Given the recent spread of the God of War II sex mini-game video and the probability that you're reading this after however way you managed to celebrate Valentines, now seems to be a good time to try to see how sex is included in our favorite pastime: videogames.

This article will look at the many ways game developers, and sometimes even players, translate/insert all things pheromone/hormone-induced into pixels seen on our monitors. We'll try to see why it's there and why gags like "hot coffee" are an inevitability.

If you're a puritanical prude, now would be a nice time to skip over this article. That aside, on to the big question: Why, oh why is there so much sex in videogames?

Sex sells
1UP's feature on the secret history of sex in videogames describes Lara Croft's assets as "rivals in a zeppelin race: enormous, triangular, reality defying"; combine those two big reasons with Lara's British accent, martini glass figure, and her take no bull attitude, and you've got the start of the era of boob in video games.

Yeah, "cheesecake" designed to lure in pubescent teenage boys has had various 2d prototypes in videogames before, but Lara really launched the era.

After Lara, tiny bits of sexual tension and attraction found their way into almost every videogame and videogames keep having a story/excuse that would allow for the presence of scenes that will fire off hormones. Even Metal Gear Solid wasn't safe. What? You don't remember clothed yet still sexy Meryl? Perhaps developers started taking notice of the fact that most of their audience is of a demographic that appreciates such forms of entertainment.