Mass Effect 3’s coming to PC soon – and though it’ll be locked to EA’s Origin service, that’s hardly going to cause boycott, right? It is Mass Effect 3, after all. If you’re getting it for PC (and half of you moaning about Origin will likely end up getting it anyway) here’s the sort of hardware you’ll need to experience the end of Shepard’s story.

Minimum Spec:

• OS – Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7
  *Supported chipsets: NVIDIA 7900 or better; ATI X1800 or better. Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 9300, 8500, 8400, and 8300 are below minimum system requirements, as are AMD/ATI Radeon HD3200, HD3300, and HD4350. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.
• CPU – 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)
• RAM – 1GB for XP / 2GB RAM for Vista/Win 7
• Disc Drive – 1x speed
• Hard Drive – 15 GB of free space
• Video – 256 MB* (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support)
• Sound – DirectX 9.0c compatible
• DirectX – DirectX 9.0c August 2009 (included)

Recommended Spec:

• OS – Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7
• CPU – 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)
• RAM – 2GB for XP / 4GB RAM for Vista/Win 7
• Disc Drive – 1x speed
• Hard Drive – 15 GB of free space
• Video – AMD/ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB or greater, NVidia GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB or greater
• Sound – DirectX 9.0c compatible

As you can see, that’s not exactly the most demanding hardware – which makes sense really. The underlying technology behind the game, Unreal Engine 3, is largely the same as when it powered Mass Effect 1. Of course, it’s also a console port, and consoles are over half a decade old, so of course your beast of a Pc can run this, right PC gamers? I’ll probably be sticking to console for this game, but not in some sort of misguided protest against Origin; my saves from previous games are there an importing your own Shepard is a big part of the experience.