Counter-Strike 2 adds a lefty mode

Counter-Strike 2 weapon being held in left hand
(Image credit: Valve)

After 23 years of Terrorist vs. Counter-Terrorist battles over bombs, hostages, and the like, Counter-Strike 2 developers have finally perfected a piece of technology that had eluded them: Handedness. That's right. Where once the left hand just kind of hovered impotently around at times, or was used to reload, or support a weapon, or perhaps in a pinch hold the other of your pair of pistols, the left hand can now take center stage as the one pulling the trigger.

As of a recent patch you can now swap between left and right hands in Counter-Strike 2. You can set a preferred handedness, as well, so that your little villain/hero/antihero will always have their gun in the right spot at match's start. It's even networked, so that anyone spectating you can see exactly where your gun is.

You can even swap handedness mid-round, letting you peek your gun around a corner in a different way: Simply press H, by default, on QWERTY US Keyboards. There's even a little animation where you toss the knife from one side to another, if you've got the knife out. Why don't you have the knife out? You run faster with the knife out.

Now here's the real question that's got me downloading CS2 on the work PC rather than working: Does it change reload animations? Does your character finally stop doing that silly thing where he reaches over the entire side of an AK-47 to pull the bolt? I'm dying to know. Don't tell me, though. I want to find out on my own.

You can find Counter-Strike 2 on Steam, where you can also watch little videos of the left-handedness in action. I just think it's neat.

Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.

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