Counter-Strike: GO gets a free version for offline play

Valve released a free version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive this week as part of the game’s latest update, letting players compete in offline matches against bots. It’s a good way to jump into the game if you’ve been wary about dropping $14.99 or are just hesitant about playing against more experienced players.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s free version — available for Linux, Mac and Windows PC from Steam — also lets players watch matches through GOTV, the game’s spectating client. GOTV was added to CS:GO in 2012, and was formerly known as SourceTV.

On Steam, Valve explains what the full-priced version of CS:GO gets you: “access to online content and features, including multiplayer gameplay, official matchmaking, in-game inventories, skill groups, XP, ranks, and other online features.”

Valve’s latest update for CS:GO also makes the recently added Panorama user interface the game’s default view, and Valve said it’s tweaked that UI to better support low-end machines. The old Scaleform interface is gone (and the “-legacyscaleformui” command line option is no longer supported, Valve said.)

The full patch notes for this week’s update are available on the Counter-Strike blog.