Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Coming to Xbox 360
Valve has just announced that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the sequel to their original ultra-popular PC shooter, will be making its way over to Xbox 360 consoles.
The grand-daddy of the modern tactical shooter, the original Counter-Strike introduced intelligent team based combat, weapons that handle differently, semi-realistic physics and a whole ton of never before heard of innovations to first person shooters. Things we take for granted nowadays, such as using points or money to upgrade our skills in between rounds, objective based maps all pretty much started and became popularized with this franchise.
In this sequel, we can expect an expansion upon the team-based formula, with new maps (as well as some classics such as de_dust), new gameplay modes, online leader boards and more.
The game is being developed by both Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment who worked together in the past to develop Counter-Strike: Source. That’s good news, hearing that this project will be helmed both by the original creators of the franchise and seconded by an experienced studio who knows the series. The last thing we need is another title filled with potential being passed off to an unpromising third party.
The original Counter-Strike (along with its sequels, mods and off-shoots) went from being an afterthought to the original Half-Life’s multiplayer mode, to one of the most long lasting and most played PC games of all time. Will this sequel have what it takes to stake its place in history as well? Will the first-person shooter crazed(and flooded!) console market eat this game up like the PC crowd did a decade ago? I guess we’ll see; and here’s hoping!
The game will be demoed at the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) at the end of August and again at the Eurogame Expo in September. The final product should be released during the first quarter of 2012.
In other news, Torchlight 2 might not make it to Xbox 360 and july was the Worst Month in Gaming Sales since 2006.
