Gears 5's latest (and last) seasonal update is right around the corner, and when it arrives, it will add custom game support for previously time-limited Horde mode event gametypes.

　　Come the release of Operation 8 on August 3, players will be able to play the following Horde event modes via custom games:

　　Boss Rush – Survive 10 waves against bosses only.Escape from Kadar – Survive 10 waves against Niles’ creations.Horde Mania – Survive 25 waves with a short build period.Horde Roulette – Survive 10 waves of random enemy combinations.Jingle Juvies – Survive 20 waves of joyous Jingle Juvies.Mad Man’s Monsters – Survive 20 waves against the Mad Man’s Monsters.Nexus Siege – Survive 10 waves of Locust with no Fabricator.Predator Hunt – Survive 10 waves and battle the Wakaatu with no Fabricator.Operation 8 will add two "prototype" weapons that never made it into the final version of the game for use in custom games as well. The two "new" weapons take inspiration from Gears of War: Judgment, with one weapon mimicking the Breechshot and another inspired by the Stim-Gas Grenade, which can be used to revive "down but not out" players.

　　A new map, Ritual, inspired by the Gears 5 Hivebusters DLC, will be added at launch, as will two new characters: the Mataki sharpshooter Bernadette Mataki and one of the first Locust to serve Queen Myrrah, Ketor Vrol. Additional new map and characters will release for the operation at a later date.

　　An additional game type, Capture the Flag, is also being added to the game's competitive playlist. The game will be adding new achievements and increasing the game's "re-up" system from 50 to 60 as well. A triple XP event celebrating Operation 8 will be live from August 6 to August 9. Operation 8 will be the last content drop for Gears 5.

　　Gears 5's previous operation enabled forced cross-play between Xbox and PC players, in an effort to reduce matchmaking times on both platforms. Operation 8 will remove the PC icon for players in public lobbies playing on that platform. Developer The Coalition has previously stated that it believes the play experience to now be virtually the same across PC and consoles thanks to the addition of reduced input lag and mouse-and-keyboard support on Xbox Series X|S.

　　The Coalition recently showed off an impressive new Unreal Engine 5 tech demo at GDC, highlighting what will possible on the latest version of Epic's game engine.