Retro Video Gamer

Right, seen as this is being discussed all over the place right now, most notably on another retro forum, I thought I would throw this out there for the folks here. We actually had a brilliant discussion about this in the chatbox this very evening which has prompted me to post this thread.

Below is the video that is causing all the controversy so I suggest you all watch it before commenting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 6p5AZp7r_Q (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X6p5AZp7r_Q)

For me the presenter is talking utter nonsense through most of the video and trying to create an issue of sexism in video games that just isn't there. The story of the damsel in distress goes back centuries, as she actually kind of alludes to in this video. It is still used in films to this day without people moaning about it and is even used in novels and stories aimed at women! For many women the thought of being saved by hunky man is their ultimate fantasy, are they wrong to think this? And on the flip side what about the stereotype of the big hunky man? She doesn't mention that in her video or how that might make men feel inadequate!

At the end of the day there have been many strong females in gaming, which whether she likes it or not has always been a male dominated industry. Not just in who makes the games but also who plays them. How can she deny female characters such as Ms. Pacman, Tyris Flare from Golden Axe, Blaze Fielding from Streets Of Rage, Gauntlet's Valkyrie or Lara Croft?

I am sure we could all come up with many more examples too!

For those who missed the chat Laird, Crusto+myself had earlier, few others that came up:

The Boss from MGS 3:Snake Eater, not only is she Snake's mentor, but gives her life to avoid the start of WW3 (ie Nuclear war).


The Hag from Cauldron on C64/Speccy, not a looker, but sets off to destroy the evil in 1st game, saves the day, get corrupted, is the evil force in the sequel.

Main character's in the following:

D (Saturn, 3DO, PSone), Parasite Eve(PSone, PSP), Heavenly Sword (PS3), Ada Wong (REs.Evil 4 sub missions), Maria (SH2 Born from A wish sub mission), Characters in Project Zero/Fatal Frame series (PS2/Xbox), Black Cop in Urban Chaos (DC/PSone/PC), Ripley in Alien 3 (SNES/MD), Tresspasser PC (sure you played as a woman), Palace Software's Barbarian 2-Choice of male or female character, as was in Death Trap Dungeon PS1 if my memory serves.Resident Evil series, Jill, Claire etc, Eternal Darkness on Gamecube.
Jade Empire, Starwars:Knights Of The Old Republic 2 (forget her name, but in my crew was a blind, woman character and bloody powerful she was too)

Killbot 'concerned' about gay's  putting people off games?- no-one mentioned Valkyria Chronicles on PS3 over on RG, mores the damn pity-Strong female characters, homosexual soliders, male+female, i played game to completition, found story gripping, powerful and moving, some of the scenes bleak as hell, subject matter of war, sacrifice etc superbly handled.

The sexuality aspects covered differed from my own personal view points in areas, yet i poured hours into the game as it was just that, a game, i did'nt stop and think, ohh should i really be playing this?, i'm not gay, never understood the whole homosexuality thing, but then never felt the need to, to me, it's like Fly Fishing, i know it goes on, has done for years, zero appeal to myself, so why worry about it?.




Plus, IF she wants to be 'picky', i've played as the living dead in:Stubbs The Zombie (Xbox), Medievil (PSone), Vampire in likes of Legacy Of Kain, Soul Reaver series etc as countless animals, droids, half-man/half beast creatures (Minters works plus Shadow Of The Beast), as a vegtable that knows kung-fu, as a mutant, as a baby,a tooth brush, some real out there shit and long may it continue.




If this woman is sooo concerned, why stop there? get that camera warmed up, you've the whole aspect of race, cruelty to animals, children etc etc yet to cover.....

The video gaming  industry is FAR from perfect, but compared to cinema, it's still very much in it's infancy and finding it's feet.

Things like her video and some of the claptrap in that RG thread are doing far more harm to the image of gaming and gamers than the games themselves.

Wish she and the media would stop trying to lay the evils of the world squarely at the feet of gaming, look to music, books, films, TV, the workplace rather than singling out gaming.


IF she want's to try some 'clever' gaming, may i suggest she tries Silent Hill 2, love to see what she makes of James, Killzone series, play 1-3 then i'll tell her just who the REAL bad guys were (answer, it side your playing as, they caused the Helgan war), Silent Hill:S.M and wait till she gets the ending.Turns things right around.

I think this has been done to death for most of us on RG.

We are all gay, racist, sexist and homophobic.

