Through an interview with GameSpot U.K., Epic Games has announced it will modify the ranking system of Gears of War 2 incorporating the features it originally suggested. It'll do so through a title update that is scheduled for release on March 24th. Additionally, the studio also announced a third map pack for the game called Snowblind Map Pack that will arrive on March 31 including four new maps: Grindyard, Under Hill, Courtyard, and a remake of Fuel Depot from the original Gears game. Some highlights from the article:
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.)
[SOURCE]
