This week TOP 5 celebrates the different personalities that make up some of our favorite men in video games.  They may differ from each other in many ways, but they all speak the same language.  The language of kicking some major butt!  The ladies love them, and all men aspire to be them, so without further adieu, I present to you the TOP 5 male characters in video games.

#5: Mario (Super Mario Bros.)

Very rarely do you see this little plumber out of his work uniform, making him always prepared to fix a pipe or two.  And let’s face it, a man with a steady job is a welcome bonus.  But plumbing is the least of his skills!  Mario is able to dispatch his foes with a simple head stomp or fireball, making him very efficient when it comes to princess saving.

#4: Dante (Devil May Cry)

Ok, so he’s not always going to be nice to you.  In fact, I would just take it as a compliment if he doesn’t kill you.  The deadly combination of killer sword skills, deadly accurate aim with his guns, and a razor tongue is what makes Dante such a great male character. (A side note: There is WAY too much Dante fan art out there.  I was a few google image search page clicks away from getting into some seriously uncomfortable territory!)

#3:  Marcus Phoenix (Gears of War)

He’s out for one thing and one thing only, Locust blood.  And you can’t blame him.  Marcus and company have been at war with the Queen for years now, and there’s still no end in site.  He’s lacking in any real emotion, (I think they tried to imply some feelings towards dispatcher Anya, but I’m not really sure.) but who needs emotion when there is ass to be kicked?  Thankfully for those of us who would like to delve into who  Marcus Phoenix really is, it looks as though Gears 3 could give us some back story… maybe?

#2: Soap MacTavish (Modern Warfare 2)

The F.N.G is all grown up and jet setting all over the world while the civilians sleep tight at night.  So it’s no surprise that Soap made it as close to the top spot as he possibly could.  So what’s new with Soap?  Well for starters he has a face and a voice.  Oh and a pretty sweet mohawk.  Soap has only recently been one of my favorite male characters and for good reason.  Did you see when he [spoilers here]?!  That was pretty awesome.

#1: Gordan Freeman (Half-Life)

Science nerds of the world rejoice!  Your poster boy has made it to the #1 spot in this week’s TOP5!  This man of VERY few words manages to save the world over and over again with little to no training in alien combat.  And let’s face it, we all have a soft spot for the unlikely hero, and Gordan fits that role perfectly!  So congrats to you, science man!  You are #1!

There you have it!  5 great guys and 5 great games.  That’s how I do it in TOP 5 land.  Who were your favorite male characters of all time?

HALF LIFE BONUS!!!! A little Lemarr for your week!  You’re welcome.

There are times when you can have too much of a good thing.

(Wow.  Two cliches already and I’ve only written the title and the first sentence.  Maybe more casual blog posts at night aren’t such a good idea, after all.)

Having gone through the Call of Duty 4 campaign last week and tried multiplayer for the first time last night, I can say that while I may be a newcomer to the game, I definitely get the gist of what’s going on.

Earlier tonight I decided to hop online to find some people who were closer to my rank and play some basic team deathmatch.  After a few decently balanced matches I was bored and realized that multiplayer CoD isn’t something that I want to sink my time into.

Then I flipped through my achivement list to see if there were any more missions I wanted to try on veteran difficulty.  I had already completed some of them and given up on others, but there were a few that I hadn’t tried yet.

Half an hour later, pinned down behind a brick wall in the courtyard of Shock and Awe after dying for the dozenth time while trying to throw a live grenade back at the enemy, I decided that I’ve had enough Call of Duty for now, thank you.

I really liked it to a point, but I hit a wall tonight that will probably taint my overall memory of the game.  This has happened to me before… not knowing when to quit playing something… giving it a few too many extra tries until all you’re left with is failure, frustration and fatigue.

The perils of videogaming.  Watch out for them, readers!

We’re partying like it’s your birthday… for almost 2 hours.
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Question Of The Week

Past, Present & Future

Past

Rob has something you MUST play

Dana is broken hearted

Trees sent us this:

Let the nightmares begin!

Present

Rob is the Master of Puppets

Dana sucks.  Bad.  Really bad.

Trees was buying paint, and then spilled blood…. on the sand.  See what I did there?

Future

Rob cannot be bothered with imports

Dana explodes your head

Trees + Giant British Robots = Bought.

If you have a three word name, you either killed a president or you’re a music composer. Since the Presidential Assassinations Unlocked Podcast is on some other server somewhere, there could be only one man I’m talking about, and that’s Harry Gregson-Williams. This guy did for video game music what John Williams did for movie scores: He turned music that would otherwise be ignored altogether into works of art.  The original work he has produced for video games has had an impact that has and will be everlasting.

COD4 theme composer Harry Gregson-Williams (right) with score composer Stephen Barton (left)

Like most gamers, I hadn’t heard of Gregson-Williams growing up, but I’d unknowingly heard his work along with movie score dynamo Hans Zimmer on the unforgettable soundtrack to “The Rock” (which set the “standard” for Jerry Bruckheimer produced movie scores, such that it is.) The first time I came across his name was when I watched a friend of mine unwrap and play through his newest PS2 game, Metal Gear Solid 2. The game was by far the most theatrical experience I’d ever seen on a console. Yeah, my buddy’s gigantic 60” projection TV helped along with the excellent cinematic direction by Hideo Kojima, but the aspect of the game that blew me away was the music; Enter the Genius of Harry Gregson-Williams. Nothing made those overwrought cinematic scenes jump of f the screen like Gregson-Williams’s pounding drums, electronic effects and symphonic touge.

Gregson Williams went on to craft prolific scores for Metal Gear Solid 3 and 4 respectively, and his video game work only got better. Most recently, he crafted the theme music for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. In any of those soundtracks, I dare you to find a weak track. His work on those few video game scores have set the benchmark for other video game composers to strive for. Any decent contemporary original video game soundtrack is rife with his influence.

His movie score work translates extremely well to an evening of gaming. Definitely check out his work on the movies Spy Game, (Great tracks include Spies, Training Montage, Dinner Out) Kingdom of Heaven, (The Battle of Kerak, Wall Breached) Man on Fire, (Talking about War, Sanchez Family,) Déjà vu, (The Hideout, Humvee Chase)  among many, many others. All of the above are available on itunes, and of course by other means that will go unmentioned. Keep an ear open for Harry Gregson-Williams’s work on the upcoming Prince of Persia movie score, coming this summer.

Take a listen below for the theme song that started it all.