Free Gears of War: Judgment DLC with the new Haven map and Execution mode is now available, along with the game's first patch, Microsoft's Major Nelson announced today.
The DLC pack has arrived a few days early: Co-developer Epic Games previously said it would be available April 2. Men's magazine Maxim is sponsoring the content, so it is free "for a limited time," according to Microsoft. You can currently download the DLC from Judgment's title menu, the Xbox 360 Dashboard or the Xbox website; the prompt from the game's matchmaking menu isn't working at the moment.
Execution is similar to the Warzone mode that existed in the first three Gears of War games: The goal is to kill everyone on the enemy team before time expires, but unless a player is killed with a one-shot weapon, they'll got into a "down but not out" state and will get back up instead of bleeding out — you'll have to finish them off with an Execution. The mode originally appeared in Gears of War and Gears of War 2.
Some players found that the old Warzone mode is hidden and playable on the game disc, but an Epic Games spokesperson told Polygon earlier this week, "We don't have any current plans to release Warzone."
For a limited time, players will also be able to rack up twice as much XP as usual in special playlists for both the Haven map and Execution mode. Those who have purchased the Judgment season pass, which comes with permanent double XP, will receive triple XP during this time.
Epic is also launching Judgment's first title update today, with a few bug fixes and gameplay tweaks. Check out the patch notes below, and peruse two screenshots and a piece of concept art from the Haven map above.
- Various dedicated server improvements.
- Players no longer get stuck in the main menu background after playing three random matches.
- Locusts no longer spawn at the second E-Hole on the first wave of Island.
- Players will no longer get stuck inside of a Boom Shield that has been planted by an enemy player.
- Players will no longer able to look down the scope with a Markza while holding a Meat Shield.
- If a Locust destroys an objective at the same time the timer runs out in OverRun using Mercy rules, the match will not end early.
- Fix for exclamation points not disappearing after viewing an unlocked character.
- While holding a Meat Shield you will only need to tap B to melee.
- The Meat Shield will now drop if you switch to the snub.
- The "Spray and Pray" ribbon can now be earned in the first round.
- If the Boom Shield is disabled in weapon swap you will no longer see the icon in Tac-Com.
- You will now earn the Team Savior ribbon for reviving three individual teammates in a single life.
- Players can no longer chainsaw another player while holding the Boom Shield.
- Improvements to the Hammer of Dawn targeting.
- You will now see XP tallies between matches.
