3. Zangief Street Fighter
In my last article I wrote about how Zangief is one of my favourite characters in gaming, and this is partially because he is, as a character, completely himself. He doesn't conform to body images put forth by his Street Fighter colleagues, he is hairy and he's proud of it, his shins and forearms especially produce enough hair for them to be classed as veritable forests. His beard has changed slightly over the many games that he has appeared in, but what always remains is the awesomeness of it, it's big, it's bushy, it's a real man's beard on a real man.
2. Dominic Santiago Gears of War
Between Max Payne and Ethan Mars I have touched upon the theory of in game beards symbolising wisdom or downfall. Both Max and Ethan have suffered downfall to a destructive extent, but not one character ever took the concept of a widow beard as far as Dom did in the final game. He lost his wife in game two and clearly never recovered, it also indicates that his wife was the one who always trimmed his fur. The beard is unkempt now, with no real shape, it is sign of a man who has just stopped caring. As much as I and others mock the death of his wife in Gears of War 2, I at the same time felt it was a great scene and quite well acted, it would have been better without it being hammed up, but then we are playing Gears of War. The beard deserves to be near the top of this list as we all know within the context of the game, what it took for him to get to that stage.