We know it’s hard to believe, but Counter-Strike Global Offensive – CS:GO – is ten! It felt like only yesterday that fans were jumping from the original Counter-Strike game to this shiny new sequel and now it’s a decade old. Alright, well… Maybe not quite yesterday, but we’re still surprised that one of the best competitive FPS games out there is that old. You know what else is surprising? To celebrate this milestone, Valve is updating the CS:GO map pool and finally, officially, adding Tuscan to the shooter.
Wishing CS:GO a happy birthday, the development team shared a blog post detailing what fans can expect to see in-game to celebrate and – despite a flashy Sticker Capsule – the revelation that Tuscan would be joining the CS:GO map pool alongside locales like Anubis and Prime stands out.
“You’ve been patient, and it’s finally here”, the blog post announces. “Tuscan is available in all game modes, so jump [into] this classic map and put it through its paces!” Tuscan is one of the original Counter-Strike maps known for its’ intimate close-quarters combat made up of narrow alleyways and open courtyards set on the Italian coast. Sounds nice, right?
Well, you might be wondering why we used the word “officially” earlier, when discussing Tuscan’s addition to the CS:GO map pool for the tenth anniversary. If you are, that’s because the map has technically been available in-game for quite some time thanks to the Steam Workshop and dedicated fans. There are no CS:GO cheats involved here.
In the first half of last year, it was reported that Counter-Strike’s Tuscan map was on the Steam Workshop after what we assume is well over a year of development by map makers Colin ‘Brute’ Volrath and ‘Catfood’. Following an older 2015 iteration of this popular map, the pair opted to introduce a brighter version of Tuscan to CS:GO – so, if you’ve not checked it out yet, expect something a little more aesthetically pleasing.
We can’t tell for sure, but from what we can see it looks like the version of Tuscan coming to all modes in CS:GO is going to be this bright remake. You can check out the slither of the map we have been shown below:
In addition to this map, as you can see above, there are a handful of other locales involved in playlist changes and updates. Anubis and Breach are returning to competitive matchmaking – and Primetime and Blagai should be available in Wingman going forwards. If you want to climb the CS:GO ranks, there are worse times to do it than now.
As for the rest of the tenth anniversary celebrations, players can look forward to the aforementioned Sticker Capsule – which contains over 60 designs from the community, of which a few are in a new “animated ‘Lenticular’ quality”. In addition to this, there’s going to be a “cupcake topped with a birthday coin” that players can earn by getting XP for their first in-game drop of the week. Happy birthday, CS:GO, and here’s to ten more years.