oh yeah jill valentine!

My first was either Bastila from KotOR or the stripper from Dead to Rights...

Aerith/Aeris.

DAMN YOU SEPHIROTH

Cortana, I didn't like her that much in Halo 1, but in Halo 2 and 3 I kinda had a thing for her, she was sexy, intelligent, funny, the occasional damsel in distress.

Tanya from RA:2!

Endless years of chasing a girl always ends with a kick to the face.

Hmm I've have to say Laura Croft was my first gaming crush. I think Alex from HL2 and recently Elika are pretty sweet and not just tits an ass.

pepper from lego island

i found out a few years later he was actually a boy much to my dismay

My first crushes were possibly every female character from the Dead or Alive series.
And the Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude ladies.
.. And the Final Fantasy girls (:

No really people this is getting real creepy. You do realize that they are animated things right. You people claiming you got hot for a video game character is like some one jackin off to marge from the simpsons. Its creep right. Really go look at jessica alba or some other REAL WOMAN and try for even a second to defend your gaming crush.

Get out of your parents basements and go meet some real people. For Christ sake its so weird.

Sheva from Resident Evil 5.

Tali Zora Nah'Rya from mass effect is my current crush. That accent drives me crazy!

Alyx from Half-life 2

while princess daphne and samus were both contenders for my borderline-pubescent affections (the latter mostly due to the "best" ending of metroid 2), my young gamer's heart belonged to chun li. no explanation should be necessary.

nowadays i require a little more substance in my fictional, non-photo realistic women, so i'll go with chie from persona 4.

Calm down DawgsFan117, dont have a gigglefitz, just an article

Anyway for me i felt pretty attached to Ashley Williams from Mass Effect... well as so as i got over her having the same name as Bruce Campbell from evil dead at least.

My first was Alyx Vance. (HL2)
She felt so real, like you really could help her, it felt like you chose to help Alyx and her freinds and that made you feel really good. When she laughed, you smiled, when she came to help you, you were glad that she was next to you. When she got stabbed through the back, you damn near had a heart attack and prayed that she would be alright. Alyx looked out for you throughout Episodes 1&2 and you watched her back. She felt like an honest to god person, freind and ally, with just the right hint of romantic tension.
Yes Alyx, there is room in this HEV suit for two, you can just crawl in.

As far as other ones go, I've always felt a little for Samus Aran (Who hasn't, the woman can curl into a tiny ball, that is just awesome) as well as The Pyro from TF2. That's a girl under there dammit, all the signs are there. I really appreciate her jovial pyromania. She really loves her job.

chris, other posters may give you shit about bridget, but let me say i'm glad to see you've gotten over your bird fetish.

@ Dawgsfan117 - Really? You want to be THAT guy?

To DawgsFan117 and others claiming this is creepy and us to get a life: Most of us have a life, thank you very much. And if you can't appreciate a crush on a fictional character you can't appreciate fiction in any way, because it relies on making relateble scenarios for us to live in, so denying a crush for a fictional character as normal is to deny us as humans can't enjoy a work of fiction because it isn't real. Too bad there a millions of Lord of The Rings/Startrek/Star Wars/William Shakespeare/H.P. Lovecraft/Harry Potter/(and many, many more fiction worlds) aficionados to prove you wrong, or even movie goers or literature appreciators really. Also, you telling us to look for Jessica Alba or whichever actress is just as creepy. Creepier still because they're real women with real lives completely different to what you fantasize about and for you to have hots for them constitutes you as a stalker, not to mention it is also complete fantasy to think about them as possible lovers just as well.

As for myself... it really is hard to pinpoint a first, because my first games were of the likes of Might and Magic and... well, Heroes of Might and Magic... but I guess it was probably Yufie from FFVII.

Yes. Yufie. It was a time I was younger, naive and the most I'd know about a game's story was that the protagonist's name, so I could tolerate a Final Fantasy without fuss. Still, I liked her. She looked funny, she had a joyful demeanor... and she had short hair, a weakness of mine to this day... (all my girlfriends had short hair, save one... it didn't last long).

Later on I had a crush on Elena from SFIII, for much the same reasons. More recently Tira from Soul Calibur, though she's joyful in a very wrong way. So pretty much all of the short haired cute gals of gaming could fit here, but mostly because they're so rare. But no, I didn't feel anything for Ivy of SC.

Sorry for a bit of semantic errors here. My bad, long post.