Additional Gears of War maps out this Wednesday/Thursday

**Ruslan74** · 8th January 2007

Epic Games has confirmed that this week will see the release of a Gears of War patch and two new downloadable maps, as well as an "introductory video" starring lead designer Cliff Bleszinski.

The two new maps, Old Bones and Raven Down, are detailed below, and you can check out screenshots elsewhere on the site. They'll both be out on 10th January. Early reports mentioned the 11th, but Epic's Mark Rein says that's the Australian release date.

The patch part of the arrangement is what Rein has previously described as a "housekeeping" update designed to tackle a few issues that were causing problems for the game's substantial userbase. Epic had hoped to get it out before Christmas, but festive constraints seemed to put paid to that.

Anyway, without further ado, here's some info on Old Bones and Raven Down:

Old Bones: In an attempt to eradicate any traces of human history and culture, the Locust Horde has emerged under Sera's Capitaline Museums and has begun to destroy them brick by brick. Each gamer's mission is to help the Delta Force recapture the museums before all remnants of humankind's existence are obliterated.

Raven Down: A Raven Helicopter has gone down in the middle of a large scale battle with the omnipresent Locust Horde. Gears have taken out the Seeder and gamers join Delta Forces moving into the crash site from all angles to search for survivors.

Don't forget to check the screenshots, too.

Yummy... although i have to admit I have not played too much GoW online at all.

**SlappY** · 8th January 2007

Damm that map looks good

**Noodle** · 8th January 2007

In related news.

List of the update.

Here is a list of what was addressed in this update:

* Fixed aspect ratio distortion when using VGA cable with 4:3 displays at resolutions higher than 640×480
* Fixed voice issue with new players joining Player Match games in progress
* Players can now get the Achievement for “Dish Best Served Cold” when using Troika turret to kill RAAM
* Fixed rare situation where host could loop countdown and never start match
* Fixed rare situation where players could get stuck after chainsawing in multiplayer
* Reduced Grenade Tag melee distance
* Enabled “Strict” NAT check on host to prevent possible connection issues
* Optimized server browser queries to return results more quickly and prevent scroll bars from hiding quality of service icons
* Reduced number of possible revives in Execution to match Warzone
* Removed host name from Ranked match server browser
* Disabled security cameras in Ranked matches
* Ranked matches now require balanced teams (3v3 or 4v4)
* Increased penalty for quitting a Ranked match to -50 points
* Added additional cheat detection code
* Additional housekeeping updates