Mine has already been mentioned, but I have to go with Jade from Beyond Good & Evil. She was fully-clothed, smart-as-hell, and one of her most effective weapons was a camera. Something the gaming scene really needed at the time. A real shame it was received so poorly as far as sales went.

edit: Thanks for the giveaway! Good luck folks :)

Thanks for the giveaway! I'm in.

I'll go with FemShep too. I played the ME trilogy five times, four of that was with a female lead.

I have a few others (and those you will probably be able to guess some already have been said) but for me it has to be [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cortana_H4.png]Cortana [/url]. Strong, Intelligent, but also has a weaker side! who the heck couldn't look up to her?

What a great idea for a Giveaway, Thanks, and may i be in please?

I'm going to give a shout out to Nico from Broken Sword because no-one else has and she is French

I already bought the Tomb Raider megapack from Steam though and I'll probably attempt to play them in order, even the rubbish ones so I'll probably never get to the cool new one!

The new one's actually completely irrelevant towards the older ones, there's no continuity there.

Not in, since I guess I already own the price (and it's a fantastic Game, btw).

Now I wonder that no one has mentioned Cate Archer so far...she's not only a female character - she's also a female lead character in video games!

And a really ass-kicking one, if you ask me. :)

Poor Cate - first Activision lose her rights down the back of the sofa and now this!
Yeah, we should have thought of her sooner - she's ace!

Assuming the rules permit, I'd like to enter for Mr. 23rd. If not, please disregard this entry, since there's no way my laptop will run the game in question and my backlog looms over me cackling and taunting me day after day.

My favorite female character in a game is Sie from Alpha Protocol. She is strong and determined without being an Angelina or Milla-esque "action grrrl" and sensitive without being an overemotional Meg Ryan type of character. In fact, with the exception of perhaps Sis, I found all of the female characters well written in Alpha Protocol. Not something I can say about most games.

http://ludo.mwclarkson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sie.jpg


My favorite female character outside of games would be Angela Bassett as Mace in Strange Days. Excellent performance!

Well, its dependant on me finishing Messiah before anything else and I'll probably gnaw my own arm off trying to do that so its probably a moot point anyway!

I'd like to pick two, actually, but from the same game: Rydia and Rosa from Final Fantasy 2 on the SNES (aka Final Fantasy 4).
Both are strong characters and integral to the storyline.

Screenshot of the final boss battle showing both. (Spoiler?)

(Thanks for the giveaway.)

Not in, but thanks for your generosity, KTC!

Several of my choices have been taken, but, how about Kate Walker, from Syberia series or Alyx Vance, from Half-Life 2?

I am going to go with Grace Nakimura from Gabriel Knight series. I love her as the antithesis of Gabriel. She was everything he was not. A ying to GK's yang so to speak. She was especially awesome in GK 2. Without Grace, Gabriel probably would never have finished his first book. She is everything that women in games should be: Smart, Funny, and Resourceful. Not a swimsuit model with good dialogue..

Thanks for the give away!

First the perfunctory "Not in" and "+1"

I have two great female leads in mind. The first is Aya Brea from Parasite Eve. There is a scene at the very beginning of the game where she is in a sleek dress on a date at the opera. All hell breaks loose and people start to panic. She produces a gun from some hidden place on her person, shoves here panicking date aside and takes charge. At this point she rushes towards the danger as everyone else runs away.

Aya has been my favorite female game character for a very long time, but recently a new game has come along and I may have found a new favorite. I have recently grown to really like Erica Reed from the Cognition series. She is strong in the face of danger but still has very real vulnerabilities.

I definetly second this!

One of the few features that made UT2004 so special.

If she doesn't count I pick the Sorceress from Orcs must Die 2. The smug and naïve Warmage and the power hungry, smart sorceress are the perfect match.

April Ryan because she convincingly transforms from just some chick to savior of the universe or whatever happens at the end.