It is simpler, and nothing else I think.
Fuzzle said:
I actually think it's a little depressing that "mature" equals either sex or gore. Ironically, I'm more likely to find the use of sex and gore in games to be juvenile, and the people who find these things cool and mature tend to be teenagers going through that "mario is for kids" phase.
Generally I agree, but it's mainly in games like GTA where these things are done for those kinds of reasons. For those playing Mass Effect...if the presence of nudity at the end seemed like a logical conclusion to the consummation of a relationship, then the dev team did their job. If not, well at least the context can be taken different ways.
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I don't think ME2 is more mature, however, for omitting these scenes. I think they sold the entire relationship aspect short with the second try, and it goes way beyond a discussion about the presence or non-presence of sideboob. In its own way, the relationship option in the first game was a novel concept. The second game, if they were to incorporate these things again, should have been an opportunity to expand their ideas of what could be done in player interaction. Instead, ME2 is a "safe game," and more aspects than the relationships suffered a little because of it.
I'll put it this way. ME1 was a game I played that introduced a complex intergalactic stage where the player takes center just as humans are trying to get political footing as newcomers. As Shepherd, I had to balance the complexities of an evolving story as I took the reigns as a representative of sorts for my entire race as well as playing space cop. I had to build a team based on trust, kind of a microcosm of what was going on elsewhere, and the game pushed the envelope of how these relationships can end or where they could go. ME2 was a game with better combat flexibility than ME1, multiple romantic interests, less frequent but ultimately more fleshed out sidequests detail-wise, simplified menu systems to keep me in the actual game more, and all of this was served on a continuation of the first game's plot about the Reaper threat while also serving as a stepping stone to the next episode.
Can you spot how these two descriptions differ?
