Support NeoGAF

[Theorry]

The march of new content for Gears of War fans continues this December with the second major update for Gears of War 4! Arriving on December 6, this update adds extra value for Season Pass holders and includes two brand new maps, “Gearsmas” goodies plus a whole host of fixes and improvements. And for anyone that hasn’t picked up the game yet, it’s 33% off from December 1 to December 28!

Brand New Maps
Following the release of fan-favorite maps Checkout and Drydock last month, two brand new battlegrounds will arrive with the December Update.

Evacuated long ago, this lonely district of Speyer is a still image of pre-Locust War life. The battle for the sanctuary is a close quarters affair, but teams looking to control the sprawling academy will need to do so together. Speyer’s opulent interiors and quaint plazas are best suited to longer range engagements


Speyer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqgTHNWqTog

Glory


A monument of military might, this COG battery was used only against the most strategic targets to maintain its secrecy. The defensibility of this fortress can be used to your advantage if captured, which includes a powerful mounted turret that can suppress the courtyard below.

Both maps will be added to public playlists starting December 13. As we say hello to Glory and Speyer, we say goodbye (for now) to Gridlock and Relic. As a reminder, all maps in Gears of War 4 are added to playlists for free, with maps rotating in and out of public playlists. For non-Season Pass holders that want to keep playing maps no longer in rotation, individual maps can be purchased in the Gears of War store.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkTtWFE6K-g

Updates and Improvements

Since launch, we’ve listened closely to fan feedback to help guide our development of updates and improvements. This latest update includes several highly requested improvements along with some new features including:

A Daily Rewards system

Improved visual feedback for damage dealt with the Gnasher

Vertical Split-Screen for Windows 10 players

Improvements to footstep audio balance, audio/video settings

A whole lot more!
We’ll be detailing the full map rotation changes and Title Update notes this Friday on GearsofWar.com.

Our team continues to work on additional important features to improve the online experience for future updates, including a pre-game lobby for Core and Competitive as well as a number of punitive tools to discourage or prevent quitting. Thank you for all your feedback – please keep it coming!

Bonus Credits and XP for Season Pass Holders
With this update, Season Pass holders will earn additional XP and Credit rewards when playing the Developer Playlist during the week it’s available. Season Pass holders will continue to get early access to new maps (December 6 for Speyer and Glory), and have access to all DLC maps permanently for use in Versus and Horde Private Matches. We’re continuing to look at adding even more benefits and value for our Season Pass holders in the future.


eSports Recap
History was made with Gears eSports at the MLG Columbus Open as 64 teams competed for a record breaking $300,000 prize pool in a weekend filled with surprises and huge upsets. OpTic Gaming and Team EnVyUs continued their rivalry in the Grand Finals matchup with EnVyUs resetting the bracket and delivering the first ever map losses to OpTic Gaming at a Gears 4 live event, but in the end of the day OpTic was able to persevere and walk away as the MLG Columbus Champions!

The next Gears Pro Circuit live event will take place in London on December 10th and 11th in partnership with Gfinity. Players can find out more about the Gear Pro Circuit at www.gears.gg.

The Game Awards 2016
The Game Awards 2016 take place today, and we’re incredibly honored to be nominated in the “Best Action Game” and “Best Multiplayer Game” categories. As an added bonus, our friends Run The Jewels will be performing live at the show in a special Gears themed performance! The show kicks off on Xbox Live from 8:30 PM ET / 5:30 PM PT.

To celebrate the upcoming Run The Jewels tour, the RTJ Airdrop featuring 20 guaranteed RTJ-themed items is BACK. The Airdrop contains El-P and Killer Mike as playable characters for Versus and Horde, 14 weapon skins, two emblems and two bounties! You can find it on the Xbox Store now.

Never A Better Time To Join The Fight
There’s still plenty more to come from Gears of War 4 this December! The Gears Holiday tradition of “Gearsmas” will be returning in style, with new content to earn through play, special holiday heads and a new Special Event featuring a wintery twist on a classic Gears of War weapon. We’ll be talking more about “Gearsmas” soon, as well as some first looks at what else is coming this December.

If you haven’t picked up Gears of War 4 yet, that’s not the only reason now is a great time to jump in. Starting today through December 28, Gears 4 is featured in the Xbox Store Holiday Sales for 33% off! Click this link to find the price in your region.

If you’re already part of the Gears family or just about to join us, stay tuned for more news throughout December including details on “Gearsmas” and a few other surprises!


Read more at http://news.xbox.com/2016/12/01/gears-war-4-december-update/#zcpMLvMQpui1GOAk.99

 

[scitek]

I know I'm bitching about free content, but are they going to inflate the size of this game to 100GB with DLC I'll never use? If MS moves forward with their franchises on PC, they need to separate the Campaign and Multiplayer like Activision does with Call of Duty.

 

[Dynasty]

So still no Multi-GPU support?

