More Mass Effect content in March

By Robert Purchese Published 6 February, 2008

Hour and a half of fresh adventure.

Microsoft has revealed that more Mass Effect content will be available to download on 10th March.

Dubbed Bring Down the Sky, it will cost 400 Microsoft Points (GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.80) and add a new world to explore - totalling around 90 minutes of fresh action.

This mysterious planet, or asteroid station, is home to a Batarian extremist group. They have hijacked it and plan to crash it into a nearby colony killing millions. Unpredictably you will have to stop them. Or possibly aid them. Who knows?

Batarians have yet to be seen in-game, but are talked about in the prequel novel Mass Effect: Revelation. They are similar to humans in build, but have no lips, slits for noses, and a second set of eyes underneath the first. Look how ugly they are, not to be species-ist.

Apparently they can mate with humans too, so we can put in a good word if you like.

Bring Down the Sky will be the first in a series of fresh downloadable content for the game, and also brings with it a new Achievement worth 50 Gamerpoints.

Mass Effect was released on 23rd November and won critics' hearts with its epic storyline and dramatic science-fiction setting, although most still argue over the merits of its combat system.

Head over to our Mass Effect review to find out more.

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 (35) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Monkey_Chops #1 4 years ago

    Woo. FRIST!

  • TONYgr #2 4 years ago

    only 90 minutes?

  • Ryze #3 4 years ago

    Very good... more reason to grab this once I've got somewhere near finishing a ton of other games...

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

    Couple of screens on way.

  • Eraysor #5 4 years ago

    More Mass Effect is never a bad thing. And that lizard thing in the screenshot looks awesome.

  • the_dudefather #6 4 years ago

    wonder if the Batarians will be added into other parts of the game, or just within new DLC areas

    will probably grab this

  • Danoxth #7 4 years ago

    I really should finish Mass Effect, oh wait - I can't!

    *shakes fist in the direction of Microsofts repair centre*

  • Totoriko #8 4 years ago

    more pr0n?

  • MangoBen #9 4 years ago

    "They are similar to humans in build, but have no lips"

    That picture clearly shows they have lips of sort. I'm outraged by such inaccuracies.

  • Saltefanden #10 4 years ago

    Monkey_Chops:

    You're right, there's nothing better than being FRIST. It's actually better than having sex! Or eating jellybeans!
    Edited by 1 at 06/02/08 @ 19:15

  • Drakron #11 4 years ago

    Colony drop?

    Is this Gundam?

  • barnard666 #12 4 years ago

    awesome

  • NthSimulachum #13 4 years ago

    oh teh noes only 90 mins this should be given for free M$ for the lose lol


    Or in reality, woo! An extension to the excellent Mass Effect!

  • Res #14 4 years ago

    If its like all the other planet crap I don't want it, if its more like the ones the main quest takes you on then I would be interested.

    "can eurogamer also just revise their score of 8/10 to 9 or 10/10, I mean you gave the club 8/10!! "

    Mass Effect has way too much texture pop-in and slowdowns to warrant a 9 in my opinion, that and the previously mentioned planet crap.
    Edited by 1 at 06/02/08 @ 20:34

  • Snidesworth #15 4 years ago

    If it's a unique setting like the plot worlds then it'll be worth it. If it's more copy-paste jargon then it won't. Here's hoping for the former.

  • hiddenranbir #16 4 years ago

    Hmm. We'll see.

    Still don't get why DLC has to cost money. Valve are giving us things free.

  • dsmx #17 4 years ago

    Microsoft are trying to avoid anyone giving away free stuff on xbox live.

  • Antwandemarco #18 4 years ago

    A new alien race to have sex with w00t!

  • Xerx3s #19 4 years ago

    Dunno about buying this. Depends on if it adds new areas instead of using those prefab areas that they used in most of the side quest area's.

    "Microsoft are trying to avoid anyone giving away free stuff on xbox live. "

    Odd, as they are one of the biggest contributors of free content for top franchises (H2, H3, GoW, etc.). Got any proof of that? Or would you just be sprouting random nonsense considering you probably haven't even been on live?

