The Arms Deal Update for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is live, adding in a Team Fortress 2-style system of random drops, over 100 new weapon skins, two new stock weapons, and a purchasable item that helps fund competitive play.

The new weapon skins will drop randomly while you play CS:GO, much like new items in Team Fortress 2. Unlike TF2, all of the modifications are purely cosmetic. You will also occasionally find weapon cases, similar to TF2's crates, which must be opened by a key. These come in two styles: standard variety, and a special eSports case. The proceeds from eSports case keys will go towards larger prize pools and greater visibility for competitive CS:GO.

It's not all just paint jobs and microtransactions, though. We're also seeing the return of the silenced variants for the M4A1 and the USP, which feature a smaller price tag and magazine size than their louder brethren.

Arms Deal is available now, and you can read more about it on the official announcement page.

Valve are extending their Operation Payback campaign for another month. Which isn't to say they're planning another 30 days of making prank phone calls to the offices of EA's Origin - that's the other Operation Payback. This one is the reward scheme for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive mapmakers, giving players the chance to remunerate the community creators for their contributions to the game. Originally due to retreat on July 31st, the programme will now run until the end of August.

In exchange for the $5.99 contribution, buyers of the Payback pass get official dedicated server access to the seven chosen maps over the course of the event. The maps included are Museum, Downtown, Library, Thunder, Favela, Seaside and Motel. Since the scheme's launch in April, a total of $150,000 has been paid out to the mapmakers involved.

While this first Operation Payback will now close on August 31st, Valve have announced that they're already looking for the next wave of creators to showcase. "We’re looking at a great list of maps that we hope to include in the next operation," they write. "If you’ve been working on a map, now is the time to make sure it’s in the workshop and getting votes!"

You can currently access the Operation: Payback pass for a discounted price of $0.99.

Thanks, PCGamesN.

Operation Payback has paid out for Counter-Strike: GO's top mapmakers, who have earned a fantastic $150,000 between them. Payback, you'll remember, is Valve's attempt to 'pay back' the game's dedicated community by offering unlimited access to seven of its best user maps, and dedicated servers on which to play them, for a flat $5.99 fee. Considering the creators of those seven maps now have around $150,000 to share between them, I'd say it's proved rather successful.

The operation ends July 31st, but I hope it's an initiative Valve will return to in the future, especially considering how successful it's been. They did something similar with TF2 with the Robotic Boogaloo pack, which raised nearly $250,000 for 66 item creators. It's an increasingly lucrative business, this modding lark - and richly deserved, considering how much talent and effort the top creators put in.

As predicted earlier, The Steam Summer Sale is now. From today until July 22nd, daily deals and flash sales will flood the Steam store with prices that are lower than the usual prices. To get the best deals, you may want to be patient and gamble on there being heavier discounts as the sale goes on—a good way to pass the time is to chart prices across a giant blackboard, mixing in the Fibonacci sequence now and then and muttering about "Gabentropy."

Currently, you can get BioShock Infinite for $30/£17.50, Counter-Strike: GO for $5.09/£4.07, Hotline Miami for $2.49/£1.74, and tons of other crazy dumb deals. You can also vote on the Community's Choice sale every eight hours—the currently leading game is something called "Heavy Load."

Just as promised, Steam Trading Cards is now live. The virtual cards can be earned by playing participating games on Steam, trading with other users, or buying on the Steam Marketplace. Complete a set to create a badge, earn rewards and XP, and level up. The user with the highest Steam level at the end of the year gets to high five Gabe Newell while announcing Half-Life 3. In space.

In other true facts, I'm already hearing from users playing the Steam marketplace to profit off the cards' initial popularity. One user I spoke to has been buying low and selling high to pad his Steam wallet, even creating scarcity by buying up low-value cards in quantity. I'll keep an eye on marketplace prices as more users start trading the collectibles.

I was hoping to find a good deal on a 1952 Mickey Mantle card, but unfortunately, baseball isn't a participating game. You can see which of the games you own are participating here.

There will be Negevs.
We recently set up a ridiculous number of servers for the latest and greatest games—plus a few classics. To celebrate, we want you to play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with us tonight!
The festivities will kick off on our new Arms Race server that features some of the coolest Arms Race-compatible maps on the Steam Workshop.
We’ve also got plans for Community Fridays that’ll take place every single Friday here at PC Gamer. The game will change each week, but the time will always stay the same—5 PM PDT / 8 PM EDT.

How to join

Join the PC Gamer Steam Group to be notified of events
Subscribe to our CS:GO Steam Workshop Classic map collection and Arms Race map collection (this will auto-download and auto-update the maps we run on our server through Steam—MAXIMUM CONVENIENCE!)
Join the server (“PCGamer.com | Custom Map Arms Race IP: 8.6.76.59:27015) around 5 PM PDT / 8 PM EDT
Have fun; be the kind of person you’d like to play games with

Thanks to GameServers for hosting all of our amazing servers. Think we’re missing an amazing map, mod, or config? Shoot an email to ben@pcgamer.com or jake@pcgamer.com.
If you’re not a fan of CS:GO, jump into some of our other game servers or join us this Friday for the first ever Community Friday.

