When people think of February, specifically the 14th, one thought usually comes to mind: Valentine’s Day. Images of flowers, chocolates, cards, and romanticism fill the head, for better or for worse. This year though, Bioware is adding some new thoughts to people’s heads: gunning down hostiles, mass invasion of Earth, and blue-skinned alien boobs.
Bioware’s popular space RPG/FPS hybrid has the third installment coming out on March 6th, but if you’re either too impatient to wait until then or aren’t sure if you want to get in on the adventures of Commander Shepard and his spunky bunch of companions from across the galaxy, then you’ll be delighted to see the demo of Mass Effect 3 appear on Valentine’s Day. The demo shows off both single-player and multi-player gameplay, although if you didn’t get Battlefield 3 you’ll be having to wait until the 17th to dive into the multi-player portion, allowing players to get a taste of both types of play before the game is available on shelves. You’ll also gain access to additional content if you played the Kingdoms of Alamur demo that debuted a few days ago.
In a time when video games are being bought more on a trust basis than if you tried a demo and enjoyed it, it’s nice to see EA and Bioware bringing in a demo to both reassure gamers that their money will be well spent and whet their appetite for more Mass Effect goodness. I’m sure it will also help after the massive backlash that happened when multi-player was first confirmed to be included in the game as well. As for me, you’ll probably find me on my PC playing the demo on V-Day, then immediately running out to Gamestop to throw a wad of cash in their face to pay off the cool Collector’s Edition of the game.
Mass Effect 3 is rated M and will be available on X-Box 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

























