“The trick in my situation was that there was no trick, no matter what the movies tell you. No rules, no secret mantra, no road map. It wasn’t about how smart or how good you were. It was chaos and luck, and anyone who thought different was a fool. All you could do was to hang on madly, as long and hard as you could.” – Max Payne

This en-tales what it’s like to be in a gun fight and what kind of emotion and stress you’d be putting yourself through as you continued to get into them and try to survive them. It does an excellent job portraying that sense of immersion and detail. Though it can be about how smart you are but a lot is really chaos and luck.

“There was no glory in this. I hadn’t asked for this crap. Trouble had come to me, in big dark swarms. The good and the just, they were like gold dust in this city. I had no illusions. I was not one of them. I was no hero. Just me and the gun, and the crook. My options had decreased to a singular course.” – Max Payne

This peaks down to life screwing you over and how you can be forced into situations you don’t want to be in and how you have to deal with those problems in such a blunt and forceful way. He goes as far as to say “I’m not a hero and I don’t feel like a hero!” I’m just doing what I feel I should and there’s nothing to question about it. Imagine you came home and you found the people you loved murdered, you’d be forced to act no matter how your morals interfered with you or what the view of the outside world thinks. You would be Unchained.

“Mine wasn’t the most original appraoch to the problem. It wasn’t as if it hadn’t all been done before. An eye for an eye. The first principle of revenge, old as dirt, still going strong. The cardinal rule in going after someone was not to make it personal. Which it almost always ended up being anyway. It did with me.” – Max Payne

This just goes to show our basic instincts. We strive to protect those we love and if we failed we find this inner driven motivation to do what we can to hurt those who hurt us. Revenge is often frowned upon but say what you will, it’s nothing but human.

“Just when you thought you had reached the deepest depths of horror, it suddenly got worse. How to turn off the small voice inside your head that started to whisper that you should be glad that now if not before, your revenge was justifiable on any conceivable moral scale? That small voice beyond any doubt that I was damned.” – Max Payne

This quote tells on how we personally look at the thing we’ve done. A more condense version of this maybe that there was some bully that you had to knockout cold to stop him or her from hurting someone. But when you look in the mirror you notice you’re just as bad and you yourself question if you did the right thing is the situation? Maybe that bully is just a sheep in wolves clothing? Maybe that bully had a hard life at home when his dad constantly beat the shit out of him or screamed calling him worthless all day? Maybe you could have handled it better but it’s too late to wash your hands of the actions you took and it might nag at your conscience.

“Life was good. The sun setting on a sweet summer’s day. The smell of freshly mowed lawns, the sounds of children playing. A house across the river, on the jersey side. A beautiful wife and a baby girl. The American dream come true. But dreams have a nasty habit of going bad when you’re not looking” – Max Payne

This is just the rule of living life. All the good things in your life won’t last forever. It doesn’t have to be as grizzly as murder like Max stumbles upon. But it maybe the comfort of your parents or the love of your spouse. Something always goes wrong while you’ve been blindly stumbling around in your own bliss and it’s often to late when you discover you’re wife has been cheating on you or a family member is hospitalized or worse. Life is not kind even when you imagine it is.

5. LIGHTNING (CLAIRE FARRON) – FINAL FANTASY XIII

Many Final Fantasy fans never gave Lightning a chance due to the game being unfavorable accepted. Most joke and lollygag that Lightning is just a female version of Cloud. Craig from Craigheadpro disagrees. Remember we are not making appearance a rating here but the mind behind the appearance. So I can say now that Lighting has a beautiful mind and has a ton to love inside that troubled skull. As a rule of thumb in life you’ll find out who someone truly is when the shit hits the fan. In Final Fantasy XIII this happens a lot and you get to see how Lightning reacts to awful situations. Which goes right along with that age old saying that actions speak louder than words. Lightning is an all or nothing kind of woman. She also lacks a serve amount of patience and can barely stand stupidity. Just to elaborate what kind of woman Lightning is. When she finds out her sister is marked and the government has captured her. She throws away her whole entire life. Her job, house & even risks her own life just to go free her sister. She’d rather lose everything whilst taking on the whole world’s corruption just because she couldn’t live with herself and the shit world she lives in. A woman that will throw away everything in the world just to rectify a situation for those she loves is quite impressive. Later in Final Fantasy XIII she also has to watch over a handful of misfits that aren’t made to battle. She is blunt as ever and spot on telling them exactly what they don’t want to hear. There’s no Disney moments with miracles in Lightning’s eyes and more women need to be just like her. There’s something so very attractive about that insane amount of selflessness and blunt dream stomping nature Lightning portrays. Life isn’t sunshine and rainbows and actions have consequences. It’s just so attractive and refreshing to see a girl whose so down to earth and wears her heart of her sleeves with enough strength to take care of whatever comes her way.

