By Quintin Smith on March 18th, 2011 at 2:30 pm.
Hungry-hungry news hippos VG24/7 have posted the date for the climactic last piece of Mass Effect 2 downloadable content, which will supposedly pave the way for Mass Effect 3. In case you missed it in the headline up there, beaming out at you like some kind of… big… date, it’s March 29th. You want details? I’ve got details.
Entitled “Arrival”, the new adventure will see Shepherd sent to the “border of the galaxy” “to rescue a female undercover agent that might have evidence for an upcoming Reaper invasion”. And a Reaper invasion is, as VG24/7 note, the exact thing that seems to be going on in the teaser trailer for Mass Effect 3. Very tidy of you, Bioware. VG24/7 also bring world from series producer Casey Hudson:
“All year, we have been extremely honored and humbled by the reception we have received for Mass Effect 2 from players around the world, including our post release DLC.”
“Mass Effect: Arrival is an exciting extension to Mass Effect 2 and will show players just how close the Reapers are to returning and completing their deadly harvest.”
Lovely. Arrival will cost 560 BioWare Points, or £4.33, which is precisely the amount of money you’d save if you had tap water instead of milk for your cereal from now until the DLC is released. Man! I should write for Lifehacker.
18/03/2011 at 14:34 Jetsetlemming says:
I wonder if this DLC will bring back Kaidan/Ashley? I should hope so. Waiting for ME3 to get that sweet soap opera drama when they realized I slept around with my awesome quasi-space pirate crew is just too much.
18/03/2011 at 15:24 silver1881 says:
I would be so excited if this were true. We already got Liara back. It’s time to put the rest of the band back together!
18/03/2011 at 17:44 darthmajor says:
Oh i hope it does, i’m still angry at Ashley for the way she recieved me in ME2. I want to punch her in the face, if the DLC has that, i’m totally installing ME2 again for it.
18/03/2011 at 17:53 phuzz says:
Oh please not those two :(
I’d have left them both behind in ME1 if I’d had my way…
Thinking about it, the only human companion I did like was Jack. Most of the non-humans though were great, Garrus! Wrex! Liara!
18/03/2011 at 20:32 Bret says:
Wait.
You like Jack and ME1 Liara, but not Zaeed?
What’s wrong with you?
18/03/2011 at 14:34 Mr_Initials says:
Dang it I like milk on my ceral. Oh well we all have to make sacrifices. Like shepard
18/03/2011 at 16:49 westyfield says:
Never! I shall have my milk, and the universe will burn!
18/03/2011 at 19:02 Hoaxfish says:
I never get up early enough for breakfast
18/03/2011 at 19:12 CrazyBaldhead says:
ditto Hoaxfish.
18/03/2011 at 14:38 Vinraith says:
Any word on whether we’ll see a “complete edition” release for ME2 or, better yet, a DLC compilation disc? Wishful thinking, I guess.
18/03/2011 at 15:19 bwion says:
I’m holding out for the super-duper-ultra-complete galaxy-spanning edition consisting of all 3 games and all DLC for same.
(I’m not sure whether I’m kidding or not.)
I’d be pretty surprised if there weren’t a Complete Edition of Mass Effect 2 sooner or later (my guess is that it would drop about a month before Mass Effect 3′s release), though I haven’t actually seen anything announced or advertised.
18/03/2011 at 16:05 Ringwraith says:
Seeing they released an ultimate edition of Dragon Age Origins it’s not out of the question.
I’ve been putting off buying the DLC for this reason, that and I don’t want to end up with left-over Bioware points in silly amounts which I can’t use.
I do hate point systems with only discrete (and rather irregular) purchasing amounts.
18/03/2011 at 16:29 James G says:
I thought the Bioware points system let you buy in chunks corresponding to the exact value of the DLC? I haven’t used it recently (although intend to play at least Shadowbroker and Arrival, possibly Kasumi) so it may have changed, but worth checking out.
Already got ME2, so not too fussed about a GoTY edition, but some way of getting all the DLC in a reasonably priced bundle wouldn’t go amiss. That said, a good chunk of it doesn’t interest me at all.
18/03/2011 at 16:37 Urael says:
I haven’t got around to Mass Effect 2 yet so may as well wait for the Ultra-Goaty edition. There’s bound to be one along at some point.
18/03/2011 at 19:14 CrazyBaldhead says:
“Seeing they released an ultimate edition of Dragon Age Origins it’s not out of the question.”
Don’t be so sure. The first Mass Effect was never released bundled with the two DLCs.
18/03/2011 at 21:52 Bret says:
True, but one DLC came free with the PC release, and the other one was rubbish.
18/03/2011 at 23:50 amishmonster says:
I haven’t picked up any of the DLC yet, since I’ve been hoping for a (discounted) all-DLC pack as well. Hopefully that’s in the works.
19/03/2011 at 05:06 malkav11 says:
Besides, two DLCs is hardly worth a rerelease edition, unless they were expansion-level DLCs, and they’re not. 98 DLCs, or however ridiculously many ME2 has by now, on the other hand, very well might be.
