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Mass Effect 2: January 26

That's soon!

"Shepard." 
OK, this is waaaay sooner than I was expecting it, but that's by no means a bad thing. It just means that we'll be playing Mass Effect 2 relatively soonish, because BioWare and EA have announced a January 26 release date for the game on Xbox 360 and PC. That's for North America. Europe will see the game on shelves a few days later, on January 29.

I guess that's it, so... oh hey, they also mention a couple of pre-order incentives. What, you thought 2010 was going to be different? If you slap down your money at GameStop, you'll get download codes for the "Terminus Gear," which includes a weapon and some armor. Here's the company line on those:
  • The Terminus Armor is designed for use in extreme planetary conditions, increasing run speed and personal shields, and augmenting weapons with an additional magazine of reserve ammo.
  • The M-90 Blackstorm Heavy Weapon generates a high-powered localized gravity well, accelerating particles to near-infinite mass,  and ultimately expanding the selection of heavy weapons available to players when they gear up for combat missions in Mass Effect 2.
If you pre-order from some other participating North American retailer, you'll end up with "Inferno Armor," which offers a negotiation bonus, increased run speed, and a damage bonus for your combat powers.

If you don't pre-order, you'll get some kind of plastic "box" that has a disc or disc-like device inside that says "Mass Effect 2" on it. If this Mass Effect 2 thing is as cool as the last one, that'll probably still be a pretty good deal.
Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

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jeff

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Edited By jeff
"Shepard." 
OK, this is waaaay sooner than I was expecting it, but that's by no means a bad thing. It just means that we'll be playing Mass Effect 2 relatively soonish, because BioWare and EA have announced a January 26 release date for the game on Xbox 360 and PC. That's for North America. Europe will see the game on shelves a few days later, on January 29.

I guess that's it, so... oh hey, they also mention a couple of pre-order incentives. What, you thought 2010 was going to be different? If you slap down your money at GameStop, you'll get download codes for the "Terminus Gear," which includes a weapon and some armor. Here's the company line on those:
  • The Terminus Armor is designed for use in extreme planetary conditions, increasing run speed and personal shields, and augmenting weapons with an additional magazine of reserve ammo.
  • The M-90 Blackstorm Heavy Weapon generates a high-powered localized gravity well, accelerating particles to near-infinite mass,  and ultimately expanding the selection of heavy weapons available to players when they gear up for combat missions in Mass Effect 2.
If you pre-order from some other participating North American retailer, you'll end up with "Inferno Armor," which offers a negotiation bonus, increased run speed, and a damage bonus for your combat powers.

If you don't pre-order, you'll get some kind of plastic "box" that has a disc or disc-like device inside that says "Mass Effect 2" on it. If this Mass Effect 2 thing is as cool as the last one, that'll probably still be a pretty good deal.
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natetodamax

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Edited By natetodamax

Hellz yeah.

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Damien

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Edited By Damien

Like this.

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Feser

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Edited By Feser

Too  good to be true. Too good.
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Zaxex

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Edited By Zaxex

Pretty good birthday gift lol.

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benitobb

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Edited By benitobb

man, im gonna have to make sure my save file is good to go from mass effect 1.
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cjmhockey

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Edited By cjmhockey

Awesome... can't wait till January 26th. Loved the first, hopefully this is just as good or even better.

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Death_Burnout

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Edited By Death_Burnout

That's Soon!

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Roboyto

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Edited By Roboyto

well this just made my friggin day....time to schedule a little bit of vacation time around this date
 
and yea, as if i didnt have enough games to playing, now i have to go back and make sure my save file from ME1 is ready to go for this one. has bioware announced if its just story choices that will be carried over? or will like attributes carry over to some degree as well. I cant imagine they would let me start ME2 with a fully souped up Biotic but hey, stranger things have happened

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Hector

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Edited By Hector

Oh Yeah.

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deactivated-5f8ac39b52e76

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I smell asset recycling. Hopefully they didn't just put the old tea-bag into some fresh water and called it a day.

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donchipotle

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Edited By donchipotle

Oh man, my birthday is like three weeks before the game comes out....fuck I'm excited

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KingOfIceland

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Edited By KingOfIceland

HOT DIP! Next years starting off with a bang.

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blair

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Edited By blair

I am oh so happy about this news.
 
I hate pre-order incentives, though.

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FuzzYLemoN

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Edited By FuzzYLemoN

Shepard.
That is all.

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GagnarTheUnruly

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Edited By GagnarTheUnruly

That is awesome.  It'll make the wait for SC II and Diablo III more bearable.

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CL60

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Edited By CL60

Sweet

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CactusWolf

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Edited By CactusWolf

Awesome.