4. CHLOE FRAZER – UNCHARTED 

I’m sure many wanted to see Elena Fisher in this spot but honestly Elena Fisher just has that nagging controlling mentality that most men just don’t find attractive in a character. However Chloe Frazer on the other hand is mostly what men dream of. When you peel back Chloe’s numerous layers and break down all her walls. You’ll find that Chloe has a sense of loyalty to those whom she made a part of her life and is actually very unselfish behind all the trickery and lies. If you can look deep enough you’ll find Chloe is more worried about the fates of others than herself. Chloe knows that she can handle herself and predicts to a T bad situations to come. Chloe spends the majority of her time worried that others can’t deal with the ever changing dire situations and manipulates the flow of things. So she can get them out of the knee deep cease pool they probably will get themselves into. It just goes to show you that confidence, selflessness and high intellect comes off as very desirable to the opposite sex.

3. MERYL SILVERBURGH – METAL GEAR SOLID

Meryl is such a mixed bag that I couldn’t help but throw her at number 3. She’s a one of kind character you just can never put your thumb on. Meryl is tough, independent and full of heart. Meryl is also brash and realistic. So realistic you can help but understand her every thought. Meryl is driven by her emotions overall and understands everyone’s internal thoughts. Even when she is in extreme dire straights Meryl still proceeds to put people first while also trying to abrogate the problems that people have in their minds. Meryl finds a way to make it work for her and everyone. She’s as blunt and honest as can be. She tells it like it is no matter how ugly it may actually be with no sugar on top. A woman of this nature does nothing but gather respect. You just look at Meryl and you say “That’s a good woman being tore down but this shitty awful world we live in.” You can’t help but see all the oppression that tears her down every step of her life. Meryl is relatable in almost every way and she’s very easy to indemnify with. There’s something about a personality like Meryl’s that can make a man feel comfortable and level. You could always trust Meryl though all fascists of life no matter how bleak and shitty life gets. She’d always be there even if it costs her life and that’s some extremely attractive qualities that is so very hard to find in the world. Merly quite easily belongs in the Top 3 without a doubt.

2. MORRIGAN – DRAGON AGE 

I couldn’t make such a list without including this extremely interesting woman known as Morrigan from Biowares Dragon Age. Morrigan as a character is one of wonderment and mystery. Morrigan is snide and snarky to everyone she comes across. Only unlike most snide and snarky women. It’s deserving. She hates almost everything and with good reason. Morrigan sees humanity as it is. She is realistic and highly intelligent. She sees the the stupidity and false hope in the people that surround her on her travels. But beneath Morrigan’s sheltered EGO is something she is always hiding and that is that she cares no matter how hard she tries to hide it it’s clearly apparent. She often works in the shadows manipulated everything for the greater good but ulimately she is also doing it to benefit herself. She has world at her fingertips and can bring change to the world. But she only brings a positive gain to those deserving. If you had the power to change the world and you find that most of the world despises you. What would your course of action be? Morrigan is easy to indentify with honestly and it’s a god send to see a character so in touch and not so happy go lucky anime giggles. I just wish more women could see the world as Morrigan sees it. I just wish more women weren’t so oblivious and ingorant. Thank god for you Morrigan. Easily number 2.

1. CLAIRE REDFIELD – RESIDENT EVIL

Claire Redfield is easily one of the greatest characters to have ever graced the Resident Evil franchise. Resident Evil may now be super casual Call Of Duty garbage. But it wasn’t always so. In Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica we got to explore the mind of Claire Redfield. You’ll find that Claire is rich with moral fiber. She puts people first above all else even if it means her life. Claire is one of those people that if you just met would care the world for you in an instant and would worry about your every heartbeat even when she’s miles away. She lets everyone in. However let it be known that if she finds a darkside in someone. She questions why and tries to detract their actions in a negative progression. She has hope and faith that humanity doesn’t have to be so stupid and sometimes it works. At least she tries to change you but if you don’t work out she’ll have no problem putting an end to you. There’s something about her positive outlooks in grim situations that makes you wonder more into her personality. The deeper you get to known her the more fleshed out and understandable she becomes. She’s a woman of independence and spends all of her energy in helping others. She’ll put anything on the line to make it work even if it’s for one person that is totally irrelevant in the large scheme of things. She’s selfless overall and highly intelligent. To quote before actions speak louder than words. In a time of crisis she’ll go head on to help those in need while most hide and leave people for dead. She’s not a piece of garbage and that to me offers a high level of respect. If Resident Evil didn’t turn into pure trash as a franchise. I’d hope that Claire Redfield could be an inspiration to women and not MTV celebrities. The world is screwed up and putting need to get with the program. Oprah.