Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the sequel to Counter-Strike: Source, running on the CS:GO engine branch. Originally started as a port of Counter-Strike: Source for the Xbox 360, it was later expanded and eventually turned into a new Counter-Strike game.

Technology-wise, Cascaded Shadow Maps has been implemented, wherein outdoor lighting (which was previously handled by a light_environment entity and produced only static lighting) now casts harsh, directional shadow maps similar to env_projectedtexture.

A console version of CS:GO (for Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3) is also available, but it has not received any major updates since 2013.

On December 6, 2018, the game became free-to-play and introduced a new battle royale game mode called "Danger Zone".

A upcoming sequel and upgrade to CS:GO, called Counter-Strike 2 is originally planned to be released in Summer 2023, but was likely delayed until September 27, 2023 (or possibly later). It is unknown whether this game would replaces CS:GO.

Features

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has:

Real-Time outdoor shadow mapping using the env_cascade_light entity

Similar to env_projectedtexture, used to render harsh, dynamic outdoor shadows

Light-mapped Ambient Occlusion

Used to create Ambient Occlusion on Brushes/Displacements

Map Workshop

Used to download custom maps from the workshop

Phong shading on Brushes (added 29 April 2015)

Allows for the addition of Phong highlights on brushes lit by environment light

Anisotropic reflection emulation

Used on cubemaps to emulate anisotropic reflections

Normal Map blending

Used to blend together multiple normal maps

Panorama

In June 2018, the brand new Source 2 Panorama UI launched into beta, and has been officially used later on.

OpenGL for Linux-based OSes or Mac^{[Clarify][confirm]}

Source 2 and games like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2 don't.

There are apparently more planned Source 2 back-ported features to come soon.

Confirm:Counter-Strike 2 will be released soon, which might replace CS:GO or released as separate game with CS:GO only receiving minor updates without Source 2 backported features, is this still the case as of today?

Limitations/Bugs

For the list of issues, see this page.

Use GitHub in order to prevent duplicate or outdated bug reports at the wiki.

Content

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (csgo)

Game modes

Main article:  Counter-Strike: Global Offensive/Game Modes

Official Game Mode		Match length	Penalties for abandoning?	Description of official Gameplay
	Competitive Long Match Short Match	20-90 minutes	Yes	The classic game mode: Two teams of 5 players fight in a best of 30 rounds (Short Match: 16). In Bomb Defusal scenarios, Terrorists must plant a bomb at a target and defend it until it explodes - Counter-Terrorists must either stop them from planting or defuse the bomb before it detonates. In Hostage Rescue scenarios, Counter-Terrorists must find and escort a hostage - Terrorists must stop them. There are skill groups for ranked matchmaking so that ideally players are matched with enemies of a similar skill level. In unranked matchmaking, these skill groups are also regarded but not adjusted.
	Wingman	10-30 minutes	Yes	Like Competitive, but adjusted for 2v2 and for a smaller map or a map section, best of 16 rounds, rounds are shorter.
	Casual	10-20 minutes	No	Like Competitive but not binding ("casual"), with simplified and shortened gameplay: best of 15 rounds, shorter freezetime per round, no friendly fire, no team collision, free armor and free defuse kit/cutters.
	Deathmatch Team vs Team Free For All Classic	10 minutes	No	This is a single 10 minute round with instant respawns. The player's goal is to eliminate as many enemies as possible with whatever weapon they wish to use. Weapons are free and only rifles, SMGs, heavy weapons, pistols and the Zeus x27 may be bought. Players have a short invulnerability period to buy weapons before moving.
	Danger Zone	3-15 minutes	No	A Battle Royale mode played on big maps where players win by being the last man (or team) standing. The game starts with all players choosing an insertion point at which they rope down from a helicopter. There is a Danger Zone that starts from the map's borders and advances, making the playable area smaller and smaller and inflicting damage to players touching it. This game mode features numerous unique weapons and entities.
War Games
	Arms Race	5-10 minutes	No	This is a single extended round with instant respawn. All players start with the same weapon and get a new one each time they kill an enemy. The progression of unlocked weapons ends with the knife. The first player to get two kills with every weapon plus a kill with the golden knife wins the match.
	Demolition	10-20 minutes	No	This is a fast paced mix of bomb planting and gun progression. There is no buying, you start with a rifle and if you get a kill that round, you get a progressively weaker weapon in the next round. Best of 20 rounds.
	Flying Scoutsman	10-20 minutes	No	Like Casual but every player has a fixed loadout: A Scout and a knife. There is low gravity and no inaccuracy in mid-air, allowing higher and longer jumps and precise shooting, too.
	Retakes	5-10 minutes	No	Each round, 3 Terrorists spawn on a bomb site with a bomb being planted and 4 CTs spawn at fixed locations around it. Each player can choose a loadout card at round start.

