Gears 2 Flashback Pack on sale for all

By Tom Bramwell Published 8 January, 2009

Presumably for second-hand buyers.

Microsoft and Epic have made the Gears of War 2 Flashback Multiplayer Map Pack available to everyone on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Every copy of Gears 2 ships with a redeemable code that can be used to download the pack for free, so presumably its availability is designed to wring money out of the second-hand games market, or punish idiots who've lost their code.

Said idiots will have to pay 400 Microsoft Points (GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.80) to download the pack, which consists of five maps from the original Gears of War.

These are Canals, Gridlock, Mansion, Subway and Tyro Station. We've always been a bit partial to Gridlock and Tyro, as it goes.

The pack is 116MB in size and if you've left your Xbox 360 on at home you can set off the download via the web-based Marketplace.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bad09 #1 3 years ago

    Or you could just play gears 1 online. It actually works......

  • DFawkes #2 3 years ago

    If you got yourself a pre-owned copy after Christmas, and don't want to have to buy Gears 1, at least they're available. Not that I'm a big Gears online fan, but I do like Mansion.

  • mazzl #3 3 years ago

    why don't they make it a free download if they handed a code with the game.....

  • systems #4 3 years ago

    I think that's a good plan. Give a code for all the goodies to the original purchaser and then you can buy it second hand if you want but you have to pay for the extras. That way the devs get a little cash from preowned stuff.

    I'm surprised noone thought of it before.

  • Denouncer #5 3 years ago

    Unfortunately not everyone received the DLC map pack. Microsoft South Africa decided we shouldn't get the codes because we aren't an official Xbox Live country (which is solely because Microsoft can't get their act together - even so they've been promising it for years now). They removed all the codes from the GOW2, including the the DLC from the limited edition. Oh, and we paid exactly the same price as everyone else did, even though we didn't get the full product...

    And now we have to pay even more for something which should've been included in the first place.
    Edited by 1 at 08/01/09 @ 10:48

  • Skooch #6 3 years ago

    Makes great sense - its not like you HAVE to buy the maps but if you buy it second hand and want them then you have to pay.

  • Farzlepot #7 3 years ago

    "why don't they make it a free download if they handed a code with the game..... "

    I think the idea is that if you bought the game new and used the code, and then trade it in for something else, whoever buys that game second-hand will have to pay to get the download pack. As the article suggested, it's probably so that they can get some money out of second-hand sales. It's actually an ingenious solution to the whole second-hand 'problem', certainly a better idea than trying to lock games to the first console they are played on.

  • Thunderbolt #8 3 years ago

    Denouncer,

    Sorry to hear that especially since I know how much games cost in South Africa

  • subtlesnake #9 3 years ago

    I imagine this also helps Microsoft to quantify the scale of the second hand 'problem'.

  • Man_s #10 3 years ago

    I feel for you Denouncer, although my situation is slightly different as I have the limited edition codes but they don't work for me. I've contacted Microsoft and they've been unable to resolve the issue so far. And I know of at least 2 more people who have the same problem regarding the map pack codes...

  • ruined #11 3 years ago

    It shouldnt be a free download

    Pre-owned doesn't give Epic any money, the only people who profit from it are the shops. I'm with the studio on this one they have no reason to do a favour for people who didnt buy their game.

    Gears 2 probably cost 50 million to develop. Recouping that money is made a lot harder by the fact every retailer does pre-owned now