Mass Effect special edition details

By Robert Purchese Published 4 October, 2007

Two aliens and a spaceship.

Microsoft and BioWare have opened up the Mass Effect Limited Collector's Edition box to show us all what's inside.

First out is an essential guide to the universe known as a Galactic Codex. In here you will find all sorts of details about aliens and places you should visit as you save humanity. You can get a taste of what to expect on the Galactic Codex part of the official site.

Next to be wrestled from the box of memorabilia is an art book made up of concept sketches of the future, which have helped BioWare piece together a convincing sci-fi world. Some will be good, others may have been drawn by me.

And last but not least is obligatory DVD featuring videos focusing on storytelling, art, and general behind the scenes bits and pieces.

It's enough to make you want to wipe out all organic life in the galaxy every 50,000 years, which, coincidentally, is exactly what you're trying to prevent in the game.

You can find out much more about this hotly awaited role-playing game in our Mass Effect gamepage - like an interview with BioWare boss Greg Zeschuck, or over on the official website.

Failing that, you can always phone me up and ask.

Mass Effect will be released exclusively for Xbox 360 on 23rd November.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Phattso #1 4 years ago

    What's your number?

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #2 4 years ago

    All the ones, a two, and a few threes.

  • rhinoxious #3 4 years ago

    Collectors edition's - yawn - bought a couple, never watched the extras, never again. I just want the game, on a disc, with a box to keep it unscratched.

  • Phattso #4 4 years ago

    I tried that number, and all possible permutations. I might have gotten through to you, but it's hard to tell having been exposed to so many angry people asking how I got their number and "what the fuck is a mass effect?!" so.... ;)

  • dudefella #5 4 years ago

    /pre-ordered

  • kingnothing12 #6 4 years ago

    when you can get the collectors edition for the same price as the standard one over at virginmegastores.co.uk why the hell not!!

  • DonnieDarko333 #7 4 years ago

    I like figures...where is a mass-effect figure?!!!!

    I won't be buying this limited edition, it's not different enough to warrent the purchase (unlike Halo's Legendary edition, and Bioshock's big-daddy figure).
    Edited by 1 at 04/10/07 @ 15:53

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #8 4 years ago

    I must admit, these collector's bits and pieces always seem like a waste of time to me, too.

    Stick a tacky alien posing pouch in there, though...

  • bushwod #9 4 years ago

    Novemeber, dang it, i though it was next year. Tooooooo many games.

  • Razorus #10 4 years ago

    WTF guys, collector's edition pwns all. Limited ftw w00t 1337 and all that.
    Seriously though, I love limited editions, I'm always interested in behind the scenes documentaries and art books etc.
    If you don't care for that stuff, then save your extra £5 and get a regular one. n00bz and hax0rz, the lot of ya!

  • moggsy #11 4 years ago

    when you can get the collectors edition for the same price as the standard one over at virginmegastores.co.uk why the hell not!!

    [nonexistent_product]

  • JonFE #12 4 years ago

    After the Halo 3 tin-case fiasco, it'd be a bit dangerous to invest into this...

  • TheStranger #13 4 years ago

    WTF? This was on TeamXbox, and Chris Priestly said "Sorry, but we do not have any information about a Limited Collectors Edition (LCE) at this time."
    [link url=http://masseffect.bioware.com/fo rums/viewtopic.html?topic=588282&forum=104&sp=30
    ]http://ma sseffect.bioware.com/forums/vie...[/link]

    As if TeamXbox were lying.

    Now, you guys are saying it too. Ok, so this is another lie by Bioware?

    Yep, you heard me. Another one.

    Remember that thing about dirt and scratches accumulating on armour? Say bye. Its gone.

    Remember that thing about "choose your characters voice!" again, gone. Choose male or female, and get one voice. No tone change, no voice change. Nada.

    Some people here may recall that I was crazy about getting this game. WTF is with the lies?

  • TonyCocaCola #14 4 years ago

    Meh, im still well looking forward to it. Cleaning armour coulnt be that fun anyway.

    Plus can you imagine how much space that extra audio would take up if they had to re-record all the main character dialogue a few extra times?

  • TheStranger #15 4 years ago

    They were saying how if your armour got damaged, that people would treat you differently in dialog, so it would add something to the game.

    As for the dialog, well, when you try and talk about a feature for most of two years, and then when a thread comes up asking about it, because it hadn't been mentioned in a while, and only then admit to choosing your voice being gone... I wonder how many people here who are looking forward to the game and aren't members of the forum knew about these features being removed.

