14 DAY TRIAL // Recently Microsoft has announced that the Mass Effect conversion for the PC platform is going to be pushed back from its original May release date until June 6 so that a coat of (you guessed it!) polish could be added to the game. Bioware said that the port was basically done, but a few more tweaks here and there would be very important to the player's experience with the game.
Now Bioware is sweetening the deal and making the wait much easier by saying that the Xbox 360 DLC for Mass Effect, called Bring Down the Sky, will be released for free on the PC. The add-on will not be directly integrated in the game. Instead, after the game is launched and you buy and install it, you can go online, register your game and sign up to the Bioware online community to get the DLC for free.
Mass Effect is set to be as big a hit on PCs as it was on the Xbox 360. The sci-fi themed game will make use of all that makes PCs superior to gaming consoles. Bioware says that all the textures in the game have been reworked and given high resolution versions so that the game looks better than ever. Also, the keyboard and mouse combination is used to full effect, with hotkeys ready to accommodate all the actions that are important so that the gameplay progresses more smoothly and battles don't need constant pauses to set weapons combinations and deploy special abilities.
The Bring Down the Sky DLC adds some 2 hours of gameplay to the original game. Major Shepard is tasked with stopping a particularly crazy group of Batavians from crashing a space station onto the surface of a nearby planet. The side quest is a bit combat heavy but does have a nice final section which should make it mandatory download once the PC version of Mass Effect is available.
The game launches on June 6. That is, if Microsoft doesn't decide another "polish" delay is needed.