Gears of War 2 Patch Incoming

Mar 13, 2009

Gears of War 2 did not have a smooth launch. But at least Epic has been working to answer some of the complaints. A third title update, the biggest to date according to Microsoft's official Gears 2 website, is set for release on March 24. It addresses continued concerns over the matchmaking system, adds a new point system, tosses in nine extra Achievements and puts the kibosh on some notable exploits.

The big news is that Gears 2 is adding a new player experience system, which gives points for all public matches. Capped at 100 levels, the experience system rewards players who reach the top with a special icon. Experience is equivalent across all modes, so no one is punished or rewarded for sticking to the game types they prefer. And yes, there will be an experience penalty for players who drop out before a match is complete. The update also adds a change to public matches, automatically adding bots into a public match if a player drops and the teams become unbalanced.

A few tweaks to matchmaking are also being made in the hopes of making the system work as quickly and efficiently as possible. This includes adding region preferences to matchmaking.

Numerous exploits are being closed off, so get your exploiting in while you can. These exploits include some cover slide glitches, Wingman scoring cheats (no more suicides to cheat the opponent out of points), the amazing ability to melee through walls and launching yourself in the air with smoke grenades while mantling (boooo). Balancing issues include reducing the stun duration from smoke grenades, increases the angle that triggers a chainsaw duel so players can't be easily side-swiped by chainsaws without a duel and reduces the delay before a player can climb up from low cover.

You can read the complete update list here.

Here's the complete list of new Achievements, worth 250 points:

"Rookie Gear" (10 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 5 (Public matches only).
Rookie
"Seasoned Gear" (20 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 15 (Public matches only).
"Battle-Tested Gear" (30 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 25 (Public matches only).
"Battle-Hardened Gear" (50 points): Reach level 50 and play a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public matches only).
"Veteran Gear" (75 points): Reach level 100 and win a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public matches only).
"Never Eat Red Snow" (20 points): Complete waves 1 through 10 on all Snowblind Map Pack maps in Horde (any difficulty).
"Icy Dead People" (25 points): Complete waves 1 through 50 on any Snowblind Map Pack map in Horde (any difficulty).
"Frigid Body Dynamics" (5 points): Play a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode).
"The Weather Outside Is Lethal" (15 points): Win a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode).