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.

It’s like they knew that I really wanted to watch She’s All That again or something. As a side note, this featurette is pretty awesome, and so is Jennifer Hale’s hair. Watch below:

Today, we got a great look at Mass Effect 3‘s multiplayer via a brand-new trailer both highlighting the mode and the races and classes you’ll be able to play.

Not only that, but BioWare’s blog provided a great post, titled “So Your Friend Is a Vanguard,” to accompany the video. It goes over the sorts of steps you’ve got to take when it comes to playing with a friend who is a little more…overzealous when it comes to the multiplayer.

But first, check out the trailer to get your first real peek at what looks like a ton of fun.

Depending on the couple this could be awesome or it could be awkward. BioWare has announced that Mass Effect 3 demo will hit the various consoles on February 14, 2012. The demo will drop players right into the war with the Reapers and you’ll get to try out the co-op mode. Which means it can be shared by couples! Now that makes me happy.

“We are excited to be able to give gamers an expansive demo that will put them right on the front lines of this all-out galactic war,” said Casey Hudson, Executive Producer of the Mass Effect series. “The entire scale of the game is bigger than anything we’ve ever done. With its intense action, deep customization and raw emotional power, Mass Effect 3 will deliver a spectacular action RPG experience to fans of the series and newcomers alike.”

Players will also get to try out the full voice recognition functionality on the Kinect for the 360 demo. Players will only get the co-op demo on February 17 unless you qualify for early access. To qualify, activate your Battlefield 3 online pass or follow MassEffect.com for other ways to qualify.

Nothing says love like BioWare and Mass Effect 3.

Playing the demos for upcoming titles Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Mass Effect 3 will unlock special items as part of a cross-promotion deal surely orchestrated by EA, who is publishing both titles.

The demo for Kingdoms of Amalur, available January 17, unlocks items for use in Mass Effect 3, and vice versa.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to deliver this massive one-two punch with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Mass Effect 3. We wanted to provide fans of the Mass Effect franchise with a unique set of rewards for diving into the expansive universe of Reckoning,” said Curt Schilling, Chairman and Founder of 38 Studios.

Playing the Reckoning demo allows you to unlock two items for Mass Effect 3 inspired by the game: the Reckoner Knight Armor, and The Chakram Launcher weapon, the latter of which is only unlocked after completing the demo and watching the final trailer. The demo itself allows you 45 minutes of play time in a portion of the open world after a brief introduction to the game.

Playing the demo for Reckoning also adds new items to the full version of that game, some of which up your fire and ice resistance.

Playing the upcoming demo for Mass Effect 3 will unlock two items for use in Reckoning: the classic N7 Armor (which might look kind of ridiculous in the Reckoning world, but we’ll see), and holographic Omniblade Daggers.

Does the promise of more in-game items make you more likely to give these demos a shot? Talk about it in the comments.

Everyone who pre-orders the game will receive the M55 Argus Assault Rifle. The rest of the items, however, are retailer-specific and will come in addition to the Argus:

GameStop customers get the N7 Warfare Gear, including the N7 Valkyrie assault rifle.

Ordering from Origin, EA’s proprietary digital distribution service, nets you the AT12 Raider shotgun.

Here’s video of the items in action:

After finishing my second beta weekend, and with the NDA lifted, I wanted to splurge about how much I love the new Star Wars: The Old Republic – and how I don’t see it as an MMO. And that’s what’s getting me to play it (I’m not much of an MMO player).  A Bioware game through and through, there are a lot of things that I love and that have got me excited for the release this December. A warning for possible spoilers, though I’ve done my best to avoid anything major.

As of now, I’ve levelled two different classes into their mid 20s, and my partner has played two as well – Sith Inquisitor and Smuggler for me, and Sith Warrior and Republic Trooper for him. We played on PvE servers for the most recent beta, and got to see both the Imperials and rebel scu – I mean, Republic side of the galaxy. I won’t deny – we ended up playing dark side for all of them. Sorry, no screens from the gameplay – I forgot, and was too busy playing! 

