Mass Effect 2 confirmed for January 2010 release with preorder bonus

By Stephany Nunneley

BioWare has revealed that Mass Effect 2 will be shipping Jan 26, 2010 in North America and January 29 for Europe.

Also mentioned was preorder bonuses of exclusive in-game items, which the official blog says are for North America, but we’ll check to see if Europe is getting some as well.

Here are the details:

In North America, pre-order bonusesinclude special-ops armor and weaponry that are designed to boost Commander Shepard’s skills and abilities. At GameStop, Terminus Gear is available with pre-orders, which includes the powerful Terminus Assault Armor and the Blackstorm Heavy Weapon:

• The Terminus Armor is designed for use in extreme planetary conditions, increasing run speed and personal shields, and augmenting weapons with an additional magazine of reserve ammo.
• The M-90 Blackstorm Heavy Weapon generates a high-powered localized gravity well, accelerating particles to near-infinite mass, and ultimately expanding the selection of heavy weapons available to players when they gear up for combat missions in Mass Effect 2.

Inferno Armor

Players that pre-order Mass Effect 2 at other retail outlets in North America will receive the potent Inferno Armor, which is used by officers to monitor battlefield conditions by recognizing elevated heart rates, and regulates sub-systems with extreme efficiency to allow for greater response times – together these abilities translate in-game into a negotiation bonus for Commander Shepard and an increase in run speed and augmented damage from combat powers.

According to the blog post, BioWare is still deciding which armor goes to the PC version and which to the Xbox 360 version.

Full thing through the link.