Video games are a complicated area of our culture. On one hand, they can be breathtaking and immersive, and a great way to throw yourself into a deep game. On the other hand, they can be terribly, terribly misogynistic.

Female gamers make up almost half of the gamer population, yet gaming is an area that is heavily targeted towards male gamers and catered to what they want to see. Games are presented with strong, muscular male leads, while the small number of female characters that audiences are given are usually terribly represented.

Female characters in games are seen as weak, annoying, and even when they are ‘strong’ characters, are absolutely oversexualized. Somehow, within the gaming world, you cannot put a woman in a game unless she is wearing practically nothing.

So here are five just really bad female character designs in video games. (And five good ones, to lift your spirits a bit.)

1. Cortona

This AI is found in the popular game "Halo" where she helps out the macho-man lead, Masterchief. Despite the fact that she’s just a computer program, game developers have made her incredibly sexual, giving her obvious curves and no clothes, only blue lines across her form to cover her. While she is an intricate part of the game series, for some reason, she is permanently naked.

2. Bayonetta

This titular character of the "Bayonetta" series is a tough and mysterious woman with amnesia and a lot of guns. While she is (mostly) clothed, she is seen with ridiculous curves, wearing a skin-tight outfit, incredibly high heels, and a backless top. While she fights, and in her figurines and online photos, she is exclusively seen in sexual and seductive poses, because that’s how you highlight her fighting of course.

3. Quiet

This character from "Metal Gear Solid V" is an incredibly powerful fighter, only she never talks (hence the name), and she wears almost nothing. Her outfit is a bikini, shredded tights, and combat boots. The game ‘justifies’ it as that she wears nothing since she breathes through her skin, but now we’re just getting ridiculous.

4. Matriarch Benezia

This enemy from "Mass Effect" is introduced as a brainwashed alien, a member of an exclusively female race. Besides her, and her obvious design issues (how is she keeping that top up?), almost every other member of this race you meet in the game is just as sexualized, with low cut tops and huge breasts. They make up all of the ‘dancers’ you meet in the game too. And Matriarch Benezia is even supposed to be a mother.

5. Jade

This playable character from "Mortal Kombat" is a strong fighter, with a fair amount of good attacks, with the obvious problem that she’s wearing practically nothing. It’s bad enough that there’s barely any selectable female characters in the game, but passing this off as a fighting outfit is just wrong.

And five good female character designs:

1. Aloy

This lead heroine from the recently released "Horizon Zero Dawn" is designed not for sexual adoration, but in order to be seen as a fighter, and an interesting character. The clothes she wear are armor, that cover her fully, and still show a bit of her youth and personality. While her clothes can change, most are fairly practical and modest, and serve as armor, not as a way to sexualize this character.

2. Ellie

This main character from "The Last of Us" is a young 14-year old girl, who is living through a zombie apocalypse. She is not only dressed the way a teenager would dress, but also in the way somebody in the apocalypse would dress and look. She had blood and dirt on her, as her story is not about making her nice to look at. She’s 14, and she was designed to look like it.

3. Mei

This playable character from "Overwatch" was one from many good female options from the game, but was chosen due to her incredibly practical outfit. Nothing is tight, no skin is showing, her outfit is purely for warmth and to please nobody.

4. Commander Shepard

This main character, again from "Mass Effect" technically counts as a well designed female character, although you can opt to play the male version of her. Female Commander Shepard is well designed, showing a well trained, well armored soldier. She is a fighter, and she is not designed to look pretty, or to be sexualized. As tough as a character she is, she looks it.

5. Lara Croft

This final entry is the one this list could not be complete without. Lara Croft, from the video game "Tomb Raider". While her outfits have changed over time, and some of her earlier clothing designs were a little short, her current design is fantastic. She is muscular, not hot. She wears a tank top or a thick jacket, and durable boots. Lara is a practical character and her design shows that, driving away from the older, more sexual designs, into something much better.

Honorable mentions:

• Chell from "Portal" (she isn’t sexualized, but you rarely see her)
• Samus from "Metroid" (her armor is fantastic, but her bikini reveal and Zero Suit Samus are incredibly sexualized)
• Princess Zelda from "Legend of Zelda" (her design is well done, but she is incredibly feminized)