RAAM casts his shadow on XBL in time for the holidays

Depending on your 'zone', the hotly anticipated expansion to Gears of War 3's single player campaign will be ready for downlading in time for the Holidays.

The pack, titled 'RAAM's Shadow', is actually a prequel to the entire Gears saga. Taking place before Emergence Day, the day when the Locust horde launched their global assault on the humans of Sera, RAAM's Shadow will feature both new and old characters alike. Presumably, Locust General RAAM will be a pretty prominant threat- you know, since his name is in the title and all.

And even though this is a single player affair, it wouldn't be Gears if Epic didn't throw in at least a wee bit of the multi-fun. And to that end, the Shadow pack (wasn't that a super hero team?) will also include a whopping six new characters for online play and a set of chocolate weapons. Yes, I said chocolate weapons.

RAAM's Shadow launches December 13th in the US and will cost you 1200mspts. Oh, and you'll also add on another possible 250 gamerscore to the base Gears 3 game by picking this up- but that doesn't interest you at all... does it?