Gears of War 2 Gets New Experience System and DLC Map Pack

Gears of War 2 was one of the biggest games to hit the stores at the end of last year, as it was the successor to one of the most popular ones ever made for the Xbox 360 console. With the hype campaign having reached critical levels just as the game was launched, players welcomed it with open arms, which led to some very impressive sales figures.

But once people popped the disk into their console and started up a multiplayer match, they realized that things weren't so good. The lag that players experienced, the faulty weapon balance and the hard to wrap your head around TrueSkill ranking mode prompted a lot of user complaints on the Internet.

After addressing a few of those issues with the latest title update, the development team at Epic Games has been hard at work making a completely new ranking system and creating a new downloadable map pack for the game's multiplayer mode, which aims at making it even more attractive to players.

First of all, the TrueSkill system will be placed in the background, as the most important criteria for players will be a new experience-based system that will give them points for scoring in public matches. 100 levels will be available, with achievements being unlocked after reaching a certain milestone, like Rookie Gear (level 5), Seasoned Gear (level 15), Battle-Tested Gear (level 25), Battle-Hardened Gear (level 50), and Veteran Gear (level 100).

A new auto-balancing feature will also be implemented with this new update, as players who drop out from multiplayer matches will see some experience points deducted from their total and will be replaced by AI-controlled bots until the end of the match. The patch is scheduled to hit on March 24.

In terms of the DLC map pack, it will be entitled Snowblind and will feature, of course, maps where snow is almost everywhere. There will be three new maps: Grindyard, Under Hill, Courtyard and a remake of one of the most popular maps from the first game: Fuel Depot. The new maps will arrive on March 31 but Epic Games has announced no pricing details yet.

So there you have it, it seems that people will certainly be in for a big treat and a solid reason to pop that Gears of War 2 disk back into the console for some multiplayer fun. Will it make you take up the game once again? Don't be shy to leave us a comment.