Laurie Landry as "Dead Pilot" courtesy Jon Michael Kondrath

As one of the most critically loved and popular game series on the current generation of consoles, Mass Effect also happened to steal the show at E3 with a live action trailer and some of the first in-depth gameplay footage, with the game’s release set for early 2012.

Laurie Landry appears as a dead helicopter pilot being scanned by a combat medic.  Numerous sequences that were filmed were cut from the trailer to get it down to its under-2-minute, fast-paced current state, but some more footage can be found in the Director’s Cut, embedded below.

Among the cut sequences were Laurie and two other survivors getting attacked by the brutal “Husks,” as well as further accounts from survivors about the horrors they’ve witnessed as the aliens invade the Earth.  Hopefully that footage will be shown at a later date to complete the video (and show a lot more of Laurie!), but until then, enjoy the Director’s Cut below, and check out some behind-the-scenes footage on Facebook!

Here is the director’s cut of the Mass Effect 3 live action trailer “The Arrival”

ME3 Invasion Trailer – Director’s Cut from Neel Upadhye on Vimeo.

See pictures from the day (or night, rather) of the shoot here: Mass Effect 3: The Arrival (Live Action Trailer Premier at E3)