Play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Free Edition
Free for offline play against bots and spectating matches through GOTV.
Free for offline play against bots and spectating matches through GOTV.
Despite Valve having multiple successful free to play games, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is the one that has always remained a paid title. That is until now, as Valve is releasing a free version of the shooter that will allow anyone to play offline against bots and watch professional matches.
If you head over to the Steam store and install CS:GO – Free, you will have access to a limited version of CS:GO. You will not be able to play any online matches, or connect to any public servers, which is obviously the only real way of playing CS:GO. However, you will be able to enter into a private server with bots, allowing you to either warm up your aim, test out the game or just have a few rounds of fun shooting some bots in the face.
Arguably the more interesting part of this is that anyone can now watch professional CS:GO matches in game, which allows them more control over what they see. When watching in GOTV, the in game viewing client, viewers will be able to view whatever player they choose, instead of having to watch the directed camera from the official streams.
Chances are this won’t have too much of an impact on the viewing figures for the upcoming FACEIT Major in London, which will be the first tournament users of CS:GO – Free will be able to watch on their new free client. However, it does give an extra option to those who want to watch the action with more control but for some reason don’t own CS:GO already.
This new client should also act as kind of a demo. Being able to jump into a bot match should mean that you can see if your PC will be able to run it, and even if you think you will like it, without having to put down some money first. It is also unknown if this version will allow you to play matches via LAN, which would technically be offline. If that is possible then this build could make organising grassroots LAN events much easier.
Adding a very limited free version of CS:GO is quite a strange move, many have said Valve should just make CS:GO free to play anyway, as they make a lot of money off in game skins and microtransactions. But adding this version that doesn’t even allow you to experience the main part of CS:GO, playing matches against other people online, seems to offer little to anyone interested in the game itself.
