Just before Thanksgiving of last year, Capcom announced that gamers who pre-ordered Lost Planet 2 from GameStop would receive as a bonus a playble skin of Resident Evil 5 badguy Albert Wesker and his badass Magnum Revolver. However, a press release sent out tonight claims that the demand from players for that content was so great the decision was made to unlock the items for everyone who buys the game. Rather than leave GameStop customers twisting in the wind, the company has instead decided to unlock two multiplayer maps as pre-order bounses. These maps are:

Helix
The underwater NEVEC mining facility houses several layers and twisted corridors.  Swim between the layers, or dive to the bottom to change your point of attack.  Aqua Catapults can launch you to the upper levels in a hurry, and you must learn every corner and get the upper hand on your enemies.  

Back to the Island
The shady atoll of Island 902 is broken into wide open spaces and compact interiors.  Choose your battlefield from the beaches to the battered carrier, or explore a new dimension in the underwater battle.  Control the bridge to dominate the map, but beware attacks from all sides.

The press release went on to confirm that, as many people have speculated, Lost Planet 2 will feature two-player localized splitscreen gameplay. If you're worried that an announcement of this game mode at this late date might mean that Capcom didn't give it much attention, you can take some solace in the fact that the team developing the splitscreen gameplay is the same team responsible for the same mode in RE5. And as anyone who has played that game mode can tell you, RE5 did splitscreen co-op about as well as any game ever has. All in all, it looks like Capcom is pulling out, if not all the stops, certainly a goodly number of them, to build anticpation for Lost Planet 2. Time will tell if the sales will make it all worth while.