Five Facts Episodes 2014

Game	Facts	Air Date	Links
Batman: Arkham Asylum	1. Although many Batman comics inspired Rocksteady Studios, producer Nathan Burlow stated that the narrative and atmosphere of the game was directly influenced by Bioshock. 2. According to publisher Eidos Interactive, one developer spent two years programing Batman's cape. There are 700 sound effects and animations used to give the cape a realistic feel. 3. The combat system in the game went through three different iterations before it was finalized. Initially it was more of a rhythm based combat system rather than the simplified final product. 4. In the Scarecrow audio interviews there are multiple mentions of a Dr. Murphy and a Dr. Combs, these are references to actors that have played Scarecrow previously, specifically Cillian Murphy in Christopher Nolan's Batman films and voice actor Jeffery Combs. 5. The idea for the game's sequel 'Batman: Arkham City' came to light seven months before this game was even completed. Rocksteady added an Easter Egg of a secret room in the Warden's office that was covered in hints and plans for the game.	January 7, 2014	1
"Variety Pack #2" Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Portal 2, Red Dead Redemption, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Brütal Legend	1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution: The tranquilize rifle in the game is called Pax-22. The word pax means peace when translated from Latin to English, this name of course is a reference to the rifle's peaceful way of taking out enemies. 2. Portal 2: Writer Erik Wolpaw has stated that the reason why there is no cake in Portal 2 is because Valve was tired of the cake jokes over the years. 3. Red Dead Redemption: Desepite Rockstar Games' rather mature library of titles, John Marston is the first protagonist in Rockstar Game to be seen smoking. Tommy from 2002's 'Vice City' can be seen smoking but only after the use of a cheat code. 4. Batman: Arkham Asylum: In the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum if the game is pirated an extra piece of code is activated that makes Batman forget how to glide with his cape. The result is an extreme clumsy Batman who eventually gets trapped in a room filled with poisonous gas and dies. 5. Brütal Legend: The game saving icon changes on certain days in Brütal Legend as a tribute to heavy metal pioneers who are no longer with us. For example on February 19 the saving symbol changes to a lightning bolt in honor of ACDC vocalist, Bon Scott.	January 14, 2014	2
Modern Warfare 2	1. The game was originally announced as Call of Duty 6 then during the reveal the game as simply titled Modern Warfare 2, however, Actvision decided that the Call of Duty brand should have been included in the title and that became the final name. The developers like to ignore the Call of Duty part of the title in conversation and in the game itself because they felt like it was a new IP. 2. The shops in Zakhaev International Airport in the game, have copies of the first Modern Warfare game inside. 3. The cut scene that takes the player into space at the ISS was originally going to be a full interactive level, however Infinite Ward felt that it would have cut into the flow of the game and the level was cut. 4. Some of the license plates in the game say IW20094, this is a reference to Infinite Ward 2009, which is the year the game came out, and the fact that it is Infinite Ward's fourth Call of Duty game. 5. The infamous "No Russian" mission was supposed to take place in a real Moscow airport according to the unused game files, however, Infinite Ward changed their minds in order to avoid even more controversy.	January 21, 2014	3
Borderlands 2	1. Some of Handsome Jack's most popular lines including his 'pretzel' and 'butt stallion' remarks, were completely ad-libbed by voice actor Damien Clarke. Lead writer Anthony Burch has joked that he's mad at Clarke because he didn't even write his most famous lines. 2. On several occasions Tiny Tina's eye tracking glitches and makes her go cross-eyed. During development Gearbox thought it was a funny bug that coincided with Tina's hyperactive personality so it was kept in. 3. Most of the inspiration for Handsome Jack's personality came from a Nathan Fillion interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2010. 4. The BNK-3R, the giant robotic aircraft guardian angel, is voiced by the game's sound designer Joshua Davidson. When it makes any noise, it's actually a sound clip of Davidson yelling about tea that has undergone heavy audio processing. 5. According to writer Anthony Burch, the inspiration for 'Face McShooty' came from a video on The Onion featuring a fictional videogame where the only thing you do is shoot people in the face.	January 28, 2014	4
Resident Evil 5	1. In the original plans for Resident Evil 5, Chris' partner was series veteran Barry Burton who was still existing in the game as a part of the local militia fighting the B.O.W.s. 2. In chapter 1-2 you can find a poster advertising for an album by Paula Hopkins called Mother. The same exact poster can be seen in the mall in Dead Rising, another CapCom game. Frank West can even use a stack of these CDs as a weapon. 3. Jill Valentine's new look based on Fiona Belli, the protagonist from CapCom's 2005 game 'Haunting Ground.' 4. Originally Wesker was going to use a Tyrant similar to the one that killed him in Resident Evil 1 to eliminate Excella Gionne. Instead Wesker uses Ouroboros to transform her into a monster towards the end of the game. 5. Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami didn't play Resident Evil 5 until 2011 because he didn't like the idea of playing a Resident Evil game he didn't work on.	February 4, 2014	5
Batman: Arkham City	1. Voice actor Mark Hamill originally wanted Arkham Asylum to be his last time as the Joker, however after learning of Paul Deeney and Kevin Conroy's return for Arkham City, he agreed to perform one last time. 2. If you explore the Gotham City police department you can find a list of recently arrested criminals. The names on this list are actually developers from Rocksteady Studios. 3. During the game many of the inmates can be heard referencing the TV show 'Lost.' This is because writer Paul Deeney was a writer on the show for the first two seasons. 4. It's possible through the use of a glitch to escape the walls of Arkham city. If you escape you can view a fully modeled Gotham along with the asylum from the first game, however it is not solid and must be viewed while gliding or Batman will fall through the floor. 5. The painting on Two-Face's wall safe is a reference to the end of the game. The painting, showing a man being carried toward the screen, is incredibly similar to the image of Batman carrying the Joker out of the city in the end of the game.	February 11, 2014	6
Smite	1. The concept for Smite originally had nothing to do with mythology, it started out as a new game mode idea in Hi-Rez Studios first game, 'Global Agenda.' The idea for the game mode was reworked until the studio separated it from the setting of their first title. The working title of the game, which now serves as the game's tagline, was "Battle Ground of the Gods." 2. Chris Sabat, the English voice actor for Vegeta from Dragonball Z, voices many of the characters in the game. Such as Fenrir, Zeus, and Geb. 3. The makers of Smite tested out a universal jump ability during development but excluded it first due to a fear of players spamming the action to avoid attacks. However after surveys in October 2013 revealed players wanted a standard jumping ability, the feature was put in albeit in no game play advantage. 4. Hi-Rez really enjoys using community concepts in their games. The Feaster Bunny skin was credited to the community and Smite is about to get its first limited edition skin Poolseidon, which is another community based idea. 5. Jesus is shown within the game but not as a playable character. When the Joust map was introduced, the Dev team included a small oil painting of Jesus just as an Easter Egg. It is moved around the map a few times but it can still be found.	February 18, 2014	7
"Variety Pack #3" Saints Row, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, Minecraft, Doom, Wolfenstein 3D	1. Saints Row: The original title for Saints Row was Bling Bling, although the name was scrapped during development, it was used for the name of the jewelry store in Saints Row 2. 2. Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe: Development of a new Mortal Kombat game began in 2007 after Midway Games was inspired by a Gears of War demonstration. They wanted to use the Unreal Engine 3, also used in Gears, to make a gritty back-to-basic reboot of the series. However, during development a deal with DC Comics was made and Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe replaced that project. 3. Minecraft: Creepers were created when Notch accidentally inverted the values of the model of a pig while developing the game. The result was a long bodied creature with short legs. 4. Doom: In 1995 it was estimated that Doom was installed on more computers worldwide than Microsoft's new OS, Windows 95. When Microsoft decided to develop a Windows 95 port of the game, they superimposed Bill Gates on to a Doom level as a space marine for a presentation of the port. 5. Wolfenstein 3D: It is implied that the marine in Doom is a descendant of Wolfenstein 3's protagonist William "B.J." Blazkowicz. Sergeant Stan Blazkowicz, a protagonist from Doom 2 RPG, is a direct descendant of this character.	February 25, 2014	8
Call of Duty: Black Ops	1. Call of Duty: Black Ops was the first game ever that Treyarch devoted their entire staff to with no other projects in development. 2. The crossbow in the game was inspired by a story by Vietnam combat consultant Major John Plaster where a member of S.O.G. would equip themselves with a bow and modify it for certain missions. 3. The zombie map Moon is called Zombie_Paris in the consoles game's code because originally the map was going to be set in Paris, however, Treyarch decided to change it because they wanted to go out with a bang. 4. According to Treyarch's sound designer Kevin Sherwood, there was originally going to be jingles following kill streaks similar to the jingles after challenges are completed or become expired. They can be found on Sherwood's Youtube channel. 5. The purple house outside of the multi-player map Nuketown, is modeled after the house from the TV show 'The Brady Bunch.'	March 11, 2014	9
Sonic Generations	1. In order to determine what levels would be in Sonic Generation, SEGA held an internal poll for every employee asking what their favorite levels were. Fan feedback also helped decide the level selections through various polls on online sites like Facebook. 2. To make sure that the two Sonics felt authentic, two different sets of physics were created, Modern and Classic Sonic. SEGA community manager Aaron Webber claimed that the physics for classic Sonic are the closets to the Classics that they ever made. 3. When you finish Green Hill Zone as Modern Sonic, Sonic will tell Tails the area seemed awfully familiar, however, Tails will say "Not to me." This is because Green Hill Zone was from the first Sonic game and Tails wasn't introduced until the second game. 4. There is a secret statue room in Sonic Generations that can be visited by holding the back or select button in the Collection Room. Statues can be obtained through specific codes that were once included in special Sonic merchandise but now can be found online. 5. Sonic Generations and Sonic '06 are very similar in terms of story considering they both feature an antagonist that manipulates and destroys time lines. Interesting enough, both Sonic '06 and Sonic Generations are anniversary games for the 15th and 20th year anniversary respectively.	March 18, 2014	10
"Pirate Punisher" Serious Sam 3: BFE, Alan Wake, Dark Souls, Michael Jackson: The Experience, Mirror's Edge	1. Serious Sam 3: BFE: Players who pirate Serious Sam: BFE will discover almost immediately that an immortal giant scorpion follows the player for the entire game, torturing the player as they try to progress. 2. Alan Wake: If Alan Wake is downloaded illegally for the PC, Alan will wear an eye-patch the entirety of the game, also, the loading screens will remind you to purchase the game legally to support the developer. 3. Dark Souls: Right before the release of Dark Souls, developer From Software discovered that there were players playing early copies of the game. In response, the developers sent unbeatable max level Black Phantoms into the games to punish the gamers. 4. Michael Jackson: The Experience: Since games are easily pirated for the Nintendo DS, Ubisoft decided to add a feature that cause Vuvuzelas, the annoying plastic horns from the 2010 World Cup, to blast over the songs as they play. 5. Mirror's Edge: If a pirated copy is played, the game will slow your character down immensely right before making important jumps, causing you to fall to your death.	March 25, 2014	11
