Mass Effect 3 Delayed Until 2012, New Screenshots Appear

Mass Effect 3 has been officially delayed into the first three months of 2012, as BioWare announced that the development of the game needs to be extended past its original release date of holiday 2011.

Mass Effect 3 was set to be one of the most important launches of the end of the year, as BioWare revealed last December that the story of the main character, Commander Shepard, will reach an epic conclusion.

In the last month or so, a wide array of details have poured in, from various news outlets, detailing gameplay, combat, story and lots of other elements that will be a part of Mass Effect 3.

Now, just as the hype was beginning to reach impressive levels, the game's executive producer, Casey Hudson, announced on the Mass Effect Facebook page that the title is going to be released in the first three months of 2012, and not at the end of the year, as was originally planned.

"Mass Effect 3 will be released in the first three months of 2012," Hudson told fans. "The development team is laser focused on making sure Mass Effect 3 is the biggest, boldest and best game in the series, ensuring that it exceeds everyone’s expectations."

As you can imagine, many fans were quite upset because of the delay, even if it means that BioWare now has extra time to polish the upcoming role-playing game.

In order to make up for the sad news, the studio also launched a batch of brand new screenshots, showcasing Commander Shepard's fight against Cerberus agents as well as two of his companions, both coming back from the first and second Mass Effect games, Kaiden Alenko and Liara T'Soni.

Other types of enemies, including husks or robots are pictured in the shots below, but also a brand new type of alien that isn't too pleased about Shepard's presence.

Check out the new Mass Effect 3 screenshots below.