(I don't consider the content of this post to contain spoilers, but if you like your gaming experiences pristine, better look away now.)

According to Eurogamer Mass Effect is to include a sex scene. From the BBFC rating:

The single sex scene is brief and undetailed, although there is breast nudity in one version of the scene. The sex scene is triggered by the player making a series of choices about becoming more than friends with a colleague. If playing as a male character the scene can take place between him and a human woman or a humanoid female alien. If playing as a female character the scene can take place between her and a male human or a female humanoid alien.

So, if you are gay and male, tough luck. Weird.

Something like this has already been done by Origin Systems in Ultima VII: The Black Gate, which was released in 1992. That game allowed you to have more fun as a gay male. Of course, back then it was all a little less graphic:

The actual sex scene is some text on a black background.

It is ironic that the interactive medium has to fight to gain back the creative freedom it lost becoming (relatively) mainstream.

BioWare has included a relationship path in a large portion of its games to date. But, in keeping with nearly everything else in Mass Effect, the choice here is more detailed and has a lot more depth.

Jeez, I sure hope so. KOTOR was not very effective in this regard, not to me at least. I remember there being a certain area on the first planet where a trigger box in a certain place would always trigger a certain party member to make an idle remark in the hope you'd talk to him. The conversation itself seemed to be a kind of mini-game of 'repeatedly talk to gain his trust until he tells you about himself'. For me, it went more like: "Oh damn, the bridge, what do I do? If I cross it, the ugly and annoying man in my group will want to talk to me. Can I avoid the bridge? Can I get him killed somehow?"

However, despite my deep loathing for KOTOR, I must say I am intrigued by Mass Effect, sex scene or no sex scene.

(Thanks Chris.)