  • hoos30 #20 4 years ago

    day 1 purchase

  • Res #21 4 years ago

    "Odd, as they are one of the biggest contributors of free content for top franchises (H2, H3, GoW, etc.). Got any proof of that? Or would you just be sprouting random nonsense considering you probably haven't even been on live?"

    It was reported on this very website, and many others that epic wanted the gears of war map packs to be free from the start. Ubi also got in a pretty big argument over the black map pack as they wanted it to be free as well I believe.

    You would expect that kind of attitude from Sony since they are offering the service for free and need to make a profit, but its a bit of a joke when Microsoft try to force prices on everything AND put advertising in a service you have to pay for.

    In fact you will probably find most PC development teams would want their content to go on XBL for free, its just the way it used to work for PC only games. Devs supported the game after it was released with free updates.
    Edited by 1 at 07/02/08 @ 02:18

  • Chaser #22 4 years ago

    I suspect they would want it to be free - but it probably costs Microsoft something to actually deliver the content in the first place. So rather than paying for bandwidth and space on MS servers, they choose the payment options with a revenue share. MS cover their costs and the publisher/dev makes a few quid.

    There are no "free" community download sites to use as distribution systems for live.

    Quit bitching, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
    Edited by 1 at 07/02/08 @ 07:47

  • SlackMaster #23 4 years ago

    I'm looking forward to this but it's a long wait for 90mins of play. Still it'll give me another reason to get mass effect out for another play.

  • TheDudesRug #24 4 years ago

    Great stuff. 90 minutes only seems brief because it's such a fantastic product. More... much, much more, Mass Effect please.

  • GordonCaladan #25 4 years ago

    90 mins seems a bit meagre. But seeing I spent about 45 hours on my first playthrough whilst most other folks were complaining about it being too short, that's probably 90 mins x 5 for me.

    So if the DLC is worth 50 gamerpoints, and we can likely expect 250 gamerpoints in total from DLC, does that mean we'll be seeing four more of these for 400 MSP each?

  • Aero #26 4 years ago

    400 points sounds a little steep - if DLC was more sensibly priced, I'd buy more of it!

    Case in point - Xbox originals - why pay £10 in points when you can pick up the game from ebay or a second-hand store for about £3??

  • Return2Dust #27 4 years ago

    Ninja Gaiden black is 20 quid on play.com and Amazon second hand so it's well worth it for a tenner on market place. I've still got to get anywhere in Mass effect, I keep meaning to play it but don't have the time. COD4 is still hogging my 360.

  • thenastypasty #28 4 years ago

    hope its better than the rest of the side missions they were poor i enjoyed the main story though !

  • Quine #29 4 years ago

    So if a hard drive is required for this- would it kill them to bung some of the textures in there while they're at it to help with the pop-up issues?

  • Return2Dust #30 4 years ago

    The pop up doesn't really bother me , the game does struggle a bit but still looks great imo. My main problem is the combat isn't very polished.

  • miiiguel #31 4 years ago

    How do these dudes measure the gameplay time? I mean Oblivion took me 200 hours to finish, but I have a friend who did in 30ish...

    Anyway..., very excited about this, on my second playthrough, and doing it on harder levels (Hardcore) really improves the combat. Frantic.

    A bit off-topic: have you guys identified the movies which many/most of the side-quests pay homage to ? I've seen 'Apocalypse Now - Major Kyle', The Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Night of the Living Dead (can't remember the name of the quests).
    Edited by 2 at 07/02/08 @ 11:07

  • thenastypasty #32 4 years ago

    the game took me about 30hrs ish to finish,dont know if i have got the time or will power for another play through

  • redlander #33 4 years ago

    Ban this filth!

  • SomaticSense #34 4 years ago

    Please, please, please let the architecture be different this time. If it's just the same buildings that I've already been through a million times in the main game, then I just won't bother.

  • evild_edd #35 4 years ago

    ^^^
    Agree with this comment. LOVED ME, and thought story was fantastic. The side quests revealed loads of the world and it all fitted together really well....but the re-used building layouts felt out of place as just plain lazy. In a game where so much time had been spent on design, I found it really weird that there were esentially 2/3 building layouts for non-plot worlds!!!
    Hopefuly the expansions will add more variety.
    Oh, and I want a sequel before the end of the year please!!! ;0)