Mass Effect Interview

IGN has whipped up an interesting two-page interview with Mass Effect project director Casey Hudson about the game's many options for creating and developing the main protagonist, Commander Shepard.
Q: You can choose to play as a female character. Does that make any difference in the game? Will men hit on you? Will you be treated differently for being a woman? And if so, can you give an in-game example? Does being female change any of your dialogue tree options during the game?

A: Playing as a female character was given equal importance as the experience as the male, with lines being written specifically to work with a female character, and with some plots developing differently. The romance opportunities are different as a female character, and there are some other fun differences that players will notice. But the interesting thing about the female Commander Shepard is that she's very strong, in a way you'd expect from a real-life military officer. She's not a caricature of the idea of role-playing as a female, but instead she's very impressive as a strong female character that's sensitive yet extremely confident and assertive.