Gears of War 2 Title Update 6 Detailed Release Notes

The following fixes and improvements are included in Title Update 6.

Improvements
Title Update 6 makes these new improvements:

* Adds a new public multiplayer match option called Social Xbox LIVE (aka player matches), open to anyone who owns all downloadable maps (that is, All Fronts Collection). We?ll be having a promotion that will dramatically reduce the cost of the All Fronts Collection.

* You can join Social Matches in progress and can quit any time without penalty, although players who quit a match early don?t receive earned experience (XP) from that match.
* Social matchmaking lets your party join a match in progress. If a match is not found, your party hosts a new match, filling any empty player slots with bots.
* Social Matches automatically cycle to the next map without further matchmaking.
* Teams are rebalanced between matches based on XP level without splitting parties.
* If you quit, your spot is taken by a bot until a new player joins the match. That new player can join while the match is in progress.
* If you join a match in progress, you are assigned a team based on XP level and party size.
* If you join a match in progress, you replace a bot at the earliest opportunity: at the first bot?s death for respawning game types (for example, Annex) and at round completion for Warzone, Execution, and Wingman.
* Social leaderboards become part of the War Journal.
* Renames Public Matches to Ranked Xbox LIVE Matches to differentiate these from Social Xbox LIVE Matches, and adds some improvements to these matches.

* Improved host selection using bandwidth testing and previous hosting data has been added.
* Before the match begins, teams are balanced based on XP without splitting parties.
* Renames Private Matches to Custom Xbox LIVE Matches and makes these matches invite-only.
* Adds the ability to join Horde sessions that are in progress.

* In Social Horde, you can join a session in progress through matchmaking and you are able to continue your session from the last wave you failed without starting over.
* In Ranked Horde, you can join a session in progress only through invites.
* If you join a session in progress, at the end of the session you receive the score you achieved during the time you spent in the session.
* Improves the precision of weapon selection using the D-pad.
* Improves client-side hit detection for ballistic weapons.

Exploit Fixes
Title Update 6 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:

* Execution rules could be ignored when using certain weapon types.
* On the Subway map, you could get outside of the playable environment by sliding into cover and rolling between a train car and the side of tracks.
* On the Blood Drive map, you could get outside of the playable environment in various locations.
* Players could grief other players on Submission, Annex, King of the Hill, and Guardian games by preventing the objective from being completed while racking up experience. Title Update 6 adds match time limits to each of these game types to prevent this practice.

General Fixes
Title Update 6 fixes these other issues as well:

* An issue that could cause your profile to be overwritten, erasing XP level, and achievement progress.
* An issue that could cause a campaign save slot to be overwritten if you previously chose to continue without saving and then signed in.

Balancing
Title Update 6 makes these balancing changes:

* Changes the Gnasher Shotgun pellet pattern to increase hit consistency.
* Changes the Guardian game type to select the leader based upon XP level (highest to lowest).