Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Why movie soundtracks are recorded out of order
Musical continuity is an illusion patched together in editing. Because booking massive brass sections is terribly expensive, orchestras will record the…
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Why Sega games hired real adult stars
Because Sega is fully aware of exactly who is playing their macho brawler epics. They routinely hire actual Japanese adult entertainment stars to digitally…
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Why stealth sections kill action games
Nothing kills the momentum of a fast-paced shooter quite like stripping away all your weapons and forcing you to creep slowly behind oblivious guards for…
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Valve found a fortune in everyone else's games
Why bother creating generation-defining art when you can just act as a tollbooth? Valve used to make absolute masterpieces like Half-Life and Portal. Then…
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One person made Stardew Valley from scratch
The ultimate vindication for basement-dwelling perfectionists everywhere. Eric Barone spent four and a half years working 10-hour days completely alone,…
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The original Xbox needed a dongle to play DVDs
A completely artificial limitation placed on perfectly capable hardware. Functionality was aggressively locked away unless a specific infrared receiver was…
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Donkey Kong began as a rejected Popeye game
When you lose the licensing rights to a spinach-eating sailor, you pivot to an angry ape. The classic arcade cabinet only features a plumber and a gorilla…
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Sudoku playing grids contain exactly 81 squares
Nine rows of nine boxes form the absolute limit of your daily newspaper frustration. It feels like a vast expanse of infinite numerical possibilities, but it…
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Electronic Arts launched a heavily despised online store
Tired of heavily surrendering revenue cuts to digital distributors, they built their own proprietary software launcher and forced absolutely everyone to use…
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Pigs can play digital games for food
Swine possess enough spatial awareness to map digital movements to a physical interface. They will happily operate physical levers with their snouts if it…
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How to make a car fly in GTA San Andreas
By pressing a specific sequence of buttons, your heavy steel sedan instantly defies gravity, allowing you to soar over the city like a majestic,…
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Jaw clenching leads to severe dental enamel degradation
Because gnashing your teeth will definitely make you play better. Unconscious bruxism during tense moments literally grinds away your tooth enamel, leaving…
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How horse armor helped launch microtransactions
This is the very transaction that doomed modern digital economies. Oblivion introduced downloadable horse armor for a few dollars, widely mocked at the time…
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PlayStation 4 records exactly fifteen minutes of gameplay
Whether you want it to or not, this glossy box is constantly writing your last fifteen minutes of existence to the hard drive. It is basically an…
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Why a small drop can break a plastic model later
The damage might not be obvious now, but the impact weakens the chemical bonds inside the resin. The next time you apply even slight pressure, the entire arm…
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Why games make you hunt for hundreds of collectibles
Scouring the massive map for three hundred hidden pigeon feathers is a spectacular way to avoid real-world responsibilities. Completionists will gladly suffer…
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When Sonic became a shoe commercial
Corporate synergy reached its absolute peak when a blue hedgehog became a billboard for a chunky late-nineties shoe brand. Sonic aggressively ground on rails…
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Why movie heroes never have helmet hair
Despite wearing a massive chunk of heavy steel over their skull for hours, protagonists never suffer from flattened or sweaty hair. The moment the armor comes…
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Hearts card game heavily punishes the Queen of Spades
For absolutely no logical reason, this specific trick-taking variant singled out one particular royal figure to carry a massive point penalty. Getting stuck…
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Why mashing jump can beat a steep hill
Why take the clearly paved winding dirt road when you can forcefully wedge yourself against a near-vertical cliff face? Frantically mashing the controller…
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Bingo originated as a national lottery system in Italy
Long before it became the undisputed king of retirement community halls, it had serious national stakes. The dauber-wielding pastime actually traces its…
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Why Resident Evil made saving a scarce resource
Recording your progress shouldn't be a leisurely activity. The classic survival experience forces you to scavenge for highly limited, physical ribbons; if you…
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Marcus Fenix spent years in a military prison
Apparently, trying to save your father during a planetary invasion is frowned upon by commanding officers. The gruff, chainsaw-wielding hero of Gears of War…
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Overwatch payloads dictate entirely aggressive choke points
The massive floating vehicles only advance when players physically hug them tightly. This entirely funnels the whole lobby into an incredibly dense, chaotic…
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