Honestly very surprised not to see David Cage's work mentioned on that RG thread.

The role of the Female very much a key part of his work:

Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in USA), Heavy Rain, the Kara tech demo, upcoming Beyond:2 souls.


Then you've Naughty Dog with it's gun slinging, ass kicking females in the Uncharted series or their up and coming The Last Of Us.

Reasoned debate is seemingly exclusive to RVG at this time. Hence the comparative lack of discussion over here. Trolling and the like generates more traffic unfortunately.

Quote from: "Crusto"Reasoned debate is seemingly exclusive to RVG at this time. Hence the comparative lack of discussion over here. Trolling and the like generates more traffic unfortunately.

I left for work just before 17:00 yesterday, thread was going along fine on RG (well, i say 'fine, more like SNAFU, but that's the norm for over there, last post i read was Clarance VS DC Rip, Clarances you'don't speak for the forum, came home this morning, just after 07:00, saw the thread had been locked and grown in pages and thought oh-oh....

Reading through the stuff i missed....ok then....Darran, IF your reading, hi, rember our chat few weeks back on here, about best thing RG forum could do with is total shutdown for 6 months, let things cool down, get technical issues sorted etc?.....hows that idea looking now?


:-).


Utter disbelief, Killbot is now the Terminator of posters in my eyes, he just cannot be reasoned with and is unstoppable, Killbot a series T-800 Model, upgrade from T-600, (has a thivk skin, not rubber), Infiltrator  class and like Arnie said....I'll be back, Killers certainly was, lol, the whole thread reminded me of the scene from Terminator where the T-800 has asked the Police SGT.about Sarah Connor, left the building saying 'Ill be back', desk SGT carries on scribbling away, next thing, BAM!!!! Police car driven through front of building, desk SGT crushed and the shit kicks off!


So much was covered surprised the topic of:Would you play a game made by a gay man? did'nt come up.

Answer from myself, yes, have done and continue to do so, some of his stuff has been fantastic, some of it very dissapointing.What does that make me?.

As for gay sex scenes, there was some bizzare back-door action in Killing Zoe, Shin Juku Triad Society and few other DVD's in my collection, i've never watched them in presence of a family member, my gran passed away years ago (and could'nt work the VCR, let alone the DVD player).

Any other boxes to tick that have no real connection to a thread title?.


Just trying to generate the site traffic RG gets.....:-).

WTF guys? WTF?...... just kidding 

carry on..no locking going on here...

@Rogue you should email Darren Jones that post you've just written..if anything it makes pure sense in all aspects of the troubles allowed to be carried on over there, it simply will be shut down permanently by IP Publishing, never to be re-opened thanks to the bunch of trolls with nothing better to do with there time, they probably don't even go out for fresh air. very sad..very sad and ohh yeah pathetic as well. Ruining it for everyone else, that actually likes to talk about there hobby.

A comedy reply to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCPg0nflH9Y (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCPg0nflH9Y)

and factual 

Quote from: "Greyfox"WTF guys? WTF?...... just kidding 

carry on..no locking going on here...

@Rogue you should email Darren Jones that post you've just written..if anything it makes pure sense in all aspects of the troubles allowed to be carried on over there, it simply will be shut down permanently by IP Publishing, never to be re-opened thanks to the bunch of trolls with nothing better to do with there time, they probably don't even go out for fresh air. very sad..very sad and ohh yeah pathetic as well. Ruining it for everyone else, that actually likes to talk about there hobby.

It's honestly gone beyond the point of NO return over there.My earlier post? a mockery look at it, but in cold light of day...


What a massive waste of a golden example to show just how wrong claims by the media etc that gaming only portrays women in 1 way (as sex objects etc), so much scope there to show how gaming has evolved, how certain developers poured a real effort in to not only balance thinks out, but turn sterotypes on their head.Intelligent, strong, female characters, scarifice etc going undiscovered and so forth.


Instead we got another cringe-worthy display, all the old classics came out, reason went out the window, people asked to justify far more than the post's they made, thier beliefs, etc etc

And you know what? rather than close the site, i bet the 'suits' over there bloody loved it, word of mouth spread, flurry of site traffic, look what's being said etc etc, it drew people to it and yet all it's really done is shame the gaming industry even further as any non-gamer reading it must have thought:

OMG! Is this for real?.

