After revealing yesterday that Mass Effect PC would employ an online activation system that requires users to re-authenticate their game every ten days, BioWare and EA have decided to back down and listen to those who actually purchase their games. In other words, the community.

BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk confirmed today that Mass Effect PC will not make use of SecuROM’s ten day re-authentication. Instead, owners of the game will be prompted to activate their copy when the game is launched for the first time or when downloading new content. Additionally, players will not be required to have the original disc in their PC’s DVD drive after completing the installation and activation process.

The new activation system will allow for up to three activations on three separate computers. If by chance you have a legitimate reason for needing more, EA will hand out additional authorizations on a case-by-case basis through its customer support line.

Hit the jump for the full FAQ, as provided by BioWare.

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Sierra Entertainment today announced the availability of a new map pack for the Xbox 360 version of its time-bending shooter TimeShift. Entitled “Futures-Past,” the pack features five new maps, with each map playable across the game’s extensive array of online and offline multiplayer modes.

Best of all, the map pack is entirely free. If that piqued your interest, it’s available now for download from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

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Capcom has sent forth 21 fresh screenshots from its upcoming third-person action title Lost Planet Colonies, showcasing a variety of all-new environments, the Egg Bandit Mode, and new VS mech weapons.

Colonies is scheduled to hit the Xbox 360 and PC on May 27. Check out the new screenshots after the break.

Lost Planet Colonies

An enhanced port of Criterion Games’ open-world racing title Burnout Paradise is heading to the PC, Electronic Arts announced today.

As the first-ever Burnout title to hit the PC, the port will feature expanded multiplayer, enhanced online features, tweaked gameplay, all-new community driven content, and of course the ability to run the game in insanely high resolutions.

Paradise is expected to hit PC this year, although a firm date has yet to be officially announced. Hit the jump for the first high-res screenshots, courtesy of developer Criterion Games. Needless to say, it looks great.

Burnout Paradise PC Screenshots

Publisher Electronic Arts sent word today that a playable demo of DICE’s forthcoming first-person shooter Battlefield: Bad Company will hit the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network next month on Thursday, June 5.

Highlighting both the single-player and multi-player aspect of Bad Company, the free demo will allow players to experience the multiplayer Gold Rush mode on the Oasis map. The solo portion of the demo starts gamers at the beginning of their “B” company career.

Battlefield: Bad Company is scheduled to hit retail shelves on June 25 in North America, with a European release following on June 27.

Sony sent out a release today celebrating the fact that its critically-acclaimed Gran Turismo series has shipped 50 million units worldwide. The impressive feat was achieved on April 30, 2008, ten years and four months following the series’ initial 1997 debut on PSOne.

Looking at the worldwide sales numbers, Gran Turismo 3 A-spec shipped 14.89 million copies, making it the best-selling title in the series. Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, which saw a release in both Europe and Japan but not North America, came in dead last with 1.36 million units shipped.

Time to break out the champagne, Sony.

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2K Games today announced that it has reached an agreement for Universal Studios to develop a feature film based on the hit game BioShock.

Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski will serve at the helm as producer for the upcoming film, while John Logan of Gladiator fame and Sweeney Todd is in talks to write the screenplay.

A release date for the film has yet to be announced.

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Actually, mediocre is too weak of a word to describe this game. The terrible and utter failure that is stealth-action title Vampire Rain, is being ported to PlayStation 3, publisher AQ Interactive announced today.

Originally released on Xbox 360, the forthcoming PS3 port is entitled “Vampire Rain: Altered Species,” and will feature over 50 hours of gameplay plus 5.1 channel audio and “revamped” character animations.

Critics across the board gave Vampire Rain absurdly low scores when it was released on the Xbox 360 last year. It’s hard to imagine that this port will fair any better, even with the so-called improvements.

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Game blog Kotaku, citing unnamed anonymous sources, is speculating that Microsoft may unveil its long-rumored Xbox 360 motion sensing controller next week. The report suggests that the controller has been developed specifically for Banjo Kazooie 3, which makes sense, considering that previous reports mentioned Rare was behind development on the controller.

Microsoft will be showing off Banjo Kazooie 3 next week to select members of the press at a media event on Tuesday. The embargo for the event lifts on the same day, so we could have concrete info on the rumored motion-sensing capable controller very soon.

However, no one has said that the controller specifically will be on display at the press event. It is possible that Microsoft may be waiting to officially unveil the peripheral at this year’s E3 summit in July, but we’ll see. Only time will tell.

Rumor: Microsoft May Debut New Xbox 360 Motion Controller Next Week [Kotaku]

In an earnings conference call with investors today, Activision reaffirmed its position on reinventing the long-running Tony Hawk skating series from the ground up, with company CEO Michael Griffith revealing that an exclusive Nintendo DS entry in the series is currently in development.

While the developer for the title went unnamed, Griffith further noted that the new DS title will be the only Tony Hawk title released this year. A separate developer is working on a new console installment planned for release in fiscal 2010, which begins on April 1, 2009.

“For competitive reasons, we’re not going to talk about it today but we are very bullish on the kind of innovation this will bring and this won’t be your father’s Tony Hawk,” said Griffith.