'Cleavages to blow Lara out of water'

The first gay couple to appear in a computer video game have made their debut as lesbian adventurers.

Eidos, the software company that invented Lara Croft for its Tomb Raider game, has unveiled Hana and Rain as the newest cyber babes on the block.

In Britain the Gay Times welcomed the "world's first cyberdykes." It said Hana and Rain "have the potential - and the cleavages - to blow Lara out of the water."

Hana, who is part-French and part-Chinese, first made her appearance in a PlayStation game last year but now she has been teamed up with Rain for a prequel called Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix.

Their arrival coincides with the transfer of Tomb Raider to the movie screen.

In one scene the girls are shown scantily clad and sprawled over each other reading a magazine called Big Guns.

The game, which has been given a cinema-style 15-certificate in Britain, is set in the second quarter of the 21st century when a deadly genetic diseasesweeps the globe.

Hana is given the mission of stealing a DNA sequence from the headquarters of a Hong Kong company.

The booklet with the game hints at the sexual nature of the women's relationship, describing Hana as "desired by many yet belonging only to one."

A spokeswoman for Eidos said the couple were supposed to be gay and Sony said it had not tried to censor the lesbian scenes. "We don't want to stifle creativity."

Angelina Jolie, who plays Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider movie, has spoken of a past lesbian affair.

- STAFF REPORTER