As long as the character is believeable. I like the prince in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, and I got genuinely pissed when that bitch took my weapons. And then again terribly sad when she died later on.

Chapper:
As long as the character is believeable. I like the prince in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, and I got genuinely pissed when that bitch took my weapons. And then again terribly sad when she died later on.

Women. Can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em. Unless you have magical time travel powers.

generally I like characters who do incredibly audacious things, and pull them off - using themself as the most powerful piece in their awesome plan (not talking about games only here btw :P)
the other type of awesome i respect is just where they are funny at the most inoppourtune moments (i mean genuineally funny, not just making jokes)

Can't believe personality/depth wasn't an option. Intelligence/ motives don't replace that (for me at least, I didn't find Light from Death Note to be a very good character for example).

A strong visual style helps as well.

Russian_Assassin:
You forgot the most important, Sunglasses! Everyone that's wearing sunglasses is |AWESOME!|

The opposition rests.

Not making him act, sound and preform like a cardboard cut out. WE'RE LOOKING AT YOU Gears of War!

and good 1 liners, i know its about games but "Im done with theese motherfuckin snakes on this motherfuckin plane" made the character

Indigo_Dingo:

4thegreatergood:
Depth. People don't want a character to accompany you through a game if they never let you know about themselves.

Explain Gordon Freeman, who has quite literally zero personality.

He starred in one of the best games ever. He also weilds the gravity gun.

sirdanrhodes:
Not making him act, sound and preform like a cardboard cut out. WE'RE LOOKING AT YOU Gears of War!

as above ill mention the one liner quality, and chainsaws i forgot to mention chainsaws, they make any character *N.B. see chainsaw man from Resi 4

I have varied reasons.
1.sonic
Sonic satAM. That is all.
2.Fox mcCloud
A fox who flies a spacecraft and owns everyone? Pretty much.
3.Solid snake
He likes to be quite.
4.Claude speed
He can do jobs for gangs and own gangs without saying a word.
5.Sackboy
Have you seen how cute the bastard is?

They must excel in one or more of the above catagories without lacking in any of the others. It doesn't matter how much crazy-cool shit they can do if their voice, dialogue or actions get in the way. Defeceits can ruin an awesome character just as a particularly badass trait can elevate the average.

which game is claude speed from

and ive just realised that a company named a character "sack-boy" and i havent heard a joke about it yet

For me it's when they're a bad-ass while still having a morality.
For example, in one of the Splinter Cell games Sam causes a plane to start to crash (pretty sure that was it, don't quote me on it). Lambert then tells him to leave the air traffic controllers, who are innocent civilians, in the control tower where they will be killed by the crash. Sam grabs the two unconscious civilians out of the tower and drags and carries them to a safe distance before the plane crashes. Then Lambert called him and this was the conversation:
Lambert: "Fisher, what are you doing? You're not going to get a medal for this."
Fisher: "Medals don't help me sleep at night."

THAT is bad-ass.

Indigo_Dingo:

Russian_Assassin:
You forgot the most important, Sunglasses! Everyone that's wearing sunglasses is |AWESOME!|

Let's not waste space

The opposition rests.

Ew... well not everything is awesome I guess... but there are some game characters and of course me! :P

Intelligence. A character who acts in a rational manner who you can relate to always makes for an enjoyable experience, as every single character in Eternal Darkness proves (except when they went insane).

I'd only ever call a character "awesome" if they were truly badass. Like Duke Nukem who's just trying to get his babes back and doesn't mind kicking some ugly alien ass on the way. That's awesome. It mostly comes down to how rugged a dude is. Bill from L4D is rugged. Kratos from GoW is rugged. The Duke is rugged. They just look like they want to kill things. That's all there is to them, and that's what shapes them. Awesome.

Indigo_Dingo:

4thegreatergood:
Depth. People don't want a character to accompany you through a game if they never let you know about themselves.

Explain Gordon Freeman, who has quite literally zero personality.

I'm not saying I agree with 4thegreatergood (my own theory is about the second reply on this thread) but Gordan Freeman is pretty easy to explain if you understand that his personality is reflected through his interactions with the NPCs and the trials he overcomes through the game.