Mafia II	1. Development of Mafia II began in 2003 when the game was intended to be a PlayStation 2 and Xbox game. However the developer behind the game's engine went out of business and development was moved to next gen consoles in 2005. The game would finally be released in 2010 after five years of PlayStation 3 and Xbox360 development. 2. The game was originally supposed to take place between 1946-1957, according to a demo in 2009, however the final product takes place from 1943-1951. 3. Mafia II was infamous for cutting content while leaving it in the game's code. Included in the cuts are buses, a subway system, drive-bys, betting, multiplayer and much more. 4. The collectable Playboy magazines in the game do not fit into the story time wise, the game takes place between 1943-1951 while Playboy was not founded until 1953. 5. All the collectable wanted posters in the game include a gangster style mugshot of an actual developer who worked on the game.	April 1, 2014	12
"Variety Pack #4" Minecraft, Left 4 Dead 2, Duke Nukem Forever, Modern Warfare 3, Poker Night 2	1. Minecraft: Initially there was going to be a block called Crying Obsidian in the game that would be used to reset and move spawn points. However this idea was abandoned after beds were introduced. 2. Left 4 Dead 2: According to a Valve employee, there was going to be a special Infected called the Leaker. The enemy was similar to the Boomer and its tendency to spit goo. The difference though was that the Leaker could plant itself and a landmine of sorts. It was cut due to its ineffectiveness as players could simply run away from it. 3. Duke Nukem Forever: A gamer known as Slash000 pre-ordered Duke Nukem Forever in 2001 and kept his receipt for 10 years until the game's release. His pre-order was honored and developer at Gearbox Software sent him a care-package filled with shirts, signed collectibles, and more. 4. Modern Warfare 3: According to unused sound files hidden in the game's code, there was a game mode called Grinder that was cut from the final game. Based on the content from the sound clips, it is similar to the Drop Zone game mode. 5. Poker Night 2: In the intro sequence to the game, Doug from the Walking Dead video game makes a small cameo appearance. This is a reference to the fact that TellTale originally wanted to put Walking Dead elements in the game including characters.	April 8, 2014	13
Pokemon Snap	1. According to Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata, the game started out as a picture taking game without any Pokemon in it. The idea of using the Pokemon universe came about after Nintendo wanted to give players a better motivation for taking pictures in the game. 2. Originally Nintendo planned on releasing the game for the 64DD, which was the disk drive peripheral for the Nintendo 64. The switch to cartridge format was a result in Nintendo wanting to get the game out earlier instead of waiting for the 64DD to launch later in the year. 3. Although this game claims that many types of Pokemon are in it, the actual number of Pokemon in the game is 63 out of the original 151. This along with the game's short campaign and lack of replay value, lead to criticism from reviewers after the game came out. 4. It is believed that Magikarp and Gyarados are based on an ancient Chinese story where carp that can leap over a dragon's gate at the top of a waterfall, become dragons. This is referenced in the game when you must knock a Magikarp into a waterfall in order to evolve it into a Gyarados. 5. When the game was released, Nintendo signed a deal with Blockbuster Video that let gamers bring saved data to Blockbuster stores so they could print out pictures they took in the game.	April 15, 2014	14
Wolfenstein: The New Order	1. The team members at developer MachineGames, were such big fans of the franchise, they mapped out practically the entire game before even getting the green light to work on Wolfenstein. The original vision for Nazi controlled Europe in the 1960s was faithfully executed in the final game. 2. Since Wolfenstein: The New Order is very story driven, over an hour and a half in game cinematics for motion capture is used to help support the narrative nature of the game. 3. The marketing team behind the game created a fictional state owned German record label to promote the game's story elements. Bethesda Softworks, along with two other agencies, created full backstories and original songs, some of which appear in the actual game for twelve different bands in order to make the game feel more authentic and believable. 4. The classic 100 health points and armor health system originally featured in Wolfenstein 3D, was the very first design decision that the team at MachineGames made. The team chose to work on this first and foremost in order to recapture the spirit and fun of the original games. 5. After showing early development builds to key leads at id Software, the studio responsible for the franchise's success, gently remind MachineGames that Wolfenstein is all about heavy weapons. As a result, the development team implemented dual wielding for most of the weapons in the game.	April 22, 2014	15
Call of Duty 3	1. Although Call of Duty 3 was one of the entries in the main series, Treyarch was only given eight months to complete the development of the game. Many Treyarch employees contribute the mixed reviews of the game to this fact. 2. In the Playstation 2 version of Call of Duty 3, weapon models and animation from Call of Duty 2: Big Red One are reused instead of the assets used in the other versions of the game. 3. While other titles in the Call of Duty franchise took home awards for graphics and gameplay, the third game in the series was highly praised for its sound design, winning multiple awards from organizations such as the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and the Game Audio Network Guild. 4. The melee fight sequences in the game are unavoidable unless you are playing in the PS2 version, if you are, a perfectly timed grenade throw before the confrontation eliminates it entirely. 5. Call of Duty 3 is the only major installment of the series that was never released for computers on the Mac or the PC.	April 29, 2014	16
