Remember when Epic promised free content for their smash hit Gears of War? Well, they weren’t kidding. With both an update and new downloadable content heading our way this week we’re thrilled to announce that it’ll all be available for free.

Sponsored by the Discovery Channel, the downloadable content will consist of two brand new multiplayer maps available for free from Xbox Live Marketplace on Wednesday January 10th. Here are the descriptions and pictures of the new maps:

Raven Down: A Raven Helicopter has gone down in the middle of a large scale battle with the omnipresent Locust Horde. Gears have taken out the Seeder and gamers join Delta Forces moving into the crash site from all angles to search for survivors.

Old Bones: In an attempt to eradicate any traces of human history and culture, the Locust Horde has emerged under Sera’s Capitaline Museums and has begun to destroy them brick by brick. Each gamer’s mission is to help the Delta Force recapture the museums before all remnants of humankind’s existence are obliterated.

To coincide with this new content, an introductory video hosted by CliffyB will also be available for download via Xbox Live Marketplace.

Having almost exhausted the current Gears of War maps, we’re delighted to see the arrival of new content. However, as with many other fans of the game, we’re also eager to hear about any upcoming patches to resolve some of Gears’ much talked about bugs. Fortunately for us all, Mark Rein, vice president of Epic was on hand over at the official Gears of War forums to announce that “The Gears update will go out over Xbox Live before the downloadable content is available“. Though we don’t yet know what the update itself will bring, we’ll be sure to let you know as soon as we have more details.

Last but not least, if all this Gears news isn’t enough to whet your appetite this week, the Discovery Channel, sponsors of the new Gears of War downloadable content, will be giving away two million Microsoft Points for use on Xbox Live Marketplace. Gamers can visit www.readyaimfire.com on January 13th and 14th to learn more about how they can qualify to win. Please be advised that the readyaimfire site will only be live on the two dates mentioned.

Thanks to Kayser Sose and Ape Bape Stas for submitting!