He emerges as the hapless silent type who uses his PHD brain to get through a series of incredible events. Alternately (depending on the player) he's a thinly-contained psychopath who crowbars everything that moves and teabags the remains.

idk wat makes a charater awsome all awsome charittors are nothing alike

PirateKing:
I would say the means that they use to accomplish something.
Like Alucard from Hellsing. He'll let all the enemies empty their guns on him and then he'll laugh as he heals himself and guns them down.
Or he'll summon gigantic hell hounds and devour his opponent while mocking them.
That's what makes a character bad ass in my eyes.
Not that a bad ass character is alwayws like this. Alucard just came to mind.

Gotta love Alucard. And Father Anderson. I don't know why I like Father Anderson, being that he's clinically insane (to put it lightly) and hateful to non-Catholics, but the fact that he is capable of going toe-to-toe with Alucard alone is enough to warrant him the title of "badass."

pigeon_of_doom:
Can't believe personality/depth wasn't an option. Intelligence/ motives don't replace that (for me at least, I didn't find Light from Death Note to be a very good character for example).

A strong visual style helps as well.

At least L was fucking awesome. I don't quite understand why they had to

-Zen-:

PirateKing:
I would say the means that they use to accomplish something.
Like Alucard from Hellsing. He'll let all the enemies empty their guns on him and then he'll laugh as he heals himself and guns them down.
Or he'll summon gigantic hell hounds and devour his opponent while mocking them.
That's what makes a character bad ass in my eyes.
Not that a bad ass character is alwayws like this. Alucard just came to mind.

Gotta love Alucard. And Father Anderson. I don't know why I like Father Anderson, being that he's clinically insane (to put it lightly) and hateful to non-Catholics, but the fact that he is capable of going toe-to-toe with Alucard alone is enough to warrant him the title of "badass."

I was just glad that there was at least one guy strong enough to throw down with Alucard. If not for Anderson, I think I would hate Alucard.
Anderson was a nut; but he did save Integra from those Nazi vampires. I guess in times of great duress he would fight alongside protestant scum.

-Zen-:

At least L was fucking awesome. I don't quite understand why they had to -----

Yeah, Near was a bit of a let down. But none of the traits listed on the poll make him a good character (His intelligence is secondary to his many quirks imo). Would have loved some more backstory about him (Haven't read the manga yet ).

By the way, can you spoiler tag your plot detail giveaway as its not really fair on people who haven't seen DN yet?

PirateKing:

-Zen-:

PirateKing:
I would say the means that they use to accomplish something.
Like Alucard from Hellsing. He'll let all the enemies empty their guns on him and then he'll laugh as he heals himself and guns them down.
Or he'll summon gigantic hell hounds and devour his opponent while mocking them.
That's what makes a character bad ass in my eyes.
Not that a bad ass character is alwayws like this. Alucard just came to mind.

Gotta love Alucard. And Father Anderson. I don't know why I like Father Anderson, being that he's clinically insane (to put it lightly) and hateful to non-Catholics, but the fact that he is capable of going toe-to-toe with Alucard alone is enough to warrant him the title of "badass."

I was just glad that there was at least one guy strong enough to throw down with Alucard. If not for Anderson, I think I would hate Alucard.
Anderson was a nut; but he did save Integra from those Nazi vampires. I guess in times of great duress he would fight alongside protestant scum.

Of course he did. He wants to be the one to kill the Protestant scum. Or torture them. With French ticklers.

-Zen-:

PirateKing:

-Zen-:

PirateKing:
I would say the means that they use to accomplish something.
Like Alucard from Hellsing. He'll let all the enemies empty their guns on him and then he'll laugh as he heals himself and guns them down.
Or he'll summon gigantic hell hounds and devour his opponent while mocking them.
That's what makes a character bad ass in my eyes.
Not that a bad ass character is alwayws like this. Alucard just came to mind.

Gotta love Alucard. And Father Anderson. I don't know why I like Father Anderson, being that he's clinically insane (to put it lightly) and hateful to non-Catholics, but the fact that he is capable of going toe-to-toe with Alucard alone is enough to warrant him the title of "badass."

I was just glad that there was at least one guy strong enough to throw down with Alucard. If not for Anderson, I think I would hate Alucard.
Anderson was a nut; but he did save Integra from those Nazi vampires. I guess in times of great duress he would fight alongside protestant scum.

