Manhunt 2

Whatever your opinion about sex in videogames, the simple fact is this: games won’t really be taken seriously as an art form until they can get certain things right, and one of those things is sex. It’s an essential component of film, music, books, paintings and even television, and yet gaming lags sadly behind.

Part of this is because games still haven’t quite shaken their kiddie-toys stigma, but mostly it’s because the rare games that try to get sex right almost never do. The results of their endless efforts tend to range from mildly off-putting to outright mortifying, with varying levels of ugliness and hilarity in between. Maybe someday, we’ll see an in-game love scene that doesn’t make us recoil in horror – but in the meantime, here are 13 that did...

A lot can happen in 10 years. And it has. As part of this week's post-mortem of the last decade in gaming, we now present for you some of the weirdest, depressing, arousing, significant, entertaining and amusing events, happenings and milestones that have occurred in the wonderful world of games during the soon-to-be-expired Noughties.

In the second day of our 'Decade in gaming' mega-feature, we're looking at the most downright abominable gaming moments of the last 10 years.

Incestuous. That’s the best way to explain the ongoing relationship between horror films and games. First games stole from films in early licenses like Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, then horror films stole from games, most obviously in the ‘works’ of Uwe Boll like House of the Dead and BloodRayne.

Games are banned in two primary ways. The first is by corporate policy. When a company refuses to sell or distribute an unrated game, it is effectively censoring the game, but they can’t be entirely lampooned for attempting to maintain a positive image. Nintendo has every right to prevent “Sextrobes: Pornigins” from being released on the Wii

What’s the best part of any car race? The mad crazy wrecks. Hockey game? When a 6’5” Czech man-beast levels a lesser player with a right hook. Ultimate fighting? The whole thing. We like seeing people destroy each other; it’s in our blood. Or maybe it’s in their blood, and the way it spills everywhere and inspires unanimous ‘YEAHs from stadiums full of adrenaline junkies too timid to risk their own

Pain, eh? Nature's way of saying 'this'll learn ya' when you do something stupid like fall on your keys in a nettle patch made of razor wire. With salt on it. Videogame-wise, however, there's virtually no chance a game will be able to physically cause you pain. Thankfully, there's a much more cathartic alternative - you get to inflict it instead.

Videogames have always been violent. Violence is inherent in the medium, inseparable from the essential experience of playing games. Without competition and conflict resolved by violence, games wouldn’t be games: they’d be screensavers. Gore is a slightly different matter, though. Better graphics and physics have ushered in a new era of explicit gruesomeness.

Sega Superstars Tennis looked like an innocent enough release. How could a game about Sonic, Ulala and NiGHTS ever risk being banned in Europe? Or so you might think. Welcome to the crazy world of gaming politics, where zombies hug you and countries issue blanket bans