Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Yakuza karaoke lyrics were translated to rhyme
The localization team matched the English syllables to the songs' rhythms and rhymes, so the karaoke lyrics flow naturally instead of reading like literal…
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Fallout 4 VR lets you turn a firefight into slow motion
Its V.A.T.S. targeting system slows the surrounding action while you choose targets. Bethesda redesigned the feature for virtual reality so players could look…
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Commander Shepard's voice actor also played Mass Effect's aliens
Mark Meer voiced the male Shepard as well as characters including the vorcha and hanar. The commanding human voice and much stranger performances came from…
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Your Dark Souls lore may depend on a translation
Some English item names were inventions by translators, so lore theories built on those names may not match the original text.
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In Metal Gear, the snake you eat matters
In Metal Gear, the species of snake you eat determines how much stamina you recover, making for an unusually consequential menu choice for a stealth operative.
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Bloodborne uses choir music to make a prison feel like a ritual
In Hypogean Gaol, Hail the Nightmare brings ominous voices into an area outside an ordinary boss fight. The low singing makes the place feel occupied by…
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Tracer can undo her own recent movement and damage
Her Recall ability returns her to an earlier position and restores the health state tied to that rewind. It gives a fast attacker a way to escape the…
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Persona 5 refuses to let even the menu sit still
Sharp shapes, bold contrasts, and off-kilter lettering carry the Phantom Thieves' rebellious mood into ordinary interface screens. Choosing an item becomes…
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Animal Crossing villagers used to be surprisingly cruel
In older games, villagers could mock your clothes, call you ugly, and even ask you to move away—far less cuddly than today's neighbors.
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Doom Eternal gives a trophy for punching a specific wall
The wall hides an in-joke you uncover by punching it—earning a trophy for property damage in the middle of a demon-slaying game.
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Animal Crossing voices are sped-up text-to-speech
Animalese is a basic synthesizer reading the dialogue’s letters aloud at a high pitch—so those heartfelt chats are with text-to-speech.
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Ekans spells snake backward—and Arbok keeps the joke going
Reverse Arbok and you get kobra. The two Pokémon's names turn a snake and its cobra-like evolution into the same word game, so the naming joke evolves along…
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The Sims' money borrows a much older slang word
“Simoleon” was American slang for a dollar long before the game existed. The name fits the series so neatly that it sounds invented for Sims. Its joke works…
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Snake’s voice actor wrote the original X-Men
His screenplay for the original X-Men film helped launch Hugh Jackman's career.
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Skyrim rewards opening books as well as swinging swords
The Reader achievement requires finding fifty different skill books. Opening one can raise a skill immediately, so a shelf can hide character progression…
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Doom HUD face gets progressively bloodier as health drops
As health falls, Doom’s pixelated protagonist portrait becomes increasingly bloodied, turning the HUD into a visible damage meter.
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Monster Hunter lets its world speak an invented language
The series has its own fictional spoken language, with subtitles supplying the meaning. Later releases also offer familiar voice-language choices such as…
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Resident Evil got its name because Biohazard was hard to trademark
Capcom's U.S. team faced an existing game and a band using Biohazard. According to former communications executive Chris Kramer, the alternative came from an…
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Halo's shield sound came from a dog rubbing its face
The shield-recharging sound came from a dog rubbing its face against a textured rug, not from a futuristic synthesizer.
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In Yakuza, even bicycles become weapons
In the games' street brawls, the protagonist can grab a random commuter's bicycle and smash it over a gangster's head.
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Dishonored's rats turn corpses into clean bones
In Dishonored, swarms of rats devour fallen enemies until only clean bones remain—a grimly efficient way to clear a battlefield.
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The video game scream recorded by a real sobbing actress
Voice actress Ellen McLain recorded the Witch’s wails by sobbing into a microphone; they weren’t synthesized.
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Half-Life 2's absurd garden-gnome challenge
For one achievement, you must carry a fragile garden gnome through the entire campaign, carefully placing it in cars and tossing it over fences.
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Kratos and Stargate's Teal'c share a voice
Christopher Judge played the restrained alien warrior Teal'c before taking on Kratos in the later God of War games. Both roles use his imposing voice, but the…
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