Mass Effect 2 Hammerhead in late March

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 February, 2010

Firewalker pack introduces vehicle.

BioWare has announced plans to release the Firewalker pack for Mass Effect 2 in late March, introducing the Hammerhead heavy assault vehicle.

The pack will be free to Cerberus Network members, so if you bought the game new then you won't have to pay any extra money. Access for second-handers costs about 10 quid on PC or Xbox 360.

You will get to use the Hammerhead in five new missions. It hovers over the ground at over 120kph and has a guided missile system "ensuring accuracy even during aggressive manoeuvring".

Check out our Firewalker pack screenshot gallery to see the Hammerhead in action.

Alternatively, check out our Mass Effect 2 review or Cerberus Network launch DLC roundup.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (40) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Darren #1 2 years ago

    The addition of vehicle controls to the last v1.01 patch on the PC kind of gave away the fact that some vehicle based DLC was on its way. Great news that it will also be free like all the other stuff. You kind of have to do a double-take to check that this really is EA because they aren't usually this generous with free DLC... after all it wasn't like the disc(s) was/were short of content. Nice!

  • muscleblade #2 2 years ago

    Love the screenshots. Seems like Bioware and EA is serious regarding ME2 DLC. DLC for one of the greates games ever is always good. This seems to be high quality stuff. The Zaed mission was very good so i have really high hopes for this.

  • muscleblade #3 2 years ago

    @Darren

    This is obviously free to make people hold on to their disc instead of selling it back to the shop. Its a smart move that Cerberus strategy. It seems to work. I like it as i would never sell a game like ME2 or buy it used anyway.
    Edited by 1 at 26/02/10 @ 08:26

  • reality_cheque #4 2 years ago

    Sell ME2? It's going to take me 6 months to finish it with all my ME1 characters! lol

  • kangarootoo #5 2 years ago

    "It hovers over the ground at over 120kph"

    120kph? I hate to be a pedant... but I'm not sure that is actually hovering. Umm. "Flying" is I believe the word you are looking for there.

  • kangarootoo #6 2 years ago

    On subject, I managed to put a bit more time into this last night. Still getting NPC loyalty missions dealt with, with some team members still left to recruit. Still enjoying it a lot. ANd I just bought my first star maps. Like I didn't have enough to do ALREADY :)


    I also think the cerberus network thing is a good idea. Developers need to tackle piracy and resale somehow, and this approach is far more carrot and far less stick than we are used to seeing. It gives a sense of additional value to a game that is already pretty big (if you do sell the game on, there is looooads for a new owner to do without them having to splash cash on Cerberus access... and if they do buy the access, they get extra content and the dev gets a cut of the resale - everybody wins). Hopefully other devs will learn from this sort of approach.

  • MattyD #7 2 years ago

    Hurrah for Operation: Ten Dollar!

  • Byzanite #8 2 years ago

    @Kangarootoo:

    erm... Hovercraft? :p

  • pauleyc #9 2 years ago

    @Darren: The vehicle controls were in the game even before the 1.01 patch. Also, Bioware announced the Hammerhead before the game was out (it was even featured in the CE art booklet) so it's not that much of a surprise.

    It's slightly disappointing it'll be released end of March. Although I guess it's time for me to put ME2 on hold and finally finish Dragon Age in time for Awakening.

  • Scimarad #10 2 years ago

    I'm all for some extra vehicle-based missions.

  • Demiath #11 2 years ago

    As someone who recently played through Insanity and have no Achievements or side quests left to pursue I'm very happy about this announcement. Of course, in late March I might still be completely lost in the 32,6 GB CGI nightmare that is FFXIII, or the tremendous travails of Kratos the Greek for that matter...
    Edited by 1 at 26/02/10 @ 09:41

  • ignatiusjreilly #12 2 years ago

    @kangarootoo

    What do those star maps actually do? Have you used them? I guess they open up a few more planets/star systems to explore, but I'm guessing it can't just be more chances to play the mining minigame...

    There's always something else to spend your money on so I've not bought any so far.

  • kangarootoo #13 2 years ago

    @Byzanite

    Man, you made me vbreak out the dictionary.

    From the OED.

    "1 remain in one place in the air. 2 linger close at hand in an uncertain manner. 3 remain at or near a particular level or in an intermediate state"

    The moving hovercraft is a LIE! :)

  • Demiath #14 2 years ago

    @ignatiusjreilly: There are new side quests in the star systems, as well as more opportunities for exciting space mining. Remember to bring a good podcast... ;)

  • kangarootoo #15 2 years ago

    @ignatiusjreilly

    I actually don't know :) I bought them shortly before hopping off to do another local mission. I then saved and went to bed. I am hoping they open up more stuff than mining for minerals (I've found the little incidental "an anomaly has been detected" side missions to be rather better in ME2 than in the first one).

    They were dead cheap, and I had a fair bundle of cash by then, so I just bought a bunch of them. I'm a sucker for maps I guess :)

  • ignatiusjreilly #16 2 years ago

    I've found the little incidental "an anomaly has been detected" side missions to be rather better in ME2 than in the first one

    I don't even think I've found one of these yet, except for a couple of proper side-missions where it told me where to look beforehand. And seriously, I have mined a LOT of planets. I was starting to wonder if finding anomalies by scanning was just the entire internet trolling me...

  • muscleblade #17 2 years ago

    "I've found the little incidental "an anomaly has been detected" side missions to be rather better in ME2 than in the first one"

    They are MUCH better and theres plenty of them. At least 10.

