‘Gears Of War 4’ Update Next Week Brings New Maps, Updates To Gears Packs, And Crossplay In Future Update

The first Gears of War 4 title update is coming to the Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs next week. The Coalition announced details of the patch for the third-person shooter on Friday, which includes new maps and a hefty amount of balance changes and fixes on both platforms. The studio is also addressing concerns over Gears Pack and will set up an experimental cross-play playlist for multiplayer.

Gears of War 4 Title Update 1 is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, November 1 for both the Xbox One and Windows 10. It brings two new maps, Checkout and Drydock, for Season Pass owners to try out first in private matches and a Developer Playlist. This special playlist will feature Versus, Dodgeball, and Arms Race. It will also be available for Horde Mode players at Normal difficulty.

Both new maps will be available for all Gears of War 4 players on November 8. This is the setup The Coalition and Microsoft went with to keep the maps free, as previously covered by the Inquisitr. The free maps are supported by the Season Pass and microtransactions that allow players to purchase Gears Packs that contain cards to unlock characters, skins, and Horde mode skills.

The Gears Packs have been a bit of a contentious issue within the Gears of War 4 community. Players have complained about spending credit earned in-game or purchased with real-world money and receiving duplicates of characters, skins, and other items they already own. The Coalition isn’t going to address that in this update but does promise to in a future update.

New Gears of War 4 multiplayer maps debut on November 1st with Checkout and Drydock! #GearsofWar4 https://t.co/ozFG9bjDdB pic.twitter.com/9g7Q90YUmB

— Gears of War (@GearsofWar) October 28, 2016

“We are going to have an update on Gears Packs. One large piece of feedback we are looking at including is the removal of duplicate cards appearing in packs that need it. We do plan on keeping them in some packs where they make sense (ie: Horde Booster Packs),” Community Manager Adam Fletcher explained.

Another community request is for Xbox One and Windows 10 cross-play to support multiplayer modes. The Xbox Play Anywhere feature currently only supports campaign co-op and Horde mode in Gears of War 4. Multiplayer has been left out due to the higher frame rates available on PC and mouse and keyboard control scheme, which could give Windows 10 players an advantage. The Coalition will experiment in November, however.

“We are hoping to conduct a test on this in November. This will be a separate event playlist for people on both platforms to join. We will see what backend telemetry after the weekend and consider what we can do in the future,” Fletcher revealed.

As for the first Title Update hitting Gears of War on November 1, there are a couple of weapon-tuning changes coming, mostly through nerfs. The Lancer and Gnasher will both have their very short-range damage reduced with the latter also having its stopping power stripped out completely. However, the short-range damage of the Gnasher is being slightly increased, while the damage boost given from a successful Active Reload is being increased slightly.

The Hammerburst will receive some multiplayer nerfs as well. Body and headshot damage will be reduced, plus the Active Reload will see its cooldown increased by 2 seconds.

Numerous bug fixes will also be included in the Gears of War 4 title update for both the Xbox One and Windows 10 platforms. This includes fixes to multiplayer and all Horde modes along with some platform-specific fixes, including key bindings on PC and being able to turn on HDR split-screen on Xbox One.

The list of fixes is long, so please refer to the patch notes posted to the Gears of War forums.

What do you think about these changes coming to Gears of War 4? Sound off in the comments below.

[Featured Image by The Coalition/Microsoft]