Mass Effect 3 Goes Gold

Today Mass Effect 3 executive producer Casey Hudson announced that BioWare has completed work on the PC/PS3/360 role-playing game. ME3 will launch as planned in early March.

"After an awesome effort by our team, I'm proud to announce #MassEffect3 is officially GOLD! Many surprises await you - this week and beyond," tweeted Hudson late last night.

ME3 will debut in North America on March 6th. It will hit Australia and Europe on the 8th and 9th, respectively.

Tomorrow BioWare will release a demo for the game. The demo features a taste of both the campaign and the four-player co-op. However, the co-op portion won't be unlocked until February 17th unless you own Battlefield 3 and an Online Pass for it.

Mass Effect 3 completes the Commander Shepard trilogy. The mysterious race known as the Reapers has begun their attack on civilized space. Shepard and his team must travel the lengths of the galaxy to secure allies for a counter-attack.

ME3 introduces multiplayer for the first time in the series. Players can embark on a series of missions separate from the campaign. They'll control customizable characters that can be upgraded over time. Playing these missions will allow you to improve the ending of the campaign.

This won't be the last game in the Mass Effect series, though. BioWare said recently that they have plenty of material for additional games. They also floated the idea of doing prequels.