But the content fiascoes of that older game, called Indigo Prophecy in the U.S. and Fahrenheit in its native Europe, are a thing of the past, the co-CEO of its development studio, Quantum Dream's 's Guilaume de Fondaumiere, told Kotaku in a recent interview.

The ambitiously mature Heavy Rain won't be censored for America.

Earlier this week we ran a preview of the somber murder drama Heavy Rain and a story about its Trophies. The integrity of the content seemed like a crucial issue to address with our latest bit of coverage of the game.

Quantic Dream, which is based in France, intends to make games for adults. They did so with Fahrenheit and aim to again with heavy Rain. That doesn't mean "adult games," as in "pornography," but it does mean that the team is comfortable with including nudity and sex in its games. Fahrenheit did, more so in Europe. In the North American version of that game, sex scenes were removed or censored in order for the game to get an M rating.

Many Americans, apparently, didn't like that.

"Tens of thousands" of people wound up importing the European version of the game, de Fondaumiere told Kotaku. But they won't have to do the same for Heavy Rain, he said, because there will be no censoring, no content differentiation (other than, assumedly, language tracks) between the game as it will be released by its developers and Sony and Europe and the version released for PS3 gamers in North America.

The preview build of the game played by Kotaku included a little bit of nudity — a bare male posterior, a topless woman, and cheekily blocked genitalia during some scenes of dressing and undressing — but no sex. We know that the game will include a scene in which the player makes their female character strip, a scene that is intended to feel uncomfortable. But the extent to which there is any sex isn't known and probably isn't that important to catalog in advance, given the context of Heavy Rain's depiction of adult content.

De Fondaumiere didn't give me the impression that Quantic Dream had backed off. He said that much has changed in the four years since the release of Fahrenheit. More adult content has made it into games and more of it — not all — has been handled with class. The seriousness with which Quantic Dream wants to include the equivalent of R-rated movie material in a video game sold in America is now more permissible, the developer noted.

As a result, North American fans of the idea of playing a game the way a developer intended it to be played won't have to worry about importing in order to play the "real" Heavy Rain. It's coming to America, with no censorship attached.

Heavy Rain, an interactive drama (or think of it as an adventure game), will be out for the PlayStation 3 in early 2010.

The video does make a good point, however, especially to those of us who begin playing The Sims games with the purest of intentions, only to discover that we're really sadistic bastards when no one is looking. Show of hands, please!

But that distinction did come up during an interview between Saboteur lead designer Tom French and Techland's Tracey John:

Techland: We've seen other EA titles, like Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins, stir up controversy for featuring sex. What do you think needs to happen for mature content to be accepted in gaming and by the mainstream public?

French: I think it is just nudity, to a degree. There are definitely moments in our game where we allude to the idea of sex, but we never actually take it to that level. We're never actually seeing the whole act of sexuality, but we're imbuing that sexuality into the world.

Not that the game does allow users to input a code to make the exotic female dancers in the game's main cabaret club topless. The code also lets players get topless dances and unlocks new brothel hiding spots for your saboteur when he's on the run from Nazis. It's characters talk about sex, are even seen after having sex, at least once, but, no, you don't see sex in the game.

Earlier in the year, the full-frontal male nudity in Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned did get a lot of attention. But in-game sex? Hasn't been a big topic — or a significant aspect — in games since the scuttled interactive sex in 2005's "Hot Coffee" GTA scene.

One thing at a time?

There's plenty more in the original article about why and how The Saboteur's nudity option was offered to players and how the developer hopes it finds only an appropriate audience.http://kotaku.com/5418003/the-saboteur-offers-day+one-free-nudity-dlc

Saboteur lead designer Tom French [Techland]

More about the sex scenes in Dragon Age: Origins right here.

Thanks Otaku Man!

Second Correction: Seraphina Brennan is in fact the transgendered identity of the writer and is the byline she now uses for all of her work. Our commentary on this excerpt has been changed to reflect this.

