Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Why a tiny bush can stop a tank in a video game
Driving a massive armored truck at high speeds means absolutely nothing if you clip a decorative garden bush. These tiny leafy plants possess the structural…
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Why sliding down ladders saves almost no time
Descending a rung normally is a torturous ordeal, prompting players to gleefully drop down the rails like a highly trained firefighter. The time saved is…
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Rocket League arenas utilize completely uniform hitboxes
Despite the wildly various visual shapes of the high-speed vehicles, many share the exact same invisible rectangular collision box. This means driving an…
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How a tiny team generated 18 quintillion planets
Instead of hiring thousands of artists to draw trees, Hello Games just asked an algorithm to do the heavy lifting. The entirety of No Man's Sky—featuring 18…
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Standard table tennis nets sit exactly six inches high
That tiny barrier is high enough to mercilessly block your aggressive smashes, yet low enough to give you false hope. Hitting the tape and watching the ball…
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Kairi translates to the ocean in Japanese
Completing the elemental trio, we have the girl who spends entirely too much time waiting on a beach. Her name derives from the Japanese word for sea or…
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Blank cards in party games allow for horrible custom answers
Many popular tabletop boxes throw in completely empty cards, actively encouraging you to use a marker to write your own terrible ideas. It usually results in…
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Why friendly fire ends the mission
Co-op mode is fun until your partner decides to test if their shotgun can hurt you. The ensuing war usually results in abandoning the mission entirely to hunt…
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When losing a game meant public humiliation
Losing a game in the 1800s didn't just mean waiting for the next round; it meant paying a 'forfeit.' These penalties required the loser to perform absurd…
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Cyberpunk 2077 features extremely detailed facial cybernetics
You can extensively modify your protagonist to strictly feature heavily glowing metal plates bolted directly onto their cheekbones. It ensures that you look…
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Lara Croft was created to avoid an Indiana Jones lawsuit
Lara Croft only exists because her creators were terrified of getting sued by George Lucas. Toby Gard originally pitched the Tomb Raider lead as a rugged,…
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The nearly impossible 29-point cribbage hand
Hitting the maximum score requires holding three fives and a jack, while perfectly flipping the exact suited five from the deck. It is a mathematical anomaly…
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Counter-Strike began as a free Half-Life mod
The multi-million-dollar eSports juggernaut was originally coded in a dorm room by two college kids named Minh Le and Jess Cliffe. They used Valve's Half-Life…
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The joker that can only do three things
Instead of being a completely wild element that can become anything, this joker is strictly leashed by the rules. It can only fill in straights, flushes, or…
Discover moreSudoku was named by someone who didn't invent it
The man famously known as the godfather of the format simply gave it a catchy Japanese title and aggressively published it. He completely bypassed the heavy…
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The Stardew Valley villager who loves raw quartz
Dietary habits in rural towns are terrifying. Handing a solid, jagged crystal pulled from a damp mine to an incredibly specific villager will prompt her to…
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Why the Zerg sound like wet squishes
Instead of speaking words, this terrifying faction just aggressively gurgles, hisses, and slimes its way through every single command. It is incredibly gross…
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Why Kinect failed in small rooms
This incredibly expensive depth-sensing camera required massive amounts of entirely empty floor space to function correctly. It was completely useless for…
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Sims babies grow into children instantly upon rapid aging
Puberty is a lie; growth is instantaneous. A tiny infant wrapped in a blanket will suddenly emit a burst of sparkling lights, spontaneously mutating into a…
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Why you mash buttons while a chest opens
Even though the unlocking animation is entirely locked to a predetermined timeframe, players will frantically mash the controller. This pointless exertion of…
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Crouching over a defeated player is the ultimate taunt
Crouching repeatedly over a defeated opponent is a rich cultural tradition of absolute disrespect. Decades after its invention, this rapid up-and-down motion…
Discover moreHalo 2 has a Steve Vai guitar solo
Right in the middle of a tense, dramatic moment, the soundtrack erupts into a blistering, high-energy rock anthem performed by a literal guitar legend. It…
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Risk boards contain exactly forty-two distinct territories
This colorful cardboard map divides the entire globe into a remarkably small number of conquerable chunks. You spend hours furiously moving tiny plastic…
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The game where new players get stranded in space
Humanity's worst traits will inevitably manifest in the stars. In Elite Dangerous, veteran users lured novices onto distant fleet carriers with promises of…
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