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3	1. Before the game's release in November 2011, Activision wanted to set up modernwarfare3.com to promote their game, however the domain name was already registered and the site itself would redirect to the webpage for EA's Battlefield 3. Activision eventually acquired the domain name through a lawsuit. 2. Actor William Fichtner voices a Delta operator in the game named Sandman, coincidentally in the 2001 war film Black Hawk Down, Fichtner plays another Delta operator named Jeff Sanderson. 3. Right before Modern Warfare 3's European launch, a delivery truck in France was transporting around 6,000 copies of the game when a car crashed into it; two masked robbers emerged from the car and stole the delivery truck. The inventory stolen in the heist was worth about 400,000 €. 4. If looked closely at the game's files you can find unused weapons like the FAMAS, AUG, SCAR-H, and more. Almost all of these are weapons from previous Call of Duty games that were cut to make room for newer ones. 5. If you examine the London underground map, seen during the campaign, you'll notice that the map has multiple fictional, yet humorous, station names and locations. Among the names are Wrong Shoe Street, Yogo Gogo Town, and Unicorn Lane.	May 6, 2014	17
"Puzzle Games" Hexic HD, Peggle, Tetis, Fez, Bejeweled	1. Hexic HD: Although Hexic HD is available for download in modern times, at first it was only made available for download by calling Microsoft Service Center and requesting it. 2. Peggle: A study performed at East Carolina University, which has been mentioned in the Bejeweled Five Facts, show that across 132 subjects, Peggle was found to increase mood across all test subjects by 573% with a 45% decrease in depression. 3. Tetris: In 1993 a Russian cosmonaut took his copy of Tetris in his GameBoy to the Mir Space Station. This is widely believed to be one of the first games to be played in space. 4. Fez: At one point during Fez's five year development cycle, designer Phil Fish almost had to close his company due to exhaustion of funds. Right when he was about to cancel the project, the developer publisher Trapdoor, who had just signed a deal with EA, came in and funded the rest of the game for a portion of the game's earnings. 5. Bejeweled: As well as every other match three game in existence, it is based on 1994's Russian DOS game called Shariki. The game featured different colored balls on a grid that had to be matched in groups of three or more to disappear, which became a very popular concept used in many puzzle games.	May 13, 2014	18
inFamous	1. The original idea for the game was an Animal Crossing style game with the main character being a super hero. Another pitched idea was having the character fight a gang of purple gorillas who were stealing balloons. However these ideas were scrapped in favor of what was eventually released. 2. During the initial development of the game while it was under the project name "True Hero", developer Sucker Punch used comics like DMZ and No Man's Land and games like Grand Theft Auto 3 as inspirations for inFamous. 3. Cole had several codenames throughout the development of the game, among these codegames were Talon, Gear Wolf, and Chance. 4. Empire City was built with a "crime ecosystem" in place in order to have crime constantly occurring so the player would have to either stop and help or continue to ignore it. There was an employee whose sole job was to make the entire city climbable. 5. If you look closely at Cole's sling-bag, you can see the Sly Cooper logo. Sly Cooper and inFamous were both created by Suck Punch Productions.	May 20, 2014	19
inFamous 2	1. According to developer Sucker Punch, the first inFamous game was using 30% of the PS3 cell processors at any one time. For inFamous 2 the team was able to use 50% and 60%, allowing for major improvements over the original. 2. Fans were extremely disappointed in the redesign of Cole that was revealed in promotional artwork for the game. As a result, Sucker Punch had to go back an redesign him so he looked like Cole from the original inFamous. 3. The voice actor for Cole was replaced between the first two games because the developers felt like they needed an actor who could both voice and motion capture after the motion capture process was added to the development of cut scenes. 4. Development director Chris Zimmerman has stated that Devil May Cry 4 was a big influence on Sucker Punch's improvements to melee aspects of the game. 5. The mission editor in the game had been in development since the first inFamous and was inspired by the 2008 PS3 title Little Big Planet.	May 27, 2014	20
"Variety Pack #5" Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Super Meat Boy, Dead Space 2	1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: While president Al-Fulani is being transported to his execution during the mission The Coup, there is a banner visible in the beginning in the top left portion of the screen. The banner says Infinity Ward in Arabic 2. Bioshock Infinite: It was Irrational Games' original intent to have Elizabeth be a completely silent character in Bioshock Infinite. According to an Irrational employee, the decision to make Elizabeth a talking character was hugely controversial in the office at the time. 3. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon: By entering the Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left right, B, A) on the promotional website for the game, the mouse turns into a cross-arrow allowing you to shoot and destroy the website. After destroying most of the site, a picture of an omega four soldier appears. 4. Super Meat Boy: If you type in the code "petaphile" at the character selection screen of Super Meat Boy for the PC, you unlock Super Tofu Boy as a playable character. Unfortunately he is virtually useless with non-existent stats resulting from a "major iron deficiency." 5. Dead Space 2: There was a necromorph cut from the game called The Flytrap, the purpose of ceiling dwelling enemy an environmental hazard was to lure players in with its hanging innards and slow them down. In the luring aspect, enemies were very similar to the Guardians.	June 3, 2014	21
"Variety Pack #6" Super Mario Bros. U, Bulletstorm, Fallout New Vegas, Left 4 Dead, Minecraft	1. New Super Mario Bros. U: Originally Nintendo wanted to put Mii characters in the story mode but decided to throw that idea out when they felt like it no longer felt like a Super Mario game. 2. Bulletstorm: The Echo mode was added to the game because the developers believe that play testers were completely forgetting about skill shots during the commotion of the campaign. 3. Fallout New Vegas: The perk called "In shinning armor" in the Dead Money DLC, doesn't actually give the player a damage threshold boost because the coding in the perk used the wrong parameters. 4. Left 4 Dead: The Zombie Genocidest achievement you get for killing 53, 595 infected is a reference to the Dead Rising achievement, Zombie Genocider, which is unlocked by killing 53, 594. 5. Minecraft: All of the trees in Minecraft are two years old, based on the number of rings seen on the wood blocks.	June 10, 2014	22
