Top 10 Female Leads in Video Games

10. Any game that supports female character creation –

I recently moved from rolling strictly dudes to rolling only female characters when given the chance in video games that allow me to choose between the two sexes. Because who wouldn’t want to spend 30-100+ hours playing as a female?

9. Sonya Blade –

Sonya Blade has been a staple in the Mortal Kombat franchise since the first game released in 1992. Ever since then, Sonya Blade has cartwheel-kicked her way into our lives and has made numerous appearances that spans 9 games, 2 movies, and various other entertainment outlets.

8. GlaDOS-

Ahh, GlaDOS our “the cake is a lie” loving, passive aggressive AI matriarch is a hard circuit board to deny. Although not THE lead in the Portal series, she is the one who cynically narrates Chell through two games.

7. Jade –

Jade (Beyond Good & Evil, not Mortal Kombat) is one of the most recognized female protagonists in video games and made her debut in 2003’s, Beyond Good & Evil. Armed with a brain and a camera, Jade broke the objectified female mold and has received praise in other various top ten female protagonist lists throughout the years.

6. Jill Valentine –

You may have heard of this little franchise called, Resident Evil. Yeah, I haven’t either. But from what I hear, there is this zombie-equalizing bad-ass character, Jill Valentine. Although I hear she wasn’t as strong as her partner, Chris Redfield, she was better equipped with skills and weapons which allowed her to kick serious zombie ass. Jill Valentine has also appeared in numerous other Resident Evil games and movies.

5. Commander Shepard –

Kicking ass and taking names is Commander Shepard’s second job in the Mass Effect franchise. Her first job is leading a rag-tag group of assassins, scientists, and mercenaries against an eminent threat, the Reapers. Spanning three games, this leading lady traversed the universe in the Normandy leading her crew, battle after battle, wiping out the Reapers which resulted in an ultimate act of selflessness.

4. Princess Peach –

This peach of a lady stole Mario’s heart in Nintentdo’s Mario and Donkey Kong franchises, which in turn stole our hearts. This heroine made her epic levitating debut in one of my favorite Mario games, Super Mario Bros. 2. Since then, Peach has been in a multitude of spin-offs and even getting her own game, Super Princess Peach.

3. Chun Li –

It’s only natural that the first female in a fighting game be on this list. Not only the first, but arguably the most effective in a fighting game as well. She debuted in Street Fighter 2 and has been in just about every other Street Fighter since. If you don’t think she deserves to be on this list, especially at number 3, I have a SF2 machine in my house that will prove otherwise.

2. Lara Croft –

Besides all the negative sexual attention this character received when the first Tomb Raider released, Lara Croft was one of the first female characters in a strong protagonist role. Armed with two pistols and the ability to climb any mountain, crevasse, hillside, or cliff, Lara Croft treads fearless into any cave welcoming any challenge she faces.

Recently rebooted, Lara Croft was given a new appearance and story. Although Lara was portrayed as a broken young woman, by the end of the game she was transformed into a fearless adventurer. I look forward to seeing what new adventures come her way.

1. Samus Aran –

Yes, Samus hails at number one of this top ten female lead list. Why, you ask? Samus is in the Guinness Book of World Records: Gaming Edition as, “the first playable human female character in a mainstream videogame.” Not only is she the first but, at the time, a dominant force in video games as the protagonist of the Metroid series. She didn’t just jump, bop, and run from left to right like her cousin, Mario. She spun, gunned down, and morphed her way in, through, and around the world of Zebes, eradicating Mother Brain.

Being a male in his mid-thirties, I grew up in the NES era and one of my favorite games was Metroid. The developers pulled one of the biggest and greatest switcheroos by unveiling that Samus was a female in this male dominated genre. Being young, and only seeing male protagonists, imagine how astonished I was when I found out that this ball-morphing, spin-jumping, arm-gun shooting protagonist was actually a female. Mind. Blown.

FYI….I Broke My Finger

Just a heads up guys and girls. No posts coming for the next couple weeks until my finger heals…video games on the other hand will still be played.

If You Want to Game With Me

Hey, you guys want to game with me? I play just about everything. Here are my gamer tags and names for the following consoles and sites.

Xbox 360:

 

PSN:

Wii U: blkzombie

Steam:

RAPTR:

Shoot me an invite, I would love to game with you guys sometime. Thanks!

The VGA’s Celebrate 10 Years Tonight on Spike

Tonight, 9et/6pt, Spike will bring to you its 10th annual Video Game Award show. Some of the categories include: Game of the Year, Best Shooter, Best Multi-Player Game, Best Xbox 360 Game, Best PS3 Game, and much more. Just like every year the show will come packed with new trailers and celebrity appearances. By the looks of it on Spike’s VGA website, Borderlands 2 and Dishonored claim the most nominations. Both nominated for Best Xbox 360 Game and Best PS3 Game. Dishonored is also up for Game of the Year. If you haven’t had the opportunity to play Dishonored, I highly recommend it. Also, don’t forget to leave a comment and vote below.

Wii U, a week(or so) later

WAKE UP!! THE WII U IS HERE!

Last Sunday I stood eagerly awaiting outside my local Game Stop for the newly released and highly anticipated Nintendo Wii U. Albeit skeptical at first, the Wii U delivered all the pleasure one would receive on Christmas upon opening their first gift. Giddy and delighted, I drove home and set the console up for major time consumption.

The comparison to the DS and 3DS is uncanny and spot-on. It’s easy to see that Nintendo took their wildly popular handheld machines and made it into a high-definition home console, and it works. Having only picked up two of the twenty-something launch title games and the game that came with the console(Nintendoland), my time with the machine is limited to those games. From my experience, and from what I’ve heard thanks to Miiverse, ZombiU displays the best of what the Wii U has to offer in terms of utilization and synchronization.

