‘Mass Effect 3′ demo lets anyone play multiplayer — Gold account or not

In case you haven’t heard, Mass Effect 3 has multiplayer. You can even watch a little bit of how that’s going to work out here. Oh, and there’s going to be a  demo for the game hitting on Valentine’s Day, for the ultimate battle of person love versus game love. (Let us know who wins.)

Now, if you’re giving the game a try on Xbox 360, there’s one tiny, little niggling detail that might keep you from ultimate enjoyment — you’ve got to have a Gold account to truly enjoy the multiplayer part of that demo.

Fortunately, Microsoft’s helping you out a little bit on that front! As posted in their forums yesterday, Microsoft has decided, “[i]n celebration of Mass Effect 3,” to allow everyone to have access to the multiplayer part of the game for the duration of the demo.

According to the post, it does look as though this includes full access to Gold — but only for a very limited time. Just enough to get you hooked, perhaps. Just remember, the first hit is free, and then it takes over your life.