Videogame characters we really care about

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They aren't just pixels, they're personalities

Alyx | Half-Life 2

An obvious choice perhaps, but Alyx is still the most interesting and credible woman in videogame history. The operative word being woman - Alyx is no hyper-sexualised doll aimed at exciting adolescent (and not so adolescent) boys.

She's confident but vulnerable, playful but serious, and by Christ if she was real (which she's not, remember, she's not real, always remember that) Alyx would just about be the most perfect woman alive. Yeeesh. We're off to drown ourselves.

But it's the little things that turn Alyx from a brilliantly scripted sidekick into a truly convincing character. Turn to Alyx during big conversations and she'll occasionally turn to you, meeting your eyes in a subtle but startling action. Sometimes she'll make a face, or shrug, and each one of these minute movements contributes massively to her tangible existence. Making it all the more thrilling to sneak a peek at her bum. Not that we'd ever do that. What if she caught us looking?

Anyway. Through your shared adventures the two of you build a believably close but platonic camaraderie - never more so than when Alyx pretends to be a zombie, or makes a lame 'Zombine' joke. So when, in Episode Two, Eli Vance wryly hints at a need for 'making babies', it's hard not to want to stare at your (non-existent) feet in awkward silence.

But it's the little things that turn Alyx from a brilliantly scripted sidekick into a truly convincing character. Turn to Alyx during big conversations and she'll occasionally turn to you, meeting your eyes ina subtle but startling action. Sometimes she'll make a face, or shrug, and each one of these minute movements contributes massively to her tangible existence. Making it all the more thrilling to sneak a peek at her bum. Not that we'd ever do that. What if she caught us looking?

Ben_Richardson

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.