Gears of War 'Hidden Fronts' map pack now available

Well, I know what I am doing tonight. Anyone download these yet? Joystiq? Give us some review action. Now.

Trolls please don't reply that you're not going to pay for this. STFU.

I am a Gears freak, so $10 means no lunch for today, but I'll love the hours of gameplay I'll get from these.

For Gears 2.. they should just get rid of the ho-hum excuse for a story mode and just do multi-player from the get go. Seriously, does any play the single player campaign? No, i didnt think so.

#3 -

I really like the campaign, especially in co-op on Insane mode. It's a lot of fun.

Shadowrun sales will be hurt because of the lack of single player.

Konny, you're a douche.

I've played the single player campaign atleast 4 times, even if the game took 10 hours to beat on each difficulty level, plus 1 for playing co-op for the Dom acheivement, that's 40 hours of game play. So fuck off!

NOT BUYING!!!

I would of glady bought these 2 or even 1 month ago, but they are way to late to the table here. I have my seriously achievment, no point to playing the very limiting multiplayer experience anymore. + halo 3 beta is coming out soon + more games.

So yeah, these should of been released in feburary, cause gears is yesterdays news now.

mike,

Gears is not yesterday's news. Look at how many people are still playing it each day. I play Gears more than anything else. The game is still a blast after so many hours I've dumped into it.

Konny,

A lot of people still play coop campaign. As someone pointed out, campaign co-op on insane is pretty damn awesome.


Anti-Gears trolls are worse than anti-Halo trolls. Gears of War was game-of-the-year last year. It was the best game overall all year long. It sold over 3mil to an 8 mil userbase. Do you guys realize how stupid you sound when you say the game is totally broken, boring, crappy single player, etc.? More people are playing it regularly than any PS3 or Wii game. What exactly are you comparing it to?

"halo 3 beta is coming out soon"

"What exactly are you comparing it to?"

I think his original posts sums up what he's comparing it to.

oh come on people, this isn't that bad

at least they didn't release some lame-ass armour for your helicopter and charge you 5 bucks for it. ;)

Didn't Annex, Old Bones and Raven down come out in Feb./March?? So far Epic has added 6 new maps plus 1 new game mode to Gears and it's only been our for 7 months. Thanks alot Epic. From what I hear these maps are awesome and add new interactivity to the game play. So for me, I'll be getting these tonight.

Anothing thing to remember is that the Halo 3 beta is only for 3 weeks.

Mike, I'm sure you'll download the maps anyway. See you online........oh wait no I won't because you won't have the maps. Funnny how that works.

I will wait for September. I really don't play that much and my gold membership has expired. I'll renew it when Halo 3 comes out and the maps will be free by then.

You frekin sheep.... sad really. $10 for a few maps?.. really?.. I just shake my head.

Guess I'll check them out in Sept. but by then, they'll be old and tired. Oh well.. It's a shame Epic had to compromise themselves like that.

Well, Konny, the only GOOD thing (in my opinion!!) is the single player. I think the Multiplayer of Gears of War is too slow for my tastes.

But then again, I'm used to Painkiller/Unreal Tournament type games. So that could be why.

Is God of War any good? I think it kinda looks like Slave Zero. No honestly I have not played it whts all the hype. I know it has a good soundtrack from Donnie Darko.

I would down it but there is no mention of added achievements, no mention of an update that will fix the glitching or sticking to every other wall you used to never stick to, no mention of clan support or the rumored achievements could be had in player matches. Should I keep going on? Oh and it's not FREE like we were told it would be. Do I look stupid!?!?!
It's not about the money, it's about M$ raping our wallets when Epic wouldn't have it in the first place. If M$ wanted money and Epic wanted to give the maps for FREE then someone should have found another sponsor like The Discovery Channel and everyone would have been happy. Not sure why they don't find more sponsors to pay for the added content for all games. Why rap the gamer when sponsors would consensually give it up.

Come on! Gamers shell out enough cash for the multitude of games, accessories, Xbox Live and whatever else. Add it up and you will see. Luckily for me there are too many problems with this game to play so I won't be paying. I will wait for them to be FREE like Epic wanted me to and hope Epic comes out with an update that fixes all the problems before September or I might even wait longer.

