Gears of War developer Epic Games continues to support its award winning shooter with free updates, the latest (released April 9) adds a host of new goodies including the new game type, Annex. Although it mirrors Halo 2's Territories, Annex offers a welcome addition to standard death matching.

In Annex, teams compete to capture and hold control points, the goal to suck up points and outscore the opposition. Each control point, signified by a glowing ring, contains 60 points, and when captured, they get distributed to the team in possession. In a unique twist, teams can capture the control point and move around. However, they shouldn't travel far away, as the other team can walk up to the control point and steal it.

At first, both teams rush the control point, which usually leads to an intense firefight and blood bath. Once a control point is captured, teams usually map out a strategy of defense. However, possession goes back and forth, with points distributed to either side.

Once these 60 points get used up, another control point (there's only one at any given time) randomly spawns near a weapon (sniper or grenades, for example). Because of this, Annex offers gamers the opportunity to gamble. If a team knows it cannot secure one control point, it may split off and camp near the weapons in the hopes of landing on the next one, thus giving them a jump on their opponents.

Unlike the rest of the game's multiplayer modes, players re-spawn after death. This occurs at 15-second intervals, so re-spawning depends on the time remaining. Players that die with one second to go will come back almost immediately, while those that meet a tragic end with 15 seconds to go must wait it out.

Although Annex offers nothing players haven't seen in previous games, it significantly beefs up Gears' multiplayer component, breathing new life into a previously linear experience. In addition, gamers enjoy an important tweak to the Assassination game type in which players must execute the leader in order to kill them. Furthermore, gamers will find the destructive weapon, the Hammer of Dawn easier to aim, while the Boomshot grenade launcher's splash damage covers a wider area, though in play tests, it still feels limited and ineffective against some of the other weapons.

Bottom line, Epic Games made Gears of War even better and everyone needs to hop online, download the update and get fragging.

Related Links

Gears of War Game Guide

Gears of War Official Site

Microsoft Game Studios