Anyone who has been in a convenience store in the last few months has undoubtedly seen bottles of Dr. Pepper with an EA promotion on the label.  The cross-promotion between the soft drink and publisher is offering free, exclusive DLC for EA games with the purchase of any Dr. Pepper product through the Dr. Pepper website.  A quick look at the Dr. Pepper label indicates that Mass Effect 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and The Sims 3 are involved in the promo, though a closer look reveals silhouettes of characters from Dante’s Inferno, Warhammer Online, Skate 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Left 4 Dead 2.  So what kind of content is Dr, Pepper offering with the purchase of their fine, prune-flavored cola?

Upon entering my 12-digit code, found on the underside of the bottle cap, and signing into my EA account through Drpepper.com, I was prompted to pick between four games: Mass Effect 2, The Sims 3, Spore, and the free-to-play online shooter, Battlefield: Heroes.  Fortunately, once you enter a game’s DLC page, you can still go back and choose another, which allowed me to see all of the offerings.

Mass Effect 2’s DLC is limited to three pieces of headgear that Shepard can wear as part of his armor.  The Umbra Visor and Sentry Interface are high-tech headbands that offer 5% bonuses to power damage and shield strength, respectively, and the Recon Hood, a face-covering mask, grants a 5% increase to weapons damage, and happens to be the coolest-looking thing that Shepard can put on his head in the whole game.

Sadly, Mass Effect 2 is the only title here that has DLC that actually affects gameplay.  The Sims 3 DLC consists of a decent variety of clothes, hats, and props, but none of them actually do anything.  Battlefield Heroes’ offerings are mostly wallpapers, though two new outfits are also available.  As for Spore, the only offering is a robotic parts pack, which is usable in the full version of Spore and the Spore Character Creator.

All in all, the DLC offered by Dr. Pepper is pretty decent, especially for free.  As the promotion goes on, it’s possible that we’ll see some content for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 or any of the other games shown on the bottle added to the list.  Of course, it's also possible that a different code may have given me different DLC options, and after lunch, I'll update this with any new info.  For now, though, it looks like the best deal is the Mass Effect 2 content.  A 5% increase to any of three important stats is nothing to sneeze at, and the Recon Hood, in particular, just looks fantastic.  Normally, a dollar will get you a soda, and all it comes with is caffeine-jitters; this time, you also get a killer space ninja mask, and that a bad deal at all.

*UPDATE* - Tried another code, same results.