HALO ][ ][ ][ beta anyone?

#15 they werent lying completely its just if you dont want to pay you have to wait till september

What upsets me is that Epic wanted to give free content to their fans and Micrsoft forced them to charge for it. That's just low. Microsoft and third parties like EA are really exploiting this microtransaction BS, and it's really a sad direction for gaming.

Just thought I'd say that, that is one hell of a screen shot!

BTW...I've kind of gotten a little burned out on buying MS points, ya know? I have bout 20 Live Arcade games, South Park, Robot Chicken, and map packs galore. I'm sure I'll buy some more points in about a mo or 2 and I'll get these eventually. But I'm just kind of tired of reinvesting in games that I've already invested in. COD3, Halo 2, PGR 3, Lost Planet, ect... Not MS's fault of course, they're in it for the money. And yes fanboys I KNOW nobody forced me to buy all that stuff so lay off, lol.

Calling people sheep because you want to save $10 after you spent:

$400 on a console
$60 on Gears of War
and whatever you spent on Xbox Live.

People aren't sheep, this is another classic example of someone being "Penny Wise, Pound Foolish".

God, all you whiners are annoying, if you don't want to pay a measly 10 bucks then don't. Why must you continue to comment about it? BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, we've all heard a million times.

I'm sure you've wasted a lot more than that on other things that have a lot less value. With all the complaining I'd think my wife was posting on this subject ;)

@17

Yes I'm just sooooo sure that the upper management at Epic is sooooo hurt that they are making even more money off of these maps, get real people lol.

Personally, I think that Epic is using MS as a scape goat for charging and MS is just fine w/that seeing as they're making money at it. Just my little conspiracy theory, lol.

I downloaded these maps first thing this morning. I havent gone online with 'em yet, but goofed around a bit in local multiplayer.

Bullet Marsh: Seems a little intimidating, what with the darkness and the kyrill flying around, but that's probably a good things. It has a lower level down in the swamps and an upper level with a few catwalks.

Garden: Each side has a room full of pesticides that have to be switched off from a remote location, or you die a few seconds after entering. Of course, this room is were your sniper rifle is.

Process: The underground emulsion one. Seemed solid if unspectacular.

Subway: This is probably going to be my new favorite. One team spawns down in the subway tunnel, the other up top. Multiple access points to get down or up. Great spot for sniping down into the lower area. And LOTS of cover for stop and pop gameplay, from the interiors of the subway cars to random rubble.

The interactive elements on Garden and Bullet marsh will probably take a little getting used to as a strategic device, but they should be a lot of fun. And all of these maps are absolutely gorgeous. Weather effects (rain in Subway, Marsh) and Lighting (Marsh and Process) are as good or even better than the maps we've already seen. You'll want to look up a lot in Garden and Process to admire the beautiful background work.\

In short, if you play Gears a few times a week these maps are more than worth their purchase price. In fact, if you add the free content (Annex, Raven Down, Old Bones) to the overall download package the value's even better.

There was also a game update download, but don't know what it addressed.

Mike,

You should like some penny pinching wimp. Ask yourself what your time is worth? What do you make an hour? Even if you make minimum wage and played the new maps for 2 hours, you've gotten your money's worth. It seems like you spend your time bitching instead of gaming.

there was already some kid I was playing with who figured out how to g et out of the map on subway. It's freaking MASSIVE outside the map. Only problem is there is no re-entry point, so it's one of the annoying off-map glitches unless you get the whole team out there.

crazy that people are already finding the glitches though.

MS published and owns Gears. Epic developed it. MS decides how much the downloadables cost, not Epic. Idiots are getting so carried away because a dev at Epic said they should be free, while MS, the decision maker, said it should be charged for. I work for Ford and think Mustangs should be free.

If MS is bending us over and raping our wallets, as all you trolls constantly regurgitate, why are they losing money? It is more accurate to say we have them bent over and Bill's squealin' real good. Seriously, pull your heads out of your arses.

Gears is very fun, we got two free maps and a game mode, and now 4 solid and unique maps with interactive environments are being sold for a measly $10. This is one of the better values on Live. I am pumped and can't wait to get home and try them out. They're gonna rock.

