Looks like we can finally stop speculating and scrounging for all the available details we can find about the upcoming update/patch
to Xbox Live’s hit title: Gears of War, as Epic has finally opened up the doors with their official press release concerning the new game mode: Annex.
Annex it turns out, will be very similar to Battlefield 2's territory mode, where you capture and hold different points on a given map. Just like BF2, you gain more points the longer that you hold a territory, until eventually you earn enough points to take the crown of victory. There will be approximately two to five separate key strategic points located on the map, each relative to the map's most desirable weapons.
Just like we previously reported, there will be an unlimited number of respawns, and a 15 second interval between them. Keep in mind that this is only exclusive to Annex, and will not be a feature in any of the game's other modes.
Some changes have been made to the rules of Assassination as well, possibly to get gamers actually playing the game mode, including the ability for people other than the leader to pick up specialized weapons, as well as the necessity to take out the leader using an execution-style kill.
Gears of War™ Gears Up With A New Game Type
What's old and new and red all over? That would be Gears of War, once a new multiplayer game type is released by way of a download from Xbox LIVE® on April 9. Read on to get the specs on the new way to enjoy a game you already love, and then hop online to experience multiplayer all over again!
Annex
Objective: Capture and hold key locations to collect enough points to win the round.
Description: In Annex, you win by keeping control over key map locations, or objectives, long enough to collect a winning number of points. Every map has two to five identified objectives available for capture, with one objective active at a time. Objectives are based on map weapon-spawn locations and have a potential value of 60 points toward either team’s score. Teams collect those points by maintaining ownership of an objective until all its 60 points have been distributed. Every second that a team controls an objective, the team gets one point. When an objective falls to zero points, the next objective is selected at random.
On the HUD, the current objective appears below the team scores at top left. This indicator contains several pieces of relevant information. The weapon icon inside the circle indicates which weapon-spawn location is being used as the objective. The compass along the outer edge of the circle shows the relative direction to the objective. The number inside the circle indicates how many points remain at that objective and the background icon color indicates which team currently controls it. No color means the objective awaits capture, a red icon means the Locust Horde hold the objective and a blue icon means the COG hold it. When the icon in the indicator circle fills, the corresponding team's score also changes color, the team begins collecting points from the objective, and the point value of the objective drops.
On the map, a projected ring marks the physical location and boundaries of the objective in the world. The ring's color indicates the current captor: White means neutral, blue COG, and red Locust. To capture an objective, players must stand inside the glowing ring uncontested for a short period of time. How long depends on how many teammates stand in the ring at once. One player can capture an objective in eight seconds, two players in four seconds, three players in two seconds, and four players in one second. Once a team takes an objective, they are not required to remain inside the ring to maintain ownership. The captured objective's points drain until an opposing team member enters the ring, or until its points fall to zero.
Round scores can be set as low as 120 points or as high as 480 points. The first team to reach the target score wins the round.
Respawns: Infinite, wave-based every 15 seconds.
Options:
Warzone
Objective: Eliminate all members of the opposing team.
Description: Warzone is a team-based competitive multiplayer game mode where you eliminate all opposing team members to win. Each round has a time limit. If neither team can eliminate the other before time runs out, the round is a draw and no round score is given.
When a player is knocked down but not out (DBNO) in Warzone, a teammate can revive the player, an opposing team member can execute the player, or the player can die of blood loss after the bleed-out time expires. To live longer, a player can increase his or her DBNO bleed-out time by rapidly pressing the A button.
Respawns: None, one life per round.
Options:
Objective: Eliminate all members of the opposing team with an execution.
Description: Like Warzone, Execution is team-based, and teams must eliminate all of the opposition to win. But it has two big differences from Warzone.
First, instead of simply killing opposing team members, teams must execute opposing team members. In other words, you can eliminate opposing players only with one-shot kills (with the Boomshot or Torque Bow, or with a headshot) or kills at extremely close range while opponents are down but not out (DBNO). You can perform these close-range kills with normal weapons fire, a melee attack, or a special finishing move like a curb stomp or Chainsaw kill. Attempting to kill a DBNO player with anything but an execution has no effect.
