Horde Command Pack to cost $10; new maps, playable characters, fortification upgrades, weapon skins, and 250 gamerscore included.
When Microsoft and Epic Games announced the $30 Season Pass for Gears of War 3 in August, the game's first batch of downloadable content was promised to arrive in November. Microsoft is wasting no time fulfilling that promise, today scheduling the Horde Command Pack to arrive November 1 on Xbox Live.
The 800 MS point ($10) Horde-themed content includes three new maps, three new playable characters, new fortification upgrades, a pair of new weapon skins, and 250 additional gamerscore to acquire. The Horde Command Pack will download automatically on November 1 for those who purchased the Gears of War Season Pass.
The Blood Drive map is set in the Jacinto Medical Plaza, an evacuated region that morphed from a safety zone to a "dangerous inferno." Rustlung is set on a decommissioned battleship, and Azura takes gamers to an island resort that has seen better days.
The first of the new fortification upgrades in the Horde Command Pack is Command Center, a tool that lets gamers call in support from snipers, mortar strikes, and Hammers of Dawn. Other new fortification upgrades included in the DLC are advancements to Decoy, Sentry, and Silverback fortifications.
The three new playable characters included in the Horde Command Pack are Onyx Guard, Big Rig Dizzy, and Bernie. And finally, the new weapon skins available to gamers in the DLC will be Team Plasma and Jungle Camo.
The Horde Command Pack is the first of four DLC packs scheduled to arrive for Gears of War 3 in the coming months. Players can purchase the Gears of War 3 Season Pass today for 2,400 MS points ($30) on Xbox Live. If purchased separately, those packs will cost players 3,600 Microsoft points ($45).
Gears of War 3 was released worldwide on September 20 and sold more than 3 million units during its first week. For more on Epic Games' third-person shooter, check out GameSpot's review of Gears of War 3.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
Already bought the season pass. Still haven't unlocked everything but new characters, skins, fortifications; that's a deal. Plus the return of Blood Drive and two new maps. can't wait to see what else epic has in store because this game is going to be huge when all of these DLCs are out.
Epic is laughing in the face of Call of Duty. Fantastic value DLC packs will be much appreciated by me.
I know my 2 sons will make me buy it so I won't complain it is an awesome game with a great story as well
Nobody works for free, I know I don't. Granted we all love a bargain whether it be cheap or free. I'm sure there are a lot of sleepless nights that the programmers have trying to make their milestones in the production cycle. We can all poo-poo the idea of 'why does it have to be so expensive'. But if we want other games from Epic and others, they have to be paid or there won't be other games produced. I know I can't write code. Like the iPhone people that camp outside for the newest release, I preorder the game and I choose to pay to play when a game comes out or I can sit and wait for the price to go down at the local trade and play. All I know is that within the first week of GOW 3 release, I've gotten my money's worth out of this game.
So many people seem to be complaining about DLC but extra content has always been released for games and no one use to complain. Think GTA London or Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction, these were days when you got one update for a game in the form of an expansion disc which would cost you roughly £30. Gears 3 are giving you four updates for the same price, all be it four smaller updates, but if you put the content from all four updates together it'll probably be just as much content as you've always got in an expansion. Why are they doing it this way nowadays, maybe it's because they know if they don't keep a steady stream of content coming out people will get bored and trade the game in, as we do, and the reason they have it as DLC instead of on a disc is because they know people will tend to buy preowned expansion discs instead of new meaning they make no money and then we trade in the original game/expansion disc as they wouldn't need both discs putting more copies out there for people to buy preowned. Everyone knows games developers aren't happy with the preowned market, maybe this is their way of giving it the middle finger, either way I was paying £30 for extra content then and I'm paying £30 now, I don't feel I'm being ripped off any more than I've always been.
@ warhawk-geeby 'Too many companies now release a game and then literally a week later there's DLC. It's not DLC at all!!! It's just stuff deliberately held back to make more money.' If Gears 3 had been released in April like it was meant to be this DLC wouldn't have been weeks later but as it stands the release date was pushed back and as they had always planned for this material to be DLC they decided to keep it that way. They could had included it all on the disc but you would get people complaining about the lack of DLC for the game and it probably would have meant the games release would've been delayed even further until November 1st, which everyone would have complained about.
@Alex_09 I'm not quite sure about giving them as little profit as possible because I know how much effort goes in to making the games. But I'll agree mostly with you, if we're going to be treated like cows we may as well hold out until the editions are released which contain everything.. It'd be a damn site cheaper anyway.
@armydominican69 At least there's some folks out there in the world with sense.. Good on you man.
@baystatethrashr For crying out loud.. It's like talking to a wall with some people! It's not that I don't want it, I just I don't want to feel robbed. Too many companies now release a game and then literally a week later there's DLC. It's not DLC at all!!! It's just stuff deliberately held back to make more money. I know it's their game and they can do what they want.. but we're the customers, and we've been started to be treated like turd. The whole point of my argument is that this isn't going to stop. People buy the DLC because they don't have a choice - if they don't they're just limiting the game. Look at what Rockstar did with Red Dead, and what Incognito did with Warhawk. They released proper full-size expansion packs months after the game's release. All I'm saying is that paying for some extra maps and guns at $10 a pop is ridiculous. I'm not aiming this at Microsoft - I'm aiming it at the entire industry. We're being ripped off but it's the folks like you that make it that way because you genuinely believe you're getting a good deal. You ain't. You've been robbed.