F-ing great Golf clap, no seriousily, take a bloody bow, you've just helped further the belief by the media etc that gaming can never be viewed in same manner as films , books, TV shows etc as it still shows NO sign of growing up and has no fecking idea how to debate some very real issues.If the likes of sexism in gaming cannot even get an intelligent thread going and strayed wildly into what was basically a: are you homophobic? YES/NO/ borderline, please write 20,000 words to justify our previous answer... area, then god help us all.


My how far we've come, never mind the great work say MGS3:Snake Eater does in with The Boss character (and there's sadism, homosexuality, manner more underlying themes in the other characters), hell no, lets take things back to the playground level of debate and let the media continue to falsely accuse gaming of a multitude of sins, post scaremongering stories with bare minium of reasearch.


The topic got flurry of posts, lot of site traffic, so no-wonder it's not closed down.Pathetic all round.


Close the forum, just seriousily close it, burn it, put the ashes in a lead-lined box, concrete over the box, blast box into the heart of the sun, gaming will never move on whilst 'debates' like that are allowed to thrive on forums like that.

If there's a car crash, police etc close road, only re-open when it's safe, on RG, road is closed (thread locked) new roads built ripe for more car crashes...

The final irony on that there RG thread, and 1 i'm very surprised no-one has picked up on...


Correct me if i'm wrong but there was not 1 single post from a FEMALE gamer on there, despite the forum having some females on board.

I'd loved to have seen Helen or Riona put forward their viewpoints, but looking at what was being thrown around on there, i cannot blame them for steering well clear of that shitstorm.

Would'nt just have been brilliant for a few women gamers to post in there from their viewpoints and gaming experiences and what they want from the industry, how they feel they are being portrayed in games etc, a chance to get both sides of the coin, again, would really have taken the topic to further realms of discussion, instead it degenrated into paranoia etc.

Quote from: "Rogue Trooper"The final irony on that there RG thread, and 1 i'm very surprised no-one has picked up on...


Correct me if i'm wrong but there was not 1 single post from a FEMALE gamer on there, despite the forum having some females on board.

I'd loved to have seen Helen or Riona put forward their viewpoints, but looking at what was being thrown around on there, i cannot blame them for steering well clear of that shitstorm.

Would'nt just have been brilliant for a few women gamers to post in there from their viewpoints and gaming experiences and what they want from the industry, how they feel they are being portrayed in games etc, a chance to get both sides of the coin, again, would really have taken the topic to further realms of discussion, instead it degenrated into paranoia etc.

This is a great point actually, I am quite surprised that Rinoa did not post. I will have to ask her what she thought, she is a friend of mine.

Quote from: "The Laird"

Quote from: "Rogue Trooper"The final irony on that there RG thread, and 1 i'm very surprised no-one has picked up on...


Correct me if i'm wrong but there was not 1 single post from a FEMALE gamer on there, despite the forum having some females on board.

I'd loved to have seen Helen or Rinoa put forward their viewpoints, but looking at what was being thrown around on there, i cannot blame them for steering well clear of that shitstorm.

Would'nt just have been brilliant for a few women gamers to post in there from their viewpoints and gaming experiences and what they want from the industry, how they feel they are being portrayed in games etc, a chance to get both sides of the coin, again, would really have taken the topic to further realms of discussion, instead it degenrated into paranoia etc.

This is a great point actually, I am quite surprised that Rinoa did not post. I will have to ask her what she thought, she is a friend of mine.

I'd be interested to hear her views on the subject, see if you can get her to sign up on here, be fantastic to have her onboard here.

Well, I finally had a chance to watch the videos and read through this.  I haven't looked over in RG forum and I really don't want to anyway.  In any case, this type of video is absurd.  Clearly the fact that there are plenty of female lead characters in video games is being ignored by her.  The answer video makes good points and really acknowledges that what we are seeing are stereotypes that have existed for a very long time.  But there is yet one more thing I'd like to mention.  Some people just have too much free time in their hands to gripe about anything.  If this woman is so unhappy about how females are characterized in video games, how about her taking action by funding/supporting/initiating development of a female-centric game rather than whine about it on a video? 

Quote from: "TrekMD"Well, I finally had a chance to watch the videos and read through this.  I haven't looked over in RG forum and I really don't want to anyway.  In any case, this type of video is absurd.  Clearly the fact that there are plenty of female lead characters in video games is being ignored by her.  The answer video makes good points and really acknowledges that what we are seeing are stereotypes that have existed for a very long time.  But there is yet one more thing I'd like to mention.  Some people just have too much free time in their hands to gripe about anything.  If this woman is so unhappy about how females are characterized in video games, how about her taking action by funding/supporting/initiating development of a female-centric game rather than whine about it on a video?