Super Mario World	1. Despite receiving wide spread critical acclaim, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that he felt that the game was incomplete and that development was rushed towards the end of the game's three year cycle. 2. Mario composer Koji Kondo composed all of the music for Super Mario World using only his electronic keyboard. 3. The idea of having a dinosaur companion for Mario had been around since the development of Super Mario Bros for the NES, however, technical limitations had to delay Yoshi's debut. With the release of the Super Nintendo, Nintendo finally had enough power to work with to include him in the game. 4. The raccoon suit from Super Mario Bros 3 was originally going to be in Super Mario World as well until the cape replaced it. 5. There are two bullet enemies in the game, one is named Torpedo Ted and the other is Bullet Bill. Together their names are a reference to the movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.	June 17, 2014	23
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune	1. At the 2008 Game Developers Conference, the lead game game designer of Uncharted explained that Nathan Drake was based in part of Johnny Knoxville, specifically Knoxville's coolness and goodness. However the development team claims Nathan's voice actor Nolan North is their greatest inspiration. 2. In order to allow Nathan to realistically react to his surroundings, a procedural animation system was developed. In a few instances over 30 animations are used in a single movement. 3. On the back of Nathan's gun holder the initials NDI can be seen. This is the abbreviation of Naughty Dog Incorporated which can be seen in a few different places in the game. 4. The Hog Wild seaplane in the game is named after a level in the first Crash Bandicoot game. 5. The wetsuits worn in the game are made by a fictional company called Ottsel. This is a reference to Daxter, a hybrid otter-weasel from Naughty Dog's Jack and Daxter series.	June 24, 2014	24
Batman: Arkham Origins	1. Despite Rocksteady Studios not development Arkham Origins like the previous two games, they were willing to lend developer WB Montréal a hand and mastering the game's mechanics, engine, and technology of the series. 2. According to creative director Eric Holmes, one of their inspirations for the game's use of sleigh bells in the musical score was their use in the film Die Hard. The events in both Die Hard and Batman: Arkham Origins take place on Christmas Eve. 3. Some of the graffiti found in Gotham is real life graffiti found in Montréal, the city where Origins was developed. WB Montréal asked graffiti artists permission to use their work in exchange for compensation. 4. The Penguin's ship, The Final Offer, was originally a cruise liner called The Meredith. This was a tribute to Burgess Meredith, the actor who played The Penguin in the 1960s Batman television show. 5. The Dixon Docks area of the game is a reference to veteran Batman writer Chuck Dixon.	July 1, 2014	25
Duke Nukem Forever	1. Duke Nukem Forever was initially supposed to be a PC exclusive, however an attempt generate better sales, another developer was brought in to port it to consoles and to add multiplayer. Unfortunately, it was ported poorly and it ended up hurting sales. 2. Gear Box was thinking of creating a sidekick for Duke in the form of a gay robot. However the character wasn't included because the robot's life was going to have a tragic ending and the developers didn't want the tragedy to take away from the action. 3. The book that Duke signs early on in the game is entitled "Why I'm So Great" is the same book that Duke gets interviewed about in Duke Nukem 2. 4. The names Johnny Carson, Conan O'Brian, Jay Leno, and David Letterman were combined to create the name Johnny O'Lenoman, the host of the ingame talk show Damn! It's Late... 5. Although the game was in development for approximately 15 years, most of the assets used in the final version of the game were relatively new upon release. However, there was on asset that wasn't, a miniature pig cop statue that was made in 2006. According to Randy Pitchford, it is the oldest asset used in the entire game.	July 15, 2014	26
Battlefield 3	1. The single player campaign was inspired by war movies and television shows such as Generation Kill, Blackhawk Down, and The Hurt Locker. 2. According to DICE general manager, Karl Magnus Troedsson, the lead development platform of Battlefield 3 switched from PC to console halfway through the game's production. 3. Battlefield 3's technology was so advanced that just one lighting probe from the game's engine contained more lighting information than the entire level of Bad Company 2. 4. The vaulting movement in the game was inspired by Mirrors Edge, another game made by EA and DICE. 5. Dennis Lennartsson who portrays the marine on the cover of the game's box art, was also the US Army's solider on the cover of Bad Company 2 box art.	July 22, 2014	27
"Branco's B's" Bully, Battlefield 3, Borderlands, Bioshock, Bioshock 2	1. Bully: Bully exists within the same universe as Grand Theft Auto, this connection can be made because Bulworth Academy appears in the episode "I'm Rich!" in GTA IV. 2. Battlefield 3: Battlefield 3 was the first non sports game to utilize Ants technology, the animation program used in EA Sports titles like Fifa and NHL. This creates fluid 3rd person animations and transitions. 3. Borderlands: According to Gear Box, there are exactly 16,164,886 guns in the first Borderlands game. 4. Bioshock: The was originally going to be a teleportation plasmid in the game that ended up being cut because it was too unstable. This feature is even referenced in an Easter egg in Bioshock 2. 5. Bioshock 2: Although choosing between harvesting and adopting is a key element in the Bioshock series, there is one little sister in the game that can be damaged and killed without any benefit to the player.	July 29, 2014	28