I think people are just jealous that the Game of the Year won't go away or not live up to hype the way they all wished it would have. Gears rocks and it is here to stay. Let it go.

tainted, work on your reading comprehension. seNile, you are simply an idiot. mike, you only make negative 360 comments, so how does anything you post matter? You are just regurgitating the same poop that you probably have in 20 other Gears threads. Just let it go and play your precious Cooking Mama.

I hadn't even noticed anyone trolling gears (unless the comment has been deleted, if so, correct me)

overzealous fanboys jumping off the handle ftl

I get tired of some people assuming that just because a game is online that it means its replay value is infinite, for some people Gears is yesterdays news, for some its bread and butter, (hell, any game that came out 2 months ago is yesterdays news to me, unless i'm still playing it, its all subjected)

some people need to calm down.

(also, take note, if i looked at the maps and felt they were worth it, i would buy them, but my lack of game or console makes it moot)

@ Jake

i'm also getting tired of people assuming that just because they disagree with microtransactions, suddenly they're no longer a hardcore gamer and should "play cooking mama"

teh bias around here is really running high these last couple days...

(and i meant to say subjective, not subjected)

Whoever isn't buy these maps for $10 is one of two people: Unemployed, or non-GoW fans anyway. If you're unemployed its not Epic's fault that you have to get every dime you own from a parent or your local state's welfare agency. So stop saying how they "compromised" themselves because you're cheap. BTW, its FREE in Sept. , so relax. The other category would crap on the maps if Epic mailed you a check for $10 , because you'd rather have a gift card. 3million copies of the game were sold, if you don't want to buy the map , there are literally millions of others who might, so die.

Let us see full price for a game thats half the length of other shooters, then USD50 EACH YEAR for multiplayer then USD10 for a few maps..oh and of course if you are a core owner then USD180 for a hard disc!

So spare us the MS-sponsored BS about value-for-money, in that case why do you go on whining about the PS3's "high price"? USD200 for 60 GB, wifi, free multiplayer, HDMI, backward compatibility, Blu-ray, ZERO defects, 10-year life versus 4 years for 360...for the same price you get ONLY the 360 hard disc.

@ Mr. Kahn,

You're whole post is moot if you don't have the game or even the console. But if you can't even see that Mike is a troll, then ALL your posts are without merit from here on out. It's like those who complain about the government, but don't vote. Your words fall on deaf ears.

@ rfom

Because for the same price as the PS3 I can get the Elite with 2x the HDD space, HDMI, Backwards compatibility, the BEST online experience, & the GAME OF THE YEAR Gears of War. That's more value to me. BluRay would be nice, but the movies themselves cost too much for just a resolution boost. I could care less about the bonus material on the disc. If I had a PS3 I would rent movies, but that's what I can do on Xbox Marketplace now and get the movie in hours instead of days.

I would not use Wi-Fi for gaming, and you're only assuming this console will have a 10 year life span. If it weren't for God of War 2, there would be nothing left to play on PS2 except updated sports titles. You're smoking crack if you there are ZERO deffects with the PS3. You probably believe there are zero defects with the PSP, oh wait let me look it's screen. Oh! That's right, 2 dead pixels.

Yes; and Mike was not making any point that was deliberately inflammatory

to him; gears is old news, and he feels it's not worth the money, to you its not, again, its about personal taste

The day i get flamed for preaching moderation (today) is a dark day for this site, i'll tell you...

@ smoke dawg

look at rfom's comment as an example of trolling

see the difference?

lol, apparently you did just as I typed that

and responded in form,

"Gears of War was game-of-the-year last year. It was the best game overall all year long. It sold over 3mil to an 8 mil userbase. Do you guys realize how stupid you sound when you say the game is totally broken, boring, crappy single player, etc.? More people are playing it regularly than any PS3 or Wii game. What exactly are you comparing it to?"

You know, I love when people make this point. Personally, I feel this is a moot point. It sold a lot of copies so it's instantly quality?

