Mass Effect 2 release date set for January

EA has confirmed that upcoming epic action RPG sequel, Mass Effect 2, will be released in January of 2010. The game will be released on the 26th of January in North America and on the 29th, three days later, in Europe. So you can expect a South African release somewhere around there. Furthermore, the pre-order bonuses were detailed, that will enable you to unlock bonus equipment by using the provided download code, although these bonuses are for GameStop and some other retail outlets. I can’t exactly confirm if pre-ordering it from one of South Africa’s stores will get you these pre-order bonuses, but time will clear that up. Anyway, by pre-ordering it you will receive a bonus armor called the Inferno Armor, which increases the user’s negotiation skills, movement speed and combat damage. Pre-ordering from GameStop will not only get you a bonus armor, the Terminus Assault Armour, which increases your movement speed, damage, shields and adds an additional magazine of reserve ammo, but it will also you get you an extra weapon, that being the M-490 Blackstorm Heavy Weapon, which creates some sort of gravity well.

Here are just a few words from Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO EA group: “Our fans are in for a genuine thrill in the New Year with Mass Effect 2 – the second installment in the trilogy will be of amazingly high quality. BioWare’s fans worldwide have been eagerly awaiting this epic sequel, and we couldn’t be more excited to reward them for pre-ordering by delivering some awesome bonus content!” Sounds good to me. Anyway, below are two screenshots of the Inferno Amour and Terminus armour (in that order). I’m liking both (the second one a bit more) a hell of a lot!

On a final note, that has nothing to do with the above, the rumour of Mass Effect 2 arriving on PS3 has seemingly been revived. Speaking at a gaming event this week, Jay Watamaniuk from BioWare mentioned that the PlayStation 3 was a “probable” target audience for Mass Effect 2 (during the presentation, Watamaniuk mentioned three platforms that Mass Effect 2 is targeted at. They were Xbox360, PC and “probably PS3″). But then later it was reported that Jay Watamaniuk was backing away from his statement. Confusion much? Furthermore, it is known that Mass Effect 2 is currently listed as a PC and Xbox360 game, but numerous sites listed it for the PS3 as well, which led EA to announce that this was a mistake and the game was still for Xbox360 and PC only.

Quite frankly, I’m getting tired of these rumours. If EA want to release the game for the PlayStation 3 they should just say so. Since the game is coming out in January, which is just under three months away, I very much doubt that it will see a PS3 release. If it does, however, it probably won’t be until a long time after the Xbox360 and PC releases. Mass Effect 2 is scheduled for release on the Xbox360 and PC on the 26th-29th of January 2010. I’m most definitely looking forward to that, come on BioWare, bring it!
—————————————————————————
- Azhar “Tody” Amien (click to email me if you have any questions)