Built-in Maps

Main article:  Counter-Strike: Global Offensive/Maps

Weapons

Main article:  Counter-Strike: Global Offensive/Weapons

New weapons include: Molotov grenades, which create a pool of fire in the ground, Decoy grenades, which create fake weapon sounds, and a taser melee weapon, the Zeus x27.

Later update of CS:GO also introduced weapons such as R8 Revolver, and much more.

Buy Menu

Pistol	SMG	Heavy	Rifle	Equipment	Grenade
Glock-18 / P2000 / USP-S Dual Berettas P250 Tec-9 / CZ75-Auto / Five-SeveN Desert Eagle / R8 Revolver	MAC-10 / MP9 MP7 / MP5-SD UMP-45 P90 PP-Bizon	Nova XM1014 Sawed-Off / MAG-7 M249 Negev Riot Shield (only in )	Galil AR / FAMAS AK-47 / M4A4 / M4A1-S SSG 08 SG 553 / AUG AWP G3SG1 / SCAR-20	Kevlar Vest Kevlar + Helmet Zeus x27 Defuse Kit / Rescue Kit	Molotov / Incendiary Grenade Decoy Grenade Flashbang HE Grenade Smoke Grenade

Other

Knives	Miscellaneous	Danger Zone	Melee	Co-op Strike
Knife (CT) / Knife (T) Golden Knife (only in ) Karambit Gut Knife ... Spectral Shiv	C4 Medi-Shot Riot Shield Heavy Assaultsuit Snowball	Tablet Bump Mine Breachcharge Fire Bomb Diversion Device Frag Grenade ExoJump Parachute	Bare Hands Wrench Hammer Axe (weapon_melee)	Tactical Awareness Grenade Repulsor Device

Giving Weapons

To give yourself a weapon, you can use the cheat command give <entityname>, which should spawn a specified weapon inside the executing player, for example give weapon_awp. Knives and Danger Zone melees might instantly be removed by the game when they would spawn; To overcome this, one can use the command sequence give <entityname>; ent_fire <entityname> addoutput "classname weapon_knifegg" (in one line!) so that the entity "becomes" an entity that is not removed by the game in the same tick. Note that some weapons have a different classname after being given, e.g. give weapon_axe; ent_fire weapon_melee addoutput "classname weapon_knifegg".

Map driven item giving can be done with game_player_equip. To equip weapons using VScript, a game_player_equip entity can be created, used and removed.

Manipulating Weapons

Weapons can be manipulated via I/O, e.g. with ent_fire, and even more using VScript. All weapon entities support the inputs Kill, SetAmmoAmount <int>, SetReserveAmmoAmount <int>, ToggleCanBePickedUp, for example the command ent_fire weapon_ak47 kill removes all AK-47s in the map. To give some inspiration, if weapon is the VScript handle of a weapon entity, we can use weapon.Destroy() to kill it, weapon.GetOwner() == null to check whether it is dropped (true) or carried by a player (false), EntFireByHandle(weapon, "SetReserveAmmoAmount", "0", 0, null, null) to remove its reserve ammo and much more.

Note:When the weapon is killed that a player has deployed, their viewmodel will be broken until they deploy another weapon.

Tip:There are weapon classes whose entities initially have an identical classname keyvalue after being spawned, even though they were created from different classnames. This makes it impossible to target only one of these weapon classes in the I/O system such as MP5-SD and MP7 entities, because entities of both classes will have the classname "weapon_mp7" after being spawned, so firing I/O events to weapon_mp5sd won't have any effect because there is no entity with that classname. This problem can be bypassed in VScript: If we find an entity with the classname "weapon_mp7", we can identify whether it is actually an MP5-SD or an MP7 by checking whether entity.GetModelName() returns either "models/weapons/w_smg_mp5sd_dropped.mdl" or "models/weapons/w_smg_mp7_dropped.mdl". Other entities whose classname changes on spawn are the USP-S, CZ75-Auto, R8 Revolver, M4A1-S, Rescue Kit, Wrench, Hammer, Axe and all knives except weapon_knife and weapon_knifegg.

External Links

• Official site
• Wikipedia:Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

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System Requirements

Last updated: 9 Apr 2023

Minimum: (?)	Recommended: (?)
Processor: N/A Graphics: N/A, at least 1GB VRAM with DirectX 9.0c & Shader Model 3.0 support Memory: 4 GB RAM Storage: 30 GB, HDD Sound card: Any Windows: Windows 7 or later* Mac: OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later (64-bit)** Linux: Ubuntu 12.04/SteamOS 1.0 and later (64-bit)	Processor: Intel Core i3/i5/i7 or AMD equivalent Graphics: GeForce GTX 650 Ti or AMD equivalent and newer, 2GB+ VRAM Memory: 6-8 GB RAM or more Storage: 36 GB or more, SSD Sound card: Any Windows: Windows 10 or later Mac: N/A Linux: N/A

Note:These are unofficial system requirements, as the one from Steam Store page are out of date.