We've got a lot of new details on the newly announced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive thanks to a write-up from the renowned owner of eSports Entertainment Association, Craig "Torbull" Levine. Torbull was one of twenty top Counter-Strike: Source players invited by Valve to test out CS: GO. Here's what we know so far:

Counter-Strike Global Offensive is being developed by Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment for an early 2012 release for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The game will be a platform, team based first-person shooter similar to its predecessors Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, and Counter-Strike: Source. CS: GO is being designed on the updated Source Engine, and isn't built off of Counter-Strike: Source.

The game is currently in pre-beta, so be sure to take all of this information with a grain of salt. It could all change on a whim, but right now this is what Torbull tested out. CS: GO will maintain the traditional de_ and cs_ map types (he didn't test any new game modes). Both casual and competitive modes will be supported, and Valve is implementing a built in match making system and support for dedicated servers.

For a lot more information on the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive check after the break.

Torbull mention that during his play through he and his team got to play on the Dust, Dust2, Inferno, and Nuke maps. He also said that Valve confirmed other CS map favorites like train and new ones will be included in the final release. According to Torbull, the maps all looked beautiful and the player skins and animations are smooth, and the gun models look nice too.

Regarding the weapons, Torbull said that this is one of the areas that still needs the most work within CS: GO. "Valve wanted to create a more balanced weapon system that would expand beyond the main four weapons," he said, meaning the AWP, M4, AK, and Deagle. "They wanted sub machine guns to be good mid-distance alternatives and for shotguns to provide a unique close range use." According to Torbull the AK and M4 rifles felt weak and inaccurate while the sub machine like the P90 were overpowered. Other new weapons include a new heavy machine gun rifle, new pistols, and a new shotgun.

Valve intends for the game to have adjustable weapon variables, meaning that the guns can easily be tweaked before beta and especially before launch. There's also a few new equipment items making their way in to CS: GO. One is the Molotov cocktails, an expensive $850 item which is used to slow down and re-route opponents through area of effect damage. Torbull says that the Molotov cocktails can be used strategically to slow down Terrorist rushes through the tunnels into B on Dust2 or by Terrorists to slow Counter Terrorists on retakes. The grenades are currently stackable and they bounce, versus breaking instantly, and says that the developers might need to revisit that aspect.

Another new item is the decoy grenade. Decoy grenades can be thrown to emit gun sounds and "and give the illusion of there being a player." The decoy currently produces an AK/Glock noise when thrown by Terrorists and a M4/USP noise when thrown by Counter Terrorists. The pro players suggested that the decoys should instead produce gun sounds of a weapon held by your team, which was a well received suggestion, according to Torbull.

He said that, if done right, these new items have the potential to change the way traditional competitive Counter-Strike maps are played.

Other changes that Torbull mentioned were how CS: GO is experimenting with automatically equipping a random member of the Counter Terrorist team with a defuse kit at the beginning of each round in order to make the kit a special item like the Terrorist's bomb. They're also testing giving everyone armor and full Kevlar each round.

Because everyone got full Kevlar each round, Valve tweaked the price of some guns and money rewards to balance things out. Once the pros and beta testers get their heads around how useful different weapons will be in CS: GO they'll be able to make an educated decision on how much everything should cost and whether or not starting out with full Kevlar or not is a good idea.

To me, reading all of this gets me extremely excited for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Torbull said that the game doesn't feel like Counter Strike 1.6 and that despite being built on the Source Engine, it doesn't feel like Counter-Strike: Source either. Since Valve is bringing in professional players (even though they only brought CS:S players so far) to help balance the game before they even put it in to beta, I think that CS: GO has amazing potential to be a future eSports title on the larger stages.

With all of the new details about CS: GO, are you more or less excited about the newest Counter-Strike iteration? Let me know in the comments, and let me know what other developments you want to see come out of Valve's next FPS.
Head over to ESEA to check out Torbull's full preview on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. 

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