There was a time, long, long ago, when video games were populated mainly by mustachioed Italian plumbers, cartoon fuzzballs and assorted cutesy critters, and about the sexiest thing going was Ms. Pac-Man.

Perhaps that's why Lara Croft, gun-toting heroine of the wildly popular Tomb Raider series, has caused a virtual hormonal stampede among 'game boys'. A cross between Indiana Jones and Yasmine Bleeth (her "measurements"-silicon-enhanced, of course-are said to be 34D-24-35).

Lara has already inspired dozens of sweatily adoring fan sites and a live-action film due July 2001. There are these thirty-year-old men who are completely obsessed with Lara, Eidos have received marriage proposals and thousands of e-mails requesting her home address.

Sure, there's something a bit sad about a video-game junkie dreaming about getting some play out of his PlayStation. But when it comes to pinup worship, hasn't reality always been beside the point?