For those of you still playing multiplayer in Rockstar's popular open-world western, Red Dead Redemption, mark September 21st on your calenders. That Tuesday will be when the next add-on pack, 'Liars and Cheats', will be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. According to Rockstar, this new add-on pack will focus on expanding the free roam multiplayer experience as well as adding new modes to competitive multiplayer.

Here are the additions fans can expect with this new DLC:

  • Multiplayer Poker and Liars' Dice GamesOne of the most fan-requested features comes to multiplayer.
  • Multiplayer Horse RacesRide out against your friends and foes online - with mounted combat guns blazing.
  • The Explosive RifleAn devastatingly destructive new weapon with its own new single-player and multiplayer challenges.
  • 7 New Gang HideoutsPosse up and take on the new Hideouts together to level up quickly.
  • 4 New Hunting GroundsNew Hunting Grounds are now visible on the map for all to see, with some of the most action-packed wildlife hunting yet.
  • Stronghold Competitive Multiplayer ModeTeams take turns in attack and defense in multi-tiered Competitive games.
  • Posse Scoring and LeaderboardsCompare stats with other posses and compete to see who are the kings of the Free Roam frontier.
  • 15 additional multiplayer characters from the Red Dead Redemption storyline are being made available as multiplayer characters, and more all-new Achievements and Trophies.

Back in July, when Rockstar announced these DLC packs, there were a total of four packs set for release. However, the previously announced Free-Roam Pack has been combined with this Liars and Cheats pack due to platform restrictions:

"The Free Roam Pack was originally planned as a free download, but due to the platform networks’ restrictions on numbers of free packs we can give away, we have instead added it to The Liars & Cheats Pack as one Free Roam release.."

While this sounds like an interesting addition to an already great game, I am concerned about being charged money for content the game developer intended to be free because of what sounds like Microsoft's policies. This appears to be a similar situation to the Metro 2033 DLC released a few weeks ago. Content that these game publishers want to be free end up costing money due to Microsoft's desire to charge for every piece of add-on content. While it is possible that is not the case in this situation, but looking at past stories dealing with this issue it is likely to be what is happening here.

So Ranters, anyone looking forward to this add-on pack? Is the Red Dead Redemption online community still going strong?

The Red Dead Redemption Liars and Cheats DLC will be available on September 21st on the PS3 ($9.99) and Xbox 360 (800 Microsoft Points).