Claude from GTA3. I like my characters to be whatever I imagine them to be, with no pretentious annoying input from the developers. My Morrowind and Oblivion characters fall under this same umbrella.

The Heavy from TF2. he epitomizes everything that is manliness.

Plok. Anyone who is willing to tear off his own limbs just to kill his enemies is hardcore.

1. Duke Nukem
2. Master Chief
3. Kratos
4. Riddick (he has a game)

The reason I'm not putting Gordon Freeman in this is because he NEVER talks.

If Tony Soprano ever had his own video game, he'd be #1

KenzS:

If Tony Soprano ever had his own video game, he'd be #1

http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/roadtorespect/index.shtml

Kratos, from GoW.

Obvious, but.. Yeah.

1) Gordon Freemon
2) Kratos from tales of symphonia
3) Link
4) Samus Aran
5) Fiur from heroes III (i know you don't actually control him but you control his army)

Solid Snake.

Stubbs the Zombie...until you reach the end of the game.

geddydisciple:
1) Gordon Freemon

We need a MSPaint picture of a guy with dreads and a huge blunt in a HEV suit, STAT!

Badass: Basic space marine from Starcraft. That guy is so fucked and he knows it. But he stills happily throws himself at anything I care to click on.

The dude in Assassin's Creed. Never has being completely outnumbered felt so enjoyably effortless.

Capt. Price -being British I respect that type of facial hair.
Dan Smith - having a pistol so large it has to be rested on your shoulder is pretty cool by my books.
Max - no one messes with a psychotic bunny.
And
Ben Throttle - being set on fire, tortured by motorcycles, drinking petrol and suspending dogs in cars using giant magnets get him into the badass book.

Commander keen.

Gordon Freeman.
I smell the Negotiator around here.

Altair

Kratos, Duke Nukem and TG.Cid !!

I just got DMC3 recently and i'd put Dante but he seems to be badass only in cut-scenes, in the actual game he dies after 5 hits by ANYTHING, 2 hits if its a boss. Also for some reason he's hopped up on happy pills

Raiden - MGS2

Nah only joking. I'd say Kratos - God of War or Duke Nukem.

Frank from Dead Rising

Samus. Max (from Sam & Max). >.> Phoenix Wright (Well, I think he's cool!).

Crash bandicoot

The Punisher.

I know he's primarily a comic book character & the game was a spin-off from the film, but anyone who's played the game would agree that he's pretty badass compared to other video game characters.

Dual wielding M60's, torture/death by rhino, shark, cogs, cutting laser & many other inventive ways, psychotic episodes & flash backs, out-badassing Iron Man & Nick Fury in the same game...

imho

Everyoe is forgetting about gaming's most lovable unlucky phychopath, the nameless marine from Doom. I mean, he wipes out hordes of demons AND he even kicks Satan in Doom 3. Although, The Marine maybe be hard as 12 cows on steroids giving you dirty looks as you walk past thier ghetto field BUT he is no Duke Nukem. Any hero in the early 90's who was allowed to say "Eat shit and die!" or "I'm gonna cut off your head and shit down your neck!" is clearly above the law!

I'd have to say Mask de Masque from Killer 7. He is an ex-wrestler...who dual wields grenade launchers with pistol grips. You just can't get more awesome than that.

my voite has to go to the man in the hawwiaan shirt, tommy vercetti from vice city. he was ust one of the most entertaining and badass characters from any game ever, hands down.

geddydisciple:
1) Kratos from tales of symphonia
2) Gordon Freemon
3) Link
4) Samus Aran
5) Fiur from heroes III (i know you don't actually control him but you control his army)

Much better

Shinkada:

That or Yuri from Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Best RPG Main Hero ever.

Not only is Yuri incredibly badass, he's also one of the ONLY videogame main characters with a sense of humor/irony about his badassness.

Oh, also, Niko Belic from GTA IV, I'm not a GTA fanboy but I still found him VERY badass in the way he flippantly insults everyone regardless of the consequences, and the fact that he laughs when being tortured.

PedroSteckecilo:

Shinkada:

That or Yuri from Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Best RPG Main Hero ever.

Not only is Yuri incredibly badass, he's also one of the ONLY videogame main characters with a sense of humor/irony about his badassness.

I forgot about Yuri, he's definitely the most badass. I mean, what could possibly be more badass than turning into Amon?
The demon Amon is a badass of literally Biblical proportions. Even Satan & other demons fear Amon.

In a similar vein to Yuri, The Black Whirlwind form Jade Empire is a badass with sense of humour about his badassness, he's hilarious but only semi-playable.

I find very few fightinggame characters here (that I know of) so I have to say Eddie Gordo from Tekken 3.

Well, to be fair, characters in fighting games are really weak. I mean, Duke Nukem blows teh shit out of aliens,Final Fantasy characters either slice, dice, maul or cast thier enemy's to hell and dante, well, he's a demon. Fighting characters are weak beccause no matter how many times u snap the opponants neck or bash thier face into a bloody pulp into a wall its always a KO. Except in Mortal Kombat... thats the exception...

Klesk in Q3..you like spikes and weird alien jumping noice..he´s your ehm man..alien

Conker. He headshots fricken teddy bears!!!!

Beyond the Grave from Gungrave. This guy is a Mobster Zombie Cowboy, carries around a huge coffin like thing on his back that has a crap load of military grade weapons, dual guns named after a certain demonic dog in Greek mythology. He stomps around the city of Billion taking out the mob and facing absolutely huge bosses, and seems to be nigh invincible. He is basically dazed by nothing, and never even grunts. Beyond the Grave is a one man army badarse with no peer.

Him from STALKER: because while you shit yourself, he shotguns mutants in the face, ducks and dives through nasty anomalies, absorbs more radiation than should be humanly possible then downs a bottle of vodka, eats a raw sausage and continues the fight. He can also stay awake for 30 hours and suffer no side effects, carry 80 kilos and still run 100 metres in ~12 seconds and he's Russian, which automatically makes him awesome.