BioWare's sci-fi trilogy Mass Effect, despite being set nearly two hundred years in the future, isn't entirely distanced from the events and culture of modern-day Earth. This became more prominent as the series progressed through Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, and by the time of Mass Effect: Andromeda, the game's characters were hosting movie nights and popping popcorn just as they would in the 21st century.
The Mass Effect Trilogy contains quite a few more specific references to real-world events as well, such as the Mars rover landings, and even other popular pieces of media from current times. Indiana Jones is one such example, and the Easter egg inspired by the series can be encountered during Mass Effect 3's Citadel DLC as players venture through the Citadel Archives. There, it's implied that the Ark of the Covenant is considered an important human artifact that may or may not actually be stored on the Citadel itself.
Similar references can be heard in Mass Effect 2. While on the Citadel, Shepard can run past a counter hosting an NPC merely named "Games Salesman," who refers to many fictional games within Mass Effect's universe that seem to be inspired by real-world counterparts. For example, he sometimes talks about a game titled "Galaxy of Fantasy" and its 11 billion players, which may be hinting at its relation to the popular MMO World of Warcraft in the real world.
Mass Effect 2's Dark Grand Theft Auto Reference
Another comment from the Game Salesman brings up some controversy surrounding another fictional game within the Mass Effect series: "I don't get the complaints about the 'Grim Terminus Alliance' games. So what if you can capture and beat slaves? It's just a game." It seems as though this is a reference to the Grand Theft Auto game series as well as the controversy surrounding its content, as the two games have the same abbreviation, GTA. The GTA series has oftentimes been criticized for its violent and sexually explicit content. However, it seems that the fictional Grim Terminus Alliance games are in fact darker than anything actually introduced in its counterpart.
Outside of perhaps a torture scene featured in GTA 5, there's no point in any Grand Theft Auto title in which players are able to do anything similar to "capturing and beating slaves" as Mass Effect's Game Salesman implies. It's possible that this was written as an exaggeration of the actual content included in GTA, perhaps to poke fun at its critics who BioWare may have interpreted as overreacting to the series' content. It could also have been a deliberate decision to distance the reference from the actual Grand Theft Auto games, maybe to avoid any legal trouble with its developers. Either way, it's safe to say that Mass Effect's GTA reference is in fact darker than any of the actual content introduced throughout the Grand Theft Auto series.