31st January 2010 - So incase you missed it, in the wee hours of Monday evening, on the eve of Australia’s biggest national holiday, IGN were reporting on: this.
It would seem basically, that all the pre-order goodies for Mass Effect 2 were available… for free. Now depending when IGN posted this, it didn’t take long for Microsoft to realize their foible and retract all content but, for a very limited time, lucky punters could download the following pre-order bonuses, meant only, for people who pre-ordered:
Collectors' Weapon and Armor
Terminus Weapon and Armor
Inferno Armor
Sentry Interface
Umbra Visor
M-29 Incisor Sniper Rifle
Blood Dragon Armor
Recon Hood
Normandy Crash Site *
The news dropped for us here at about 11.30 pm and by midnight only the first item was still able to be added to a queue for download. That said unless you downloaded it immediately, anything still in your queue is no longer accessible.
Smart money was on the availability of official freebies like the ones above for about a week to co-inside with the release of the game. IGN simply, jumped the gun.
True to form Mass Effect 2 got off to a cracking start with a highly integrated menu system for downloading content. Similar to Dragon Age the online store has been dubbed “ The Cerberus network” and streams live ‘blogs’ of new and future content but each with it’s own story. Launch night came a slew of free DLC which is still very unusual even for EA and Bioware. The Blood Dragon Armor was free as well as the Collectors Weapon and Armor and the Normandy Crash Site.
* It was speculated that the Normandy Crash Site was free when you signed up to the EA online store, however the freebies that came with the game were actually another set of weapon and amor combo (‘Termius’ set). The Crash Site is free online.
Some if not all of the other content will be available in the next few days, so strap in punters and enjoy it while it lasts.
Mass Effect 2 is an epic Space Opera spanning 2 disks exclusive to the XBOX 360 and All Age Gaming will bring you the definitive Mass Effect 2 review soon!
Story By Ian Crane