Gears of War 4 celebrates the season of good cheer with Gearsmas, a DLC package that includes icy boomshots, snowball fights, and crossplay functionality.

A little more than a week till Christmas and Gears of War 4 has started on its annual holiday tradition of Gearsmas. Until January 4, players will be able to buy a Gearsmas pack for 400 credits ($0.99), which includes a randomized selection of presents drawn from a pool of 28. There are also two special gifts that will drop on assigned dates as well as an XP bonus for players.

Upon purchase of a pack, Gears of War 4 players will receive one bounty, as well as two holiday presents at random from the Gearsmas collection list:

  • 3 ‘Ugly Gearsmas Armor’ Characters – JD, Kait and Swarm Drone
  • 4 Gingerbread Weapon Skins
  • 4 Festive Tree Weapon Skins
  • 4 Snowman Weapon Skins
  • 4 JD Wrapping Paper Weapon Skins
  • 4 Kait Wrapping Paper Weapon Skins
  • 4 Swarm Wrapping Paper Weapon Skins
  • 1 Commemorative Gearsmas Emblem

Besides making weapons look like something that should be found under the tree on Christmas morning, players will also be able to decorate themselves in ugly sweaters, as is tradition. Besides these presents, on two set days players will get a special gift upon starting up Gears of War 4. On December 16 they will receive a Chuzzmas Emblem, while those who give the game a spin on December 27 will receive a modified Boomshot that fires icicles.

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Not that the changes are entirely cosmetic, as part of the Gearsmas package is a new game mode called Snowball Fight in which players will be able to chase each other down in the Christmas spirit using explosive snowballs instead of bullets. An extra challenge in this mode is that the snowballs are limited and scarce, making finding and keeping ammo an integral part of the game. Besides modified snowball fights, Microsoft has also once again added Crossplay Versus to Gears of War 4, making it possible for Xbox players to join a squad with their Windows 10 friends and vice-versa.

One of the main staples of the Gears of War series are the crazy weapons, so the snowball cannon fits right in with the chainsaw bayonets and the Cluckshot, which fires chickens. Besides all the fun and games, it also looks like Gears of War 4 is now done with its latest round of updates and DLC, meaning that players will now be able to run around gibbing each other to their heart's content on new maps without any more glitches or bugs.

Gears of War 4 is one of the best selling games of 2016 to date, garnering great reviews and selling over 617,000 copies in the first week alone. This update, and especially the reintroduction of Crossplay Versus, should give players plenty of bang for their buck, or at least enough for the holiday season. The XP bonus won't hurt, either.

Gears of War 4 is now available on PC and Xbox One.