 

[Crimsonclaw111]

I know I'm bitching about free content, but are they going to inflate the size of this game to 100GB with DLC I'll never use? If MS moves forward with their franchises on PC, they need to separate the Campaign and Multiplayer like Activision does with Call of Duty.

You forgot the worst part - the garbage ass Windows Store will make you redownload all 100GB every time and probably screw up each time you try!

 

[Jessie.Bristol]

Nice, two new maps. Hoping some of the future maps are set at night time.

 

[pizzacat]

looking at gnasher and footstep issues might get me back in the game if they do it right

I have the season pass where can I play all maps?

 

[Moofers]

This all sounds pretty good to me. My biggest wish is for Horde to see the return of the Locust or at the very least, a great expansion of the enemy variation.

 

[Juke Joint Jezebel]

Drydock coming back is big news for me, that was one of my favourite horde maps!

 

[Moofers]

Drydock coming back is big news for me, that was one of my favourite horde maps!

That one has been out since early November!

 

[TheChits]

looking at gnasher and footstep issues might get me back in the game if they do it right

I have the season pass where can I play all maps?

The audio issues with footsteps and grenades are infuriating to me. Fixing those would do wonders for increasing my enjoyment of the game

 

[Horseticuffs]

I'm willing to bet PC will never get HDR support.

 

[TRios Zen]

Sounds like a solid update, I wish I could play more often as something about the visceral MP really grabs me, I just don't spend enough time playing to compete against the top-tier players.

Game is brutal when there is a skill gap.

 

[J_Viper]

Horde will stay dead if they don't add a Join-in-Progress mechanic

 

[Ricky Ricardo]

Glory looks amazing, HNNNNG

Also, daily rewards, I'm feelin' it.

As soon as I clear finals next week, I'm back in

Horde will stay dead if they don't add a Join-in-Progress mechanic

This is desperately needed. I've played 3 hours of Horde so far and quitters are just a relentless problem.

 

[S0cc3rpunk]

not even a mention of new or old characters coming back :'(

 

[malfcn]

I think season pass getting more exp and coins on any playlist would be nice. But in at least the vip playlist is a start.

 

[Moofers]

Horde will stay dead if they don't add a Join-in-Progress mechanic

Glory looks amazing, HNNNNG

Also, daily rewards, I'm feelin' it.

As soon as I clear finals next week, I'm back in



This is desperately needed. I've played 3 hours of Horde so far and quitters are just a relentless problem.

I've yet to do this myself, but on the official forums there are people saying that the new Groups feature for Xbox One has saved Horde mode. I'm guessing it just expands your friends list and shows you more people playing Horde? I dunno. I'm going to set that up for myself soon though. I already have a good number of friends who play Horde so the first thing I do when I log in is see who has an open spot in one of their games.

 

[WadiumArcadium]

The new maps look good. I'm glad they're not falling back on old maps again and making new ones. A mix is the best solution.

 

[Quikies83]

Horde will stay dead if they don't add a Join-in-Progress mechanic

It"s hardly dead now.
And you can actually have others join your game in progress. You simply have to send them a invite.
I would like to see a option for us to change our class after every 10 waves or something.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Curious about the daily rewards. I wish the extra XP and credits was extended to all playlists instead of the Dev.

 

[Bits N Pieces]

It"s hardly dead now.
And you can actually have others join your game in progress. You simply have to send them a invite.
I would like to see a option for us to change our class after every 10 waves or something.

That's a great idea!

The update seems pretty good, I think 343 have shown the other internal studios at MS what the bar is for supporting your game. Still loving the mp and horde though I do need to go back through the campaign in co op.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Still no word if they're ever gonna fix the character glitch.

 

[Skilotonn]

Looking real nice with the updates, especially the footsteps update as promised.

With the daily rewards and whatever earnable things for Gearsmas, plus whatever event Overwatch has, I won't be playing anything else but these two this month it looks like.

 

[EL CUCO]

Wish they would add more chatter to the characters. The game's are so quiet now.

 

[Santar]

Still no offline mode for horde

 

[Angel_DvA]

Looking real nice with the updates, especially the footsteps update as promised.

With the daily rewards and whatever earnable things for Gearsmas, plus whatever event Overwatch has, I won't be playing anything else but these two this month it looks like.

Updates aren't quick enough, they had many feedbacks since the beta they don't bother to fix or change at launch, I've already stop playing the game because of the gnasher, the sponge issues and other stupid stuff, they're too much games right now for me to go back on it.

 

[dLMN8R]

You forgot the worst part - the garbage ass Windows Store will make you redownload all 100GB every time and probably screw up each time you try!

No, that's not the case anymore. Gears of War 4 has received multiple significant updates on PC, and only the first update had a bug which caused more than expected to download.

 

[Moofers]

Still no offline mode for horde

That's never coming due to the way their gear pack system requires a connection to the servers. Fans need to start laying the groundwork now for Gears 5 to have offline horde because its never coming to Gears 4.

 

[Coalition-PezRadar]

That's never coming due to the way their gear pack system requires a connection to the servers. Fans need to start laying the groundwork now for Gears 5 to have offline horde because its never coming to Gears 4.

