Mass Effect 3 Demo Footage

If your main reason for wanting to download the Mass Effect 3 demo is to check out how shiny the game's pixels look in action, then you don't need to eat up 2 GB of space on your hard drive or spend 3 (more) hours on Facebook trying to nab an early access code. We've got 50 minutes worth of footage showcasing the first two missions from Bioware's sci-fi epic that you can check out today.

By now, it's no spoiler that Earth is the new feeding table for the Reaper fleet, and Mass Effect 3 opens with Commander Shepard himself squarely on the center platter, racing to the Normandy for a quick escape. After choosing a difficulty setting between Action, RPG, or Story, and creating either a custom male or female character, the demo will open up to this first mission and the invasion will commence.

The second mission of the demo follows up with Shepard off recruiting for the war effort on an alien home world, and both should last no more than two hours combined -- not too shabby for a demo, though. Xbox 360 owners might also enjoy hearing that Kinect is fully supported, and as was announced earlier, players can unlock items for Kingdoms of Amalur upon completion. Since our Jeff Schille awarded the fantasy RPG with 4 stars out of 5, it's highly worth a look.

Without further ado, here's footage of the Mass Effect 3 demo, courtesy of YouTube user Ninjadancer. If you want to grab some popcorn, we'll wait.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah6OAaekaWw&feature=player_embedded#!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCXHzbEDK5E&feature=player_embedded#!

Of course, one of the major concerns longtime Mass Effect fans have uttered leading up to the finale has been "How hot is Tali under the mask?" multiplayer. Mass Effect 3's demo contains 2 levels of the game's co-op multiplayer -- Slum and Noveria. Those who have to haven't unlocked early access to the demo will will have to wait until February 17 to get their hands on it, but the recent multiplayer trailer should alleviate any temporary fears.

With Bioware's Casey Hudson announcing that Mass Effect 3 has "gone gold," it's safe to assume that almost everything developed for the demo is pretty close to the final product. Game Rant readers will know where we stand; we got our hands on it at E3 2011 and Comic-Con and that was enough to catapult the game to #1 on our list of the most anticipated titles for 2012 (the second year in a row!). The demo certainly isn't putting a damper on that fire anytime soon.

Mass Effect 3 releases on March 6, 2012, for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. The demo will be available on February 14.

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Source: Ninjadancer [via VG 24/7]