BY ROB SALERNO – The latest installment of the popular video game Mass Effect was released this week, and the new game gives players the option of having the lead characters pursue gay or lesbian relationships.
Neither scene is particularly explicit, although it’s clear that the characters involved are having sex.
Here are Shepard and Cortez deciding to get freaky as they wait for the fleet to get mobilized.
And here’s the somewhat more softcore lesbian shower-sex scene.
Unfortunately, the scenes have led to a sadly predictable online backlash from users. As one writer at Forbes points out, there appears to be a coordinated campaign to assign the game the lowest possible scores on Metacritic. The YouTube clip of Shepard’s gay sex scene has attracted more than 2,000 dislikes and an ongoing flame war in its comments thread. (Oddly, the lesbian scene has at time of writing attracted only a fraction of the attention.)
Still, it’s a nice sign that the gaming industry is slowly growing up in its attitude toward gays, if it still seems to be leading its fans and consumers.
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