I have the CE. I haven't finished it yet. Too hard, too long, too awesome? Not really. I just tired of the same formula over and over again. Run down hallway/street/cave to point A. Just fucking hang out in point A until everything is dead, then run along hallway/street/cave to Point B. Lather, rinse, repeat. And the saddest part? Initially I was all praises about the game. But the constant "sameshititis" set in. My favorite sequence (I'm on chapter 4) was when you had to blow the propane tanks to cross safely. For me, an action game has to break up the action on occasion. Like God Of War or Onimusha. I don't mind mindless slashing and shooting, just break it up on occassion. And I'm one of those three million copies sold. Another friend of mine agrees and hasn't finished his copy yet. Another friend of mine only finished it just for the achievement points. But several other friends of mine fucking loved it.

But let me tell you the flaw of the "sales = good" model people love to use. Nelly, Britney Spears, and Backstreet Boys would be considered the finest musical artists of our day. EA would be the master craftsmen of the video game industry. Pirates of the Caribean 2 wouldn't be complete rubbish but rather a much better movie than Godfather. See the flaw? Sales alone do not dictate quality. Now as for the ratings issue, that's a whole other matter. Yes, it's critically acclaimed but that doesn't mean EVERYONE will love it.

Now, I'm not saying Gears Of War isn't a quality game, because it is. Just saying it's not for everyone. And if someone has bashes against the game, and they seem legitimate (which most of the time, they don't), who are you to tell them they are wrong and stupid? You are that person, know what he plays, or what he thinks?

"the BEST online experience, & the GAME OF THE YEAR Gears of War"
The "best online experience" costs USD200 more / 4 years
And that should be "half-game of the year"

And as for that "its sold 3 million so must be greatest game of all time"
Suppose you wanted to buy a great exlcusive game for your 360 in 2006
WHAT ELSE COULD YOU HAVE BOUGHT?
For an entire year, you had ZERO Backward compatibility and just ONE great exclsuive
Thats why that one game sold 3mn

wonder what those other 5 million were playing though? Perfect dark zero? God, you feel sorry for those 5 million.

@ Mr Kahn,

It is all about personal choice, we all have one to make. But your passive-aggressive posts disguised as "moderation" should be directed at the negativity of those who troll in every thread about these subjects. Mike showed his true complaint is that the material should be free, which it is after a few months, and that Epic was pressured into making it paid. Epic has nothing to do with this, MS pays them to make these maps, MS decides how it should market it's products.

$10 for these maps is too much? What about $5 for Gauntlet II, which is 20 years old, on PSN.

Gears is not yesterdays news, or it wouldn't be in the news at all.

hear that? according to rfom, you need 180gigs of hard disc to play Gears of War, i didn't know that. if that isn't FUD i don't know what is.

same with the childish 4year/10year comment. if 360 keeps this lead, why would a company be in a hurry to replace the car that's in first place? you replace the no.2 car in hopes of leapfrogging no.1.


.

so what next gen game were you playing before Gears of War rfom?

@Digi Smalls

Perhaps Ridge Racer? (you can insert you own extra i's and e's if you like)

Ok, I love joystiq, since it is the only gaming site my coworkers and I can find online that gets around the ever-vigilant web-blockers. I'm a gears-head. Took the day off to play the maps. Since I noticed someone was asking for a brief review, I thought I'd throw out my honest opinion.

First off, I wish they were free (don't we all). I don't mind one bit paying full price for them (it's freaking gears and probably the best add-on for a game on live atm). So all that crap aside. Millions will pay for gears, they will again.

In the order they are listed when you first load them into gears:

Garden

This one feels the most unpolished of the 4. The Bullet Marsh and Subway, even Process, feel like they've been worked on for a while. This map feels like they threw it together in an afternoon. It's still fun, much more so on annex, but it's basically one big rectangular room with a lack of elevation or distinction. (this IS an old UT map designer talking, though) Its defining feature is the 2 poisonous greenhouses. Each of these have sniper rifles in them, and a constant spray of poison which must first be deactivated or you'll die in about 2 seconds. (with a cool green effect washing over your screen). The map is cool because it's new, but I don't think it'll last the test of time. Then again, the closest (within 10 secs) annex game I've played in a while went down on this one. This is also probably the best map for the hammer after rooftops. It's a very very large garden, and some areas have a roof, but some don't, so you need to be aware of that when you hear the hammer beep!

