It finally happened - Counter-Strike 2 has officially released on PC after a week of hints and teasers, which have probably left fans wholly unsurprised about this whole thing. 

For those out of the loop, the official Counter-Strike Twitter account set the ball rolling last week, on September 20, when it tweeted: “What are you doing next Wednesday?” From this point on, many fans believed that this meant that the sequel’s release date was all but confirmed. 

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As GamesRadar+ points out, was further solidified by the fact that, yesterday (September 26), the account’s Twitter banner was changed to the popular The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask meme, which reads: “Dawn of The Final Day.” Needless to say, it’d be wrong to say that this is a sudden release that no one saw coming. 

Counter-Strike 2 was announced back in March, and since then, many players have already been given the chance to dive in thanks to its limited beta tests. It’s the official replacement for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, meaning that the original game is now no longer available to play.

The sequel promises a whole host of improvements to make the Counter-Strike experience better than ever before. Smoke grenades, for example, are now much more dynamic, and the smoke produced by them can interact with the environment and react to gunfire and lighting. 

Counter-Strike 2 also implements sub-tick updates, allowing the game’s servers to know the exact moment when players input their movements and attacks, rather than them being locked to time intervals known as ticks. This change should make players’ actions be consistently responsive at all times. 

For those who’ve been waiting to dive in, your time is now. Counter-Strike 2 is now available to download from Steam.

It remains to be seen whether Counter-Strike 2 ends up being considered one of the best FPS games, but if it’s as impactful as its predecessor, there’s a good chance that it will be. For more game recommendations, be sure to check out our list of the best PC games.