Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad has had a rocky history so far, to put it gently. It launched to great reviews but a lot of community frustration, as the game was well undercooked. There were plenty of bugs, glitches and crashes. It was literally unplayable for a whole lot of people. Over time, the community sank to disturbingly low numbers, most likely due to a lack of support and new content - though Tripwire tried their best to eliminate the worst issues. Not to mention the fact that the high focus on realism places the game in a very small niche to begin with.

Tripwire are hoping to change that now, with a new update giving players four large new maps to play around with. These are four of the best maps submitted to Tripwire's long-running Steam Workshop community map contest that concluded back in February. These maps have been available on Steam Workshop for some time, but after the announcement of the winners, Tripwire have been working with the modders to brush up the maps and implement them into the official map list for the game as a heartfelt "thank you" from Tripwire. And of course, there was plenty of money in it as well.

Three of the maps offered in this update, are remakes of tried and true maps from the original Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45. One no-brainer is Stalingrad Kessel, the popular RO1 map showing off the urban ruins of Stalingrad during a cold winter assault. Arad 2 is a remake of Arad - arguably the most popular tank-map from Red Orchestra. And finally there's Rakowice, where Russians charge an airfield infested with Germans.

The only original map offered in this particular update, is Winterwald. This was the winner of the grand prize of the event, and after having played the map for a bit myself, I must say I agree with the decision. Here you have Germans rushing up a snowy, forest-clad hill swarming with angry Russians and their awfully accurate artillery barrages. A tough battle for the Germans, but one that is still surprisingly well balanced when both teams work together. I sure hope map creator Danh Truong enjoys his $5.000 reward, along with the hefty Origin gaming laptop he got. He deserves it.

As if that wasn't enough, more gameplay footage for the upcoming stand-alone expansion Rising Storm - set in the Pacific theatre of World War 2 - is cropping up everywhere since GDC. If this interests you, be sure to check out PC Gamer's video interview with Tripwire, which shows off more than 25 minutes of gameplay.

Now, if all this stuff doesn't excite you and makes you want you to re-install Red Orchestra 2 right away, then I don't know what will! And in case you're one of those people who never bothered to get Red Orchestra 2 in the first place, you should know that the game is absolutely 100% free for your enjoyment this weekend! If you do find the game to your liking during this weekend, you should be happy to know that both Red Orchestra games - along with Tripwire's Cooperative zombie shooter Killing Floor - are the subject of this week's Humble Bundle. Paying a single dollar will get you both the RO games!

So what are you still lingering for? Seriously, can you even give me a single legitimate reason? No? Well get your boots on! I can hear Stalin's Katyusha rockets zeroing in on us as we speak! Get out there and win the war, soldier! That's an order!