After a bit of a delay, Valve was finally able to release the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta late last month. Sure, this is great news for those of got in, but what about Counter-Strike lovers who weren't graced with a download code? Well, lucky you, as the first footage from the beta surfaced online this week.

User clayman90 uploaded the footage and... it looks like Counter-Strike, which isn't at all a bad thing. Little looks to have changed in Counter-Strike: GO in regards to gunplay; players still cannot aim down sights meaning those who are used to Call of Duty and Battlefield are probably going to find the older mechanics a bit jarring at first.

Most of the changes to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive seem to focus on aesthetic improvements. The game itself looks gorgeous, and is a huge improvement over previous games. The weapon selection screen has been totally re-hauled and looks very intuitive and easy to use, and was obviously built with Counter Strike GO's console release in mind.

Check out the gameplay footage for yourself:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrvFGga5Nik

Aside from the various changes to the menu and the graphics, everything else about Counter-Strike: GO seems relatively unchanged from its predecessors. The aforementioned gunplay mechanics look like they're pulled straight from previous iterations of the game. Players still have to swap to their knife instead of having a dedicated melee weapon, and all of the beloved voice overs return, which means yes, the phrase "Terrorists Win" - which has already been ingrained in any Counter-Strike players mind - will be heard over and over again, unless you're always on the losing Counter Terrorist team.

Surprisingly, the team at Valve seems to have rejected the temptation to use regenerative health as Counter-Strike GO will once again make use of the no regen system. So, for veteran Counter-Strike fans, this is great news, one of their favorite games is being refined with as little changes to the core gameplay as possible. What more could anyone want? Oh, Gun Game is making a return too? Well now we know you'll be picking up the game for sure.

Counter-Strike Global Offensive releases in 2012 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC/Mac.

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