Moreover, Brennan seems to ask why disproportionate weight is given to a woman's physical appearance and not the role she occupies in a game? Incorporating jiggle physics. How is endlessly commenting on it - and not the fact it belongs to a playable female character in a strong, assertive and in many cases nontraditional role - helping the issue instead of reinforcing the character's physicality and perpetuating the objectification?

I have a couple problems with the argument. She acknowledges the obvious double-standard - that physical representations of men are more likely to connote themes of power and heroism, whereas with women it's almost entirely about sexuality and desirability. But it's not given much treatment in her final point, which is simply that video games aren't expected to provide realistic depictions of anyone's bodies. The logical extremes of that position are obvious but I won't point them out because I don't want this to get off topic. And the piece does raise a valid point: Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder; what else might it be overlooking?

Boobs and You [Massively, Nov. 20, 2009.]

Very few of our protagonists (Nathan Drake and Alan Wake to name a few exceptions) depict men in what I would call a non-degrading manner. Honestly, how many of you readers out there right now are as ripped as the guy from Blade & Soul? My guess is very few.

While our interactive media may have started with a slightly overweight plumber as the titluar hero, we've certainly turned to making sure all of our character models feature strong, burly, and oversexed men who's muscles can give a woman's breasts a run for their money. I mean, look at World of Warcraft, for example — a game that we normally don't consider sexually charged. How realistic is their depiction of men compared to the average guy?

[...] Finally, I really believe that I have to take this one on - the notion that video game women degrade or defame real women because of their depictions. In my honest opinion, that's only really half true.

While VG women certainly may have overblown proportions and tight clothing, many of them aren't exactly weak or stupid. They're usually also not just there to be saved by some handsome, burly man. Many of these women are extremely dominant, going out to take care of things instead of waiting around for someone else to do it.

Off the top of my head, Lara Croft is a world-renowned archaeologist/historian, Joanna "Perfect" Dark is a highly trusted secret agent, Sniper Wolf is a trained military expert, Antonia Bayle rules Qeynos with a strong passion and intelligence, Jaina Proudmoore strains herself keeping relations between the Alliance and the Horde in check, and Bayonetta is someone who can and will kick your ass.

All of those women may have questionable outfits/fashion taste, but their positions aren't exactly "degrading to women." These are all highly respected and highly trusted women in positions of power, and that's not even including the characters we create in our games who end up being heroes of the land. If anything, video games have a history of keeping a very level field between men and women, sometimes even flipping the traditional power roles to favor women.

- Colin Brennan

Weekend Reader is Kotaku's look at the critical thinking in, and of video games. It appears Saturdays at noon. Please take the time to read the full article cited before getting involved in the debate here.

In a story about the increased acceptance of sex and sexuality in video games, the Calgary Herald got EA spokesperson Colin MacRae to draw the line between those who get it — and those who don't.

|The confusion around mature content in video games typically starts with the over-40 crowd, who just don't understand the medium. They think video games are Pong and they should be seeing the Friendly Giant, and that it's a kids medium," says Macrae. "There's still a large chunk of the population that doesn't get it. Today, the audience for video games is as diverse as the audience is for TV, is as diverse as the audience is for movies."

Ever meet anyone under 40 who doesn't understand that games are capable of including mature subject matter? Or did MacRae get it right?

Sex grows up in gaming world; As technology has improved, attitudes have matured [Calgary Herald]

You have the option to click play on the video below and completely spoil your sexual experience in Dragon Age: Origins, or you can simply turn away and go about your business. The scene below came after hours of my City Elf rogue wooing and coddling the human rogue Leliana.

Considering the amount of crap BioWare caught for Mass Effect's sex scene, one can't blame them for leaving the tops on. Besides, once the PC version hits tomorrow I'm sure some enterprising modder will figure out how to get their tops off, as it's probably easier than removing a real bra. That's why I keep scissors on my bedside table.

Again, spoiler! Don't blame us if you click the shiny, candy-flavored button. And if you want more Dragon Age: Origins, be sure to stop by tomorrow for our full review of the PlayStation 3 version.

