Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, known better to its fans and players as Counter Strike Go, is a very popular game. It’s perennially near the top of the Steam concurrent players charts, and has only grown in popularity in the last few years.

But it looks like the sky is not the limit for Valve, because the newest update for the game, which is available now, seems to be designed to push its popularity even further. The game, as of this update, is now free to play, which means you don’t have to buy it to play it anymore. Given just how well that went for Valve’s previous competitive multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2, I can imagine this playing out well.

The game is also getting its own spin on the battle royale concept. The mode is called Danger Zone, and it is a fast paced take on the idea, albeit with only 18 players on the map at a time. Whether or not it can recreate the tension that makes the higher player count battle royale modes so popular remains to be seen.

Counter-Strike: Go is available on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Only the PC version is supported, and only the PC version will be getting this update.

Thirsting for something new to do in Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive? Operation Hydra should do the trick, bringing new maps, a few old ones and unique modes every week. Though the content will be available for all players, the Hydra Pass will offer a few extra items at $5.99, including new weapon design finishes and a campaign.

The unique modes are broken up into three types – War Games, which is a 2v2, best of 16 match; Weapons Expert, which only allows you to buy a single weapon once per match; and War Games which features different modifiers. Modifiers include Heavy Assault Suit which comes into play during bomb defusal and allows players to tank their heart out; Headshots Only where only headshots can kill; Hunter-Gatherers which functions much like Kill Confirmed from Call of Duty; and more.

The event will run for the next 18 weeks (up till September essentially) and features seven community maps. Four of these will be new and three will be returning. What are your thoughts on the new event? Let us know in the comments below.

Valve hasn’t yet perfected its approach to eSports games but it’s getting closer with the announcement that it will permanently ban players who “demonstrate a willingness” to sully the integrity of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive eSports scene. This announcement comes after the company had previously issued warnings to a number of players who seemed to be taking advantage of the community as a whole.

There is a new post on the official Counter Strike blog where Valve has said it has said it will “take whatever action necessary” to protect the integrity and “entertainment value” of professional matches. The company went on to say that “As the scene grows, it’s an unfortunate reality that some individuals will seek opportunities to take advantage of their fans.” Allegations against certain players have been around since last January when it was alleged several members of a couple of Counter Strike teams had been involved in match-fixing during Cevo Season 5 back in August 2014.

Valve investigated the allegations and did indeed find the individuals had been doing what they were accused of doing. The company subsequently said they would not be allowed to participate in future competitions like this. Valve said that it understands bans like these can be disruptive and painful to the community at large but it feels that a move like this is sometimes needed in order to get it across that cheating and match fixing won’t be allowed or accepted in any way, shape or form. “We sincerely hope that we won’t have to issue more [bans] in the future.” The company included at the end of its statement.

In a rare move for the company, Valve have come out and explicitly admitted that they screwed up with the weapon changes in Counter Strike: Global Offensive with the latest patch. They also confirmed that they would be rolling the changes back to how things used to be pre-patch.

“Because we think it’s valuable for players to have choices when they’re thinking about how to engage an opponent, we looked at ways to make tapping/bursting a bit more appealing,” Valve said, noting that “spraying” is generally the most popular way of firing a rifle. “The hope was that by encouraging more deliberate firing, we would add something skillful that players could use to their advantage.”

This was probably why Valve increased the recovery time for the AK-47, M4A4, and M41A-S. But this didn’t work out.

“Unfortunately, our implementation failed in a few ways,” Valve explained. “For one thing, increasing inaccuracy while spraying also comes with reduced accuracy for all forms of firing. Proportionally, spraying was the most impacted, but we underestimated the impact that the change would have on players who were already firing in shorter bursts.

“As it turns out, the adjustments didn’t really achieve the goal either–our rifle data shows that players in all skill groups are still spraying more than tapping or bursting.”

Valve admitted that they changed too much too quickly- so for now, they’re reverting to how things used to be before.

“We failed to anticipate the reaction of the community to changes in such heavy-use weapons, and we clearly need to re-evaluate our process for making and communicating about changes in that space,” Valve said. “We still think there’s value in trying to find a better balance for pistols and more skillful ways to use rifles, so we hope to tackle rifles and pistols again in the future.”

Counter Strike: Global Offensive is the most popular multiplayer shooter in the world right now. The newest iteration of the classic shooter had a rocky launch, but Valve managed to turn it around with persistent post launch support. Right now, it is the second most popular game on Steam, behind only DOTA 2, which, unlike this game, is free to play.

After nearly three years, Valve has admitted defeat- the hitboxes in Counter Strike: Global Offensive, the newest installment in the long running prestigious multiplayer shooter series, will finally be fixed, much to the community’s joy and elation.

