After almost two decades the gaming community bid farewell to Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive only to welcome a whole new Counter Strike experience in Counter Strike 2 (CS2). Valve’s multiplayer shooter game rose to fame under the CS:GO name with millions of gamers around the world having played this legendary game.
For years, fans have patiently waited for a new chapter of their beloved game, and behold, it has finally arrived. Counter Strike 2 has officially been released and is now available to download and play for free on Steam. With CS2, Valve revolutionized the game by replacing the Global Offensive version.
Valve mentioned, “A free upgrade to CS:GO, Counter-Strike 2 marks the largest technical leap in Counter-Strike’s history. Built on the Source 2 engine, Counter-Strike 2 is modernized with realistic physically-based rendering, state of the art networking, and upgraded Community Workshop tools.”
Needless to say, the new version comes with a whole lot of features and improvements, and every fan out there wants to get their hands on this old, yet new title.
Some of the new CS2 features include brand new CS Ratings with the updated Premier mode, global and regional leaderboards, upgraded and overhauled maps, game-changing dynamic smoke grenades, tick-rate-independent gameplay, redesigned visual effects, and audio among several others. Besides, fortunately, all items from CS:GO will also be moved to CS2.
While several PC users have already got their hands on the new version, there were questions floating around about the new version being available on the Linux operating system.
Is CS2 available on Linux?
Although the beta testing of CS2 which started in March was available only for Windows, eliminating Linux from the beta, luckily the devs have not left the operating system behind for the actual game. Counter Strike 2 is available on Linux operating systems too. However, Linux users should make sure their devices meet the minimum requirements for this latest 27GB game to run smoothly on Linux native support.
The Linux system requirements for CS2 are as follows:
- OS: Ubuntu 20.04
- Processor: 4 hardware CPU threads – Intel® Core™ i5 750 or higher
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD GCN+ or NVIDIA Kepler+ with up-to-date Vulkan drivers. Support for
- VK_EXT_graphics_pipeline_library highly recommended.
- Storage: 85 GB available space
- Sound Card: Highly recommended
The GPU requirements for the same will need a Vulkan driver. So players using the open-source AMD graphics if using GCN 1.0/1.1 will have to use the AMDGPU kernel driver for RADV compatibility.
Additionally, players playing on Linux must remember that going by what developer Timothee “TTimo” Besset had earlier said, the game has been thoroughly tested on the Windows version but considerably less on the Linux version. Thus players are advised to report any bug they come across while playing CS2 on Linux.