Tor Thorsen had a Q&A with Gears 2 producer Rod Fergusson, getting a lot of new Gears 2 information that maybe make owners of the game pop it back in their 360 for a bit.

..The Snowblind Map Pack will arrive on Xbox Live on March 31 bearing four new maps: Grindyard, Under Hill, Courtyard, and a remake of Fuel Depot from the original Gears game. No price has been announced, but the last add-on for the game, December's three-map Combustible Map Pack, cost 800 Microsoft points, or $9.99 in real-world currency.

Grindin' in the Grindyard.

Though exciting for Horde mode addicts, the Snowblind map pack will be preceded by something far more ambitious. The week prior, Epic will launch its third and most extensive title update, which implements an all-new experience-based ranking system. The old TrueSkill system ranks will become hidden, but will still be used under the hood to "set up the most competitive matches possible."

Under the new system, players will earn experience points for scoring in public matches, advancing all the way to level 100. Upon attaining certain levels, they will be rewarded with the following Xbox achievements: Rookie Gear (level 5), Seasoned Gear (level 15), Battle-Tested Gear (level 25), Battle-Hardened Gear (level 50), and Veteran Gear (level 100). (The last two achievements will also require that players download and achieve feats in the Snowblind Map Pack.) Four other unnamed achievements will be added as part of the update, with a total of 250 GamerScore Points.

In addition to the new experience system--which will only be based on games played post-update--Gear of War 2's Title Update 3 will also feature new auto-balancing features which will swap in bots for players who drop out mid-match. (Those same dropouts will suffer an experience point penalty.)

PacoDG via gamespot.com »