Of course he did. He wants to be the one to kill the Protestant scum. Or torture them. With French ticklers.

Ha! Yeah, I guess you're right!

well i don't know if this is just videogames or not but i think the perfect character in a book is Durzo Blint in the night angel trilogy by brent weeks. he's just so awesome.

PirateKing:

-Zen-:

Of course he did. He wants to be the one to kill the Protestant scum. Or torture them. With French ticklers.

Ha! Yeah, I guess you're right!

Father Anderson could be the fourth member of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition.
"So the comfy chair isn't working, is it? FINE! Anderson! Bring out... the French ticklers!"
That makes an awesome character.

wait ive got one

(excuse the spelling in a hurry)

a borderline insane guy that runs around murdering people thinking that hes the last sane person on the planet.

turns out later that he had a virus that did this and was cured only to be hounded by the millitary on a survival horror type genra that after a freak accadent left the millatary having the virus and so they now use a planetary defence system to close off the surface of the planet with giant iron plates so you are then forced underground with an army of borderline insane millatary officers comanding the non insane millatary with fear (the virus gives them super regenarating heath to a point where you have to kill them using fatel wounds with whatevers around because ammo will be in short supply) im gonna end this here cause it sounded better in my head

(plus the fact i got off the charictor)

Any character that sticks out in my mind long after I've finished a game is awesome in my eyes. I love the G-man from Half Life. He's an awesome character.

I think a good character is someone u can sympathize with, someone u feel sorry for if they die at the end of the game, or someone who acts like a real person. (unless it's gordon freeman. Gordon Freeman doesn't need a personality the fact that he is an emotionally oblivious mute is personality enough. also the fact that u can sympathize with all the other main characters and the fact that they have such a seemingly profound friendship with Gordon lets u just imagine what his personality must be without crpy the one liners used in most games use to characterize the main character,but usually come off as smug or flat.)

Characters are made up of:
A)-Physical Appearance: different style for different types of characters(Kratos vs Altair, Link vs Master Chief). Each character looks a certain and hopefully their personality/plot and their appearance go hand in hand.

B)-Personality- This is largely the plot element of a character. Their background, choices in the story, interactions with other characters, est. All of those things have a baring on if you like said character or not. This also has lot to do with immersion: the ability to find your state of mind "inside" the game's plot and/or character.

C)-Abilities-this has alot to do with the bad-ass element of the game. Not all characters need to be crazy strong, or smart or sneaky in order to be "over the top". Although this element of the character is important in many ways it doesn't have to be the central piece that makes or breaks a character's "awesomeness" level.

D)-Presentation- Lastly is presentation, for obvious reasons characters have to be presented well. Just think what would have happened if Kratos's voice had been acted by a 5 year old little girl ( >_< ) And I think that just about sums it up. Even if you have an incredible well put together character, a missing element of the over all presentation for what makes this person "them" can really Fu*k up your day of playing a good game.

Obviously this list could go on and I'm sure ppl will add to it but the point is that characters aren't defined by one thing over the other, it's a collection of good elements that are melted down and carved into an image of awesomeness that makes you j*zz in you pants every time you pick up your controller.

It's really a combination of things. The equipment they use, the lines they spout, how many enemies they can take down single handedly, their ability to crush your head into a pulp with a decently placed curb-stomp.

So, basically, Augustus Cole.

I will have to say Duke Nukem, he is seemingly the standard by which 'Badass' and 'Awesome' characters are judged (he did start it after all), other characters even try to emulate his grooviness (Francis from l4d, the Marine from AVP, Marcus Fenix and many, many more).

Hail to the king, baby.

pretty much all of the above except for power, i dont think power is what would make a awesome character

I can't pick between all these undefined terms. :P Assuming high-quality characterization:

An awesome character (main protagonist) is someone I would actually want to know in real life who does things I would actually want to do.

An awesome character (supporting) is someone whose traits I recognize and can identify with, and who does things that make sense given their character.

An awesome character (antagonist) is someone whose motives are plausible but horrible and who produces rationalizations that almost sound like something I could agree with--this makes the horrible personal, interesting, and compelling.