A name that strikes fear into any Square Enix gamer.... Sephiroth!

The Berserker from Oblivion (PC)
If anyone has the Berserker mod, they will understand.

on a more relevant scale, I'd pick the Antlion guard in a pinch

the final boss in Doom3, Hell's Guardian or whatever it's called.

that was fucking gnarly

Fairly good capturing of the gamer's mindset with those four guesses, but the "others" still win. ;)

S.H.O.D.A.N. remains my most hardcore game enemy. She wasn't that hard to dispatch at the end of the game, but she certainly toys with you a lot more effectively.

Jack in Fable 1 was a pretty satisfying boss fight too... both times.

Sepherioph [sic?] was a effeminate tease in comparison, really. Drags you along through 99% of the game refusing to face you, you have to research his life story to get him to set a date, and by the time you do wrestle him he turns out to be a half-angelic mutant. Women! Am I right?

'The Cyborg Midwives from System Shock 2.'

a thousand times yes! I have to say that is the one game that has truly had me terrified all the way through, there's just no let up!

For a second I thought you meant Salazaar, and I was getting ready to say 'wtf are you on about Salazaar was a bitch!' then I realised it was that bastard that was haunting my nightmares, Salvador himself. I think I headshotted that bastard about 3 times and hit him with a mine thrower round, and the fucker still stood up, at which point I gave in to madness and went at him with my combat knife.

I'll leave the conclusion to your imagination.

Ozzy684:
A name that strikes fear into any Square Enix gamer.... Sephiroth!

pfft, you want tough? Luther on Universe mode in Star Ocean: Till the end of time. That bastard could pretty much kill you with ease with almost every attack, and you just better pray that your partners have high intelligence, even higher Defence, and good evasion, or you'll be frenching bloody concrete soon enough.

Hell, if you don't know who he is, I'm sure you know this name well enough if you played FFX that I don't even have to explain him....Nemesis.

From every multiplayer team based game in exsistance the true enemy of gaming for me is ... the Team- Killer you've likely encountered them more than once by now either to you, near you or coming from you. They're not bound by console or brand they're just limited by there one and only bane and mortal enemy the all powerful Friendly Fire Control.

Why is the Big Daddy even an option? I didn't die once playing through Bioshock. I took out all of the Big Daddies. You can beat them on hard, with the wrench, without dying FFS.
The toughest enemy I've met in a game is probably the final boss of Halo 2 on legendary. I've beat him once... just once, and I'm really good at shooters.

Big daddy by far. They made me say Cha-ching, and Oh shit... at the same time.

The Cyberdemons and Spiderbrains in the original Dooms tormented my childhood...until I discovered the wonderful iddqd and idkfa, that made them easy :)

Modern gaming reference, the Striders from Half-Life 2. Valve was "kind" enough to ensure that you couldn't carry nearly enough munitions to take them down.

RAKtheUndead:
The Cyborg Midwives from System Shock 2. They're armoured, so you have to use armour-piercing ammunition to have any chance of damaging them, and that on top of a game which has weapons that would make the Chauchat look reliable.

These were exactly what i thought of when i read the title. The exploding cyborgs were damn scary too!

I'd go either 'Silent hill - Midwives/Nurses' or to go old school scary, the dreaded Arch- Vile from Doom!

BudZer:
Big Daddy all the way, there's nothing more hardcore. However, the Chameleons from Resistance 2 deserve some love up in this poll.

I have never been so close to throwing my controller through my T.V. since coming up against the chameleons.

Bloodmounts from gears 2.

Man, all these new-gen kids.. Have you forgotten about DIABLO? His red lightning hose is epic.

The Heaven Smiles in Killer 7 are pretty hardcore. They're living bombs and they laugh when you kill them.
I could mention some enemies from Ninja Gaiden but I'm sure you'll know what I'm talking about.

Oh, I almost forgot.

The Exosuits in Crysis.
those fights are always pretty intense.

Nemesis from resident evil three for me. Damn thing nearly made me crap my pants a few times the first time through the game.

CoverYourHead:
Alpha-whatever from Dead or Alive 4,

Oh I change my vote to that blue bitch, I'm so glad they didn't make her playable like Tengu. Making a boss character playable in a fighting game is just plain wrong.... except Street Fighter.