That said, Dragon Age had an expansion, and I assume bundling that was the primary purpose of the Ultimate Edition. ME2 doesn’t. So we’ll see. I won’t be playing any of the ME2 DLC other than the stuff that came with my preorder of the game unless they do. (And even then, it will be in the distant future when the Ultimate Edition reaches a price that’s worth it just for the DLC content, which DA:O has yet to manage.)
19/03/2011 at 09:19 yurusei says:
Hopefully when ME3 is released, Bioware would have a bundle sale for ME2.
On. Steam. *mouth foams*
18/03/2011 at 14:40 Alphabet says:
I wish I had the patience to wait for all the DLC to be released before buying a game. That, or the smarts to realise that it’s all (almost all) rubbish, and that it’s therefore ok that I have long deleted ME2 from my had drive and lost my saves. I like games that end! DLC generally feels a bit pointless. But gamers are completists. I don’t know. It’s all too confusing.
18/03/2011 at 14:47 pirusu says:
That’s kind of the nice part about buying it as you go, because you can keep the crap out. Overlord was decent, Lair of the Shadow Broker was excellent. It’s already been stated that Mass Effect (the games featuring Shepard) are going to end at the third game. I don’t mind story-based content bridging the gap between games. And I don’t HAVE to buy things like the silly appearance packs.
18/03/2011 at 14:42 Allandaros says:
The VG24/7 article notes that Admiral Hackett will be playing a major role, so I’m presuming that the fellow above is our favorite gravelly-voiced hitherto unseen admiral.
19/03/2011 at 15:44 Demonbooker says:
That was my suspicion as well… Though now that I think of it, He kind of reminds me of Arl Howe from DA:O in appearance.
18/03/2011 at 14:56 Makariel says:
Since I love Mass Effect 2 to an unhealthy extent, I’m afraid I have to eat my cereals with water this month.
Damn you Shepard!
Hope it’s more like the Lair of the Shadow Broker and less like all the crappy DLC they released.
18/03/2011 at 15:06 SanguineAngel says:
I have a question:
Can all the DLC be played activated and played after the game has been completed? Because my save is the one and true story of Shepherd! But I am thinking bout acquiring the story based DLC before ME3 drops out of hyperspace
18/03/2011 at 15:15 bwion says:
I know that Lair of the Shadow Broker can be played post-endgame, and I’m pretty sure Overlord can too. I’m less sure about Kasumi and Zaeed, but it would stand to reason that they’d be available too (though your grounds for recruiting them might be a little shaky).
18/03/2011 at 15:19 obie191970 says:
Yeah, it’s no problem. It’s not like ME1 where the end game save was the end all, be all.
18/03/2011 at 19:42 SanguineAngel says:
That is awesome news, cheers
18/03/2011 at 22:22 Commisar says:
all of the DLC can be played post Endgame, and in lair of the Shadow Broker, it is recommended that you do so.
18/03/2011 at 15:24 Imperialles says:
“Shepherd”. Are you even trying?
18/03/2011 at 16:15 Jimbo says:
Wrecks?
18/03/2011 at 17:03 BeamSplashX says:
I was happy to see that Mass Effect had a character named after my cool 90s slang term for going to the arcade, Cadin’.
18/03/2011 at 15:36 bleeters says:
I’m curious as to what evidence you could possibly turn up that’s more compelling than the billion-year-old wreckage of a reaper you blew up in Mass Effect 2.
18/03/2011 at 16:00 Heliocentric says:
what about a live reaper who while still of incredible power doesn’t seek to wipe out organics, but rather something like seek out energy based life forms, as a tangent of the same mission.
Sounds good, slap an rrp on it and call it dlc.
18/03/2011 at 15:36 KillahMate says:
All I’m hearing is “Mass Effect 2 Game of the Year Edition coming soon!!!”
18/03/2011 at 17:35 Ricc says:
Sounds good. Can we finally do this please? I have been waiting for months! :P
18/03/2011 at 17:44 Persus-9 says:
Me too! I wake up every night in a cold sweat after nightmares where I saw spoilers. Okay not really but you get the idea, I’m pretty excited to play this game.
18/03/2011 at 15:40 Joshua says:
Staring Eyes?
18/03/2011 at 15:56 Heliocentric says:
So, I’m just tucking into Mass Effect (1, if you need a number) and finding it lovely, nearly played it with no other gaming interruptions except spacechem (Which actually sits nicely themeatically). I’m nearly done with my first play through as a pure paragon nancy pants soldier, my next play will be something more flavoursome with a class less dependant on guns, this will be the bald space marine i’ll take through the trillogy.
18/03/2011 at 16:11 kyrieee says:
I see what you did to that image Quinns
18/03/2011 at 16:52 Chucrute says:
Reaper invasion? That’s what you heard about a couple of hours into the first game. Don’t get me wrong, both games were excellent, but i wish they developed the major story arc a little further, instead of delivering the same thing over and over again.
