions, again, from either faction, should they die and be watching the rest of the round as it plays out. Casual is, Magal and Valve writer Chet Faliszek explained to me, part of their and partner studio Hidden Path's effort to "lower the skill floor" for new players.

Veteran players will ideally appreciate the game creators' efforts to also "raise the skill ceiling." The overall idea is that Counter-Strike is considered, at Valve, to be a game about skill, one that doesn't sand over differences in player ability and always lets the player feel like they know why they died. I sure understood why I died and also why I was able to achieve a surprising number of kills during our Casual sessions. Weapons recoil and headshots remain paramount. Character movement is swift and the pace is indeed fast. Maps are clean and easy to rush through. Valve clearly wants nothing to obstruct the clarity of the play of the game. To wit: Faliszek explained to me that smoke and dust effects, which are prominent in the starting area of Dust, appear less frequently and with less opacity, as the round gets underway.

Experienced CS players may gravitate toward the game's Competitive mode, which drops the cross-team chat and spectating and intensifies the rounds, dropping round time from three minutes to two. In Competitive, money earned for success in a round does count and can be spent on weapons and armor for the next round.

For the new game, Valve will host its own servers. Fans can still host theirs and tweak the game, but Valve wants all of the players to be able to rely on having access to a consistent experience. On the Valve servers. CS: Go will play the way described here. And only on the Valve servers for PC and Mac—or on the console versions for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3—will players be matchmade based on skill. Valve is using a system called ELO and will prioritize that skill ranking when matchmaking in the Competitive mode. It will prioritize your friends list when matchmaking for Casual.

On PC and Mac, Counter-Strike: GO players can expect the standard options you get with a Steam game and any of the control options you would have with a computer. On the Xbox 360, players will use a game pad. On the PS3, players can use the game controller, the PlayStation Move motion controller or even a mouse and keyboard. PS3, Mac and PC players will be match-made against each other, clumped by skill, regardless of input device or platform. (Valve didn't demonstrate the PS3-PC.Mac cross-play to me today, but they confirmed that that enticing bit of networking is something they are striving to include in the game.)

What Valve showed me and will be showing at both this week's Penny Arcade Expo and next month's Eurogamer Expo is a lot of CS:GO's nods to the past, through classic modes and tweaked and graphically improved classic maps. In the future we'll find out about new modes and maps associated with them, innovations to the formula about which the Valve guys dropped no hints, other than to mention that for some reason, on some undisclosed map, some players will be in the role of professional bank robbers.

But even in the content now being shown, fans will be able to spot differences all over the place. They will see that character models are dressed appropriately for their level's environment and, in time, Valve will ensure that all of the characters have small visual variations in their wardrobe to distinguish them from each other. Veterans will notice that in Casual or Competitive, bullets will now fire tracers, helping players learn and understand where the ammo from the game's various weapons is going and coming from. This will visualize the series' various realistic streams and arcs of bullets as guns fire, recoil and are subjected to simulated laws of physics.

Long time players will also spot new weapons and items. Among them is a taser gun, an expensive, one-shot, instant-elimination gun that Faliszek described as a weapon that is used to humiliate. Players on either side can use a decoy, a bundle of firecrackers, sort of, that looks like a player on the mini-map and lets off the sounds of guns being fired. But it doesn't look like a player and doesn't make the sound of footsteps. A third new item is the molotov cocktail which fills an area with fire and smoke, briefly, the first CS item, Magal explained to me, that is designed to slow another team down. There will be more new weapons, but those are the ones I spotted.

The game is set to go into beta this October. Attendees of PAX and the Eurogamer Expo will get Beta codes they can redeem later, and Valve will provide fans other means, not yet announced, to get into the game. Through the beta, which is PC only, and through dialogue with more players of all levels, they want to tweak and perfect this game. As Faliszek and Magal showed me CS:GO, they frequently referred to stats in the game that might change. That's the point of the beta and the continued dialogue, to determine, for example, if bombs should detonate in 45 seconds, as they did in the build I played, or if that time will be shortened to 35 in Competitive mode. Defusal is currently 10 seconds. Decoys last about five.

The process of give and take is constant for this game, the Valve guys told me. For example, Valve was going to eliminate the ability to get armor, but was talked out of it by Source players. So they added them in, made them cost money for Competitive mode, made them free for Casual and they think they've solved the problem. For now, Valve is confident that they've made the right decision to eliminate random spawn points on all maps, a trait of the old games they think the community agrees led to unfair advantages. Feedback and the reams of data Valve has collected from players of earlier incarnations of the game can still change and influence any of this.

Valve and Hidden Path are attempting to expand the Counter-Strike audience with CS:GO, roping in more console players while also creating something that is supremely refined for computer veterans. I was impressed with how streamlined everything felt and how pleasant a session of Casual was, leaving me without the feeling of shellshock I often get during my rare dalliances with competitive shooters and instead with the satisfaction of playing an efficiently-made game with an amiable crew.

Counter-Srike: Go is scheduled for a first quarter 2012 release on the PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It will be download-only. Faliszek couldn't tell me what it'll cost. They're worrying about making a great game first, he told me. They'll sweat the other details later. (But! Magal added: they won't be selling in-game hats.)

We'll have more on Counter-Strike: Go in the coming days here on Kotaku.

