Fancy an early copy of ME3? You'll need a car and the ability to understand GPS tracking.....

The hype for one of the year's hottest video games, Mass Effect 3 (out March 6, on PS3, Xbox 360 and PCs, ages 17-up) is reaching new stratospheric heights.

In case you don't know, a playable demo has already hit Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

But next week, a select intrepid few will have the opportunity to play the full game before it hits stores. Publisher Electronic Arts will be launching copies of the game into space using weather balloons that will be released in New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Berlin, London and Paris.



Each game has a GPS tracking device onboard and fans can track their return to the Earth on masseffect.com to find a copy and play it a week or more before the game hits stores. (Might not be a bad idea to follow @MassEffect, either.)

I am really looking forward to this and this is a novel approach but I can't say it excites me much either. I also saw that Drew Karpyshyn has left Bioware which is a huge blow as he was lead writer of ME1, had a hand in ME2 and wrote 3 solid novels in quick time on the ME series before working on the recent Star Wars MMO. I don't think he has had any hand in ME3 which does concern me a little tbh.....

A novel idea but think I can wait. I share your concerns about Karpyshyn Chris but having finally got a go on the demo I have to say I was impressed esspecially with the sense of desperation and hopelesness that came across as the reapers made there entrance. I havent pre ordered this yet tbh I was going to leave it a while but i may be tempted now

The first copy was released in North America yesterday, initally it was feared it would end up in the ocean but it actually landed near the top of a 150ft Redwood tree and has been deemed too unsafe to be collected by the public!

fail.