What makes it worse is that she raised $150,000 through Kickstarter to make these dellusional rants

She could have spent that money doing something far more productive, including a game with strong female lead character.

Few more examples of women in games:

Blam! Machine head, Enemy Zero, Legend Of The Amazon Women (C64), Enigma Force (C64), Ex-Mutants, Zombies Ate My neighbours, Wiz N Liz, Ninja Warriors, Blades Of Vengence (MD), Ex-Mutants, Nights Into Dreams, Pandemonium-0All had a woman at very least as playable/selectable character.

Heavy Metal Fakk 2 PC-Not only had a female character, but it was  the coders wife who you were basically playing as!.Cannot get much more equal rights than that, i'll code game, but put YOU as the star.

Then there's:

Dungeon Master (females in your team), Starcraft:Ghost (canned but you played as a female), Beyond Good+Evil, Bayonetta, Brute Force, Sabotuer 2 (8 Bits, female Ninja), Hunted:The Demons Forge, Mirrors Edge, Vixen, Athena, Psycho Solider, No-One Lives Forever, Lollipop Chainsaw, Castlemaster, Alma from the F.E.A.R series, Tanya from C+C:Red Alert, SHODAN (System Shock), Fear Effect girls, Nightshade (PS2, again, female Ninja), Oni.......


Powerful,  (and more often than not ) playable female characters been in games as long as i've been playing the blighters.

Well, there's always Metroid of course. But I particularly enjoy the role of Alyx Vance in HL2. Triss Merigold in The Witcher games is another good female character, particularly in the sequel.

Characters like Juliet Starling in Lollipop, and the elf in Hunted: The Demon's Forge - hmm. Bit more borderline there, even more so Ayumi in Blades of Time. Needless to say, I have played all of them.

There have even been a few licensed sports games starring famous women:

(http://www.365games.co.uk/product_images/pc_and_video_games/games/ps2/pippa_funnell_ranch_rescue_xl.jpg)   (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513Z9AVN5RL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

(http://www.megghy.com/immagini/Psx/FICHE%20A/COVERS/Anna_Kournikova_Smash_Court_Tennis_pal-front.jpg)   (http://www.retrocopy.com/images/gamedb/megadrive/jennifer-capriati-tennis-cover.jpg)

(http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/box/0/2/8/577028_85617_front.jpg)   (http://www.lukiegames.com/thumbnail.asp?file=assets/images/GBC/BoxScans/GBC_Mia_Hamm_Soccer_Shootout_Box.jpg&maxx=300&maxy=300)

Personally don't see either L.Chainsaw or Hunted's female characters as 'boderline'.With Lollipop you've a female character doing the arse-kicking, her boyfriend reduced to a very minor sub-role, LOL.The Elf in Hunted fights alongside you, i had her rescue my arse on numerous occ. when i was mere seconds away from death, so they are playing either an equal or main role in the games.they are'nt powerless, needing a man to rescue them etc.

I don't think the rescuer/rescued dynamic is really the point. It's all about depictions of women really. Would you really say that in terms of their imagery that either Juliet Starling or the elf in Hunted are positive female role models and, more to the point, more credible characters than the likes of Alyx Vance? I certainly don't, but each to their own.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Quote from: "Havantgottaclue"I don't think the rescuer/rescued dynamic is really the point. It's all about depictions of women really. Would you really say that in terms of their imagery that either Juliet Starling or the elf in Hunted are positive female role models and, more to the point, more credible characters than the likes of Alyx Vance? I certainly don't, but each to their own.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

You talk of 'credible' characters, but look at the settings of the 2 games:Hunted is your usual fantasy based affair, yet the Elf is'nt some buxom wench trapped awaiting rescue, or kidnapped by a Demon/Evil wizzard or some such twaddle, she plays just as an active role as the male character here in the game, much like say Deathtrap Dungeon did on PS1.

It can be argued that the male character in Hunted suffers from just the same amount of sterotypes as the female character, as he's protrayed as brawn with very little brains, driven by lust for gold etc, ignores the sound advice given by his female companion and as i said it's often she that has to rescue him, from scrapes he's got the pair of them into.