18/03/2011 at 17:27 propjoe says:
When the words “completing their deadly harvest” appear in a press release, you know it’s going to be awesome.
18/03/2011 at 17:57 kibayasu says:
Call me crazy, but when BioWare said they were going to connect the story of ME2 and 3, I was hoping for more than two pieces of DLC. Ah well, hopefully more Shadow Broker, and less Overlord (which was fine if you wanted 2-ish hours of combat, but that’s about it).
19/03/2011 at 01:02 matrices says:
Better this than the episodes that connected HL2 and…sob…can’t continue anymore.
19/03/2011 at 18:04 Corporate Dog says:
There are also comic books, if you’re into that sort of thing.
‘Mass Effect: Redemption’ served as a sort of background story to the ‘Lair of the Shadow Broker’ DLC, telling how Liara initially hooked up with Feron.
And I’m currently midway through ‘Mass Effect: Evolution’ which seems to be the Illusive Man’s origin story, and takes place near the end of the First Contact War.
18/03/2011 at 18:09 Gap Gen says:
Yeah, the border guards at the galactic border, which totally exists as opposed to being an exponential drop-off, are real pigs.
18/03/2011 at 18:58 Pijama says:
After playing Retribution, the Alliance Navy better have a space Cochrane as it’s admiral.
OR EVEN BETTER
(prepare for it)
MOTHERFUCKIN’ SPACE NELSON
Shepard, get lost.
18/03/2011 at 21:47 Bret says:
It has Admiral Hackett, son.
Voiced by the gravelly tones of Lance Henriksen hisself.
If that isn’t enough for you, well, you’re insane.
18/03/2011 at 19:16 CrazyBaldhead says:
All I have to say is: Antialiasing support, please.
18/03/2011 at 20:04 kyrieee says:
Use Nvidia
18/03/2011 at 19:20 _Jackalope_ says:
Yay, glad it’s so soon. I’ve been holding back on finishing off Mass Effect 2 after finally getting ME1 to make a coherrent character plotline, but I didn’t want to have to wait until just before ME3 comes out.
18/03/2011 at 19:30 drewski says:
Anyone care to have a guess at when the Complete edition will be available?
18/03/2011 at 21:34 Iskariot says:
I’am waiting for the complete goty edition. Bioware is breaking the gaming experience and immersion by breaking up the game into little pieces and selling them separately. A game like this should be played in one immersive go, with everything in it, instead of having to play it piece by broken up piece.
18/03/2011 at 21:46 jaheira says:
Shrug. ME2 is an amazing game without the DLC. You don’t have to play it piece by piece – just buy the base game and enjoy it. Personally, I’m happy they’re making more of it, whether or not it comes in small chunks.
19/03/2011 at 00:00 TariqOne says:
I, too, am a big grumpy-gus. So I, too, despise when companies make a giant-ass awesome space game I play for 75 hours and then turn around and make a little more later and sell it to me for a few measly bucks.
Goddamned Wall Street fatcats. Always soaking the little guy.
19/03/2011 at 01:04 matrices says:
Do people even engage the neurons in their brains or do they just run to 4chan and regurgitate the latest available trope/meme/catchphrase?
Pro-tip: ME2 was a complete game. Then they did something awesome called “making more content” so that you NOW HAD MORE AWESOME.
There was nothing incomplete about it, unlike shit such as Mafia 2.
19/03/2011 at 01:07 Nick says:
“regurgitate the latest available trope/meme/catchphrase?”
“Pro-tip: ”
*cough*
19/03/2011 at 01:30 matrices says:
The response I’d hoped for was “I see what you did there.”
But I guess my tongue-in-cheek factor failed.
19/03/2011 at 01:12 TsunamiWombat says:
For the quadrillionth time, DLC is not content cut from the release, it is content devised too late to make it into the initial release when deadlines cut off you adding new shit to the game. It’s called Discipline. Game Developers need to have it. Otherwise you get feature creep and wind up doing too much. While it is lame to devise a plan and stick with it and not add in all the awesome stuff you think of in the process, this is ultimatly better for the games polish. DLC, in addition to being a way to countinue revenue stream, is a way for developers to add the product that was not part of the original plan into the game.
20/03/2011 at 05:43 reticulate says:
Thank you.
Sure, there’s the stupid stuff like Horse Armour. But the quality of DLC has increased exponentially over that rubbish in recent years.
I point to Fallout 3, New Vegas, GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption as further evidence of this.
20/03/2011 at 06:13 JKflipflop says:
Orly?
Then please explain Bioshock 2′s DLCs being on the disc.
21/03/2011 at 14:33 by.a.teammate says:
The lifehacker jibe has filled me full of sunshine. thank you.
21/03/2011 at 22:05 DaFishes says:
I’m hoping this isn’t another DLC in which your squaddies are completely silent. But it probably will be. Ugh.