Yay for free content.

I can finally DL this since I held out from MSFT money hats they wanted to charge.

Hah, are you reffering to the cheat from starcraft?

its like they planned it to try and counter warhawk, to tide us over in case we finished Bioshock too early

@VenoMuS: Actually, they announced that the pack would become free on September 3rd when the map pack first came out way back in May.

Added multiplayer content is nice and all, but are developers ever going to give us downloadable singleplayer content? I'd love to download a new side-story-like single player level for Gears... might even consider paying for it. I guess anything being developed in that vien is being saved for Gears 2, though.

@VenoMuS: Warhawk, you say?

Send InsidiousTuna a PSN friend request, and he'll gladly play Warhawk with you.
/spam

I downloaded this when it first came out and was still into Gears enough to validate the purchase, and the best ones are Subway and Garden, in my point of view. But if they're free, take them all.

Why did 500,000 people download a map pack that would be free 3 months after it's release?

@ChickenOfTheSea: My username for PSN is hidden somewhere on the page. As soon as I can find a copy of warhawk, I'll play.

@ChickenOfTheSea: ill add ya, havent got Warhawk yet though

VenoMuS81 - PSN

VenoMuS 81 - GT

i trust my kotaku bretheren, i dont know why, i think its the drugs

@EnigmaNemesis:

Kudos! I held out, too.

Although from memory I expected it would remain pay-to-D/L until after Halo's release. Guess I was wrong.

I've been wondering since map pack 1 came out what other spots the Locust might try to take and why. For instance, an ice cream parlor. At face value, it doesn't seem like an important objective. However, when you take into account that there are mostly children there and they still have a sugar rush from the ice cream, you realize that they'd make great slave laborers.

It sounds horrible, but you can't fault the Locust for their logic. Now on the other hand, having a large and diverse underground tunnel system that's hard to trace by the COG's yet using an above-ground train to transport a large number of missiles that could be extremely dangerous if captured, you CAN fault their logic there.

@Kirbytheslayer: Because Gears is insanely popular online game on LIVE. I'm not to crazy about the online play in Gears, the single and coop where the best parts of the game, so I didn't bother to buy the map pack, but will surely download the free one now

Finally no more getting booted out of a room because I don't have these 4 maps.

Yay, If only I could afford Live GOLD! I hope they have another free online weekend soon, but LAN Gears is still plenty of fun.

Hey, I'll make a map and give it back story so it fits within the context of the game... see it's easy:

School:
This school is where students learned things, now it's swarming with locusts.

Library:
Don't bother reading anything in here, because it's got LOCUSTS!

@Kirbytheslayer: Because some people love gears and don't want to wait 3 months.. Jesus, is it that hard to comprehend?

@chiablo: hahahah

Lake Psycho

Once a peaceful lake, now you fight for your life.

Amusement Park

Help Shaggy, Scooby and the rest of the gang figure out why strange things have been happening around the amusement park. Funhouse mirrors play tricks on your eyes.

I want my MTV...

@chiablo: @velvetelevator:

Both of your comments demand to be put in the week in comments section. Pure internet gold.

@Number41: Adding single-player content would be a great idea. Very often, developers cut out a subplot from the game for time related reasons or have never quite finished testing a single-player twist to the game mechanics.

Why, I remember that just about every Black Isle / Bioware / Obsidian game had some exciting story-relateed stuff cut out at the last minute. Anyone remember the missing droid factory from KOTOR 2?

Aaaaah. Being stubborn and cheap finally pays off.

Not many people notice that all of the paid maps and add ons on xbox live become free shortly after. I found that out with the graw map pack (the first one) after that I stopped paying for maps, cause eventually they will be free, especially if they end up being multiplatform. (no i'm not saying gears is on ps3 for all the flamers who will missinterpret it. People should stop paying this money for maps that shoulda been on the game from the getgo.

PS, I got warhawk too. PSN ID: Legaldeath187 lookin for people who actually use the "free" headset that came with it.

Single player content gets played once or twice, multiplayer maps continue long after a download... so it's a good place to put downloadable effort IMO.

Never played much of Gears in multiplayer, maybe nows a good time to start?

I bought them on the first day, no regrets

Heh, I can only assume that writing is not one of Epics strong points. Nothing wrong with that, mind you.

Good thing I didn't buy those map packs then. And isn't that bullet marsh map annoying. I'm pretty sure that in the havoc a bullet could easily hit the generator and repeatedly kill off all the players.

@Spiderbait: No, it actually doesn't come into play very often. It's a little bit of a letdown.

@Kirbytheslayer: Because I had enough money to buy the maps and wanted to play them.

I'm glad that a whole slew of people will now expierence the poison green gas room in the Garden.

@Kirbytheslayer:

Maybe because not everyone's a cheap ass and would rather play than bitch? Wild guess.

/Don't have them yet, waiting for them to be free :)

Two sentence backstory aside, I'll download this to try out the Garden level; it sounds a little bit like the Frag Pipe from Quake 2.

Also, can Gears really be considered "tactical action"? It's no Rainbow Six in that regard.

@DeadPlasmaCell:

I know, not wanting to make a corporation more millions, because they wanted to be greedy and exploit the wants of a fanbase at the games ultimate height, must be cheap asses.

Not principal or anything of the nature.

A map with Kryll? Pretty extreme.