Halo 4	1. Although 343 Industries started out with just about a dozen people, 350 individuals wound up working on Halo 4 during its development. The development team included employees who also had worked on more than 25 different triple A studios. 2. With 29 weapons present in total, Halo 4 has the most weapons of any Halo game to date. 3. Some of Halo 4's sound recording sessions took place in unusual environments such as underwater, in ice, and in fire through the use of special microphones. 4. Although some voice actors in Halo 4 only provide a voice for the game, Jen Taylor performed the motion capture for Halsey as well as the voice acting. 5. The Sequence Group, the visual effects house responsible for creating the Halo 4 terminals, used two Microsoft Kinect censors to create a homemade motion capture system. 6. By looking through the game's files you can find the Burst Pistol located in the Spartan Ops files the deleted version is similar to the Boltshot weapon that made it in to the final version of Halo 4. It is accessible through some means as there are videos of it online being used in game. 7. Spartan Ops originally started off as a firefight type mode until developers decided to add a narrative and different mission types to freshen things up. 8. The Prometheans were created when 343 decided that a major franchise development goal was to explore the forerunner fiction of the Halo universe. 9. Axis Animation, the Glascow based animation studio responsible for the Dead Island announcement trailer, worked with 343 with Spartan Ops' cinematic sequences as engaging as possible. 10. In some Spartan Ops' pre-rendered cut scenes the weapons that are used are actually weapon models from older builds of the game. This leads to some weapons being labelled incorrectly and some even lacking features seen in the final game.	August 12, 2014 August 19, 2014	29 30
Halo: Spartan Assault	1. During development Halo: Spartan Assault was called Halo Bootcamp. 2. The move to consoles wasn't part of 343's original plan for Spartan Assault, it was only after the developer was overly pleased with the finished product that bringing it to the Xbox consoles was considered. 3. The missions in the game had to be broken up into smaller chunks to accommodate the mobile game experience. 4. One of the goals of of Tom Salta, the composer for the game, was to create music that felt like it was from the original Halo trilogy rather than the new tone set by Halo 4. 5. Although there is a Hunter featured on the cover of the game, they are not enemies that you can fight against.	August 26, 2014	31
Titanfall	1. Since Respawn Entertainment was a new studio creating a new IP, they started out without an office or any computers. Their first meeting was in an empty office building with about 40 developers sitting on folding chairs talking about what they liked and didn't like about videos at the time. 2. While initially designing the Titans for the game, Respawn Entertainment looked at real military exoskeletons and tried to picture what they look like fully developed in the future. 3. When asked about the inclusion of a single-player campaign, Respawn has said that creating a solo campaign would have been a step backward in their eyes. Many employees were considered about making a multi-player only game up until the final game mode was fully playable. 4. According to the lead artist for Titanfall in order to make thee Titans feel less clunky and more like an extension of the player, motion capture was recorded and then scale to fit the size of the Titans. 5. Although the install for Titanfall on consoles does not require a whole lot of space, the PC version requires 48 GB to install and play. The reason behind this is, is that it contains uncompressed audio files so lower-end machines can dedicate more power to other functions.	September 2, 2014	32
Bayonetta	1. According to development director, Hideki Kamiya, this game was an evolution of Devil May Cry, another game by Kamiya while at Capcom. 2. It took over a year to create the final version of the Bayonetta character. Kamiya pushed to have Bayonetta wear glasses to separate her from other female game characters while also giving her a sense of mystery and intelligence. 3. Although Bayonetta is the main character in the game, her rival Jeeanne became the most popular witch among the development team. 4. The developers have stated that the name Bayonetta comes from putting a female twist on the word bayonet. As Bayonetta's fighting style was described by them as "striking the enemy with guns", the developers felt that it would fit well. 5. Developer Platinum Games were so unhappy with the poor PS3 version of game that they promised to never let another developer port one of their games again. However, a company called Bee Tribe is porting the original Bayonetta to the Wii U.	September 9, 2014	33
"Variety Pack #7" Rockstar Table Tennis, Team Fortress 2, Killer Instinct, Dead Rising 3, Minecraft	1. Rockstar Table Tennis: According to president Sam Houser, the reason why Rockstar made a table tennis game was to show people what was possible in a next generation console. They loved table tennis at the company and figured that it would be a perfect showcase game. 2. Team Fortress 2: Gary Schwartz, the voice actor behind Heavy, is also the voice actor for the Demoman. 3. Killer Instinct: According to former Rare employees, there were multiple times when a conversation of Killer Instinct was almost brought to Xbox Live Arcade. After receiving enough interest to convince Microsoft to resolve licensing issues, the Killer Instinct title finally came out on the Xbox One after three years of attempting it. 4. Dead Rising 3: CapCom took the time to model the bones, guts, and organs of the zombies, specifically to increase players' satisfaction when zombies get chopped up. 5. Minecraft: Notch revealed that the Enderdragon is a female dragon named Jean.	September 16, 2014	34
Destiny	1. The first known reference to Destiny can be found in a previous Bungie game, Halo 3: ODST. In the game you can find a poster that says "Destiny Awaits." 2. During development the code name for Destiny was Project Tiger. You can hear this code name a few times in Bungie's 20th Anniversary documentary. The code name came from an early concept art for the game. 3. The Destiny Beta had attracted 4.6 million unique players before it ended on July 27, 2014. 4. In order to have a proper inspiration more concepts were developed for Destiny than all other Bungie games combined. 5. According to several ports, Destiny was the most pre-ordered game of all time after shipping over 500 million dollars worth of product to retail. 6. When Destiny was first being planned out, Bungie wanted to move away from the Sci-fi style of games that they have previously worked on. Their initial idea for the game was to make it based on pure fantasy, however, the game eventually became a mix of the two genres called mythic science fiction. 7. Although Destiny was in development for quite some time, the decision to make it available for the PlayStation was only made half way through 2013. 8. During the Destiny Demo at E3 2013, the Ghost could be heard saying "We always visit such cheerful places." This is a reference to Cortana saying, "You always bring me to nice places" in Bungie's Halo 2. 9. According to design director Jason Jones, the very first concept that was thought of when building the world of Destiny was a candle in darkness. The development team thought of an idea for a safe haven in the middle of a dangerous world where people could reunite and be protected. 10. During one of Bungie's panels, the developers said that the Hunter class was inspired by the character Han Solo and old western films such as Clint Eastwood's "The Man With No Name."	September 23, 2014 September 30, 2014	35 36