The key apps and features are scarce and pretty much non-existent at launch. Miiverse and the Nintendo eShop were up and easy to navigate. Miiverse is the communal hub from which people, or “Miis”, can communicate to one another in a chat room corresponding to a particular game. So, say I was playing ZombiU and wanted to post something about the game and let everyone know I has having a hard time and ask for help. I can hit the home button, click on Miiverse using my stylus or finger, and post whatever was giving me trouble. There are three ways I can post content. Text, digital pad(a drawing using the stylus or finger), or screenshot. Now, if your thinking, “Well, what about spoilers?” Fret not, Miiverse comes equipped with a “spoiler” button that hides the post and warns the reader of spoilers. Even though the spoiler button may sound awesome, it’s been my experience that people in Miiverse are a little too hyper-sensitive and quick to report you for misconduct and spoilers, which has turned me off to Miiverse a little bit. Also, there’s A LOT of fan boy-ism circulating the community which is also a huge turn-off. This can make for a bias and sometimes annoying experience.

The Nintendo eShop was easy to navigate and in my opinion doesn’t warrant to much explanation. There were a few indie and retail games made available for purchase and after buying an indie game, I found the process of purchasing a game quick and painless. The eShop also allows you to browse and read synopsises of other games made available through retailers.

YOU GET THE IDEA

Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, and I believe Netflix, were not up and running day of launch and the following few days after. Since I do not have a Hulu Plus or a Netflix account I can not comment on those apps, but I do have an Amazon account and was very pleased with the service. Like the eShop, Amazon Instant Video was easy to navigate and very responsive. After launching a movie to see how it would handle the GamePad integration, it soon became my top choice for running that service. While the movie is running on the television screen, the game pad offers all playback functionality, a movie poster, and quick synopsis on the movie. Also worth mentioning is the ease of use after choosing a genre or collection. Using the GamePad all you have to do is swipe to the left or to the right and choose your movie on the GamePad. There is a second or so delay while the movies load on screen but I found this easier than using a remote control.

The Wii U does not support DVD or Blu-Ray functionality due to the cost of licenses and patents. The President of Nintendo went on record saying that many people in today’s society have devices that support those functions and it wouldn’t be in Nintendo’s best interest to support DVD and Blu-Ray in their upcoming console. This in my opinion is smart because it drives the cost to the consumer down which in turn makes it obviously more accessible.

Seeing what the Wii U is capable of in terms of game play, accessibility and community support, it’s easy to see that Nintendo has made a solid console. My concern is lack of third-party support and the risk Nintendo will take to support those third parties that make up so much of the games market. Also, one of my gripes is the lack of original titles Nintendo produced at launch(even though Nintendo’s self proclaimed launch window stretches to March, which is absurd). So, like everything else on this green earth, only time will tell if Nintendo has come up with a console to compete with today’s ever stretching console cycles and the inevitable future high-definition console behemoths that lurk just around the corner, Sony and Microsoft.

The Wii U

INTRODUCING…..
Wii U, Nintendo’s first HD console was released yesterday. With all units being extremely hard to come by and sold out at Game Stop, I was glad I had pre-ordered mine day one. I was first in line at my local Game Stop eagerly awaiting my new  console, Christmas had come early. Unlike the Wii, I was excited for this launch. Nintendo hadn’t piqued my interest in quite sometime and it had been long overdue. After purchasing my Wii U, I returned home to clean the house, so I could fully relax, and unboxed the Wii U……….

After unboxing, setting the console up, and downloading the horrendously long 4.5 GIG OS update(which if you purchased the white base model Wii  U, that’s half your internal memory)it was time to tinker. The game pad is noticeably light and sits in your hands rather comfortably. The touch screen is fairly responsive to the finger and surgical with it’s stylus. Also, there is no noticeable lag between screens. The graphics are crisp and colorful, and with New Super Mario Bros. U running at 60 fps, the screen turns to an orgy of color and bliss.

Some downfalls and noticeable hiccups are the painstaking long load times that don’t seem to run at any certain length, running from 20-40 seconds, possibly longer. For you non-gamers, that’s a long time. Also, the rather short battery life on the game pad is annoying. Lasting for roughly 6 hours on a 2.5 hour charge.  After all the updates and tinkering yesterday, I didn’t really get the opportunity to just sit down and enjoy any of the games for any significant amount of time. Another thing that threw me off was the Pro Controller, the Xbox looking controller. Having bought the controller thinking it would work with all games, I was dead wrong. After conducting a full investigation and digging through the interweb, I came to the conclusion that the Pro Controller doesn’t work with the games I bought(New Super Mario Bros. U and ZombiU). It also didn’t work with Nintendo Land, the game that came with the console. I was a little pissed. It seems that those games only work with the old style Wii remote. So, I’m not too sure what the Pro game pad is good for. I THINK it’s used for hardcore games such as Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed, investigation pending.

Has Nintendo sparked another gaming revolution or is this just another half-assed gimmick deployed to conjure up money for a monetarily crippled Nintendo(they’re selling these consoles at a loss)? We’ll see in the coming months and the following year when the long rumored new Xbox and Playstation are (maybe) revealed. All in all, I am super pleased with the Wii U. Nintendo has always been the ‘more daring’ company when it comes to gaming consoles and it shows. Barring the minor details that would probably only bother the hardcore gamer like myself, the Wii U is a solid piece of machinery, so far. I’ll be interested to see what new concepts and ideas gaming developers come up with that utilize the tv and gamepad.