Gears 2 to become more of an Experience

Gears players will be pleased to hear that Epic is readying the next map pack for Gears of War 2. The Snowblind Map Pack will bring four new maps, namely Grindyard, Under Hill, Courtyard and Fuel Depot, a remake of a map from Gears of War. The map pack is slated for release on 31 March and as of yet no price has been set for it.

Even better news for Gears players is that the much despised Trueskill ranking system for online competitive multiplayer games is being replaced but a whole new levelling system in the third Title Update which will be hitting Live the same week as the Snowblind Map Pack. Experience points can now be earned in public matches to level your character up from rank 1 to rank 100. The Trueskill system won’t be entirely dropped though as it will still form the backbone on matchmaking but it will no longer be tied into your rank. Experience points will also only be earned for games played from the release of the Title Update and will not be awarded for games played before then.

With the title update and revamped experience system comes additional achievements such as Rookie Gear (level 5), Seasoned Gear (level 15), Battle-Tested Gear (level 25), Battle-Hardened Gear (level 50), and Veteran Gear (level 100). Another new feature of the update will be that if a player is dropped during a game the teams will be automatically balanced with the addition of an AI bot.

It seems as though Epic has finally responded to most gamers’ complaints regarding the online Gears experience, and with a new map pack also coming out we should see a score of gamers returning to chainsawing and curb stomping each other online. As Marcus Fenix would say, “NICE!”