Hero image: Counter-Strike 2, from the Steam store page. Image: Valve
Valve has released a new Counter-Strike 2 update, and most of its gameplay changes are aimed at the Retakes mode.
The changes are listed in the Counter-Strike 2 Update notes, posted on Steam at 11:54am AEDT on Thursday 5 November, by our conversion from the post’s timestamp.
The headline change is to the end of a round. Valve’s notes put it this way:
“Bomb defusal in Retakes mode will now instantly finish when there is sufficient time remaining in the round and no active utility remains to prevent the defuse.”
In practice, a defuse that can no longer be stopped no longer has to be sat through.
Freeze time and the delay before a round restarts have also been reduced in Retakes.
The update also gives pet chickens something to do before the round starts. The notes say “Pinging pet chickens during freeze time will request a trick from them.”
A second chicken change concerns a display setting. Pet chicken names are no longer shown when the customised item text option is set to hidden.
The rest of the notes are for map makers. The scripting API gains a new top-level Entities export with Entities.Spawn, along with Instance.OnBotControl, two player controller methods for bots and CSPlayerPawn.Reset.
Several existing methods have moved to Entities or been renamed. The notes say the old locations still work:
“Moved and renamed methods are still available in their original location, deprecated”
It follows the October update that added hostage, console and GameRules APIs to the same scripting system.
Source: Valve – Counter-Strike 2 Update, 5 November 2026 (Steam), Steam – Counter-Strike 2