Mass Effect Infiltrator, Datapad land in App Store this week

While we're still disappointed that the Mass Effect Facebook game seems to be little more than an advergame, the powers that be at BioWare are releasing not one, but two, Mass Effect spin-off games for iOS this week: Mass Effect Infiltrator and Mass Effect Datapad.

Infiltrator and Datapad are very different, but one reason you might be intrigued -- other than the fact that you need to play Mass Effect at all times -- is that they can affect your single player game in Mass Effect 3. Mass Effect Infiltrator is a third-person shooter and the goal is to free prisoners and collect intelligence. Missions accomplished in this game will boost a player's abilities in Mass Effect 3. Mass Effect Datapad is less of a game and more of a fan app. Use this to stay abreast the latest news from the game, read messages from characters that you've interacted with in ME3 and fight reapers in an in-app mini-game.

Mass Effect Infiltrator is available in the AppStore for $6.99 (ouch) and Mass Effect Datapad will arrive later this week and can be downloaded for the low price of free. I haven't had the chance to play Infiltrator yet, but another reviewer suggests you might want to wait until it goes on sale for 99 cents. Make of that what you will.