April 5, 2017 – It’s a new month, which means a fresh update of new content for Gears of War 4! April is bringing the goods with a themed Easter Event plus a major tuning update, ranked play improvements, new maps, additional legacy characters to collect and more! Read on for all the info and check out our Gears 4 April Update ViDoc.
Easter Event
Easter is on the horizon, and as always, Gears of War 4 will be ready to celebrate another holiday with new events and unlocks for fans!
Festivities will kick off with ‘Bunny Hunt’, an Easter-themed game mode that brings back the oversized Bunny Heads from previous games into a new variation of Guardian. On top of that, fans will get to unwrap five Chocolate Easter Egg-themed weapon skins by registering on GearsofWar.com and completing challenges in this special playlist!
Look out for more information on the Easter Festivities next week as we build up to the big celebration on April 14.
New Maps
This month brings two maps from Gears of War 3 updated and refined to Gears of War 4: Hotel and The Slab!
Hotel was a classic part of the Gears 3 lineup, and we’re excited to bring it back for fans. Hotel is now set on a misty cliff-side, with a long-abandoned reclaimed beauty look that feels right at home in Gears 4. Combat still has a distinct feel between the inside and outside environments, with the longer-range street fight clearly separated from the frantic cover-to-cover battle on the interior. New weapon swaps like the EMBAR now appear on the map, freshening up the familiarity of Hotel and having you learn an old favorite all over again!
Cell Block 38 in The Slab was where Gears began. Last seen as a post-launch map for Gears of War 3, we return again to Marcus’ prison. For Gears 4, we’ve honored the originals look while cranking up the detail, including a windflare coming dangerously close to the prison. The Slab has a unique two-lane opening separated by an interior courtyard, encouraging plenty of Gnasher and ranged combat despite the smaller size of the map.
Both maps will be available for Season Pass holders to play from today in the Developer Playlist, with Double XP and 20% Bonus Credits to boot. Hotel and The Slab will be available for all to play in Public Matchmaking from April 11onwards.
Coming Up This Month
On top of our Easter Event, there’s even more to come for Gears of War 4 fans to sink their teeth into this April.
Continuing our returning roster of Legacy Characters, we have another addition to the COG lineup coming this month! As with Tai in March, you’ll have a chance at finding them early in this month’s Gear Packs before they become available for Crafting. Speaking of Gear Packs, if the Locust are more your thing, we’ve got you covered – Kantus is coming back this month!
On top of new things to earn, there’ll be new things to play too! Our monthly Horde and Versus events are all about playing Gears of War 4 in a different way – save the date and get involved on April 21 and 28 respectively.
Tuning and Ranking Improvements
Yesterday, we outlined major tuning changes coming to Gears of War 4 with the April Update on our Community Blog. Over the past six months, we’ve watched you play, heard your feedback and gathered data from millions of matches – and we feel like now is the right time to introduce new weapon tuning for Gears 4.
These tuning changes provide a major update to both Core and Competitive play. Our Core changes mostly focus on making the starting weapons fit their role better than before, with reduced range on the Gnasher, improvements to the Hammerburst and slight tweaks to the Lancer. For Competitive, it’s all about adjustments that highlight the teamwork and competitive nature of playing with these team-focused settings.
On top of these updates, we’re making a number of improvements for Ranked Play including Seasons, Season Rewards and more!
Learn about April’s new updates in detail and say up to date with everything Gears of War by bookmarking our Community Hub at gearsofwar.com/community!
Gears Pro Circuit Atlantic City Open Recap
All bets were off this past weekend as the Gears Pro Circuit Atlantic City Open welcomed over 60 teams to the Caesars Atlantic City Hotel & Casino, battling it out over a $200,000 prize pool and bragging rights as the best team in the Gears of War 4 esports scene. In the end, OpTic Gaming emerged victorious to claim the crown for the fourth time in the Gears Pro Circuit, wrapping up an intense weekend full of upsets, drama and excitement.
Next stop for the global Gears Pro Circuit: Paris from Friday, May 5 to Sunday May 7. For more information about the Gears Pro Circuit, please visit www.gears.gg and follow us on Twitter @EsportsGears.
In the meantime, we’ll see you online Gears fans.
