Valve’s newest installment in the Counter Strike series was announced not that long ago, yet it has already been played by twenty lucky people. Valve invited the twenty best Counter Strike: Source players to play a pre-beta version of the upcoming Counter Strike: Global Offense, and those lucky players told of their experiences. Since the game is still in development, there’s no guarantee these details will make it to the final release.

The game will feature both old and new maps, including classics such as Dust, Dust2, Inferno, and Nuke. Valve is working on expanding and balancing the weapons system beyond the main four weapons. There will be new pistols, shotguns,  sub-machine guns, and a heavy machine gun rifle. There will be adjustable weapon variables, so gameplay can be tweaked to more suitable levels. There are new items, including bouncing Molotov cocktails, useful for slowing down and rerouting Terrorist rushes, and decoy grenades, which make gunshot sounds and “give the illusion of there being a player”. Valve is going to make decisions on equipment pricing based on how useful they are to people testing the game, and whether or not players should start with full Kevlar. A random member of the Counter Terrorist team is now equipped with a defuse kit at the beginning of each round in order to make it a special item. Valve still has a long way to go before they even reach beta, but so far the new additions sound great as long as they can be balanced well with the old elements fans have come to love.

Source: G4