Second, a DBNO player in Execution revives automatically when the bleed-out time expires, instead of dying as in Warzone. To revive faster while DBNO, a player can decrease bleed-out time by rapidly pressing the A button.
Respawns: None, one life per round.
Options:
Objective: Kill the enemy leader with an execution to win the round.
Description: In Assassination, you don't have to eliminate all of the opposing team members to win a round. You simply have to eliminate the opposing team's leader, RAAM for the Locust and Hoffman for the COG. You execute the leader with a one-shot kill, such as with the Boomshot or Torque Bow or with a headshot, or finish the leader at extremely close range while down but not out (DBNO). You can do this with any finishing move (curb stomp, chainsaw kill, or melee attack) or by simply shooting a leader while next to him. If you don't kill the leader while DBNO, he or she returns to full health after the bleed-out time has elapsed.
Each round has a new leader. In the first round, the leader is the first player to join each team. In subsequent rounds, player performance determines the leader. For the previous round's winning team, the leader is the player who successfully executed the other team’s leader. For the previous round's losing team, the leader is the player with the team's most points.
Respawns: None, one life per round.
Options:
FYI: Annex will be in our tourney for next season.
Annex it turns out, will be very similar to Battlefield 2's territory mode, where you capture and hold different points on a given map. Just like BF2, you gain more points the longer that you hold a territory, until eventually you earn enough points to take the crown of victory. There will be approximately two to five separate key strategic points located on the map, each relative to the map's most desirable weapons.
Just like we previously reported, there will be an unlimited number of respawns, and a 15 second interval between them. Keep in mind that this is only exclusive to Annex, and will not be a feature in any of the game's other modes.
Some changes have been made to the rules of Assassination as well, possibly to get gamers actually playing the game mode, including the ability for people other than the leader to pick up specialized weapons, as well as the necessity to take out the leader using an execution-style kill.
Gears of War™ Gears Up With A New Game Type
What's old and new and red all over? That would be Gears of War, once a new multiplayer game type is released by way of a download from Xbox LIVE® on April 9. Read on to get the specs on the new way to enjoy a game you already love, and then hop online to experience multiplayer all over again!
Annex
Objective: Capture and hold key locations to collect enough points to win the round.
Description: In Annex, you win by keeping control over key map locations, or objectives, long enough to collect a winning number of points. Every map has two to five identified objectives available for capture, with one objective active at a time. Objectives are based on map weapon-spawn locations and have a potential value of 60 points toward either team’s score. Teams collect those points by maintaining ownership of an objective until all its 60 points have been distributed. Every second that a team controls an objective, the team gets one point. When an objective falls to zero points, the next objective is selected at random.
On the HUD, the current objective appears below the team scores at top left. This indicator contains several pieces of relevant information. The weapon icon inside the circle indicates which weapon-spawn location is being used as the objective. The compass along the outer edge of the circle shows the relative direction to the objective. The number inside the circle indicates how many points remain at that objective and the background icon color indicates which team currently controls it. No color means the objective awaits capture, a red icon means the Locust Horde hold the objective and a blue icon means the COG hold it. When the icon in the indicator circle fills, the corresponding team's score also changes color, the team begins collecting points from the objective, and the point value of the objective drops.
On the map, a projected ring marks the physical location and boundaries of the objective in the world. The ring's color indicates the current captor: White means neutral, blue COG, and red Locust. To capture an objective, players must stand inside the glowing ring uncontested for a short period of time. How long depends on how many teammates stand in the ring at once. One player can capture an objective in eight seconds, two players in four seconds, three players in two seconds, and four players in one second. Once a team takes an objective, they are not required to remain inside the ring to maintain ownership. The captured objective's points drain until an opposing team member enters the ring, or until its points fall to zero.
Round scores can be set as low as 120 points or as high as 480 points. The first team to reach the target score wins the round.
Respawns: Infinite, wave-based every 15 seconds.
Options:
- Selected Map: Which map or series of maps to use.
- Number of Rounds: Number of rounds required to win the match.
- Bleed-out Duration: Amount of time before a player dies while DBNO.
- Round Score: Number of points required to win a round.
- Friendly Fire: In a player match, whether teammates can damage each other.
- Private Slots: In a player match, number of player slots reserved for friend invites.
