On February 14th, whilst human beings around the world are showing their affection for one another, BioWare will be showing their affection for fans by gracing them with a Mass Effect 3 demo. But, with this being a demo of all facets of the Mass Effect 3 experience (including multiplayer) there was the concern some would be left out.

Thankfully, perhaps keeping in the spirit of the Holiday, Microsoft has brought word to BioWare that they will be offering any who download the ME3 demo a special Xbox Live Gold membership "trial" so that they can participate in the multiplayer.

According to what Microsoft sent BioWare, this special access will be provided for the time leading up to the launch of Mass Effect 3. They also go on to tout some of Xbox Live Gold's other fancy features, like Netflix, which confuses the question of how much access Microsoft is providing, but it seems like it should only be for the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer.

There are also those who are wondering about the one-week exclusivity that Xbox Live Gold members were promised and how that will be affected by this announcement. For that, we have no straight answer, but expect more details to be made available soon.

Details regarding the content of the demo have been fairly slim as well, aside from mention of multiplayer, and the hope that the Kinect functionality will be on display for the single player portion. No word, however, on whether or not the rumored play options that leaked online last year will be featured.

Either way it's been good news all around for Mass Effect fans as of late — not so good news for the writers of the recent tie-in novel however — with the game getting closer by the minute, and now this kind gesture from Microsoft. As was said before, February 14th is the day -- best mark it on your calendar.

Are you dying to get your hands on Mass Effect 3 to see how the series has evolved? What are you most looking forward to trying out: the single player, multiplayer, or Kinect functionality?

Mass Effect 3 releases March 6, 2012 for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Source: BioWare Forums