To everyone complaining about why the DLC will be available so soon after launch, both Cliffy and Rod said that after Microsoft delayed the release of Gears 3 from April to September it gave them a chance to really clean the game up, including adding Beast mode and being able to get a team working on the DLC earlier than they had originally planned. Recently they announced that because of the extra time they had been given they had nearly completed the first two DLC packs.
@warhawk-geeby I think everyone has a choice when it comes to buying something. The gamers who spend their money on DLC encourage publisher greed and general wastefulness. Look at the new "season passes" too. This is honestly the main reason I buy all my games months after release. If they are going to basically steal from loyal fans I'm going to make sure they get as small a profit as possible from me.
Oh yea cant wait. Horde is my 2nd favorite thing in Gears 3 (Story is 1st) and adding alot of new things to Horde made my day =) also happy they are adding Bernie, i think shes awesome.
@warhawk-geeby Mortal Kombat and LA Noire had the same "season pass" deals. No one complained then. If you don't like it, don't buy it. No one really cares if you don't want to pay 10 dollars for some optional maps and pointless weapon skins, that again are optional. Microsoft, Sony, and whoever else will stop making DLC when people stop buying them but when COD map packs sell millions then they aren't going to stop. Not to mention the obsession to make everything digital and micro-transaction based.
When DLC was first announced for Xbox live it was touted as a way to reward customers for purchasing games, if it is indeed already contained on the disk and simply unlocked by downloading a code then that is a rip off. PGR3 did a similar thing and that was the last time I even looked at that franchise. Where's the love?
@armydominican69 they still make the game though dont they...everything is about making money, no matter what company....what world do you live in? not getting this anyways, by then BF3 will be out then soon MW3 and Skyrim.
Hmm... considering this game was supposed to come out earlier than it did but was pushed back because all MS had was Kinect games for this year, you'd think it would've had all this stuff on the disc already. According to the comments, it does.
@zzamaro That was for Gears 1 indeed, and that content (map packs) was for free. About the "we always give them stuff for free" I admit I'm missing it.
@Jim60360 Dude it's not so much a matter of not wanting DLC - of course we want it. It's more a matter that some of it has obviously been left out from initial release. You're paying for unlock codes and that is all. It's crap.
@baystatethrashr No pal you're deluded. The fact Microsoft already knew there'd be 4 expansion packs just proves my point. They're not all expansion packs, just additional content which was left out. Money money money. I'm not denying the game's big, and I'm not denying the game's brilliant. But for them to release content not even a month after the game has come out is an insult. Never before have a known a company specifically state the exact amount of DLC coming out prior to release. People are going to buy it because they have no choice, it's not quite so simple as you make out. If you honestly believe you've been treated well then that's your call. But I honestly believe we're being had off.
@warhawk-geeby Gears 3 is much much bigger than any other Gears game. They didn't leave out anything just to sell it to you later. If you don't like it don't buy it. Simple as that.
umm I dunno, I really want this but GS is having a special til 11/19 that gives you $30 towards your Gears3 trade in. I might hold off, get my $30 and put that towards Skyrim. Think it'd be worth $10 for just two weeks of dlc play?
DLC is optional, if you don't want it then don't buy it. For the love of God, you're like whiny, bi#chy babies saying stuff like "Oh, there's not enough content, there's not enough content" and "Oh, stop bringing out more content." make up your minds! You kids are soft, you lack discipline, Stop whining. SHUT UP!
metalkid9 :: Wanna know what's stupid and brainless? It's the fact that, you already knew what's going to happen with your comment, and STILL you took the time to post it here. But hey, It's just MY opinion right? Need i say more? I think the contents of your INBOX should also cover my perspective in regards to Gaming as a Whole "Horde and Beast Included" LMAo.
@metalkid9 I thought FUN was the point of gaming and i've never had as much FUN gaming than when i'm playing horde on insane with the boys. The point i'm trying to make here is that the point of horde is that it's FUN!!
And so it begins.. Paying to unlock content either already on the disc or just left off the disc for release later. Frickin hate the way the gaming industry is heading.. First EA, then Activision and now Microsoft.. And there's sod all any of us can do :(
@RitsukoEX Oh I know I'm still excited about it since you get a lot for 10 dollars so I don't mind it being early.
@metalkid9 "Stupid and BRAINLESS". Would like to see you survive hordes 45 to 50 in a "brainless" way. And of course you get thumbs down; what you say is the exact opposite to reality.
@Grovilis : Well, I have zero interest in paying money for maps. That's all, maps. Whoopdy dooo, how exciting. In my opinion it is the most worthless kind of DLC ever conceived.
and am yet to get ma copy of Gears3,it still wasnt available here wen i checked over the weekend hopefully it will be available by friday
Should this probabaly just have come with the game? Yeah. Am I still gunna get it? You betcha.
[UPDATE] Gears of War 3 DLC dropping November 8, 15, 22, 29 (basically every Tuesday until the next Gears of War)
say what you will about DLC but in a world where COD map packs are $15 it's refreshing to see a $10 map pack with more than just maps.
I think it would be awesome if you could play some parts of the campaign as the Locusts. I always love playing as the bad guy every once in a while.
i never understand why people enjoy horde so much. you're just killing enemies for no reason. It's just really stupid and brainless. I'll get thumbed down but i'm just speaking the truth. There is no point in horde.
@Philly1UPer There is campaign dlc, if you go to the story there is a "coming soon" option that is faded. Plus, they have announced that their campaign dlc will feature new characters and stories, much like Borderlands and GTA 4's Ballad of Gay Tony/Lost of the Damned.
Final add-on for action shooter brings new multiplayer maps Aftermath, Artillery, and Cove, as well as Jacinto, Raven Down remakes next month.
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