Gears Of War Free Update Adds New Maps, As More Funko Pop Figures Revealed

The Gears of War 4 March update is out today on Xbox One and Windows 10. As announced previously, it makes major changes to the Gnasher, and also adds new maps and a ranked lobby.

Starting with the new maps, these include Diner and Old Town. Diner is a smaller-sized map that will feel "intense and claustrophobic," developer The Coalition said in a blog post. The sniper spawns in the diner, so teams will likely fight to control this part of the map in particular. Outside, there is a parking lot where ranged combat is key. The Coalition made a point to say Diner was developed over the span of the past 18 months.

The other new map is Old Town, which isn't entirely new, as it is a reimagining of the map of the same name from Gears of War 3. It sports the same layout as the original, and features power weapons like the torque bow and sniper.

Diner and Old Town are available to Gears of War 4 season-pass owners in the game's Developer Playlist, which pays out double XP and 20 percent bonus credits. The maps will join the regular map rotation for all players starting on March 14. Watch the videos in this post to get a closer look.

The Gears of War 4 March update also introduces ranked lobbies for Core and Competitive playlists, a feature that fans had asked for, The Coalition said.

"When matchmaking for any Core or Competitive playlist, you will now be placed into a pre-game lobby complete with map voting, bounty selection, and customization options," the studio explained. "If a player quits prior to the match beginning, the pre-game countdown will cancel and continue searching to keep matches balanced."

When a match ends, players will return to the lobby for their specific playlist without needing to launch a new search.

Not included with the Gears of War 4 March update are tuning tweaks for the Core and Competitive playlists; these unspecified changes will arrive in "the next couple of weeks."

Also coming to Gears of War 4 sometime later this month is a new legacy character (a Locust creature teased in the image at left), as well as more weapons skins.

Additionally, The Coalition is rolling out monthly events, the first of which begins on March 24 and will be themed around Versus modes. A Horde-themed weekend event will kick off on March 31.

"We will continue to add Versus and Horde weekend events with every third Friday after an update featuring a Versus-themed event, followed by a Horde-themed event the weekend following that one," The Coalition said. "We'll reveal more about each weekend in the week leading up to the event, but we're pretty sure Versus Snipers are going to be particularly happy this month."

In other Gears of War 4 news, toy company Funko today announced a new line of Pop figures based on the game. Due out this spring, the toys include "older and more grizzled" versions of Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, Damon Baird, Augustus Cole, and Oscar Diaz. A Brumak figure is also being produced.

Click through the images in the gallery below to see all the new figures.