Microsoft and The Coalition have laid out the contents for the Gears of War 4 February Update, which should hit your Xbox One and/or PC later on today. The update is free and brings with it a ton of new content to chew through. Along with the update comes news about what to expect in the weeks ahead, such as an upcoming Valentine’s Day event, which will begin on February 10th.
“February 10th marks the beginning of over a week of Valentine’s Day celebrations, with new Gear Packs to earn, daily Valentine’s themed bounties, another Craftable Character to collect, and the much-requested return of Torque Bow Tag (with a Cupid-style twist!). Stay tuned for more news on Valentine’s Day events later this week!”
As far as the Gears of War 4 February Update itself, the big news is that it gives players two new maps to play on. As usual, these will be free to all players, so no worries about fracturing the multiplayer community. The maps are Impact Dark and War Machine, both offering something new for the Gears multiplayer experience.
Impact Dark is a nighttime remix of the Impact map that shipped with the game. “The new nighttime setting for Impact doesn’t just bring a new ambience. For the first time in Gears of War Versus, visibility is permanently reduced by smoke that has settled over the battlefield, forcing you closer to the action…The result is a new version of Impact that plays completely differently to its original brethren. The combination of close range weapon swaps and reduced visibility ups the pace for a more intense version of Impact, where players need to stay on their toes to win. Support players will need to take bigger risks to impact fights and reduced visibility will make reading the battlefield tougher for even the most competitive teams.”
War Machine is a returning classic, with some neat new twists. “War Machine, is back with a drastic new take on the setting. Moving away from the old abandoned train station locale, War Machine is now set in a new COG Settlement, standing out with its pristine appearance and gleaming grandiose features. Compared to the original, signs of life are everywhere – from the active DeeBee security bay, to the train sitting at the end of the platform ready to depart.”
Both maps will be free to all players, but those with the Season Pass can play them today, while the rest will have to wait a little while. Exactly when they’ll be free hasn’t been announced yet, unfortunately.
The Guardian gamemode is getting tweaked as well, with a brand new spawning system that’s based around your leader’s position. The idea is to keep the action fast paced, while adding some strategy as far as leader positioning.
The team also laid out more updates that are coming to Gears of War 4 this Summer, which will include: “New “Inconceivable” Difficulty (Campaign & Horde). IronMan Mode (Campaign & Horde). Level 6 skills for all class skills. More skills for existing classes. New achievements. And much more!”
