Bioware has announced the date for Mass Effect 2 today! Which means you now know how much time you have to play through Mass Effect or replay it for you advanced gamer types.

Mass Effect 2 will be out on January 26 in North America and January 29 in Europe. They have also announced what the pre-order items will be.

“Our fans are in for a genuine thrill in the New Year with Mass Effect 2 – the second installment in the trilogy will be of amazingly high quality,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder, BioWare and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group of EA. “BioWare’s fans worldwide have been eagerly awaiting this epic sequel, and we couldn’t be more excited to reward them for pre-ordering by delivering some awesome bonus content!”

In North America the pre-order bonuses will include armor and weaponry that are designed to boost Commander Shepard’s skills and abilities. At GameStop the Terminus Gear is available with pre-orders and that includes the following:

• 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.

Players that pre-order at other retail outlets will get potent Inferno Armor which is used by officers to monitor battlefield conditions and recognizes elevated heart rates. This increases Commander Shepard’s run speed and augmented damage from combat powers.