Games with dickhead protagonists

[thelurkinghorror]

Re: GTA
Tommy Vercetti is a psychopath. Anger issues.
CJ is ok for a criminal.
Niko Bellic is loyal to his friends, but if he doesn’t like you he’ll betray you in a heartbeat. Also angry.

Guybrush Threepwood can be a colossal dick, although in many cases it may be due to stupidity or ignorance. Or curiosity. He can “accidentally” sink his ship with his crew on it. Get other people framed for his crimes. Cheats and steals. But he is a Mighty Pirate[sub]TM[/sub], of course.

[Kobal2]

@Scathach

Oh god yes! Played it not too long ago, and I was completely unprepared for the “Doubt” button to actually be the “Intimidate and threaten whoever you’re talking to in a completely obnoxious and uncalled for manner” button.

Was very surprised when I started shouting and badgering a 15 year old rape victim

Oh this reminds me of Alpha Protocol, which uses a similar dialog system where you have no idea what you’re going to actually say. Not that the choices make much of a difference regarding the quintessential dickheadness of the protagonist. Quoth Yahtzee:

@Zero Punctuation

[after a quick summary of the usual simplistic “evil” choices in games] and speaking as an asshole, this offends me. There are so many wonderful ways to be a complete ponce that these games never cater to. […] Why can’t there be an RPG that covers the entire dickhead spectrum ? Well good news, ponce fans, now there is !
Alpha Protocol follows Mike Thorton […]. What’s important about him is that however you play him he’s the ponciest ponce who’s ever ponced past the poncing parlour. The dialogue system lets you switch between three attitudes: the professional, by the book sort of ponce who wouldn’t emote if the angel Gabriel farted in his face ; an aggressive ponce who sounds like he’s 5 seconds away from snarlingly flipping the global crisis onto its front and pounding away at its nether hole with a Franchi SPAS-12 ; and the suaaave ponce who might just save time and Mace himself whenever he opens his fucking mouth…

[Ferret_Herder]

Heh, I love the “might as well Mace himself” line there. Reminds me of the female Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 2 when she talks to Jacob Taylor. Everyone else, it’s all “la la la, I like to get to know my crew, what’s your story?” With him, it’s one of the first “so what’s up with you” conversations and she’s all “heeeeyyyy there” and wiggling her hips and I’m going :eek: WTF!

[kushiel]

@Lynn_Bodoni

Did you play the game all the way through? Because he changes quite a bit during the game. He’s quite deliberately an asshole at the start, and he has reasons that make sense to a 17 year old. And it’s important to remember that he IS a 17 year old boy who has had one parent leave before he was born, the other parent die, and then he gets raised in an orphanage and drafted into a military force before he can choose any career.

I couldn’t stand FFX’s characters, for the most part. Tidus-whiny little bitch. Yuna-pretentious little bitch. Riku or Rikku-annoying little sticky-fingered brat. Wakka-bad sports team leader, has commitment issues. Auron and Lulu and Kimhari (sp?) were OK. I wasn’t able to finish the game, but I did get through most of it.

Part of the reason he’s a dickface is because he’s a 17 year old boy. I mean, of course he has his reasons, but that doesn’t change what he is.

Tidus was annoying and had as many reasons to be a dickface as Squall did, but he tried to be more chipper. He’s whiny, but also pretty nice.

The only FF main male characters I’ve liked are Cecil and Basch (I cling to the fact that at the start of development, he was the main character), because they’re kind of done with their angsty dickface years.