With Lollipop Chainsaw, your talking a humour based game, i mean you cannot really class a 'Zombie hunting cheerleader' as anything other than a modern day Buffy.Entire game is just designed to be a humour based look at US Culture, movies etc and rather than have the campus Jocks doing the arse kicking, here they are mewling babies in need of saving.


These games are a long way from the likes of say Emmmanuelle on the ST where the woman in question exists only for 1 thing.


We've also had Ingrid in Gnome Ranger, female characters in Where Time Stood Still+Heroes Of The Lance. Great Giana Sisters was the flipside of Super Mario Brothers....so games have tried to adress the balance on numerous occassions.

Alyx Vance was indeed a strong character, but she was just 1 of a cast of strong characters, the Resistance still very male based for starters, your Nemesis was the sterotypical Mad Doctor type, a boffin that became corrupted by power, claiming he was doing it foor good of the human race etc.

Should have mentioned this earlier, as have had it sat on my shelf for wks now:

Velvet Assassin Xbox 360

Violette Summer WW2 British Spy based affair, will report back on once i start playing, but again, female character in role most games have as male....


Along with Kameo on 360 (i really need to start clearing lot of untouched games).


The following i'm NOT suggesting as 'role models' per say, but just as further proof that lasses claims of videogames offering up women as being the passive victims etc is utter cobblers, as so many take very different approach:

Death By Degreees PS2, Stolen Xbox/PS2, Midwinter 2-Design your own male or female character, Bad Company (ST) Male+Female characters in 2P mode, Rogue Ops PS2/Xbox, Cy Girls PS2, Hydrophobia PSN/XBL, Rod Land, Hammerfist 8/16 Bit/Konix, Corporation (Core) gives you choice from:2 male, 2 female and 2 android agents, Enter The Matrix, Phantasy Star (MS) you play as a girl out to avenge death of her brother and finally Alter Ego C64, which came in either Male OR Female edition.



There's so much material she could have used from the early to modern days, but no....

I can't believe I forgot this game (and it's sequel) until now, this is a great example!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RmXfJqrlp8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RmXfJqrlp8)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEF6oyZI-bA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEF6oyZI-bA)

Whilst the industry clearly has long way to go, in order to get it's house in order (Bioware scribe Ann Lemay talks of industry resistance to creating diverse female characters, let alone those who are non-white males and developer of upcoming Remember Me, talks of how a lot of publishers passed the project up due to female lead and then there's reports that games that feature Women leads only get 50% of the advertising budget, male character games get...)

A lot of her points are often rendered mute, fact is there are games in past, present+future with strong female characters, we're listing them here (adding Remember Me, MODS to DK-can now play as Pauline rescuing Mario, Legend Of Zelda, now play as Zelda and likes of Wet+Enslaved) and i've only to look at whats UK best seller at moment-Tomb Raider, to see games with strong women characters in remain very much alive.

More women in games:

Yolanda (Daughter of Hercules no less) 8+16 Bit micros.

Magic Girl, Monster World IV, Panorama Cotton on MD, Popful Mail on CD...

Quote from: "The Laird"I can't believe I forgot this game (and it's sequel) until now, this is a great example!

I can.  It's called tunnel vision. They only see what they want to see.   

Few more:

Park Patrol C64-Choice of Male or Female parkie.

Insects In Space C64-Ok, she was tits oot, but it was St.Helen killing the Aliens and saving the babies, not some ultra butch Space Marine type.

What about Super Gran? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcW3fN_gcJk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcW3fN_gcJk)

:21:

[align=center:3ntn9t9j](http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-CRqXMLJfdcY/UUtDRZyf4TI/AAAAAAAA-pg/u9Z7fne8mMM/s679/6705627_700b_v2.jpg)[/align:3ntn9t9j]

Is that Velma from Scooby Doo?

Quote from: "onthinice"Is that Velma from Scooby Doo?

 

Rogue Trooper mentioned the game Velvet Assassin,

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B8Md9hg_YtU/TM6zo-SyClI/AAAAAAAAA1w/LF7XMEYcj8A/s1600/Velvet_Assassin.jpg)

I bought this a while ago and played it a bit, some of these stealth games I really love while others bore the hell out of me which is what happened with this one. Still though if you're looking for a strong female character in a game this is definitely a good example.

Good timeframe for a spy game.

Quote from: "onthinice"Good timeframe for a spy game.

Few yeas back, Hideo K. (Of MGS frame) talked of doing a MGS game set during WW2, which i thought would have been THE perfect era, Spies, Black Op's weapon programmes, Vengence weapons, super solider programmes etc.