Watch Dogs	1. The driving physics in Watch Dogs were taken from a game Ubisoft had scrapped prior to this game's development. It is possible that the game they were taken from could have been a new game of the Driver series. 2. In order to make the game setting of Chicago feel more authentic, the development team traveled there for six weeks recording PC dialogue to get the accents right. 3. Ubisoft Montreal built a brand new game engine called Disrupt, specifically to handle the complex technical systems found in Watch Dogs. 4. Over 600 employees and 6 home studios worked on Watch Dogs throughout its long development cycle. 5. Ubisoft worked with Russian Security firm Kaspersky Lab to make the hacking in the game feel more realistic.	October 7, 2014	37
Angry Birds	1. Development of the original Angry Birds began in early 2009 when senior game designer Jaakko Iisalo pitched the bird designs while trying to generate game ideas. Although the designs were pitched without an accompanying game concept, everyone loved them and began development on a game around the characters. 2. The pigs in the game are green and sickly because development took place around the same time as the Swine Flu pandemic and the developers thought it was fitting. 3. Angry Birds holds the Apple App store record for most days as the number one spot on the paid Apps chart. It remained on the top of the chart for 275 days. 4. When a fan on Twitter asked why the pigs don't fight back, the Rovio Bad Piggies account confirmed that the pigs don't want to harm the birds at all despite being the enemies of the game. 5. As of January 2014, all versions of Angry Birds have a combined total of 2 billion downloads.	October 14, 20214	38
Ryse: Son of Rome	1. The code name for the Ryse when it was announced at E3 2010 was Kingdoms. When the game was originally announced as Ryse the next year, it was going to be an Xbox 360 exclusive and a Kinect only title. 2. When Microsoft approached developer Crytek and asked them if they wanted to make their project an Xbox One launch title, Crytek created three different tech-demos for Microsoft to choose from. After seeing a third person, first person, and a Kinect demo, the third person demo was chosen for development. 3. In order to help the developers accurately portray certain elements of Roman culture and history, the team traveled to Rome with a few historians to help gain a better understanding of the that period. 4. In an effort to be better prepared for production, Crytek's storyboard-ed the entire game from start to finish. 5. Cinematic quality was highly emphasized during the production of the game, so much so that Crytek simulated real camera lenses for use on virtual cameras. By using these they were able to greatly increase the production value of the cinematic sequences.	October 21, 2014	39
"Variety Pack #8" FIFA 14, Bayonetta, Left 4 Dead, Watch Dogs, Avatar the Last Airbender: The Burning Earth	1. FIFA 14: FIFA 14 was released for a wide variety of a consoles including the PlayStation 2. This means that FIFA 14 was one of the last games to be released for three different generations of hardware. It was also the last FIFA game to be released for the PS2. 2. Bayonetta: If you shoot at a wall continuously without moving, Bayonetta will write the letter B and draw hearts with her bullets on the wall. 3. Left 4 Dead: The PC version of Left 4 Dead contains an unused split-screen code that stills works and can be re-enabled. 4. Watch Dogs: Although Pawnee is based on the actual town of Pawnee, Illinois the location of the town in the game is incorrect. The game implies that the town is right outside Chicago while the real Pawnee is located in central Illinois. 5. Avatar the Last Airbender: The Burning Earth: All 1000 Gamerscore can be obtained in less than four minutes of game because THQ knew their target audience for the game. They said they "wanted to focus on the thrill of a young kid will get when he/she receives his/her first achievement.	October 28, 2014	40
Sunset Overdrive	1. Early in the game, when the game's developer and publisher are revealed on the protagonist's refrigerator, you'll come across a flyer for a game system called The Moon System 94. On the flyer is a list for fake games that are all parodies of actual games made by developer Insomniac Games. 2. According to Insomniac Games Marcus Smith, the game was influenced by Sega games like Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio in terms of Sunset Overdrive being fun for the sake of being fun. 3. In the past many of Insomniac Games titles were PlayStation exclusive, however, Sunset Overdrive being pitched, Insomniac wanted to retain the rights to the brand and Microsoft was the only company that accepted their terms. 4. When the Kinecct was removed from the Xbox One bundles, it allowed developers to access CPU power that was once reserved for the peripheral. Insomniac jumped on the opportunity to improve their game by using the extra power to asset the game's physics and AI systems. 5. When the game was about to be released, people were surprised to see it running at only 900p. When asked why 1080p wasn't chosen, Insomniac said there was very little graphical difference between the resolutions. Leaving the game running at 900p allowed for more action on the screen with a much more stable frame rate.	November 4, 2014	41
Resident Evil 6	1. The game's setting of Edonia isn't really modeled after a specific country. According to sources at CapCom, they wanted to make it seem like what Americans or Japanese people who haven't been to Eastern Europe would imagine what Eastern Europe to look like. 2. Jake, the son of long time villain Albert Wesker, was created to attract new fans to the series and give them their own character. 3. Leon's campaign begins at Ivy University which is the same university named used in one of the Phoenix Wright games. This is most likely a direct reference since CapCom develops both series of games. 4. Although Piers Nivans is new to the Resident Evil games, he actually made his debut in a Biohazard manga beforehand and was brought into Resident Evil 6 to be partnered with Chris. 5. According to CapCom over 600 employees around the world worked on the game throughout its development, making it the company's biggest production to date.	November 11, 2014	42