1. The Voice Acting

Bioware has lauded this as the main reason for what makes this MMO different – and there is no escaping it. YES this makes the game different, it’s engaging, it’s hilarious, it made me interested in the characters and what they were doing. The voice acting is amazing, not only for your PC and companions, but for everyone you interact with as well. Nuanced, talented and varied, the voice acting adds a level to this game – and honestly? This is what makes it a Bioware game to me. 

2. Companions

You get a variety of companions based on what class you play, and your actions in the game affect their opinion of you. It’s an affection system, with them approving or disapproving of what you do – and you can go in the negative! You also gain experience from interacting with your companions! Which I thought was a great motivator. 

Your companions are engaging – if they’re present when you’re in a conversation with an NPC, they often chime in. As they start to like you more (based on conversation approval/disapproval and gift giving), they want to talk to you about your life and theirs. They have interesting back stories, are the types of companions you want (one word – WOOKIE), and make the game more immersive. 

My example for this is the smuggler merchant you get with the Smuggler class, Corso Riggs. A chivalrous farm boy who went to find adventure after personal tragedy, his attitude fit perfectly with the swarthy, snarky smuggler I was playing. He’s sweet, he’s tough, and he’s on your side. To me, he seemed cater made for someone wanting to find the ‘Bioware touch’ in this game – loved him to bits. He makes me want to play Republic, when I’m a pretty hardcore Imperial!

3. The Stories & Writing

I’m not a classic MMO player. I’ve looked forward to SW:TOR because of the RPG aspects, and I don’t think Bioware let this one down. I think it’s been worth the wait – and I can remember when they announced the Star Wars MMO all those years ago. The quest lines I got involved in were engaging, got me charged – and I can’t wait to play again because I want to find out what happens. Even side-quests seem worthwhile and have stock – in many ways, because of the voice acting. 

The writing does not let down in my opinion, and stays true to what Bioware has established themselves as – great writers of story AND dialogue. The lines the characters use are hilarious, snarky, cruel etc. — I listen to it all, because I want to know what they say and how they react. And yes – you can flirt with lots of people hah. Which I loved (and may have done, making poor Corso incredibly jealous).

4. The connections to KOTOR

Yes! They are there! In any of the classes I played, it was possible to come across side quests that related back to things that happened in KOTOR. It tickled me pink to see this – to see what happened to some of the people and places. 

Seeing Taris a few hundred years after the orbital bombardment was stunning. Learning what people think of Revan (you know I have a soft spot) got me giggly. There’s more too, but I don’t want to give too much away.  

5. Alone or with friends

My first beta weekend I was playing by myself – I got in, and my partner didn’t (much to his dismay). I can be pretty anti-social, so I went at it alone. I mostly followed my class quest story-line. It was easy enough to do – though I did find random groups for some flashpoints and heroic (harder) group missions with relative ease. This past weekend, my partner and I were able to play together almost from the get go, because we chose complimentary characters – we were on the same starting worlds. It was fun to see the quest lines (you watch other classes as a spectator – and get to see the cut scenes), I loved the cut scenes, I loved the dialogue – it felt like a co-op RPG most of the time. There were the two of us, and our two companions, kicking ass and taking names. And we were all out of bubble gum. 

When you’re in a group, you roll for dialogue options – but are still rewarded if you are the one to speak or not and there’s a dark/light side choice involved. NPCs also acknowledge that you’re in a group a lot of the time, which I was surprised by.

6. Expansive worlds, environment/presence

The worlds feel big – and honestly? I found them beautiful. They aren’t Skyrim quality, but for an interactive, expansive galaxy, I found the landscapes and cityscapes made you feel small. I wanted to look at them. I wanted to go through them. The architecture suits Republic or Sith, and it adds to your experience. I am the type to get in the head of my characters, and think about where we’re going and why, and the environments helped do that.

As well, the music in the game is amazing. I love the Star Wars themes, and a lot of them make a reappearance, in addition to new themes. It changes based on battles and location, and it can really add things to not only fights, but cut-scenes and quest lines. 

7. Light Side/ Dark Side — ethical quandries

If you want to be evil, you can be really REALLY evil in this game. I don’t have as much experience with the light side choices, I won’t deny. You can shoot people in the back when they don’t do what you want, you can threaten to torture children, you can electrocute prisoners to gain information from them, take bribes, or sell plague cures for profit – and more! 

