Counter-Strike: GO free Steam weekend

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is free on Steam this weekend in honor of the Electronic Sports World Cup finals in Paris. The new and beautified granddaddy of eSports is free to download and play from today until 1 p.m. PST on Sunday.

CS:GO's updated visuals and other additions were welcomed in our review, but we also took it down a peg or two for not doing enough to ease newbies into CS' infamously intense player community. With that in mind, a free weekend is likely the perfect time to jump in: plenty of other clueless goofuses will be roaming around to soak up the bullets.

The developers made sure to point out the skill ranking system will keep most new players out of the shark's den of more skilled competitive play (and clueless players from messing up high-level operations). But let's be reasonable here--chances are we're all gonna get dead right quick regardless.

The game is also on sale for $10 (usually it's $15) in case it grabs your fancy.