Actually, it is mainly due to Horde using our cloud servers for extra processing power for the amount of enemies and items on screen at once.

 

[SmoothRunningGun]

It"s hardly dead now.
And you can actually have others join your game in progress. You simply have to send them a invite.
I would like to see a option for us to change our class after every 10 waves or something.

I just want a shorter wave count playlist. 50 waves is too much. 20 would be perfect.

 

[S0cc3rpunk]

Actually, it is mainly due to Horde using our cloud servers for extra processing power for the amount of enemies and items on screen at once.

any news on old returning characters? this game feels so empty without the old characters. gears 3 did a really good job and this gears 4 for me turned out to be like judgement all over again :/

 

[Theorry]

The new maps look good. I'm glad they're not falling back on old maps again and making new ones. A mix is the best solution.

Yeah they look really good.

 

[Montresor]

Actually, it is mainly due to Horde using our cloud servers for extra processing power for the amount of enemies and items on screen at once.

Got 'em!

 

[TaintedHotSauce]

Any chance this patch is adding DX12 MGPU support?

 

[il Diavolo]

like the look of speyer

 

[RedSwirl]

Is it disgusting that this is making me consider the season pass?

How much is the season pass worth it if I only care about horde after the campaign? What should I get? Just the maps?

 

[Theorry]

Is it disgusting that this is making me consider the season pass?

How much is the season pass worth it if I only care about horde after the campaign? What should I get? Just the maps?

Everybody gets the maps. They are free. 24 maps we get over a year. But maps are on a rotation. If you want to play them out of rotation in private. You need the season pass.

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

Maybe I'm blind but is there a schedule time for this update to go live?

 

[SweetJohnnyCage]

Didn't know Gears took place near Junon.

 

[TheRed]

So is anyone still playing this on PC? I'd like to come back and play some more since I payed for the Ultimate Edition for this. Have been dedicating my multi-player time to Titanfall 2.

 

[Theorry]

So is anyone still playing this on PC? I'd like to come back and play some more since I payed for the Ultimate Edition for this. Have been dedicating my multi-player time to Titanfall 2.

Social play is decent. There is btw a crossplay weekend this weekend in Social play.

 

[Theorry]

Maybe I'm blind but is there a schedule time for this update to go live?

6th for season pass in the dev playlist. 13th for everybody.
Most of the time they release it when they get to work PST time.

 

[Pat]

The game came with my GPU and I installed it but haven't tried it. My friend comes tonight so we'll give the co-op campaign a go.

I also want to try splitscreen Horde and splitscreen online multiplayer, but I read it is not available for PC, is that true?!

 

[Moofers]

Actually, it is mainly due to Horde using our cloud servers for extra processing power for the amount of enemies and items on screen at once.

I just saw this now, thank you for responding! I didn't know that and would never have guessed based on how Gears 3 managed to pull off so many enemies at one time without the extra power.

I know TC is keeping an eye on the official forums, but I've not seen anyone respond to SenatorIvy's post about how to make horde better. That dude is about the biggest fan of horde I've ever seen and I always thought of myself as one of the biggest. I hope you and your coworkers aren't just writing him off because that guy gets horde in the way that we hope everyone at TC does. I hope that makes sense. Back when it was first announced that MS was buying Gears, he and a couple of partners drafted up the "Gears 4 Wishlist" and we never got any closure on whether or not anyone at TC (BT at the time) even saw the thing. It was a glorious 19-page PDF full of the best hopes and dreams for horde.

While I think Gears 4 horde is great, it needs some massaging to keep it appealing for the long haul. Its my hope that you're not dismissing people like SenatorIvy and myself because we come off as rabid fans. I mean it when I say that we look at horde like Neo sees the friggin' Matrix. Nuts and bolts, man. I'm not even kidding when I say your studio should fly some of us up for a weekend and just pick our brains for Gears 5.

Anyway, I'll pipe down. Looking forward to leveling up some classes this tonight with the XP bonus.

 

[Drillary Clinton]

Off topic but is the reason that game constantly matches up a smorgasbord of varying ranks because the player base is dwindling or because the matchmaking system just sucks? When my friends and I play were mostly gold-plat-silv and constantly get matched with onyx and diamonds and usually get ran through.

 

[Gestault]

You forgot the worst part - the garbage ass Windows Store will make you redownload all 100GB every time and probably screw up each time you try!

The specific store bug was patched a while back. I know from personal experience, patches to Gears 4, ReCore and Horizon 3 have all worked as intended.

Actually, it is mainly due to Horde using our cloud servers for extra processing power for the amount of enemies and items on screen at once.

That's pretty excellent. I hadn't even known that was worked in.

 

[Gestault]

[Double post]

 

[Theorry]

Update is now live btw.

 

[pizzacat]

Update is now live btw.

Ill check it out tonight

 

[Garrett 2U]

Let's all pour one out for the Santa Dizzy that could have been.