Sure you could do this in any other MMO, but in this game you hear it all. Once more, this is where the voice acting really shines. When you threaten people, they beg and plead, when they die, they scream and cry. I wanted to see how far my character could go – how evil and malicious they could really be. You hear the indignation, you hear the suffering… and you end up feeling bad for it. 

8. Multiple games

Overall, I think it’s obvious that this game has been in the work for as long as it has been – and that it’s been worth the wait. The care and time put into it shows – it’s amazing. I don’t know what else to say about it. I want to play each of the classes because I want to experience their story lines, companions, loves, hates, trials and tribulations. I’m going to sink a lot of time into it. But I think it’ll be worth it. I never felt like I was grinding, because I loved the stories, the side quests, the voice acting and interactions. Classic MMO players may not like it because it is an MMORPG – with stress on the RPG.  There is a lot you can do in SW:TOR. Whether it’s questing, grinding (if it’s your thing, not mine), there are space battles (simple, but I won’t deny I loved them), exciting PvP warzones that are a game (huttball) or actual combat. I tried them all, and I liked them all. You can go do different activities based on your mood – and you get rewards and experience for all of it. 
As well, there were visible and worthwhile improvements from one beta to the next (a month’s time) – so I have no doubt only more time and love will go into keeping it amazing. I want to see the end games – I want to see if there are ends to these characters stories. For the few months I played WoW way back when, I can’t ever remember thinking anything remotely like that. Sounds more like a stand alone RPG, eh?

I’m eagerly awaiting mid-December – when my pre-release access opens and you’ll all stop hearing from me. Needless to say, I’m concealing the real reason for my ‘staycation’ this holiday season.

BioWare recently confirmed that Mass Effect 3 will have multiplayer — and it’s 4-player co-op, at that.

Multiple co-op missions are in the game, playable over PlayStation Network, PC and Xbox LIVE. Multiplayer missions will have a direct effect on the single-player campaign, also — and that gives you another choice when it comes to achieving your victory.

The game also features a campaign “bonus” — the “Galaxy at War” system, which allows you to manage the war from multiple fronts, including 4-player co-op. Your overall rating is the “Galactic Readiness” level, which basically estimates just how ready for the Reapers you actually are.

Of course, actually messing with all of this is optional — you can get the same results through the traditional single-player mode.

BioWare knew people would have questions, so they offered up a pretty extensive FAQ on their forums. Hit that link if you need to know more. (And you probably do.)

BioWare Ireland, which opened today, serves as a customer service facility for Star Wars: The Old Republic, which recently got a release date of Dec. 20 for North America, and Dec. 22 everywhere else.

This company branch employs 400 people, rather than the 200 originally planned.

This is EA’s second facility in Ireland — the first is a PopCap location that became part of EA following their acquisition.

Now, admittedly I’ve been worried over various parts of the game. “Is it going to be like more of a shooter?” “What’s going on with this ‘multiplayer’ talk?” I’ve asked myself. One of my other questions regarding the lack of female Shepard shown around has already been taken care of, and she’s an awesome redhead to boot! But playing this mission at least satisfied my worry over the game becoming too much of a shooter and maintaining it’s RPG feel.

I had to first customize the team points between Shepard and the rest of the team. This system definitely changed from the last game. I only wish I could have played around more with it, however I had a mission to do. The gameplay itself for the most part was easy for me to just jump right back into. The controls haven’t really changed at all, and once I changed the controller invert settings.

The first thing I noticed was the smarter AI. The simplistic approach I normally took did not work and I actually had some close calls. This really makes me happier as now I actually use some more strategy when playing instead of just sending in my teammates and letting them do most of the work. It was a nice surprise. Did the controls make it feel like a shooter? A bit, however I do not doubt that when it comes to the story it will bring me right back into what I love most about Mass Effect.

The story of the mission we played basically just gave a taste of what to expect. Shepard and the team have to make sure a scientist with a female Krogan who may potentially have the cure to the genophage which rendered all female Krogan sterile. And the attackers are Cerberus, the former group Shepard was a part of. But that was about it for the story in the demo.

However as sad as I am that I wasn’t able to get more of the story, I was happy to be able to at least play through a mission to completion. Most of my concerns were pretty much put to rest and now I really can’t wait for the game to be released next year!