Xboxist

Gears of War 2 Gets Snowblind DLC & Free Title Update

On March 31, Gears of War 2 will get new DLC in the form of the "Snowblind Map Pack," which includes four new maps: Grindyard, Under Hill, Courtyard and Fuel Depot, a familiar map with a new face-lift. Although no pricing has been announced, if the "Combustible Map Pack" is any indication, the new pack will most likely retail for 800 space bucks (aka $9.99 Obama dollas).

Agreeing with the adage The best things come in twos, Epic has another surprise up its sleeve. A week before the map pack lands, there will be a free title update on March 24 that retools a number of things. A new auto-balancing feature will replace players who drop-out during a game with A.I. bots. Flakes will be penalized by losing experience points (XP). Game types have also been rebalanced.

The most notable change, however, is that the TrueSkill ranking system has been nuked in favor of an XP-based system. The TrueSkill system will be retained for match-making purposes. The new system allows players to rack up XP and level up to 100. New achievements are unlocked when players reach certain level milestones: Rookie Gear (level 5), Seasoned Gear (level 15), Battle-Tested Gear (level 25), Battle-Hardened Gear (level 50), and Veteran Gear (level 100).

New Experience Point-Based Ranking System

In describing the new maps, Gears 2 executive producer Rod Fergusson explained, "Grindyard is kind of an interesting map for us. Any time you've ever heard us talking about Gears 1, we always talked about the fact that Gridlock was the map we used as a basis for a lot of our development. Grindyard was that map for us for Gears 2. When we first started bringing in the new weapons, like the mortar, it was the very first place we tried all these new weapons. We had hoped to make it part of the original 10 maps that were going to be in the Gears 2 box, but for a number of reasons, it ended up not being that way.

New Grindyard Map

"So, the team is really excited about Grindyard actually getting out. The fact that it's become a winter-themed map makes it even more awesome-looking. It's a junkyard processing plant with flames, but then you have this really cool falling snow which makes for an interesting contrast.

New Grindyard Map Overview

"Then there's Courtyard. If you remember Embry Square in Gears 1, it has the same city feel with a nice dusting of snow. It's a really fun map because you can see people across the way really quickly, and so you get a really good sense of motion in the battlefield.

"And, then we have Under Hill, which basically takes place on a highway juncture, just before it goes into the mountains. You have this raised highway and this tunnel into the mountain and it's sort of half-and-half on that sort of environment. You can go to the high ground on the turnpike and grab the mortar, but going up there exposes you because it's essentially a raised highway. It's a dead end to go up there. So, you can get the higher elevation, but once you get up there, you could potentially be stuck up there."

For the last map we're bringing back -- by popular demand -- Fuel Depot from Gears 1. This was a map that was sort of a warehouse map with a downed helicopter and these gas pumps that you could blow up. It had two transport truck trailers with the sniper rifle inside. We gave it a makeover, much like we did for the Flashback Map Pack and the other Gears 1 maps we revisited. We gave it a new look and feel in terms of the visual style--again, it's a winter theme."

[Source: GameSpot]