Demian Linn at Bitmob worked all the angles with every potential partner in the party, telling us what goes down when you get down with Morrigan, Leliana and, yes, even when you eff the elf - as in a gay hookup. An encounter with a dwarven tranny is also mentioned but it's not part of the analysis. (I think it's just one of the smirky cathouse cutscenes)

The only spoilers in the writeup concern characters and, of course, descriptions of the sex itself. It does not give up any plot spoilers. In summary, here's what the sexytime does, or doesn't do, for Dragon Age: Origins.

So what's the point of all this? Good question. Sex is a very difficult game design challenge, no surprise there, and Dragon Age does it right when it incorporates sex directly into the narrative (the aforementioned spoiler I don't want to reveal). But the casual sex, which could be used as a tool to deepen your understanding and empathy for the other characters, tends to reinforce the idea of women as alternately jealous, catty, smothering, and weak-willed (easily taking back a lover that has strayed), while perpetuating the stereotype of the promiscuous gay/bisexual man. I guess what I'm saying is...the sex could be better.

Yeah, but so could a pizza. Bottom line, it's still a pizza. I mean sex. You get the idea.

Sex and the Single Dragon Age Hero [Bitmob]

Writing for PopMatters, G. Christopher Williams picked up on an interview with Quantic Dream, the developer of Heavy Rain, in which the writer confessed he felt uncomfortable being forced to perform the striptease. "Fantastic," Quantic Dream's David Cage tells Game Informer. "You know what? That is exactly what we wanted. ... Yes, it's a strong moment for the character. But if we managed to make you feel uncomfortable it is because at some point we made you believe you were Madison."

This is a departure from other gameplay-based depictions of sex, Williams argues, where the object was either to reveal skin or engage in a mini-game that "reduces sex to the stabbing motions of button mashing." He says the breakthrough lies not necessarily in a mature depiction of sex, but in delivering a new perspective on how it is understood, even if it means forcing someone in an opposite gender role to see its more degrading side.

The Gleam of Electric Sex: What Video Games Might (or Might Not) Teach Us About Sex [PopMatters, Oct. 14.]

If I am interpreting Cage's thinking correctly, he seems to be suggesting that Heavy Rain is moving beyond the voyeuristic simulations of sexuality offered by countless other forms of more passive media and also beyond simply making a participatory simulation of sexuality into a mere simulation of the "‘ol in-out, in-out". Instead, what seems to be offered here is a potential simulation of some of the psychology of the sexual experience.

In this particular instance, the psychology is particularly fascinating as it is likely a rather novel experience for the largest demographic of video game players, males. If feminist theory concerning the tendency for women to become the object of the male gaze holds any credence, the experience of being made object to that gaze may be an entirely new experience for many players. Indeed, it may also be an uncomfortable one as traditional gender roles and perspectives may be tested and reversed as a result of being made to "believe you were Madison" because players will participate in this humiliating act rather than merely view it.

Certainly, Cage and Quantic Dream's efforts are not entirely new. Many video game players have toyed with gender bending experiments such as playing avatars that represent themselves as the opposite of their own gender. I have played female avatars in online games and have noted differences in the ways that I am treated when playing as a female character as opposed to a male character. Largely, my own experience had led me to observe that I seemed to receive a lot more gifts from other players when playing as a female (which may suggest something about cultural norms and expectations concerning male-female relationships).

However, this limited sort of experience was not placed in the context of a story or a character whose entire personality is coded as female (my avatar was always driven by my own personality as I am not one to play "in character" in games, not attempting then to specifically act like the character that I am playing in the context of the gaming world). Adding layers of storytelling and the more objective, dramatic qualities of scripted and directed behaviors into this mix may produce more focused statements on sexuality than we have seen in gaming thus far and may push this participatory art in directions that the passive arts are limited in exploring. Because we may have to reconsider who we are as we play out the experiences of someone else. Games have the potential to create empathy with characters rather than the sympathy that film or books might evoke in watching someone else suffer or experience pleasure.

