An Auto Update was released for Gears of War Monday that, among other small changes, adds a new gametype to Gears of War. This new gametype is called Annex. Annex is essentially “King of the Hill” where the hill moves after it has been held for a minute. A big difference between normal King of the Hill games and Annex is that in Annex once you claim the hill you don’t have to stay in it to keep scoring points. You just have to keep the other team from claiming it. Additionally, Annex is the only game mode in Gears of War that allows for respawning.

So, the big questions about Annex is “Is it fun?”. That answer to that is Hell Yes! Annex is quickly becoming my favorite gametype in Gears. Execution is still a lot of fun, but at times the game play can slow down as people don’t want to loose their only life right as the match starts. Annex eliminate this in two ways. First, there is always a mad rush to get to the hill area. Second, you don’t have to worry about dying to much because of the unlimited respawns. These two items together make for a lot of intense fighting over the hill. Before the addition of Annex my favorite maps were the ones where the power weapons (ie. sniper, boom shot, and torque bow) are evenly placed in the middle of the map. This causes the game to start with a mad rush to beat the other team to them. Annex essentially takes this mad rush and builds a whole game mode around it. The one thing that takes a little getting use to is that in Annex when you respawn you don’t respawn at your base. You respawn in random locations, but the “random” location is pretty much always at the opposite end of the map from the hill.

The update with Annex also made some other changes. Here is the list of changes:
* VGA Cable Support: Monitor resolution widths greater than or equal to 1280 now render as letterbox. In particular VGA users running at 1280×1024 will now see the game in full 720p (1280×720) resolution in letterboxed form.
* Adjusted Assassination Multiplayer Gametype: Leader no longer has to unlock weapons and now has to be executed to die.
* Adjusted Boomshot: Splash damage to be more effective rendering targets down-but-not-out
* Adjusted Lancer: Increased damage slightly
* Adjusted Hammer of Dawn: Aiming will be more forgiving of moving targets
* Adjusted Roadie Run: Reduced frequency of accidentally grabbing cover while running
* Kill Message Ticker: Ticker can now be seen while down-but-not-out and spectating
* General: Addressed a number of possible exploits in multiplayer

I’m fine with the changes to the Lancer, the Boomshot, the Hammer of Dawn, and the Assassination gametype. I would have preferred they left it alone, but the changes to the Rodie Run are terrible. I did not have to much of an issue before the update with accidentally sticking to things while roadie running. The people I play with each Tuesday were not having issues with it either. After a few hours of playing last night all of us came to the conclusion that the changes to the roadie run are terrible. You stick to everything now. It is a lot worse that it use to be. On Epic’s forums one of the developers made this post about it:

(dozens of complaining threads about this which I believe just from not understanding the change, so here you go…)

Before the update while roadie running the game would automatically check for cover acquisition every frame – looking a short distance wherever the player’s character was facing.

Now with the update the game will perform the same check, *except* that it now looks which direction you’re pushing on the left-stick (the one you’re steering with) relative to the direction your character is facing. If you are pushing no direction on the stick it defaults to the original check. If you’re getting sucked into cover *TRY PUSHING AWAY FROM WALLS WHEN ROADIE RUNNING*.

However, I had read this information before playing on the update, and I tried pushing away from items I was running towards but I was still sticking to everything. When you’re running down a hallway and you push away from one side it sticks you to the other side. It makes it very hard to go around a corner or obstacle because if you try to turn to the right you stick to the corner because you are pressing that direction. In a lot of cases I found it faster to just walk normally through some sections of the level than to roadie run.

So, the update with Annex is kind of a wash in my opinion. The new game mode is great, but the other changes were not necessary. Why do developers feel that they should change core game play features well after a game is released? Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas both did it and in both cases the fans of the game hated the changes. Developers, either get it right the first time or accept your mistakes. If there are blatant bugs, please, fix then, but don’t change core gameplay features. That means don’t change how the weapons work, don’t change how quickly you can move, and don’t change gametype play settings.