Remember all those issues PC players had with 2K Games' use of Internet registration with BioShock? Well, get ready for Round Two. BioWare has confirmed via a post on their official message boards that their upcoming PC port of their sci-fi RPG Mass Effect will also require players to have an Internet connection when it is released later this month.

To be fair the game's system requirements do have an Internet connection feature (likely so that people can download their free Bring Down The Sky expansion pack) so people who want to buy the game will be forewarned. But BioWare Community Communications Coordinator Chris Priestly lays down the law to gamers asking about the requirement in his post. He states that players can install and play the game immediately but that after 5 days it will automatically try to register the game if you are connected to the Internet. If you happen not to have that connection it will allow you to keep playing the game for the next 5 days, asking you to register each time you boot up Mass Effect. After 10 days it will no longer allow you to play the game until you are connected to the Internet. Priestly states, "Once you reconnect to the internet and try to play, it will re-validate and you can play as normal for another period of 10 days as before."

Naturally this bit of news has generated a ton of responses from gamers to the message boards, a lot of which have been unfavorable to this move. BioWare technical director Derek French has been answering these gamers' inquiries so if you have any issues you can check out his responses on the thread.