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PJ

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Edited By PJ
@GagnarTheUnruly said:
" That is awesome.  It'll make the wait for SC II and Diablo III more bearable. "
Are you planing on playing Mass Effect 2 for 2 years? or longer?
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guiseppe

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Edited By guiseppe

This is awesome news :D.

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FinalDasa

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Edited By FinalDasa

Now I really need to finish mass effect 1

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Sniipe

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Edited By Sniipe

Two days before my birthday... But I gotta finish ME1 first!  Damn games I'm behind on...

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PsychedelicET

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Edited By PsychedelicET

Yea!  I really want to play this soon, so this is great news.

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Xeiphyer

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Edited By Xeiphyer

Great!! So soon! I was expecting march or april or something terrible!

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warchief

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Edited By warchief

its a real shame your level does not carry over kind of feel like i grinded to the cap for nothing. 

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wolf_blitzer85

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Edited By wolf_blitzer85

Huzzah! Just finished my second play through as a lady Shepard. Totally can't wait for 2 to get here!

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church069

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Edited By church069

What?!...............This is awesome. 
 
Alot sooner than I expected.
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Edited By Damian

I don't want extra-powerful armour off the bat, unless it's from my ME1 save file. This is telling me not to pre-order it.
And I sure hope my disc is more than just disc-like, or I'm gonna be pissed.

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Carlos1408

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Edited By Carlos1408

I can't wait for this I'm so excited! :D

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Edited By TheHBK

They should give incentives for not preordering and instead buying on day one or something.
 
Hope this means that by that time, Biowares other RPG, Dragon Age will have come down in price.  I remember getting Mass Effect and then seeing that thing roll all the way down to 20 bucks only a few months after.

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Edited By mordukai

Dragon Age: Origins and Assassin's Creed 2 dropping on November and now this. Man so many games so little time.  

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Edited By NoXious

EA and BioWare have been siding with GameStop as madmen lately!

What's the use in pre-ordering Dragon Age for the armor in Mass Effect 2 if pre-ordering Mass Effect 2 gives (better?) armor aswell? 

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Edited By skaune

Coolbeans!

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General_D23

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Edited By General_D23

Thank you Bioware! Oh, and you too EA. Mostly Bioware.  
 
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ez123

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Edited By ez123

Armor for a pre-order is fine but increased run speed?  -_- Fucken EA

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Edited By Andheez

I find a lot of times i can get the pre-order bonus material without preordering. I'll just call in and ask them to set it aside for me because I will come in to pick it up and that will work, either that or all they have is the games with the pre-order/exclusive stuff.  Picked up Demons Souls, without any kinda pre-order or anything and got a nice art book and soundtrack cd.....not that I will do anything with either of them, but they were free....

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Edited By ArbitraryWater

Exclusive In-Game content for Pre-Ordering = bad, even if it is just stuff like this.

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Kohe321

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Edited By Kohe321

This is awesome, can't wait!

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wh1terav3n

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Edited By wh1terav3n
@Roboyto: No not totally, but they said that you will get SOMETHING if you're like 50 or 60. Prob depending on achievements.
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Edited By vendetta

I'm going to have trouble waiting even for that long.

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pa21ris

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Edited By pa21ris

Man I will be so broke by the end of January. Too bad video games aren't nutritious.

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deactivated-5f00787182625

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I'll play through ME 1 again before the release of 2, It's such a great game I have high expectations for this one.

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Shabs

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Edited By Shabs

Pre-order bonuses are weak if they include stuff like new weapons.
 
Pre-ordering at GameStop/EB just means standing in a big line the morning of release to maybe get the bonus if the store was sent enough codes.
 
...or I could walk into any other store that sells games and buy the game I want. 
 
 
On the plus side, Mass Effect in January pleases me greatly!

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MeatSim

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Edited By MeatSim

Games used to never come out in January, this is great.

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Death_Unicorn

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Edited By Death_Unicorn

YEEEEEESS!

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Edited By dagas

I was expecting several months later. I guess this is good news. I loved the first Mass Effect. Seems a bit soon though, but I guess 2 years is enough since they use much of the stuff from ME1. Maybe it's because another Bioware game (dragon age) is released soon, but I feel it's a bit early...It's going to be quite a busy time the upcoming months. Bring it on!

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dogmanstaruk

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Edited By dogmanstaruk

I honestly can't wait for this game to drop.  Loved the first one to bits despite the small niggling things.
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CharlesAlanRatliff

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I was expecting March or later. Nice to know it is so soon! I can't wait. Mass Effect is one of my most favorite games.

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Cornman89

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Edited By Cornman89

Dude.
 
I mean...DUDE.

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Edited By AndrooD2

Yay.