Aliasalpha: Well I just finished the game and have a more informed opinion of the nudity. My original belief based on the stuff I'd read was indeed correct. The nudity in the game is a massive non-event.
There is absolutely nothing sensational or even significantly unequal about it. In my playthrough I saw a man topless maybe 3 times and a woman topless twice.
The first instance of both involve a shower and are almost shot for shot identical, as if Cage anticipated a scandal and made the scenes the same just to take the piss, you see arse and chest in both and they don't last long enough to have a wank to, trust me I tried!
The second time was simply a guy without a shirt tending his wounds that would cause no raised eyebrows because of the sexism about men without shirts on.
The third was a love scene the same as you'd see in most any movie, the interactive elements (kissing, disrobing with an over the shoulder shot etc) last maybe a minute unless you keep stuffing them up and you see one of the woman's nipples for maybe as long as 2 seconds.
To be blunt, if he can't/won't play the game because of the nudity then he'll have an very limited range of acceptable movies as well. It'd really suck if he ends up seeing footage of it in 5 years and realises he passed on one of the best and most intense games made in this generation over some concerns about irrelevant amounts of minor nudity
Thanks - I will have him read your post and let him decide. He was able to find his reciept from Amazon and they will take it back at full refund. Thanks to all of you who took part in this thread. I am amazed at the mature attitudes here as this could easily have degenerated into an ugly thread.