Valve Software revealed the existence of the newest Counter-Strike today, but the company seemed a bit shy on specifics, saying that next year's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive would bring new weapons, gameplay modes and maps to the extremely popular competitive shooter.

Thankfully, some of Counter-Strike's most dedicated players, the professionally competitive type, are going hands-on with CS: GO this week at Valve HQ, giving us an early look at some of the game's big changes.

ESEA News' Craig "Torbull" Levine offered up the game's first in-depth hands-on report from a "pre-beta" build of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, writing that Valve is "keen on hearing the input from top [Counter-Strike Source] players to make CS GO an e-sports title."

Bastian Veiser, product manager for the ESL Pro Series, says he's also in attendance at Valve's CS GO playtest, writing on Twitter that it's not just Counter-Strike Source players offering their feedback to Valve. "There 'are' 1.6 players around," he assures fans of the other active Counter-Strike fanbase.

Levine writes that Valve plans to include both "casual and competitive games modes" in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with dedicated servers and a built-in matchmaking system. The first CS GO map that the small group of Counter-Strike enthusiasts played was the iconic "de_dust," which game designer Jess Cliffe reportedly said was being "overhauled to become competitively played."

The next Counter-Strike sounds visually overhauled as well, with Levine writing that "maps look beautiful, the player skins and animations are smooth, and the gun models are cool!" Veiser tweeted that the game was apparently "based on the Portal 2 Source engine."

"We got to play dust, dust2, inferno, and nuke," Levine writes, confirming the existence of the series' best known maps. Valve reportedly also confirmed that "de_train" would be included in Global Offensive's map rotation among other unspecified maps.

The next Counter-Strike will also reportedly add some new weapons to its arsenal, including a "new heavy machine gun rifle, new pistols, and a new shotgun." Valve is also experimenting with two new grenade options, a pricey Molotov cocktail—designed to block rushes and do area of effect damage—and a decoy grenade that emits gunfire sounds intended to confuse players who rely on audio cues to determine player positioning. Given the controversy that surrounded the inclusion of Counter-Strike's since-removed riot shield, it's going to be very interesting to see how Valve and Hidden Path integrate all-new weapons and tactics into the series' tried and tested existing components.

Levine also touched on the gameplay nuances of CS GO in his write-up, writing that the new title had a "feel" distinguishable from both Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike Source, saying "pro players seemed surprisingly happy with the player player movement and feel of the game."

Valve is also reportedly experimenting with weapons that have "situational value." Instead of players committing solely to the strongest, most reliable options—the AWP, Desert Eagle, AK-47 and M4A1—it appears that the game's developers intend to make sub machine guns, shotguns and pistols viable purchases. Levine writes that CS GO will have "adjustable weapon variables," which sounds like an easier way for Valve to tweak values of each weapon for improved balance.

Finally, according to Veiser, Valve may be planning a closed, invite-only beta test for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in the coming months. Attendees of this month's PAX Prime and the Eurogamer Expo (late September) will have a chance to go hands on with the game.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is "targeted" for an early 2012 release on the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network, Mac and PC in early 2012.

Hands on With Counter-Strike: Global Offensive [ESEA New]

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive rumors were true. Valve Software announced the game today and already added a listing for it to Steam.

In a press release, Valve said that "CS: GO features new maps, characters, and weapons and delivers updated versions of the classic CS content (de_dust, etc.). In addition, CS: GO will introduce new gameplay modes, matchmaking, leader boards, and more."

The team-based shooter game is "targeted" for an early 2012 release on the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network, Mac and PC in early 2012.

"Counter-Strike took the gaming industry by surprise when the unlikely MOD became the most played online PC action game in the world almost immediately after its release in August 1999," Valve spokesman Doug Lombardi said in today's announcement. "For the past 12 years, it has continued to be one of the most-played games in the world, headline competitive gaming tournaments and selling over 25 million units worldwide across the franchise. CS: GO promises to expand on CS' award-winning gameplay and deliver it to gamers on the PC as well as the next gen consoles and the Mac."

The game is being co-developed by Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment (the latter of whom worked with Valve on updates to Counter-Strike: Source, the game's most recent major release) and will be playable at PAX Prime in two weeks in Seattle as well as at the London Games Festival Eurogamer Expo in late September.

Interesting. I wonder what those Valve protesters are thinking right now. They were demanding a long-lost sequel from Valve, weren't they?

Out of nowhere, there's rumours flying around tonight that Valve is on the cusp of revealing a new game.

It's not Episode 3, but for many, it will be the next best thing: a new Counter-Strike game.

Most of the chit-chat so far is based around testers (and eSports commentators) having very recently got some hands-on time with the rumoured project at Valve HQ. Some of them even pausing to take happy snaps of the trip.

All of the testers are involved in some way or another with the eSports scene, in particular competitive Counter-Strike gaming, and have apparently been down at Valve HQ giving their thoughts on a current build of the project.

Its full name is supposedly Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and is due out in Q1 2012. Whether it's a major update to the existing Counter-Strike or an all-new title isn't clear yet. According to the testers, some of the changes it would be making to the series' tried and tested formula would be new guns, new grenades, revamped maps and free ammo.

Oh, and the fact it'll be running on an updated version of Valve's Source Engine. And hats? No word yet on hats.

We've contacted Valve for more info, and will update if we hear back.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive [ESEA News]