Bullet Marsh

Awesome. The FX are great on this one, and it's really hard to spot cogs, and especially locust with all the water and foilage and shadow. The FX are maybe too good, since the framerate slowdown that inexplicably is part of annex is a huge problem on this one. The kryll unfortunately do not add much to the experience because they are not the instant-kill they are in the campaign. Rather they slowly take down health and unless you're mentally handicapped, will not be much of an issue. They only down you too, so if you're playing execution, they are a non-issue completely. Regardless, fun map, probably more so on annex because then the kryll matter a little more as it is impossible to capture a control point on your own if you're getting hit with kryll.

Process

The immulsion factory. This one is not as big or complex as I was hoping (like in the campaign), but it is still a large map that looks great. The weapons are placed very well, especially the boomshot which is especially hard to get if someone's watching you. It is very open so cover and lancers are much more useful. It's also an excellent map for annex as the weapons are all spaced evenly.

Subway

This one is worth the price of admission alone. Pretty much everyone I've played with agree this map is the best. There is no other gears map that has so much coming from every angle. It is also the one map that definitely is made for execution instead of annex. For annex, weapons are not spaced as evenly, and it is easy to dominate one part with the boom, torque, and grenades all within reach. On any other game type, you have to watch being sniped from above, boomshot, torqued, and still there is plenty of room to make your getaway. It also has the most driving rain of any map outside the subway station with leaves blowing around, quite a storm. Oh, alas, the subway does not move, the cars are stuck in position. I cried over this for about 5 seconds until I realized how cool the map is even without that.

heh, maybe if he was in Japan.

@ Smoke dawg

others directed their rage at what they thought was inevitable trolling, and until rfom appeared, there had been none (again, this is all IMO)

I was assaulting those who jumped in, made the assumption there would be trolling, and promptly flamed their as-yet-to-be-revealed enemies (specifically, your comment #2, which was made before Mike's appearance)

that's a great review Love, i may end up getting it now. thanks for taking the time.

well i got a excuse not to buy. i don't got a credit card with 10 bucks on it. thats what sucks about prepay

@Jake #24

Look, I was a huge Gears fan. I keep playing while most of my other friends went to R6V. I am not an achievement whore but I do work on getting the achievements out of the games I play, you get more out of the game that way. Gears made it hard to play with your friends and gain the achievements in the game but when they updated it and took the host name out it made it even harder. Teams still where getting stacked, people glitching or modding, then another update made it more sticky taking cover on walls and objects you never use to take cover on, it just got old. I still want that serious achievement and hope to be back if they fix this broken game but you all that can deal with it just have fun. Just voicing my opinion hoping there are others out there in the same boat and would like Epic to take notice and fix it.

Also, where are the added achievements? I guess there is plenty more Gears to come. Hopefully Epic fix this broken game and find a sponsor for the next map pack and throw in some achievements.

Thanks again The Discovery Channel http://www.discovery.com/

POOF - like magic, the troll is gone.

Don't but it. I did and the maps suck for the most part. Subway and Process are alright but Bullet Swamp sucks because the Locust almost completely blend in with the map and the Gas in Garden is useless all people do is skip the area with the gas and get the other weapons.

If it was 5 dollars then it might be worth it but it's ten and seeing as two of the maps really aren't all that enjoyable don't but it.

GoW is the best TPS(third person shooter) of all time. Yes, MS owns the shooters. And, I don't give a shit who you are, if you like shooters, you'll love this.

So for all you ps3bots and wiibots, you have no argument.

HAHAHA omg ps3bots is a word!!!!!! Type it in!!! Its no grammatical error!! hahahahahahaha!!

This is how I break it down.

I paid $60 for gears.
$50 a year for live.
So the most that gears and live together has cost me since it came out is $80 and thats with the 5 months of live. Since it launched I have basicly played it online a total of 8 hours a week on average. Add probably 30 hours for the single player online and offline. So my math flows like this...

30 hour single player
160 hours of mulitplayer
-----
190 hours total

190 hours / $80 + $10 (for the new maps)
-----
$0.47 per hour of play

So even with the new maps thats less than 50 cents an hour of fun. Its all a question of personal value. Stop trolling and figure out if its worth it for you. If its not then close that wallet. For me it was worth it. And I love the new maps. Also for people complaining about not being able to get a decent game online, Play a private match with your friends. I have never played a ranked match yet and I have a good group of friends I play with all the time. That made the game 1000 times better for me.