- G. Christopher Williams

Weekend Reader is Kotaku's look at the critical thinking in, and of video games. It appears Saturdays at noon. Please take the time to read the full article cited before getting involved in the debate here.

Eros LLC of Florida, which produces the popular (or so I am told, anyway) SexGen line took Linden Lab to federal court this week, on a claim that the Second Life operator refuses to take action against users who custom-rig their own sex machines (more or less, they're code that facilitate boinking animations) and then slap the SexGen brand on 'em.

Sounds funny, but microtransactions are no joke. Some $600 million in in-world sales are expected this year, with Linden Lab taking a cut of that. It gets a cut of anything that changes hands for virtual buxx, black market goods or no. And on top of this, Eros does maintain an in-world store, so the virtual ripoff is very real to them.

Eros successfully sued some black marketeers two years ago; this suit represents an escalation. They seek class action status for other merchants who are getting bootlegged. Their allegations will also challenge the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which protects Web sites from legal action if they're responsive to rights holders' takedown notices. All of this because people are selling counterfeit fuck coffins.

Linden Lab Targeted in Second Life Sex-Code Lawsuit [Wired]

This particular love hotel has costume rentals (hope they've got dry cleaning!), a fizzy "Welcome Drink" of your choice and Nintendo Wii rentals. There are also games players can check out as well. If gaming is not your thing, you can rent a DVD player — which sounds like a supreme hassle in this age of on-demand viewing.

Of course, the availability of these types of game consoles at love hotels are not new. The original Famicom (NES) was found in love hotels throughout the 1980s — heck, Nintendo tried its hand at running love hotels during the early 1960s before concentrating on children's toys and games.

Love Hotel Cosplay [Kirainet]

Video games, on the whole, perpetuate a transactional model of sex, argues Alex Raymond at GameCritics.com. When you think about it, pursuing sex with an NPC in Mass Effect, however tastefully it was shown, is fundamentally no different from C.J. bedding women in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Sex is presented as a reward, a result only, something won only by making correct choices attenuated to a woman's shallow preferences, and it's certainly not shown to be part of the process of a relationship.

The "Ladies Man" achievement in the upcoming Alpha Protocol spy action game - have sex with every woman in the game - really set Raymond's teeth on edge. This essay focuses not on sex objects, but on sex as an object - a goal only, a commodity, and the damage done by video games reinforcing such concepts.

Update: The first two paragraphs, while based in my analysis, were edited so as not to misrepresent the author's opinion of Mass Effect.

Women Aren't Vending Machines: How Video Games Perpetuate the Commodity Model of Sex [GameCritics.com, Aug. 26, 2009]

This design approach is extremely simplistic and perpetuates the commodity model of sex-the player wants sex, they go through certain motions, and they are "rewarded" with what they wanted (like a vending machine). Furthermore, when sex is included in a game, it is generally framed as the end result-the reward-of romance, rather than one aspect of an ongoing relationship/partnership. For example, one gamer commented that the romance in Mass Effect seemed like the romantic interest was really saying, "Keep talking to me and eventually we'll have sex". The relationship is not the goal; the goal is the tasteful PG-13 sex scene. The NPC's thoughts and desires aren't relevant; what matters is the tactics you use to get what you want. This is a boring mechanic in games and dangerously dehumanizing behavior in real life.

Where the simplistic relationship mechanics really get problematic is when someone makes a game where your protagonist is a James Bond-wannabe and there's an achievement for sleeping with every woman in the game. I am talking, of course, about Alpha Protocol. The quotes in the linked MTV Multiplayer article are infuriatingly sexist (as well as displaying insultingly limiting definitions of masculinity), but the relevant part is the bit about the "Ladies' Man" achievement.