To the uninitiated, who might be wondering just what all the fuss is about, the hitboxes in Counter Strike: Global Offensive have been known to be too small – almost comically so – to the point that a player shooting at another player point blank through the chest might still not score a kill. According to Valve, this was meant to be a conscious design decision.

“In Counter-Strike: Source the generous hitboxes expanded on the character’s model. In CS:GO the hitboxes more accurately portray the character,” Valve said in a blog post in the lead up to the game’s release back in 2012. “A near miss? Is a miss.”

However, now Valve has confirmed that it is looking into fixing the issue, though it can’t promise a time frame for when said fix will be out yet.

Oh well. Better late than never, I guess.

A few months after topping 9 million concurrent users online, Valve’s online gaming platform Steam has broken the record again. On May 10th during the early afternoon, PST there were more than 9.5 million users logged into the PC service at the same time. You can check out the Steam Stats page which currently reveals a mind-boggling 7,950,851 users online currently.

As usual, Valve’s Dota 2 is the most popular game on Steam. It recorded a peak user count of more than 900,000 users on Sunday followed by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with more than 548,000 concurrent users. Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 5 has been gathering its fair share of momentum as of late with more than 173,000 players online concurrently in the PC version.

For all the success Steam has garnered, the service was recently embroiled in controversy over a new initiative to price mods for games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The initiative backfired, leading to mods once again being available for free. What’s next for Steam in 2015? Stay tuned in the coming months to find out.

The PC gaming space is generally accepted to be the best platform for online multiplayer and challenging online play against other skilled players, if you’re good enough you may even be able to go pro. Recently however, there has been a series of instances of match fixing, gambling and players throwing games at a professional level. The eSports community has of course taken this as a great offence as it could possibly ruin the entire pro-gaming space.

Valve have seen fit to issue a warning to high tier players. Whilst pro teams are expected to know about their opponents by dint of association, an excerpt of the statement reads, “Betting using inside information, or even the perception or suspicion thereof, carries a significant risk of damaging your personal brand, your team, your community, and may lead to exclusion from future Valve-sponsored events. To avoid these risks, we recommend that you never bet on any CS:GO game or match. This recommendation applies both to current professional players and anyone who wishes to participate in a Valve-sponsored CS:GO event in the future.”

While most pro eSports gamers receive tons of money, Valve try to make it clear that in such a niche space the individual can have a huge impact on the perception of the whole. They said, “It’s important to consider the substantial impact an individual professional Counter-Strike player has on the health and stability of the sport. Performing before an audience of millions of fans, you are ambassadors for your game – the strength of professional Counter-Strike comes from the integrity of its players and teams.”

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Valve’s digital gaming platform Steam hit a new record on December 27th when it logged 8,156,455 million concurrent users online, shattering previous records. Yes, more than 8 million people were online at a specific point, playing games on Steam. A NeoGAF member provided several graphs of the same which showcased the most played games.

Dota 2 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive were obviously the top two games, together averaging more than 1.2 million concurrent users. This is followed by Team Fortress 2, Football Manager 2015 and The Elder Scrolls Online. It is rather disappointing to note the current user numbers for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare which is roughly 4000 users more at its peak than the two years old Black Ops 2.

What’s next for Valve, especially with plans to expand into the living room which seem to have stagnated over the past year? We’ll find out in the coming months but for now, on PC, Steam is stronger than ever.

Valve really is the best with DLC and post launch support for its games. If you remember, Counter Strike: Golden Offensive was a bust back when it originally launched, but through relentless work and free support, Valve made it into one of the most played games on the market currently. They didn’t even stop there, and continued to release more and more content for the game.

Such as now, with Operation Vanguard, which sees the addition of six community maps to the official matchmaking servers and introducing campaigns. In addition, campaigns are also part of the Operation Vanguard pass, and are comprised of missions that players can complete to receive a Vanguard case drop or a random drop from an existing weapon collection, with up to two missions per week allowed.

The Operation Vanguard pass costs $5.99, and is available now. If you’re a fan of the game, and an avid player and member of the community, you will probably only have appreciation for this update.

Linux users: In case you thought Valve had abandoned you – which is hilarious, considering their Linux-based SteamOS – then take reprieve because Counter Strike: Global Offensive will be heading to the OS.

This was confirmed by Valve Software boss Gabe Newell in his recent Reddit AMA – the same AMA where he pretty much removed all doubt of us ever seeing a new IP from the developer any time soon.

Concerning Global Offensive for Linux, Newell, “It’s being worked on but we don’t have an ETA.”

Which is pretty much par the course for a Valve title.

Counter Strike: Global Offensive of CS:GO for short is still very much alive with constant updates by the development team and availability on PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PS3. A Linux version feels over-due at this point, but it’s never too late for Valve, right? Let us know what you think of CS:GO on Linux in the comments below.