Cosmitzian:
Man, all these new-gen kids.. Have you forgotten about DIABLO? His red lightning hose is epic.

How did i forget... but it's not diablo himself, it was the Butcher!!! So you're lvl 2, you've got no decent gear at all, and of all things you have to go and open THAT door!! Now he was scary! He was a one time enemy though.

the iron knuckle type enemies in twilight princess. as the end of the cave of ordeals when you have to fight 4 of them is exhausting, difficult and great fun.

TMAN10112:
I would have to say the big daddys from bioshock, It's really terrifying to hear their footsteps and not know where they'r comming from while playing bye yourself, with all the lights turned out, at 3am.

Yeah i chose big daddys for that exact reason. Another scary thing in bioshock (when playing at 3am with your friends fast asleep next to you) are when you think you see a dead body and go over to loot it when suddenly the body springs to life at attacks you, but after the first 5 times you get more paranoid and shoot every dead body before going over to it. :)

Why do people insist on polls? Can't they just ask "who is most hardcore?" instead of "Who is most hardcore out of these four?". Don't get me wrong, polls can be fun, but in situations like these they are completely unnecessary.

Oh and I'll go for a pair of Hammer Bros. from any 2D mario game ^^

I dont think the Big Daddys count because you need to hit first before they will attack. My most hardcore enemy is the turrets from Portal. Not only do have to go in front of them to put in a portal, but they give the innocent child talk while you do it. I know I am not the only one who felt bad killing them after that routine.

The dogs in penumbra. First bloody enemy you meet. Barricade the door, yeah right.

I voted for the L4D tank, because unlike the rest I play Left 4 Dead quite a bit, meaning I have to fight them again, and again, and again so they stick out in my mind a lot more. I mean anyone who's played L4D and doesn't have a few horror stories about the Tank isn't playing it right.

Out of the list, Tanks. I was playing Dead Air in the hotel level. While going down one of the halls, I was peeking into each of the rooms to check for zombies and goodies. I peek into one of the rooms and find a Tank... In the doorway. Staring right at me. Then the music started. Also when one knocked me off of the roof of the Hospital in No Mercy.

Other than that, the most Hardcore enemy I've faced has to be Giygas in Earthbound, solely because of context. Four children face off against-and inside of-a swirling realm f pure chaos, the true form of a creature so powerful and evil that its attack is incomprehensible to the human mind. Attacks do nothing to it, seemingly disappearing into the shadows, and all the while the darkness is whispering broken and disturbing phrases. The only way to defeat this monstrosity is to pray, and even then the prayers are eventually swallowed by the void, relying on the player's own mental will to end it.

Any Ridely from any Metroid game. That asshole just refuses to die!

tanks, those things are a real problem my hole team was down xept for 1 guy that was running away instead of helping us

Big daddy? Seriously? You could take one out with a wrench if you were near a Vita-Chamber.

I'd say from the list that the Tank is the one that makes me dread the encounter the most. Especially on the hardest setting, where me and my crew of ham-fisted, lilly-livered comrades only managed to dispatch him twice.

That being said, the thing that really makes me shit myself in L4D is the Witch. As soon as that really creepy moaning sounds in the distance, my team just goes to pieces. A few times we'd just turn the lights off and creep round her, but she always gets up really slowly and just goes friggin mental.

Tanks... I'm sorry, but tanks just take the cake...By force if necessary.

While you can cripple deathclaws and behemoths in Fallout 3, you can pretty much shoot all the other guys mentioned to slow them down, the tank is brutal... He's unphased... Set him on fire, shoot his face off... He'll keep going till he dies, or till he kills you.

Mike Fang:

4. Resident Evil 4 Dr. Salvador: As Leon Kennedy, you've found yourself in a hostile village, trying to rescue the American president's daughter. You're being chased by bloodthirsty villagers, their bodies taken over by a parasite. You barricade yourself in a house, when you hear a harsh, mechanical braying sound. Through the crowd of murderous villagers comes one with a burlap sack over his head, carrying a blood-splattered chainsaw, Dr. Salvador.

I always thought he was called chainsaw man, but for a scarier mini-boss you should add double chainsaw man from the 4th mercenaries level.

Most difficult to beat? Butterfree. Damn him and his confusing poisonous sleepy-time powders.

Most hardcore? M. Bison, of course. He's a beast.