It is seriously problematic to have a game where the male player/avatar can have sex with any and every woman in the game. On top of reinforcing the commodity model of sex, it is desperately heteronormative. For all the player's "choice" of with whom to engage, there's no possibility that the player might want to have a relationship with another man. It also shows that lesbians just don't exist in this world, if every single woman is open to a sexual encounter with a man. In addition, it perpetuates the narrative of the Nice Guy (described in Millar's essay, and elsewhere): that men are entitled to sex from women if they follow the rules and do the right things, or in the case of Alpha Protocol, "select your responses wisely."

- Alex Raymond

Weekend Reader is Kotaku's look at the critical thinking in, and of video games. It appears Saturdays at noon. Please take the time to read the full article cited before getting involved in the debate here.

Alpha Protocol, the spy-themed role-playing game from development studio Obsidian Entertainment and publisher Sega, once expected many months ago, is finally close to release. It's set for fall, that same season that brought Mass Effect and Fallout 3 to gamers in the last two years.

In theory, Alpha Protocol should seem quite different. It is neither set after an apocalypse nor in space. But a demo of the game I witnessed yesterday showed the kind of shooter-centric gameplay and deep, interactive dialogue exchanges that might make a gamer see much Mass Effect in it, despite its trappings in a world of spies, e-mailed assignments and James Bond-style villains.

Alpha Protocol certainly won't be confused with either of those other games, even though its gameplay style may satisfy the same itch.

A few things, though, stood out in the demo that are stark differences from those other two games. One of those would be sex, but hold on a second.

The Sega producer showing me the game showed a dialogue system that could feel more consequential than those of the other games mentioned here. Conversations are interactive, as in Fallout and Mass Effect, but remarks throughout the conversation trigger statistical changes and adjustments in character relationships.

Key decision points trigger auto-saves, in a manner similar, of all tings to the immediate saving of the Fire Emblem series. Dialouge and mission choices are designed to enforce consequences on players, though the path those choices might lead is intended to be obscured by what Sega is promising to be a more varied spectrum of moral alignments by its characters.

Some of the dialogue sequences will be so lengthy that there are missions unto themselves. The Sega producer described them to me as interrogations that could last 10-15 minutes, full of choices not just about what to say but whether to, perhaps, hit the person being interrogated with a bottle. In the interrogation described, violence squeezes accurate information out, but causes the player's victim to alert his friends and make a subsequent mission harder. Being smoother with the same guy will allow the player to make a pay-off and face lesser opposition later.

But what about the sex? After witnessing a flirtatious exchange between the game's male hero and the blonde commando lady Z who wielded a big machine gun and a visible bra, I inquired about romance possibilities. I was told we can expect as many as four love scenes. I inquired how they compare to Mass Effect's infamous sex scenes. They're on a spectrum, I was told, one of them being "pretty racy." Oh, and pretty "unexpected" too, in terms of when it happens and the "choices you make in it?" Sounds like an interactive sex scene, but the Sega producer said I might be getting the wrong idea. He didn't want to give more away.

So, if this game seems a bit Mass Effectish to you and maybe even Fallouty, these are some differences. Otherwise, expect a deep, combat-heavy, dialogue rich RPG. It comes out in October for PC and consoles.

Overlord II's "foursome" scene is the best of the year. Yes, it's a scene where you, the hero, have a foursome. And yes, it's juvie wish fulfillment. But it's also a smartly done and properly incentivised scene that in two minutes, gets everything right.

In the video above, you see how your three evil mistresses have chosen to call a bedroom truce, leaving everything and nothing to the imagination of course. I did like the gratuitous booting of the imp midway through. Like, come on bro, didn't you see the tie on the doorknob?

Two things: One, it's interesting they award this now, when we haven't seen all that Dragon Age: Origins has to offer. And that has demon tits. And implied bestiality. I get that Edge wanted to reward a creative depiction of sexuality, but seriously, you think Dragon Age isn't gonna pack some titillation?

Overlord II: The Best Sex Scene of the Year {Edge via Joystiq]

Posting on Craigslist in Aruba, Little Sis writes that she doesn't have any Adam in her - but she sure would like to!!! wink nudge thats-what-she-said rimshot.