- Weapons Swapped: In a player match, whether the person who sets up the match can determine whether weapons that appear in the maps are replaced or removed.
- Annex became available as a Gears of War multiplayer game mode in the April 9 update.
Warzone
Objective: Eliminate all members of the opposing team.
Description: Warzone is a team-based competitive multiplayer game mode where you eliminate all opposing team members to win. Each round has a time limit. If neither team can eliminate the other before time runs out, the round is a draw and no round score is given.
When a player is knocked down but not out (DBNO) in Warzone, a teammate can revive the player, an opposing team member can execute the player, or the player can die of blood loss after the bleed-out time expires. To live longer, a player can increase his or her DBNO bleed-out time by rapidly pressing the A button.
Respawns: None, one life per round.
Options:
- Selected Map: Which map or series of maps to use.
- Number of Rounds: Number of rounds required to win the match.
- Bleed-out Duration: Amount of time before a player dies while DBNO.
- Round Duration: Amount of time before a round is considered a draw.
- Friendly Fire: In a player match, whether teammates can damage each other.
- Private Slots: In a player match, number of player slots reserved for friend invites.
- Weapons Swapped: In a player match, whether the person who sets up the match can replace or remove weapons that appear in the maps.
Objective: Eliminate all members of the opposing team with an execution.
Description: Like Warzone, Execution is team-based, and teams must eliminate all of the opposition to win. But it has two big differences from Warzone.
First, instead of simply killing opposing team members, teams must execute opposing team members. In other words, you can eliminate opposing players only with one-shot kills (with the Boomshot or Torque Bow, or with a headshot) or kills at extremely close range while opponents are down but not out (DBNO). You can perform these close-range kills with normal weapons fire, a melee attack, or a special finishing move like a curb stomp or Chainsaw kill. Attempting to kill a DBNO player with anything but an execution has no effect.
Second, a DBNO player in Execution revives automatically when the bleed-out time expires, instead of dying as in Warzone. To revive faster while DBNO, a player can decrease bleed-out time by rapidly pressing the A button.
Respawns: None, one life per round.
Options:
- Selected Map: Which map or series of maps to use.
- Number of Rounds: Number of rounds required to win the match.
- Bleed-out Duration: Amount of time before a player revives while DBNO.
- Round Duration: Amount of time before a round is considered a draw.
- Friendly Fire: In a player match, whether teammates can damage each other.
- Private Slots: In a player match, number of player slots reserved for friend invites.
- Weapons Swapped: In a player match, whether the person who sets up the match can determine whether weapons that appear in the maps are replaced or removed.
Objective: Kill the enemy leader with an execution to win the round.
Description: In Assassination, you don't have to eliminate all of the opposing team members to win a round. You simply have to eliminate the opposing team's leader, RAAM for the Locust and Hoffman for the COG. You execute the leader with a one-shot kill, such as with the Boomshot or Torque Bow or with a headshot, or finish the leader at extremely close range while down but not out (DBNO). You can do this with any finishing move (curb stomp, chainsaw kill, or melee attack) or by simply shooting a leader while next to him. If you don't kill the leader while DBNO, he or she returns to full health after the bleed-out time has elapsed.
Each round has a new leader. In the first round, the leader is the first player to join each team. In subsequent rounds, player performance determines the leader. For the previous round's winning team, the leader is the player who successfully executed the other team’s leader. For the previous round's losing team, the leader is the player with the team's most points.
Respawns: None, one life per round.
Options:
- Selected Map: Which map or series of maps to use.
- Number of Rounds: Number of rounds required to win the match.
- Bleed-out Duration: Amount of time before a player dies while DBNO (or before a leader revives).
- Round Duration: Amount of time before a round is considered a draw.
- Friendly Fire: In a player match, whether teammates can damage each other.
- Private Slots: In a player match, number of player slots reserved for friend invites.
- Weapons Swapped: In a player match, whether the person who sets up the match can determine whether weapons that appear in the maps are replaced or removed.
- Before the update, the Assassination leader had to unlock map-spawned weapons by picking them up and dropping them. Now, all weapons are available to all players from the beginning.
- Before the update, you could kill a leader in Assassination using the same rules as in Warzone. Now, you kill leaders as in Execution.
FYI: Annex will be in our tourney for next season.
