Last year, however, the developer's interest in portraying the true emotional lives of its characters got it into one of the most depressing videogame scandals of recent times. A Fox News report on Mass Effects's brief, rather prim love scenes (accessible only after developing relationships with key characters), accused the game of providing full-frontal nudity and interactive sex - neither of which are actually possible.

It was a poorly researched hatchet job playing on the muddled fears of an older, technologically uncertain generation.

"More than anything, it was hurtful to the team," says Muzyka. "We're talking about games as art, we're portraying mature relationships with characters you feel a connection to. I mean that's a good thing, isn't it? And to hear these blatantly untrue allegations from people who haven't even played the game… yeah, it was hurtful.

"What we decided was that we'd let the community respond for us. Millions of people are passionate about the game, we let them comment."