Tickles Top Ten Easter Eggs

Easter eggs are great aren’t they? With their lovely chocolate goodness… no not that kind of Easter egg. I am of course talking about Easter eggs that are found in games, excellent secret messages, hidden areas, complete silliness and in some cases outright insults to other games. Pretty much every game will have some kind of Easter Egg these days and I am here to list ten of my favourites. It’s been stiff competition to get into my list as there are so many great ones to choose from so if your favourite one isn’t here don’t rage out on me. Strap in for Tickles Top Ten Easter Eggs in gaming.

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10 – Rage – Quake Room

While scouting the wasted garage, if you are perceptive enough you may well unlock the Quake Room. There are 3 buttons that you need to activate that will unblock a set of stairs that was previously inaccessible. You go through a retro portal and enter the Quake Room. It’s an old school throwback from another ID software game you might have heard of…

9- Duke Nukem Forever – Power Armour is for pussies

Duke Nukem Forever isn’t a great game, I think we can all agree on that but in typical Duke fashion he has no issues throwing stones around that particular glass house. As you approach a police van an NPC tells you that your armour is ready, Power armour in the Mjolnir style of Master Chief from the Halo franchise awaits.  Dukes only response is “Power armour is for pussies”.

8 – Fallout New Vegas – Indiana Jones

Fallout New Vegas may not be the most topical of games, it tends to stay away from pop culture references as a general rule however if you take the Wild Wasteland perk you can find a reference to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. For those of you who haven’t seen it Indie survives a hydrogen bomb explosion by jumping into a fridge. In fallout there’s a slightly different ending to this tale. But you do get a nice hat.

7 – Left 4 Dead – Frank West Joke

What kind of zombies pose the most risk? We have the old style slow zombies as are used in the Dead Rising games and then we have the fast paced, sprinting zombies from Left 4 Dead. When you think of zombie games over the last generation these two games will likely be in the forefront of your mind. Left 4 Dead put a little sucker punch in The Passing DLC. Scrawled on a wall of one of the rooms is a message that reads “Otis, Out of film, no helicopter. Zombies are too fast. Not going to make it – Frank West”. I guess the slower ones are more dangerous that we thought.

6 – Gears of War 3 – Giant Chicken

In Gears of War 3 if you shout down a bunch of piping in the right order you can release a chicken onto the deck of your ship. Being typical Gears players we will inevitably say “Look at the funny chicken” before Gnasher shotgunning it in the face. It’s not big or clever to be picking on a small chicken and EPIC knows this. When you shoot the poor little guy enough times he will mutate into an 8ft tall golden chicken that fires flames from its beak. That’ll teach you.

5 – Diablo 3 – Secret area

Diablo 3 is a gritty and often hopeless world and the landscape knows this to be true. Most of the game is spent walking through bleak, abandoned villages, desolate deserts, snowy battlegrounds or a corrupt heaven. All and all you couldn’t accuse it of being “cheery”. I am here to tell you that there is a cheery happy land called Whimsyshire. By building a staff you can transport after talking to the ghost of the king cow. There are more teddy bears and unicorns than you can shake a stick at, which is bad news because they will all try and kill you. Best you don’t let the kids watch this….

4 – Red Faction Armageddon – Mr Toots

Red Faction Armageddon wasn’t particularly successful largely due to the restrictive and generic feel of the game. There is however a brilliant Easter Egg to be had. If you can find a secret room you can get your hands on one of the most surreal weapons available in gaming. A Unicorn. You can turn this shoulder mounted unicorn into a weapon of mass destruction by squeezing it to make it fart devastating rainbows. What’s not to love about that?

3 – Borderlands 2 – Minecraft

In the Caustic Cavern of Borderlands 2, if you navigate and climb up to a certain point on the map you will encounter an odd looking wall. Borderlands 2 is a unique looking game but this wall seems to be incredibly pixelated. You can walk up to it and mealy through blocks of the wall in a few quick swipes. Inside there is a unique enemy called a Creeper taken straight from Minecraft. Its oddity and silliness is fitting of a Borderlands game.

2 – Witcher 2 – Assassin dig

In the prologue of The Witcher 2 there is a subtle yet cutting dig at Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series. You can see a dead body lying on a bundle of hay in white robes. If you look up you can see a wooden perch typically used to leap off in the AC games. As you approach you gain the “Assassin” skill and your character will say “Guess they never learn”.  Burn!

1 – Halo ODST – Destiny Awaits

I’m sure you will have all played ODST at some point, I played the hell out of the game when it came out, what I didn’t notice until very recently was a simple poster hung on a wall. The poster had a picture of the Earth with a white sphere and the words “Destiny Awaits” written on it. If you compare the poster to the cover art for Destiny the two match up, albeit at a slight angle. This goes to show that Bungie (creators of Halo ODST and Destiny) have been working on Destiny for a very long time.

So there it is people. My top ten Easter eggs, what are your favourite Easter eggs in gaming? Let us know in the comments and share the fun.