The scariest villains EVER

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13 terrifying bastards you'd never want on your trail

Possibly the ugliest enemy in a game filled with ugly enemies, the Berserkers of Gears of War are huge, destructive and - if you don't know how to deal with them - nothing short of horrific. They're also blind and have a disturbing habit of standing around sniffing the air when they don't know where you are. Once they figure that out, however, they'll roar toward you like a freight train, smashing through stone obstacles in an attempt to reduce you to bloody bits. They're at their absolute scariest when you're running from them, and all you can hear is the engine-like noise of their running drawing rapidly closer.

From: Dead Rising (Xbox 360, 2006)

There's something about chainsaws that awakens some deep, primal fear in the human heart. Maybe it's the ominous revving, or just the thought of dozens of tiny blades messily tearing through flesh. Whatever the case, Adam MacIntyre carries two of the damn things, and he's a clown to boot, thereby neatly combining two lurking childhood fears. He's also unclear about his intentions at first, giving us a feeling similar to what happens when a friendly acquaintance starts "joking" about how he's going to brain us with the shovel he's holding.

At any rate, it's hard not to be at least a little nervous when he starts advancing on you while juggling his saws. And when the fight actually starts, and he leaps and giggles while arcing the saws around to turn you into a blood-spraying mess, you'll want to immediately put as much distance between you and him as possible, even if it means having to contend with the stupid, poison-filled balloons he bounces your way.

We'll probably never know what Adam's deal is. Was he driven insane by Dead Rising's zombie apocalypse, or was he this way when he was allowed to be near children? Either way, his roaring chainsaws and perfect makeup scare the shit out of us.

Mikel Reparaz
Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.