Here at PC Gamer we like to play PC games. Sometimes, we even like to play them with other people. That’s why we’ve got a huge lineup of game servers hosted by GameServers.com. Feel free to hop on whenever, or join us on Community Friday or during our other random events.

All servers hosted in the US. We'll update this list with PC Gamer UK's servers as soon as possible.
CS:GO Arms Race


The in-game matchmaking system only lets 10 players duke it out in Arms Race. Our server has room for 24 players with the latest and greatest custom Arms Race-compatible maps from the Steam Workshop.
CS:GO Classic Casual


Our very first community events took place on the server we like to call: The Psychedelic Den of Map Experimentation. Try out some of the best maps available on the Steam workshop in our 24-player, 128 tick server.
Rising Storm


Join the Axis or Allies as we battle it out on PCG’s Rising Storm server. Territories mode is the name of the game with our soon-to-be ranked server.
Battlefield 3


Vehicle enthusiasts can drive around in our 64-player Battlefield 3 server. Watch out for mortars!
DayZ


Part of the public hive, our DayZ server is a great place for you to scavenge for loot, meet new friends, or hunt down some bandit scum.
Minecraft


A 32-player Minecraft server with the Tekkit Classic mod installed. Download the Tekkit client before jumping on to play!
Team Fortress 2


Show off your hats and other accessories on the PCG TF2 server. We’re running the official maplist with support for 24 players.
Left 4 Dead 2


If you’re looking for a reliable dedicated server for your co-op zombie escapades, look no further than the PCG 8-man Left 4 Dead 2 server. Pick your favorite flavor of L4D2 and murder some zombies.
Unreal Tournament 2004


A staple of the PCG offices, now you too can join in on the fun with our 32-player UT2K4 server.
GoldenEye: Source


If it wasn’t already clear, PCG loves mods. In fact, we love them so much that we’ve set up a 16 player GoldenEye: Source server for you guys to play on.
Natural Selection 2


For whatever reason there’s a 10-slot maximum on our Natural Selection 2 server. We like to think that this encourages teamwork.
Killing Floor


Another co-op zombie classic, jump into our 6-player Killing Floor server to play with other PCG community members.

If you’ve got server requests, plugins, mods, or other suggestions, email jake@pcgamer.com or ben@pcgamer.com.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is quickly becoming the go-to source for round-based shooting action—replacing both Source and 1.6. This might be because of the growing tournament scene associated with CS:GO, but it could also be because of the ample developer support.
The latest patch for the game has brought de_mirage into the map pool, added an “sv_grenade_trajectory” console command and fiddled with Overwatch and the UI. Operation Payback Passes are also on sale for $0.99 until Monday.
Like the other classic maps that have been added to CS:GO, de_mirage is coming back to the game with a few changes. Valve explains the overarching vision was "to improve the readability and graphics of Mirage without losing any of the gameplay, jumps, corners, timings and balance that has made it so incredibly playable for three generations of Counter-Strike players."

Valve has also added visual arcs for grenade throws that are only available in servers that have cheats enabled. Put “sv_grenade_trajectory 1” into the console on a server that has “sv_cheat 1” enabled and you’ll see indicators that should help you learn to bank grenades for maximum effect.
One particularly noteworthy change is the restoration of the “retry” console command. I've personally felt the pain of not having an easy way to reconnect to a server that you've just disconnected from. Typing “retry” into the console will zap you back into the last server that you were connected to and has been a staple of both Source and 1.6.
The full patch notes are below.
Maps


Added de_mirage.
Added console command to help players plan strategic grenades. Set sv_grenade_trajectory 1 (cheat convar) to see a visual arc in-game.

Overwatch


Overwatch Investigators are now required to submit more detailed verdict reports after reviewing evidence.
Fixed interpolation issues during GOTV and Overwatch demo playback which caused the weapon of a shooting player to visually appear several ticks behind the moment a victim was hit.
Overwatch FAQ updated. http://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/overwatch/

Operation Payback


Operation Payback Pass on sale for $0.99 until Monday 6/17.

UI


Added links to top streams on the main menu.
Added an audio option to reduce game music volume when Steam Overlay is activated.

Misc


Restored the "retry" console command.
Players can only submit griefing reports for teammates.

Thanks, PCGamesN.

The team known as "Ninjas in Pyjamas" has a made a documentary showing off its bomb-planting tactics in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive at Copenhagen Games 2013. Well, it's not so much a documentary as it is a well-produced video of pro players laying down the heat against other teams, but it's still a pretty good way to spend 18 minutes.

If defusing bombs isn't your thing, Copenhagen Games also offers tournaments for StarCraft II, League of Legends, and other competitive multiplayer games. It's always fun to see how people who train for a certain game play compared to casual players, and then quietly sob in a corner after being awed by their skills.

If you said "They aren't that good," while watching the video, Copenhagen Games will return next year between April 16-20. All you need are some decent teammates, sponsors, and ruthless tenacity.