MMGN: The best non-sexualised and realistic female leads in gaming.
Sexuality and sex appeal is a tricky thing to balance. In the male-dominated video game industry, most female videogame protagonists are typically hyper-sexualised and unrealistic women created blatantly for the male gaze.
While there are still many outdated and cringe-worthy representations of women in video games, times and attitudes are rapidly changing, and there are developers out there who have and are challenging the stereotypes and creating compelling, realistic, and attractive female characters without the overt use of skin or one-dimensional roles.
Look, I like Lara Croft's booty shorts or Mileena's two... sais as much as every other guy, but why not have more than polygons to ogle at? It has been proven that well-written, attractive and realistic female protagonists do exist in video games and have become more prominent as the industry advances.
Last week I covered some of the most sexist video games that have come to light this generation. Now, here are the top 5 hottest video game heroines who have saved the day from shallow stereotypes and hegemonic sexism, but still kick-ass and get male gamers all flustered without resorting to having their breasts pop out.
Xbox Game Studios, The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics' upcoming reboot of Perfect Dark will offer a Quality and a Performance mode.
Me too.
I expect Hellblade 2 to be the start of a consistent stream of UE5 XGS titles. It's basically their default engine, save for ForzaTech and the proprietary engines in use at Activision and Bethesda.
Really looking forward to seeing the Forzatech based Fable. Playground games has had a great track record with the Horizon series, so lets see.
There's no way it would release in 2021 especially when it was announced at the VGA's 2020.
@lightning, that’s when the first trailer was shown, but it was known to be in development much earlier and Xbox fans were tooting it to be released years ago, the initiative studio formed in 2018, and to my knowledge have not released a game
That’s 6 years and all you got is a trailer and some empty promises
Good one from Microsoft, yet again.
Such is game development, long developmental cycles is one of the big black eyes of the industry. I don't see you complaining about Wolverine that got announced in 2021, releasing in 2026 and only got one trailer.
@ lightning
Nice try but for one, 2021 - 2025 would only be 5 years not 6,
And for two insomniac have developed multiple games or have multiple games in development over that time, and the initiative only have the 1 game to be concerned with
For three, we all know the quality Wolverine will be and although I do hope perfect dark is good, it’s unlikely to be as good as insomniacs proven track record
@purple101
Dude, not all studios are managed equally & perform similarly... stop comparing and undermining people's works. Stop comparing veteran studios with newly created one.
Stop console/studio warring all the time.
Insomniac, capcom, Ubisoft can churn out multiple games year after year, doesn't mean other studios are trash.
There was 5 years gap between Ascension and GoW'18, 6 years between Original Sin II and BG3, 7 years between Max Payne 2 and Alan Wake etc, etc. A lot goes behind the scene. Projects gets redone/ cancelled.
Happens in our work place as well.
Can you define “see”? Microsofts notorious for showing CGI movies as substitution for gameplay.
Agreed. They know they gotta come out swinging on this one. I’m pretty excited for it. Franchise is near and dear to me.
Good thing they got Crystal Dynamics to make it, at least they know how to make a game that has 60 fps.
Dope. Just curious. Is this a "Xbox win" or "uggh REMAKE"? Or that only applies to Sony remakes?
Love how Microsoft had this big new flash studio called The Imitative who were going to make this game and then everyone started quitting and they had to outsource it to CD.
Microsoft needs to figure out their crap, too many studios being run poorly.
Other nominees include games like SimCity & Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
There are some good nominees in this list that are deserving to be inducted also, but I feel Metroid has had the most impact on the industry out of all of these. Look how Metroid influenced the evolution of the Castlevania games, and the "Metroidvania" subgenre of games have become a prevailing force in gaming today. Especially now, Metroidvanias are bigger than ever.
I can very much see Resident Evil being added later too, bc it really did popularize and define the survival horror genre. I would say that one is next in line.
Agreed. When I got my NES back then, I of course had Super Mario Bros. But I also got Double Dribble, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Rad Racer, Zelda and Metroid. Loved playing all of them over and over. But Metroid was so deep and the music was so other worldly, that that game has stuck with me to this day decades later.
Sure other awesome games came along like Contra, Castlevania, Mega Man, etc. But Metroid really hit that sci-fi fix. And the twist of finding out who was in the suit was one of those great moments in gaming history talking with other friends in the neighborhood that had the console that rushed to the end to find out for themselves.
Definitely deserves hall of fame like many other picks. Should have been inducted a long time ago.
If any Metroid game should get the honor it should be Super Metroid , it's perfection in my eyes . 30 years later and I still feel it's the most epic shit ever .
Yea, I agree that Super Metroid REALLY raised the bar on atmosphere and exploration, still in my Top 10 or 20 games of all time. The original Metroid did set a good framework, but Super Metroid perfected it in its first sequel. Since it's the only one up for vote, I'd still vote for the original Metroid bc it did establish a very good concept of gaming in a more primitive gaming era. But, you're absolutely right.
The GBA remake deserves it or Super Metroid, the original was a very sloppy and rushed game programmed in 3 months and it shows.
If you've never played the remake, it's absolutely a must play, fixes basically every flaw in the game. Check out ExoParadigmGamer's comparison video.
From Contraband to Perfect Dark, here are some potential wildcard surprises that could appear at this month's Xbox Developer Direct.
Wow I actually commented in a Xbox thread before Jin_Sakai! Contraband gameplay would be dope.
Where is Madison Page and every female in MGS4, Chloe or agent Kuo. If you are going to make a list do it properly.
ololol
I just went through this list to see ONE female protagonist
Her absence makes this list A JOKE!
! Nariko from Heavenly Sword !
Uh,they could have at least shown people what Samus looks like.It's kinda hard for people who never heard of her to tell if she's hot or not if all you show is a big orange suit.
Glados! I would let her probe me :-)
Poor list in my opponion.
Rikku
Kairi
Lollipop chainsaw girls too.
Need to be on there