Mass Effect 2: We won't "shy away" from controversial moments, says BioWare

Good news, alien sex fans. Remember the "porn" scene from Mass Effect? The one pop psychologist Cooper Lawrence claimed contained "graphic" shagging? The one that actually didn't?

BioWare's promising more "emotionally engaging moments" for Mass Effect 2. We know because Steph asked BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk at GDC.

VG247: Anything controversial this time? In the same regard as the...

Greg: The big over-reaction?

Ray: We don't shy away from emotionally engaging moments. We try to make them contextually appropriate. They're not gratuitous for the sake of gratuity. We put them in to actually drive an emotional response, but the journey you've gone through to get to that point in the game, it has to feel like that is a real point, a real outcome that makes sense to the player to get that point. They're not there for shock value.

If there's surprise and delight in the emotionally engaging moment then that's great too, but they have to feel contextually appropriate. We just make games with great stories and characters and, just like in real life, some of the interactions are emotionally charged between some of the characters. There could be all types of different emotions. And even the experience itself, we strive for emotion... We're not shying away from it.

So there you go. Mass Effect releases in early 2010.