How to play CS:GO after CS2’s launch

After the initial announcement earlier in the year, Valve released CS2 on September 27, 2023. The new game replaced CS:GO in the Steam Library which means all Global Offensive players will transition to Counter-Strike 2. Even though it’s a beautiful brand-new game, not everyone wants to make the transition. In this article, we explore How to play CS:GO after CS2’s launch.

Unfortunately, you cannot play CS:GO after CS2’s release. With CS2 completely replacing Global Offensive in your Steam Library, there is simply no way to launch CS:GO again.

Valve had confirmed CS2 will be an upgrade to CS:GO. However, Valve had not made it clear whether the game would completely replace Global Offensive on launch. Several players thought both games would co-exist for some time before Valve phased out Global Offensive. But Valve has simply decided to replace Global Offensive with CS2. 

Despite there not being an officially latest updated CS:GO, there is a way to play previous versions of Global Offensive. To do this, go through the following steps:

Going through these steps should help you launch a previous version of the game. But let us warn you the older version of the game might not be what you expect from Global Offensive.

Once you go through the above-mentioned steps, you should see a download start. Complete the Download and then you should be able to launch CS:GO. This is just a demo version and you can't find Matchmaking or community servers. But you should still be able to go through the bot matches (unless things change).

For many players who will be playing CS2 for the first time, the big question is what exactly is different in CS2. There’s improved graphics and definitely better and smoother movement, but is it different than CS:GO?

The biggest difference would be the new sub-tick system. The new system allows the game to optimize itself around the player’s system. So if you have a very high-end system, you will get extremely good performance with high video settings. However, if you have a lower-end system, things won’t be as bad. This is because CS2’s sub-tick system will adjust your game’s performance to extract maximum operational efficiency from your computer.

There are responsive smokes as well which bloom much more naturally. If you shoot through the smokes or throw grenades at the smokes, there is an opportunity to get an entry frag. As such, defenders cannot just simply smoke off a passageway and leave. Responsive smokes will fundamentally change the way the game is played, and we recommend putting in a lot of hours before considering yourself ‘adjusted’ to the new game. 

Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest CS2 news and updates.