Most Delightfully Violent
1) Call of Duty 3
Nothing speaks of realistic violence more than historically factual moments. The exploding body parts and rivers of blood are all made real by the World War II scenario, yet the game barely hints at the events that conjured, fueled, and ended it. But after storming with your troop through fog-scaped ruins, watching friends and foes catch strays in the face, and dancing over land mines, you won’t care.
2) Resident Evil 4
Shooting people is one thing; seeing bodies stuck to the wall by a pitchfork through the skull is quite another. Making nightmares a video reality, RE4 uses imagery like this to give a new meaning to the term “interior decorating.”
3) Gears of War
The nice thing about killing in this game is that your targets aren’t human, so you feel absolutely no shame in cranking up a chain saw and shredding their bodies in half.
4) Hitman: Blood Money
Video-game assassination is easy when all you have to do is shoot the victim and move on to the next screen. Hitman requires the player to think outside the murder box by strangling with wires and pushing victims off tall buildings to get the job done. Having to dispose of the body afterward is not a pretty sight, either.
5) 50 Cent: Bulletproof
Most rappers declare that they started a music career to escape their gangster past lives. 50 Cent, on the other hand, indulges in his gangbanger days by making a video game based on them, in bloody, ruthless detail. – Carson Barker
This article appears in 2006.
