And the Mass Effect 3 cross-promotional train continues. After special in-game items were unveiled for players who went through the Kingdoms of Amalur demo and picked up rather expensive collector toys, Electronic Arts is now announcing a new DLC promotion that ships alongside the game's art book.

Dark Horse Comics' The Art of the Mass Effect Universe book, though not connected with DLC directly, will net gamers a special multiplayer rifle if they pre-order the book from Barnes and Noble. This "collector's rifle" is the only official item Barnes and Noble is citing as a pre-order bonus for the book, but their blurb does promise more Mass Effect 3 content.

At $27 though, and with a ton of special in-game items already being tossed around, this collector's book is for only the most die-hard of Mass Effect fans. But if you've stuck around with the series this long, and are poised to take on the Reapers for Shepard's final battle, the price tag might not be too discouraging.

The real question will remain how many more DLC codes/items Electronic Arts will be placing around town before gamers finally have had enough. It seems like every little thing that is in some way connected to Mass Effect, even games that are only published by EA, carry some sort of bonus for BioWare's sci-fi epic. At a certain point DLC gets spread so thin that gamers give up lest they worry about being ill equipped.

Art of Mass Effect Universe Book

However if you've yet to make a decision know that the art book releases on the 20th of February, two weeks before Mass Effect 3 releases on all platforms, which is also the cut off date for netting yourself any of the downloadable items. And then, on March 6th, the code for the special pre-order items will be mailed to the recipient.

Are you interested in picking up this art book just for the promise of downloadable items? How do you feel about this overabundance of cross-promotional DLC?

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

Source: Barnes and Noble (via Shacknews)