Xbox 360 owners rejoice: BioWare's highly anticipated console RPG Mass Effect has gone gold, signaling official completion of the game in the weeks leading up to its ship date on November 20, shattering all rumors about a possible delay. The game is expected to hit Europe on November 23.

Mass Effect is actually the first part in a planned trilogy. Even if developer BioWare was recently acquired by Electronic Arts, Microsoft remains Mass Effect's publisher for this installment at least. Apparently, BioWare will continue to make the following two parts in the trilogy also exclusively for Xbox 360.

It has already received a lot of pre-launch awards, like the 2007 Game Critics Awards for “Best Console Game” and “Best RPG” at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last month in Los Angeles. Previewed several times in the recent period at Leipzig’s Game Convention and at PAX 2007, Mass Effect is already a leading candidate for the “best console RPG” title, despite some rather disappointing early reviews from the media.

People are however delighted with the graphics of the game and with the revolutionary dialogue system, which is certainly a premiere for any RPG, from any platform. Gamers are “turning” a dialogue wheel where there are usually 3 types of responses for each line spoken by an AI, but instead of seeing the exact words displayed on the screen coming out of the main character’s mouth, players will see Commander Shepard either taking action without saying anything or saying something similar, but with a different tonality.

Microsoft has confirmed Limited Collector's Edition which includes a fiction book titled "Galactic Codex: Essentials", a 36-page guide to the Mass Effect universe, an art book titled "A Future Imagined" and a bonus DVD of exclusive "Mass Effect" background material and additional content, all for he price of $69.99. However, it's only going to be available through online orders.

“Mass Effect” is rated “M” for “Mature” by the ESRB.