Sadly nothing ever came of it....


Few more female character options or leads in games:

Pocahontas, various Alice (in wonderland )games over the years, Cutie Suzuki Ringside Angel (MD) female wrestlers, Starfleet A.:Starship Bridge Sim, could either be male or female cadet, Amy (PS3), Time Gal (MCD), Rolling Thunder 2 MD-choice of male or female agents, Beauty+the beast:Belle's Quest, Ariel (The little mermaid, not the washing powder) and Barbie:Supermodel.

Space Quest also had:

Admiral Beatrice Wankmeister, chortle...

That is too bad it was not released. Good list Rogue Trooper. The games have been there if a person looks past the current generation.

Quote from: "onthinice"That is too bad it was not released. Good list Rogue Trooper. The games have been there if a person looks past the current generation.

A WW2 MGS game without the usual 3 weeks worth of cutscene crap (here's a cutscene, within a cutscene which is showing a cutscene flashback to a cutscene....) on say PS4, would get me very interested or hell, better still, do it on Vita as then i'd have a reson to show interest in the format (Peace Walker proved you can do a top notch MGs game on portable).


As for females in games, yep, she either never bothered to look very far, or just took examples to suit her rant, i'm adding:

Cutthroat Island-choice of male/female characters.

Great Circus Mystery starring Mickey+Minnie, so sharing the glory.

Then there is f course:

A Vampyre Story, Lucas Arts, you play as lady Vamp, Mona De Laffite, Guardian Heroes has Seelena as selectable character, Loaded had Vox, Malicious on PSN lets you play as male or female character, Tenchu:Wrath Of Heaven-you can play as male or female characters, the female, Ayame, plays very differently to the male character.

Not forgetting:The Smurfs:Travel The World (GG), play as Smurf or Smurfette.

Once you start looking at 1-on-1 fighters you will find multiple examples in pretty much every game.

Jade and Sonya in Mortal Kombat, Chun-Li and Cammy in Street Fighter 2/Alpha, Volcana in Ultra Vortek, Sara and Pai in Virtua Fighter series and I could go on and on . . . . .

Adding even more...

O.D.T PSone, Zoe (LBA2), Nadia (Nightmare Creatures) and Undercover 2025AD Dreamcast-you played as female cop (based on Jap.novel)

More fine examples.

Apoligies if these 2 have been mentioned but:Space Channel 5 games and Dino Crisis, both have female's out to save the day.

thought of a few more:

Hired Guns (PC update of amiga game) 4 in your party 3 males+1 female, so not a boys only club.

IF that lass wants to moan at Rare on Nintendo formats, i suggest she looks at Jet force Gemini, yes you start as a male character, then unlock female character and finally the dog character.

PC wise again:Drakan your character is the heroine, Rynn.

City Of Lost Children:you play as a 12 year old girl!.

Don't think following been brought up:

Malice (PS2/Xbox) red headed little girl.

Deus Ex 2-Choice of M or F character.

yuna (FFX-2)

Dark Angel.

Fei Yin (Virtual On)

Illbleed

And MOH:Underground you played as Manon this time around, where as she just briefed you in the 1st game!.

More that she missed :-)

Kusanagi:Ghost In The Shell:Stand Alone Complex.

Zoe from Dreamfall.

April from The Longest Journey.

The Mother protecting her daughter in Sony's Forbidden Siren games PS2/PS3.

PN03's Vanessa G.C.

even more :-)

Cannon Spike DC
The Da Vinci code
Gretcher from Knights contract
Trickstyle DC
Niobe (Enter The Matrix)
Seven Blades
Alone In The Dark IV (play as male or female)
Maken's X+Shao
Blade-A PC swords/sorcery game had choice of male barbarian, Dwarf or female amazon.
The Mummy
Despira DC

And why only male tennis players in Virtua Tennis on DC?-Producers said they went for male playters to create a powerful tennis game and there were many more male sports fans in terms of videogame sports, so they wanted them to be able to identify with the characters during a game.

Was just playing Citadel on the BBC Micro and you can choose between Male or Female.

Fading Shadows (PSP) Sister use's brothers soul (trapped in an orb) to save the world, so it's she who's tasked with guiding his soul to saftey, defeating the evil etc etc, not him, so she's far from in need of rescuing herself.

Here's another game with a female lead character...

[align=center:2jvasiwx]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjSYKcdC8lc[/align:2jvasiwx]