Gears Of War 2 Patch, Snowblind Map Pack Announced
Epic Games announced two new content bits in the works today for Gears of War 2, the first of which is Title Update 3, due on March 24. The new patch comes a host of new achievements, improvements, and goodies including a new experience-based ranking system and Public Match autobalancing. Lots of balancing and matchmaking tweaks round out the list, and you'll find more complete notes after the jump.
Secondly, arriving on March 31 will be the winter-themed Snowblind Map Pack, with three new maps and one old favorite:
- Grind Yard, a massive industrial complex with low bunkers and high sniping positions.
- Under Hill, which takes players through snowbound tunnels and beyond.
- Courtyard, a wide-open battle royale.
- The popular Gears 1 map Fuel Depot, back with a blast of winter courtesy of Mother Nature, aka Epic Games.
More details ahead!
Gears of War 2 Title Update 3--March 24, 2009
A culmination of the tireless efforts of the Gears team and mounds of player feedback, this latest Gears 2 update is our biggest yet. Title Update 3 contains a bounty of additions ranging from new features and achievements to exploit fixes and matchmaking tweaks, with highlights below:
* New experience-based ranking system: The new system gives you 100 levels of player experience, gained through scoring in Public matches. The game still uses TrueSkill to set up the most competitive matches possible, but skill ranks are now hidden. Players who quit matches early see their experience docked as a penalty.
* Public Match autobalancing: Bots now automatically join a Public Match to fill any slots left vacant by players who quit early or disconnect.
* Improvements: You get region preference for matchmaking, improved standby detection, playlist optimization, plus nine new achievements--six of which require the Snowblind Map Pack--worth a total of 250 points.
* Exploit fixes: Title Update 3 eliminates the ability to mantle greater distances by swapping weapons during cover slide and to melee attack through walls while holding an enemy weapon, plus adding many more fixes.
* General fixes: These include more reliable chainsaw interruption detection, improved headshot detection for certain character model heads, improved flag AI in Submission games, plus other fixes.
* Balancing: Title Update 3 makes changes to Subway weapon spawns for greater balance, reductions to smoke-grenade stun duration, an increase to the forward angle that triggers chainsaw duels, and several other balance revisions.
Of course, that's just some of what's in store for players in Title Update 3. For the complete skinny, be sure to check out the complete patch notes.
Snowblind Map Pack--March 31, 2009
Don't worry, that rush of cold up your back is just the Snowblind Map Pack, a winter-themed batch of four new Gears of War 2 maps bound to crank up the heat on your multiplayer and Horde matches. The four maps are:
* Grind Yard, a massive industrial complex with low bunkers and high sniping positions.
* Under Hill, which takes players through snowbound tunnels and beyond.
* Courtyard, a wide-open battle royale.
* The popular Gears 1 map Fuel Depot, back with a blast of winter courtesy of Mother Nature, aka Epic Games.
Phew! That's a hell of a lot of new content for one community blog post--all that typing got me winded. But it should be plenty to keep Gearheads everywhere busy for some time. The Gears team is always on the lookout for ways to improve your game, so keep your eyes on gearsofwar.com for more updates, and expect more on the Snowblind Map Pack in the very near future!
tiny dancer
Posted to Video Games on 13 March 2009
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