Gears of War

[bangpow]

I guess they have two new maps available for DL for free in the marketplace now, along with some patch for online play.

[DrRay11]

Agree with Tre's assessment almost spot on, except I thought the story was near horrendous if not a little corny. Everything else about the game, however, is fucking stellar.

[Moodini31]

2 new maps and dashboard theme available for free on XBLM-

Ms. Pac-Man may be today's featured Xbox Live Arcade game, but the yellow gaming icon hardly had a monopoly on Xbox Marketplace downloads this morning. The first multiplayer map pack for Gears of War also went live today, as Epic Games previously promised. The map pack features two new player-versus-player maps, Raven Down and Old Bones, and is free to download.

That wasn't all the free Gears of War schwag that appeared on Xbox Live Marketplace this morning. Also available is a free Gears of War dashboard theme, based on the new maps. The theme adds a few blades of Marcus Fenix unloading on Locusts as well as a few screens of the new battlegrounds. DashboardThemes.com has a preview of the theme on its Web site.

For those who want to get an idea of the maps straight from the man who designed them, Epic and Microsoft have also released a video blog from Gears of War lead designer Cliff Bleszinski. In the video, Cliff gives a brief overview of both maps and gives thanks to the game's fans.

[Baker]

Agree with Tre's assessment almost spot on, except I thought the story was near horrendous if not a little corny. Everything else about the game, however, is fucking stellar.

I don't like the idea for the story. I'm not big on weird alien type things taking over earth. However, if you accept the story for what it is, they carry it along throughout the game well with few questions left unanswered. They do a nice job of bringing in dialog and cut scenes to keep the interest going. That's what I meant about the story aspect.

[Moodini31]

I really like the campaign mode. The gameplay is non-stop action and it's tons of fun. The dialouge and cut scenes can be a little corny at times, but it doesn't really bother me and they work really well to advance the story. I still prefer to play online, but campaign mode is frickin' great too.