  • bodypopper #18 2 years ago

    @EarlBasset
    On Illium, there's a terminal in one of the marketplace areas.

  • kangarootoo #19 2 years ago

    @EarlBassett

    In the city called Illium (same place as Miranda's loyalty quest, and the assassin and justicar team recruitment quests). There is a shop called "something frontiers" (not literally, I just can't remember the full name). You can buy 4 or 5 of them there.

  • kangarootoo #20 2 years ago

    @ignatiusjreilly

    As soon as you visit a planet that contains an anomaly you will be told, even before you break out the scanner. Its worth visiting every planet in each system you find yourself in, even if only for a second or two.

  • Demiath #21 2 years ago

    The "anomaly detected" side quests are a bit difficult to find (after finishing the game for the first time I had only done 2 out of a total of around 15). You really have to actively search for them (rather than just hope to stumble upon them inbetween some space mining sessions) by systematically checking every planet in every star system.
    Edited by 1 at 26/02/10 @ 10:06

  • septimus #22 2 years ago

    More ME2 can only be a good thing. I haven't put 60 hours into a game since FFVII, until now. Washing up and cooking be damned.

  • ignatiusjreilly #23 2 years ago

    Cheers for the info guys.

    I must admit I had been scanning planets inch by inch, thinking there must be something to find somewhere or I had missed it already! Good to know if there's one there I'll know before I've even heard the "bwoooooo" of another probe (although I do love that noise).

  • the-fell #24 2 years ago

    This is another wise move aimed at stopping people trading in their copies of ME2, have to applaud EA for their recent approach to second hand sales.

  • JediMasterMalik #25 2 years ago

    I like this method of free DLC very much so. :D

  • StooMonster #26 2 years ago

    Wasn't I due some DLC bonus with Steam, how do I pick those up? (Have got the regular cerberus network stuff.)

  • Moribundman #27 2 years ago

    It's such a HUGE and brilliant game. Rather worryingly/amazingly I TORE through it in its sidequest entirity by the end of the weekend on hardcore difficulty having received it Thursday evening and taken Friday off(!)

    The DLC promises to be excellent. I wonder if Kasumi will be free with Cerberus network too? Regardless - Zaeed, extra armour, an extra N7 mission, five N7 vehicle missions, possibly more all for FREE if you bought the game new. At a tenner his'd also be good value for the whingers if they wait for 2nd hand copies to come down to £15-£20.

    I'm just waiting for the moaners to turn up on here as they have on every other forum concerning Cerberus network. Flying in the face of logic and petulently asking why something that it still being worked on, is free and won't be out for another month was not on the disc...

  • Moribundman #28 2 years ago

    Oh and what's more, the usually pessimistic and cynical Zero Punctuation review by Yahtzee at http://www.escapistm agazine.com could only really find fault with the mining missions and lack of vehicle side missions provided a sense of scale... And this is already being resolved with DLC. By the time ME3 comes out this game could quite easily be twice the size of the vanilla release.

  • dustrat #29 2 years ago

    @kangarootoo
    The city is actually called Nos Astra. The planet is called Illium.

  • ignatiusjreilly #30 2 years ago

    I really don't think it's a huge game at all (in terms of area, there's certainly a lot of speech). If you put all the levels together with out the space travel etc. in between, I think it's be a lot shorter than even many FPS games.

    Admittedly I haven't finished it yet but I'm definitely close.

  • kangarootoo #31 2 years ago

    @dustrat

    I had to wiki it (and then failed to speed read accurately) :)

  • muscleblade #32 2 years ago

    @ignatiusjreilly

    Its not huge. Its perfect. Quality over quantity. Better to have fewer high quality missons than tons of samey dull ones.
    ME2 has the perfect lenght imo.

  • ignatiusjreilly #33 2 years ago

    Better to have fewer high quality missons than tons of samey dull ones.

    Yeah I agree. But I think there's just some odd incompatibility with me and this game. I realise most people love it (and I can see why), but I much preferred the first Mass Effect. I guess I'm a sucker for the old RPG cliches that ME2 did away with.

  • busboy33 #34 2 years ago

    "before I've even heard the 'bwoooooo' of another probe (although I do love that noise)."

    As annoying as the mining minigame is . . . that is a fantastic sound effect. Somebody pointed out to me that I was subconciously rocking back with the implied concussive force that sound suggests every time I fired one off, like I was firing the damned thing out of the controller.

  • AphoticCosmos #35 2 years ago

    Should be good! I actually kind of missed the Mako, especially when taking down the Colossus on Haestrom, that fight was a bitch without the Mako's firepower

    Shame that I can't get an Xbox Live connection until I leave halls at the end of term, though. Haven't even got Zaeed yet FFS.

  • ybfelix #36 2 years ago

    Now if only they made a DLC making team members interact with each other more often...

  • convercide #37 2 years ago

    Free you say? :)

    Back of the net!

  • Syrette #38 2 years ago

    @ Darren

    They announced the vehicle DLC ages ago, possibly before it ME2 was released.

  • creepylizard #39 2 years ago

    DLC that I actually want! and free!
    Thats the way its supposed to work. Not like that Bring down the sky shite...

  • octavedoctor #40 2 years ago

    I do miss the giant open landscapes from the first game also. Hopefully this DLC may get some of that scale back in... worried it'll be 'bolted on' like a big spoiler on a chav-car tho...