Virtual girls pose for Playboy

She is 1.7m tall with piercing green eyes and an eye-popping '36-22-36' figure - and she's appearing topless in the next issue of Playboy.

To most men she would seem perfect. But before you rush, accidentally of course, to the top shelf be warned - this woman is so perfect it can only mean one thing. She isn't real.

She is Bloodrayne, the half-vampire, half-human heroine of the video game BloodRayne, in which she does battle with other vampires.

The computer-generated beauty will appear in the October issue with a number of other virtual characters.

They include Milena, Kurenai and Luba Licious, although not all will be in the virtual buff.

The union of Hugh Hefner's title with the game proves the age of video game players is increasing.

The average Playboy reader is male, aged 33 and in a well-paid job - much the same as the average game player.

'The Playboy thing is nothing more than just another cool thing we can do with this franchise,' said Laura Heeb, of BloodRayne creator Majesco.

A BloodRayne movie starring Sir Ben Kingsley and former model Kristanna Loken will be released next year.