Gears' Annex mode detailed

By Tom Bramwell Published 5 April, 2007

Fighting over common ground.

Epic Games has revealed details of the "Annex" multiplayer mode set to be introduced to Gears of War in a forthcoming patch.

Annex will involve taking control of key locations and holding them as a team to accumulate points, with the winning side the one that hits the target points-total first, regardless of the number of kills made.

Each map will feature several control points, although teams will only fight over one at any given time. When that control point has been claimed by one or other team long enough to exhaust its available points (you can annex a maximum of 60 per control point), the game selects another at random for you to fight over elsewhere on the map.

Respawns will come in waves every 15 seconds rather than occurring immediately, Epic has said, and there will be plenty of variables to adjust as the host - winning scores can be set between 120 for fast-paced games and 480 for longer-haul, and you can also specify the number of rounds to be played, bleed-out duration, friendly fire and private slots among other things.

The information comes our way via a page on the Gears of War website that has since been pulled. When it was up, it claimed the patch containing Annex - along with various bug-fixes, and a 720p option for VGA users running at 1280x1024 - would be released on 9th April. Microsoft has since explained that the page was posted in error, and the date may yet change.

Oh well, at least it didn't try the one about rumour and speculation.

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. Follow him on Twitter.

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

You may also like...

Comments (13) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • NegativeZero #1 5 years ago

    I don't see why they're acting like this is new. The mode's been around for years now in multiple FPS. And really, it's just King of the Hill with more than one hill to control, in which case it's been in games since Marathon, or possibly even earlier.

  • asphaltcowboy #2 5 years ago

    Well, it sounds cool regardless!

  • ram #3 5 years ago

    it's new, it's free and yet they whine n moan. un-ber-liev-etc

  • Kazzahdrane #4 5 years ago

    Sounds good, should be available around the time I start having enough free time to play games again!

  • Captain Jax #5 5 years ago

    Does this mean new maps aswell for this game mode?

  • davisorle #6 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 20:44:35 16-04-2012

  • Moz #7 5 years ago

    Captain Jax, the article suggests there are new maps

  • sharpfish #8 5 years ago

    respawns and emphasis removed from kill count will change the dynamics completely, should be fun. Not bad for "free" :)

    Edited by sharpfish at 05/04/07 @ 10:41

  • Skooch #9 5 years ago

    A Non New Experience for Xbox?

    But I am still excited. This isn't an original game mode by far but I really enjoy Gears MP and hope this works well. It could do with a new mode and fixes for all the glitches to re-invigorate interest. What I want to know is whether you can still get weapons achievements in this mode - anyone know?

  • trevd72 #10 5 years ago

    only 8 players still!! i like bigger teams and I hate the cover move that works against you and causes your death. Until (not that they will) fix that I will not be rebuying it. R6:V update will be better although you have to pay for it :-(

  • Captain Jax #11 5 years ago

    Oh, on the Epic forum they say no new maps..

  • asphaltcowboy #12 5 years ago

    Oh, my other worry is - what will they do about the prospect of spawn camping? Respawn shield for a few seconds? It'll be necessary methinks!

  • NewbieZilla #13 5 years ago

    "I don't see why they're acting like this is new. The mode's been around for years now in multiple FPS. And really, it's just King of the Hill with more than one hill to control, in which case it's been in games since Marathon, or possibly even earlier."

    Did I miss something in this article?