Lock and Load! After months of beta testing, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is now officially a “GO” globally on Steam and PS3, tomorrow on Xbox 360.

Starting today, you’ll be able to pick up Counter-Strike go on Steam or the PlayStation Network for $14.99 USD. Xbox 360 players can snag the title on the Xbox Live Market place tomorrow for 1200 Microsoft Points.

CS: GO’s official description reads:

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) will expand upon the team-based action gameplay that it pioneered when it was launched 12 years ago.

CS: GO features new maps, characters, and weapons and delivers updated versions of the classic CS content (de_dust, etc.). In addition, CS: GO will introduce new gameplay modes, matchmaking, leader boards, and more.

If you missed the latest real-time cinematic trailer built using Source Filmmaker, be sure to check it out here.

Update

Valve has kindly included a SC: GO info graphic detailing some pretty nifty statistics from the beta (December 1, 2011 to August 15, 2012). Check it out below!

Additionally, Valve has unleashed a brand new update for the PC that will allow for zombie mod support and add a “weapon course” to take you through the basics of weapon handling.

Patch Notes

Gameplay

• Added the Weapons Course to the game.

UI

• Voice notification can now show more players talking.
• Updated the freeze panel to no longer show the heath for your killer in competitive mode.
• Added an option in the menu to disable the game instructor messages.
• Update to the player info panel to no longer show achievement alerts.
• Update to the leaderboard screen to default to “Friends” filter.
• Added the “Total Games Played” leaderboard category.
• Updated the Play With Friends screen:
  • Made the chat window bigger so text is no longer cut off.
  • Adjusted the size of dimming when the focus changes between friends list and lobby list. It used to obscure the friends list and a little of the chat. Now it only obscures the friends list.

Bug Fixes

• Updated the radio command panel so that the radio panel doesn’t end up at the top of the screen during a mode that doesn’t have a money panel.
• Set Classic Casual deadtalk to 0 to encourage fair play.
• Fixed the freeze panel dynamic positioning that would allow it to go too high.
• Fixed a missing text string displayed when player is not connected to Steam in leaderboards.
• Fixed a bug where the Mag7 could be bought by Ts via console commands.
• Fixed a bug where adding favorite server was not functional in the Community Server UI.
• Fixed a bug in the Play With Friends lobby where using left and right on keyboard or gamepad made the screen unresponsive.
• Fixed a bug in the Play With Friends lobby where typing in the Chat window would cause player names to flicker in the friends list.
• Fix for voice/chat/radio messages. Better unified the handling of voice and chat messages.
  • Chat messages now correctly use sv_allchat (instead of sv_alltalk), which should be more consistent with other source games.
  • Team-only communications now are not affected by sv_allchat/sv_alltalk, which means that private communications to one’s team stay private, regardless of game mode.
  • Team-only communication is also not overridden by sv_full_alltalk, which allows teams to privately communicate strategy during warmup time and intermission.
  • Radio commands are considered team-only, so these should still be usable for tactics during games with sv_alltalk enabled (e.g. casual).
  • Spectators no longer hear team-only communications, except when sv_spec_hear is mode 2 (hear/see comms of the spectated teams).

Audio

• Increased the audible range of the c4 plant and disarm sounds.
• Fixed audio randomly chirping/screeching on certain levels.

Matchmaking

• Tuned lobby distance computations when performing matchmaking.
• Exposed a convar (“mm_csgo_community_search_players_min”) for community quick match to look for community servers having at least specified number of human players already playing.

Community

• Shipped zombie model to support the Zombie Mod

Thanks, PCGamer.

Are you picking up Counter-Strike: Global Offensive? Let us know in the comments below!