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare	1. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the first Call of Duty game to be created in a three year development cycle instead of the usual two year cycle for other games in the franchise. 2. According to Glen Schofield of Sledgehammer Games, the inspiration for Advanced Warfare came from films rather than games which is what Sledgehammer tried to avoid drawing inspiration from entirely. 3. The development team did an enormous amount of research while working on the science influence aspects of the game. Visits to NASA, the Pentagon, and other respected institutions were just part of the research that went into making a "story and technology that still feels plausible." 4. The facial animation technology used in Advanced Warfare is the same technology being used for James Cameron's upcoming Avatar sequel. 5. Sledgehammer Games has implied that the reason why no Wii U version was developed was because of the less than desirable sales of Black Ops 2 and Ghosts for the console in the previous years.	November 18, 2014	43
Rooster Teeth Vs Zombiens	1. One of the original concepts for the Zombiens looked more like fish-people with their heads stuck in aquariums and their eyeballs falling out of their faces. 2. In some of the voice over work you can hear the creative directer coaching the some of the Rooster Teeth staff. This was intentional and in no way an accident according to the development team. 3. Over 2GB of pictures were taken from the Rooster Teeth studio in order for Team Chaos to recreate it faithfully in the game. 4. All of the thousand plus voice overs segments from the Rooster Teeth cast were recorded in one day of intense work. 5. All of the characters' noses received numerous revisions for one reason or another.	November 25, 2014	44
"Fact Check #1" Bioshock Infinite, Sonic The Hedgehog, Tetris, Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros.	1. Bioshock Infinite: FALSE 2. Sonic The Hedgehog: There is a gene and a protein named SHH which determines proper growth in developing human embryos. SHH stands for Sonic Hedge Hog and was named after the Sega video game character. 3. Tetris: FALSE 4. Pac-Man: FALSE 5. Super Mario Bros.: Nintendo owns two pornographic parodies of Super Mario Bros. starring Ron Jeremy. They are called Super Hornio Bros. and Super Hornio Bros 2. They bought the rights to stop production distribution immediately.	December 2, 2014	45
Call of Duty: Ghosts	1. The opening scene of Call of Duty: Ghosts is actually recycled material from Modern Warfare 2, just with different character models. If the scenes are lined up side-by-side, they sync nearly perfectly. 2. Despite being under enormous pressure to develop six different versions of the game for various consoles, Infinity Ward admitted that it still cut a lot of content out, including about 10 mulitplayer maps. 3. In order to make the game's larger environments run more smoothly, a special tool was used to filter out hidden objects that didn't have to be rendered. This process is called occlusion culling. 4. During an IGN interview Infinity Ward's Mike Rubin stated that they worked on reducing the latency of the controllers in order to allow quicker movements. 5. A real Navy Seal trained canine was used for the motion capture of Riley, the ghost squadron's dog. Riley is named after Simon Ghost Riley, a soldier who was killed at the end in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.	December 9, 2014	46
"Pirate Punishments Part 2" Game Dev Tycoon, Crysis Warhead, Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid, Far Cry 4	1. Game Dev Tycoon: If you try to play a pirated copy of Game Dev Tycoon, you will receive an in-game message explaining that pirates illegally downloading your game are hurting your sales and that bankruptcy is eminent 2. Crysis Warhead: If you play an illegally downloaded version of Crysis Warhead, all of the bullets in the game turn into chickens when fired. 3. Grand Theft Auto IV: If your copy of GTA IV is recognized as a pirated copy, the screen will begin to sway around violently as you play. 4. Metal Gear Solid: During the game one of the characters will instruct you to look at the back of the CD case to find a secret frequency that will allow you to continue. That character is actually referring to the real life Metal Gear Solid game case which has a screen shot of the frequency on the back cover. 5. Far Cry 4: Ubisoft created a day one patch for Far Cry 4 that enabled FOV options in the game. Many social media users complaining to Ubisoft about the disappointing lack of these options unintentionally admitted that they pirated the game.	December 16, 2014	47
The Godfather: The Game	1. Godfather trilogy director Francis Ford Coppola was very upset with Paramount's decision to allow EA to make a game based on his movies. He claimed that he was not informed the game being made at any stage of production and has stated that he believes he game is a "misuse of the film." 2. Although several of the original actors lend their voices and likenesses to the game, Al Pacino is absent in both aspects. This is because he chose to lend his likeness to "Scarface: The World is Yours" a game that was also released in 2006. 3. Marlon Brando originally did the voice acting for his character in the game, however many of his recordings were unusable due to his poor health. This caused EA to hire an imitator to voice the character. There was on Brando recording left in the game though, when Don Corleon is in the hospital after being shot. 4. The engine made for The Godfather: The Game would later be revamped and used in the popular EA title "Dead Space" as well as Godfather 2. 5. The PlayStation and Wii versions of the game were developed alongside one another once EA realized the motion control capabilities of both systems.	December 23, 2014	48
"Fact Check #2" The Godfather: The Game, Mortal Kombat, Super Mario World, Resident Evil 4, Destiny	1. The Godfather: The Game: There is a dancing hobo hidden in a shipping container maze that will cause multiple attacking hobos to spawn upon his death. 2. Mortal Kombat: FALSE 3. Super Mario World: Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo took 29,000 man hours to program. 4. Resident Evil 4: In the Japanese version of Resident Evil 4, Leon will not get fully decapitated by the chainsaw enemies in the game because showing decapitation is illegal in Japan. 5. Destiny: FALSE	December 30, 2014	49