  • JavaJawaUK #16 4 years ago

    I pre-ordered this collectors edition. Simply because it was the same price on Amazon as the normal edition at the time of pre-ordering [like a month ago].

    I think it should be good - this is Bioware after all.

    "Remember that thing about dirt and scratches accumulating on armour? Say bye. Its gone.

    Remember that thing about "choose your characters voice!" again, gone. Choose male or female, and get one voice. No tone change, no voice change. Nada.

    Some people here may recall that I was crazy about getting this game. WTF is with the lies?"

    Actually both armour damage and character voice selection were never actually in the game in the first place. They were both merely speculative points, and Bioware never confirmed them being in. If you read an article that confirmed that both of these were in the game then that article was either highly speculative or you didn't read it properly.
    Edited by 1 at 04/10/07 @ 17:01

  • drumm23 #17 4 years ago

    hmmm, "coincidence", you say .... I think not.

  • TheStranger #18 4 years ago

    Actually both armour damage and character voice selection were never actually in the game in the first place."

    Yes, they were. I'll take voice acting first.

    "Thats because they aren't in the game.

    The way that it would have worked was you would have the default voice and used a slider to saise or lower the base/trebble to customize it to your preference. But after investigating how it actually worked, we realized it made the character sound odd. YOu could end up with a PC that sounded, quite frankly, like Mickey Mouse and that just did not fit in with the game.

    So, instead of customizing the voice, we selected a very talented male and female voice actor and focussed on their ability.

    I know some people will be minorly upset that it isn't in, but in the end, it makes for a better game. "

    From: [link url=http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/v iewtopic.html?topic=585409&forum=104
    ]http://ma sseffect.bioware.com/forums/vie...[/link]

    Now, armour removal:
    Aw, we love it when games let us dress up. In Mass Effect, you can choose whether to clean and repair your armour, making it look brand spanking new, or not, leaving it caked in dirt, blood and scratched to buggery.

  • miiiguel #19 4 years ago

    "After the Halo 3 tin-case fiasco, it'd be a bit dangerous to invest into this... "
    what fiasco, here in PT the price diference between the two is 3.5 Eur, not bad for the making off DVD + gamerpictures + themes.

  • IAmBatman #20 4 years ago

    Good grief, you're upset because they prototyped two features and they turned out to be shit, so they removed them? Would you prefer every game to have every half-thought-out idea in it?

    Games change before release. You should learn to deal with it, because it happens to every single non-shit game.

  • Drakron #21 4 years ago

    No, its because they advertise said features before they are locked.

    Like in Dragon Age were "enslaving entire nations with necromancy" end up being ... removed.

    Its not the features being there or not that bothers me but the fact they are selling a game from day one and using hypothetically features as selling point, I might well just order a BioWare "Aribeth" sexbot.

  • Sl1pstream #22 4 years ago

    No figurines or other displayable items = No buy.

    I'll take the regular edition.

  • NewbieZilla #23 4 years ago

    I agree with TheStranger. I'm a member at the forum, too.. Eh, I'll not bother going onto a huge rant, but suffice to say with regard to removed features...

    Theories are for the theory room, advertised features being removed and then not admitted to till someone asks if they are still in is not a very professional means of dealing with game development.

    If a feature has to be removed, have the balls to come right out with it, rather than it be happened upon by someone coming to the forum trying to verify if its in, or someone trying to find more about the game.

    This attitude is better than Molyneux, but only by degree of chance.

  • J.C #24 4 years ago

    Another 10/10 has to be.

  • Kiigan #25 4 years ago

    TBH when it comes to special editions of games... if I'm a real fan I'm probably going to be interested in stuff like soundtracks, art books, making-of stuff etc. I really couldn't care less about plastic junk figurines and metal boxes and the like. Can't understand why some of you are calling for figurines etc. Am I alone?

  • Caimbeul #26 4 years ago

    the only one that seems worth while so far is UT3 and the tutorial disc.

  • SomaticSense #27 4 years ago

    ""After the Halo 3 tin-case fiasco, it'd be a bit dangerous to invest into this... "

    "what fiasco, here in PT the price diference between the two is 3.5 Eur, not bad for the making off DVD + gamerpictures + themes. "

    Erm, what? He's on about about the appalling scratching, not any negligible price differences between the two versions.
    Edited by 1 at 05/10/07 @ 11:00