New Gears of War 4 Patch Adds Maps, Cards, and Rage Quit Penalties
There’s a new patch available for Gears of War 4 from developer, The Coalition, and it adds quite a few things to the third-person shooter. The update includes two new maps and a whopping 280 added collectible cards. The Coalition’s most notable additions are new measures to combat early drop outs aka “rage quitting” in multiplayer matches.
“As of this update, players who quit a Core or Competitive Match will now be suspended from all matchmaking of any kind for a limited time to discourage drop out behavior, with the biggest time punishments going to the first player to quit the match. In addition, the more you quit, the longer the suspension you will receive from playing matchmaking.”
As a way to snuff out some of the false-positives, players that accidentally drop out of a match because of a bad connection (or if they actually do rage quit) will have up to five minutes to rejoin the dropped match before a penalty is made towards their account. Upon completion of the match, any matchmaking punishments that would have been carried out will be lifted.
“With these new features, we hope to see a major improvement in player mentality to committing to a match in Core and Competitive,” said The Coalition. “We have further quit penalty and balanced match features in the works–including Core/Competitive pre-game lobbies–coming in future Title Updates to further improve the online experience.”
Today’s Gears of War 4 update also includes the two new multiplayer maps Blood Drive and Clocktower. Longtime fans of the series may recognize these maps from their inclusion within the first three Gears of War games. Those who own the Gears of War season pass can can start playing in both of these maps now, while everyone else can participate starting January 17 when the maps enter the public multiplayer rotation.
In addition to all this goodness, today marked the addition of 280 new Series 2 cards, the largest amount ever added to the game. Most of the expansion is over 260 weapon skins, varying from the scaly “Dragon Eye” skin to the animated “Lightning” skin.
The 13 included character cards feature Armored Anya and V-Day Sam, as well as a zombified version of Minh. Microsoft also teased at the inclusion of another legacy character card appearing “very soon”. Fans hoping for the giant golden chicken from Gears of War 3 probably shouldn’t hold their breath.
There’s still much, much more in the update that isn’t posted here. A full list of all of the additions can be viewed HERE.
What’s your opinion of Gears of War 4’s rage quit punishments? Should the safeguards against false-positives be expanded? Which weapon skin are you eyeballing the most? Leave your wisdom in the comments below and be sure to check out these other Xbox-related stories:
Eric Hall2712 Posts
Phone-browsing Wikipedia in one hand and clutching his trusty controller in the other, the legendary Eric Hall spreads his wealth of knowledge as a writer for Don't Feed the Gamers. Be sure to catch his biweekly "Throwback Thursday" segment for a nostalgic look at trivia from the past.
