It looks like several Xbox Live users were able to gain temporary access to an early version of the highly anticipated BioWare title, Mass Effect 3 as a result of a leak that was "through human error at [Microsoft's] end". It has since been removed.
BioWare released a statement in light of this huge mistake.
"As most of you know by now, this evening an accidental leak occurred of some early Mass Effect 3 beta code. Microsoft has advised us that through human error at their end, content which was meant for internal beta testing was flagged incorrectly and released to individuals who had signed up for the beta of the Xbox Live dashboard update. It has since been taken down and deactivated."
"We'd like to stress that the leaked code is in a rough, unfinished state and was not meant for public release. The content is not final, and is not reflective of the quality of the finished, polished game due for release [in March of 2012]."
Interestingly enough, BioWare continued with the statement referring to an “action mode”, “story mode” and “RPG mode”. These new features are designed to give players a "degree of control over their game experience than ever before". Each of these modes will focus the game play experience on their respective element; for example, if they find the combat a little too hard or unappealing and they just want to focus on the plot, the player can select the "story mode" option.
I guess they are really trying to cater to casual gamers as well this time around.
The NeoGAF forums have all the details about the leak; but be warned, there are images and videos that have some pretty heavy spoilers about game play and the storyline.
I don't know about you, but in the words of the great Frank Costanza, I want to go in fresh!