Hi guys!!! I just turned 18 and I'm looking for a hunk to bring me Rapture! No fatties! I want a musculer guy with a big "drill" (*winkwink*) who knows his way around the bedroom. I'm up for anything (except water sports — ewww!). Teach me please!!! ;)

And the IRL reply:

u for real? 30+ experienced/mature big stick for you...you local on aruba??

You can also see Mario, who straight up says he's from the Mushroom Kingdom, get a rise out of a Texas dude, and Snake gets a spambot reply. Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil 4 has by far the most titillating response. Another grand memorial to the power of the Internet to connect the desperate and horny.

Personals from Video Game Characters [Asylum via GoNintendo]

The virtual golf rooms measure the distance the ball travels, and the newest golf rooms feature game systems that can reproduce famous courses in 3D.

In a crackdown late last month, the police pinpointed 39 video golf rooms and booked 36 of them for violating laws on food cleanliness. Many of these video game rooms reported themselves as sports facilities, but took part in activities like selling alcohol and introducing customers to prostitutes.

Police say that these types of "perverted businesses" have increased in number. "We will continue to inspect new types of immoral businesses."

Korea Beat › "Screen Golf" Rooms Getting in Trouble [Korea Beat via ROK Drop]

On tonight's ATOS, Munn revealed the cover: Her in a red bikini.

Pretty sure we've seen her in a bikini, though maybe not red and definitely not on the cover of Playboy. So this is new, right?

Munn is one of the few to appear on the cover without doing nude pictorial — a short list that includes the likes of Peter Sellers and Steve Martin.

Watch the clip below.

Olivia Munn's Playboy Cover Reveal [Attack of the Show!]

Bobbi Starr, named 2009's "superslut" by the X-Rated Critics Organization, said she sort of just fell into the booth babe roll this week through a friend of a friend.

Codemasters had no idea when they hired Starr to model at their booth for upcoming racer for Dirt 2 as a "dirty girl" that she was a star in her own right.

But that hasn't kept people familiar with Starr's work as a pro-sex feminist pornographic actress from recognizing her.

"I've run into quite a few people here who recognized me," she said.

Yesterday Starr twittered that she would be at the show as a "dirty girl" even posting before and after photos showing what she looked like after having her face dappled with grease and dirt for the booth.

Starr says she wasn't really aware what E3 was when she took the job, but has been enjoying the experience.

"I used to play a lot of video games in high school," said Starr, 26. "I used to play Diablo, World of Warcraft, the old-school World of Warcraft."

Starr said she stopped playing World of Warcraft when she graduated from San Jose State University with a music degree.

But, other porn gamers, like Whorecraft's Mia Rose and Belladonna, have been asking her about getting back into World of Warcraft.

"I wanted to get back into it when the latest one came out, but I didn't," she said.

Starr says she does want to pick up a Nintendo Wii so she can check out the aerobic games on the console. She'd also love to check out the Xbox 360's new motion controls she said.

Most showing at the annual E3 video game conference this year have models on parade at their booth, showing off the studio's goods and hoping to drum up a bit more interest. But only Codemasters has a porn star hanging out.

SUPER NSFW Bobbi Starr

Titled Game Center Buck Naked, the 140 minute movie features, well, buck naked ladies in, wait for it, a game center. There are also partially clothed ladies, too. We assume there are fully clothed ladies as well.

But more importantly! What arcade titles are in the flick? Dunno — they appear to be blurred out, along with the ding-dongs.

ゲームセンターでスッポンポン [DVD] [Amazon Japan NSFW]

It's definitely a teaser trailer; I'm just not sure what it is trying to tease. Arguably it's for Colin McRae: Dirt 2, the off-road and rally racing title from Codemasters, but I don't really feel that's what is being teased here. Can't quite put my finger on it. I suppose if I could I'd probably be too busy to write this. All I know for sure is that this is the last place I'd expect to have to use the NSFW tag.

Oh, and feel free to stop the clip when things go black. I think my video conversion software was just as confused as I was.