EA took its sweet time with this one, but the publisher has finally announced the Mass Effect 3: Earth add-on for the game's multiplayer, which as leaked earlier today, includes three new maps, three new weapons, six new characters, new upgrades and a new higher Platinum difficulty level.

Being called 'Earth' the DLC takes the multiplayer to strategic locations in London, Vancouver and Rio De Janeiro with its new Firebase maps, while the new N7 classes are all various human Alliance elites with their own Biotic powers and skills. The N7 Demolisher Engineer, N7 Destroyer Soldier, N7 Fury Adept, N7 Sentinel Paladin, N7 Shadow Infiltrator and N7 Slayer Vanguard are joined by 12 new weapon modifications and 11 upgrades for your gear.

The three new weapons are the N7 Piranha Shotgun, N7 Typhoon Assault Rifle and Acolyte Pistol, and there'll be a new randomly occuring escort objective at wave 3, 6 and 10 introducing a targeted agent that you have to protect and take to a designated extraction zone on each map.

Mass Effect 3: Earth will be available for the Galaxy at War multiplayer on July 17th in North America and July 18th in Europe and will be completely free to download. Check out the three new screenshots below.