Singapore Blocks Mass Effect Release

The Singapore Media Development Authority has banned Microsoft's upcoming Mass Effect because of an optional, sexually suggestive scene between a human woman and an alien woman that appears in the game. Reuters, who reported the story from the country's regional Straits Times newspaper, notes that Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that the city-state should keep its conservative values and not allow special rights for homosexuals. Thus far, Singapore is the only nation to have blocked the title, which is set to release in North America on November 20th, 2007. Singapore reportedly banned God of War II for nudity in one of its scenes, and The Darkness, for excessive violence and "religious expletives." Mass Effect is a hybrid action-RPG title exclusive to Xbox 360, published by Microsoft and developed by BioWare, who recently discussed the game's writing in-depth at the Austin Game Developers Conference.