fixing video right now, 1 sec

how do i get the video to work? slippin man.

Bayonetta's the hottest teacher of all games.

Is that a homemade Sontatine t-shirt? Well that definately confirms my suspicions about your profile pic.

I'm going go one better and make a Kikujiro t-shirt now.

Epic ending.

But yeah...Samanya (Or whatever) from Red Faction would have been a great example of a serious female character if it wasn't for the fact that she was very rarely developed as a character in the entire game. The DLC looks like it might have improved on that, but then it's the DLC.

Also, Beyond Tits and Asses.

Nice work dude.

Why make us jump trough hoops to get to the videos? I read the news on my rss>click>fakevideo button>click>weird video page>click and pause to wait for it to load.

I am incapable of pausing that video player at the end to read the text due to me being slowwwww reader. Nice video though.

yes transformers gives ya scurvy as well as crabs. o god the crabs

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/06/bonus_robs_transformers_2_faqs.php?page=1

If you're curious about Transformers 2, that link describes all the wrongness in the best format ever.

To give Eidos some credit, they did attempt to buck the curve way back in the day with Urban Chaos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Chaos

After that game flopped, they played it safe with Lara again. I remember the devs making a big fuss about how Darci Stern was a deep character, with a real sense of morals and justice...oh and she was black. Eidos pushed this on a lot of UK magazines, but nobody bought the damn game (and it had the worst PS1 port ever made).

By the time Lara Croft got to her fourth or fifth game, you could tell the developers focused on trying to make her look as sexy as they could. What bothers me is that it's obvious they're trying to sell her body as much as they can, everyone should know that by this point, but the developers are inclined to make her look good and be serious at the same time. This is bad because the character is trying to do so much at once, but not doing a good job at appealing to either audience.

Okay, maybe a little for the audience who want something to look at, because you just look and don't have to delve into her story and everything, but I digress. It's a poor thing for developers to try and do, when I think it's better for them to focus on one audience.

Also, I feel like this coincides a little with your anti-heroes rant when you said that anti-heroes should be just that rather than have the developers pretend that they're a messiah to the people and whatnot.

Best ending to a Rev Rant ever.

Anthony, you are so right about this topic. I can see right through this 'strong female character' bull.

If you excuse me, I'm going to drool over more Morrigan Aensland images.

Funny thing is Eidos initially called Tomb Raider's protagonist laura, but changed it to Lara for you americans. So you address her as Lara dammit.

Also abrupt ending was a bit of a shock felt like you had more to say.

@ BenHaskett

oh snap.

Lara croft is a joke of a character, this is a fact that has been established for awhile now. Only idiots argue for the contrary.

A lot of JRPG's seem to actually have strong female characters who serve more of a purpose than intractable porn.

Haha, you're yell a the end made me jump out of my freakin' skin...

Whenever one of these "something's wrong" situations comes about in conversation, I think it's important to point out the way that it can be improved (yes, being "honest" is better, but that doesn't mean it is the ideal).

Where do characters like Princess Peach fit into this mold, where her sexuality is left by the wayside due to the cartoony nature of her appearance for a more general view of femininity? Is there anything particularly honest or dishonest about the way she is portrayed?

Princess Zelda is also an interesting example... by all means, she is an attractive, less cartoony character than Peach. However, she is also more revered and lacks that purely sexual element about her. She also has at least two instances through (spoilers) Tetra and Sheik were she taps into much more typically masculine characteristics.

Finally, take Shiki from The World Ends With You as an example of a character who is physically, mentally, and emotionally within the confines of what a real female could be with very minimal hyperbole. She certainly has feminine characteristics, such as a heightened sense of fashion, but her mannerisms are not exaggerated beyond those of a real person (okay, maybe her waist is a little Barbie-esque, but the point stands).

I suppose I bring up these three examples because they are overtly feminine characters, that can be considered attractive without a sexual element coming into play, unless you're specifically trying to find it. Rather than throwing sex into hyperbole, it would be interesting to see a game that challenged the sex appeal of the character against their world. Perhaps a make-your-own character game where the more attractive your character is, the less intelligent they are perceived by NPCs but the better able they are to win people over.

I don't know. Fascinating rant though.

You want little to non-sexualized, respectable female characters by the buttload? Look to doujin shmup series Touhou. Yes, their characters are the cute moe types(and they're ALL females, mind you), but they have just enough personality to make them stand out - with the easiest examples being mainstay heroines Reimu(RAY-moo) and Marisa(MAH-ree-sa). Calling their characters wardrobes tasteful or classy is an understatement; the most "revealing" clothing is worn by only a few characters as Yukari and Sakuya.
Another great example: characters from the ultra-popular Type-Moon visual novels. Yes, visual novels are still games. But Type-Moon treats its ladies like real people; each heroine they created has become fan favorites among those who know them. For example: Saber - the knight heroine from Fate/Stay Night and the PSP sequel fighter Fate/Unlimited Codes; Pretty unusual for a girl in video games to have armor that actually COVERS EVERYTHING BUT THE FACE(instead of the obvious opposite)! As I've said; this shows how much work Type-Moon put into their girls to make them more than mere Titillation.

I think you're spot on.

If you're going to include a overly sexualized female character in your game to make it more marketable and sell more units, then fine; Go right ahead; But don't in the breath turn around and try to sell that as strong female role model so that women will be included in the potential market.

That's bullshit and everyone knows it.

Same thing applies to male characters. If you make a guy who is nothing but muscles on muscles and who's only goal is to single handily kill everything in sight, then don't try to play him off as some sympathetic tragic hero; That shit doesn't fly.

If you're appealing to the lowest common denominator (usually sex and/or violence) then say so! Don't try to use it to sell your shitty half-hearted story to us!

@ king zetta -

Well, by ugly, do you mean horrifying or just not sexually attractive?

the ending made me jump like an excitable rabbit.

This is probably my favorite Rev Rant to date.

This made me want watch a 4 minutes Jim Sterling rant solely about Bayonetta.