Mass Effect 2 gets a release date

It might not quite qualify as a Christmas present, but Mass Effect 2 is coming a little earlier than expected.

Electronic Arts have  announced that BioWares Sci-fi RPG will be coming to the PC in Europe on the 29^th of January. This time out PC gamers will get to play the game at the same time as our 360 console cousins with both versions launching simultaneously.

BioWare are touting Mass Effect 2  as the series equivalent of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, with a far darker story  as Commander Sheppard goes on a dangerous mission to discover why human colonies are mysteriously disappearing, enlisting various dangerous operatives (we’ve dubbed them a sort of space bound Dirty Dozen, through it isn’t clear yet how many there’ll be) to help him in his quest.

As we’ve mentioned in earlier previews, there’ll be direct continuity for players who have the saves from Mass Effect, as the new game takes into account certain player decisions from the first game, and will modify the story accordingly.

Just how many of your choices will actually carry over remains to be seen, but it looks like we’ll be finding out very early next year.