The best video game Easter eggs are worth hunting down. Naturally, developers go to great lengths to hide in-jokes and clues throughout their games, so we don't blame you for coming here for answers. We've rounded up what we believe are the 10 best gaming Easter eggs.
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00:00 *Swoosh*
00:02 *Footsteps*
00:04 *Swoosh*
00:06 These video game easter eggs are worth hunting down.
00:09 Developers go through great lengths to hide in-jokes and clues throughout their games.
00:13 So we've rounded up some of the best around.
00:15 Some of these made us laugh, others are just plain weird.
00:18 And there's a few in here that are iconic enough to become a part of video game history.
00:23 That's the power of a good video game easter egg after all.
00:26 So let's get into it.
00:27 Here's our list of the best video game easter eggs of all time.
00:31 "I have already slept enough for one lifetime."
00:37 In Metal Gear Solid 3, the end is an old assassin who goes by the pseudonym "Ancient Sniper".
00:43 At over 100 years old, age is basically his entire deal.
00:47 The game would have you go up against him in an incredible one-on-one jungle battle
00:52 as you search and snipe each other between the trees.
00:55 *Sniper shot*
00:56 However, there are not one but two easter eggs that allow you to kill him before this battle even takes place.
01:03 One involves sniping him as he rests in his wheelchair immediately after his first appearance.
01:08 Although if the player does decide to kill him here,
01:10 an explosion from a bomb in his wheelchair sends a wheel flying towards Naked Snake, which needs to be dodged.
01:17 The second is the far more famous method, and involves setting your PS2 console date forward by at least one week.
01:24 Then when you load up the game, you'll be told that the end has died of old age.
01:29 Rest in peace, buddy.
01:30 *Sniper shot*
01:39 One of the best things about Grand Theft Auto IV is its faux NYC Liberty City setting,
01:44 a sprawling metropolis rooted in realism.
01:47 That is, until you happen upon the innards of the Statue of Liberty-like Statue of Happiness.
01:52 Take a helicopter up there, and look for a door sandwiched between two signs that say "No Hidden Content This Way".
01:59 Inside the statue, you'll find a giant beating heart.
02:02 Weird.
02:03 *Sniper shot*
02:05 *The Witcher 3 audio*
02:11 Despite The Witcher 3 having arrived several years before Cyberpunk 2077,
02:16 Ciri appears to talk about the game and its Night City location.
02:20 In The Witcher 3, we learn that Ciri can travel through space and time,
02:24 and in one conversation about evading the Wild Hunt, she mentions a realm where people had metal in their heads,
02:31 waged war from a distance using things similar to megascopes, and there were no horses to be seen.
02:36 Everybody had their own flying ship instead.
02:39 "Ciri, stop fooling around."
02:41 "Told you you wouldn't believe me."
02:42 In Cyberpunk 2077, Ciri and The Witcher 3 appear on a retro gaming magazine cover,
02:49 bringing the easter egg full circle.
02:51 *Easter egg*
02:52 "Where is it?"
02:53 "I don't know, buddy."
02:55 "You insult me."
02:56 "You're a pirate."
02:57 This Cordyceps-style easter egg was almost one of the biggest leaks in video game history.
03:03 There's a long story behind it, but the short version is that Naughty Dog put this reference in Uncharted 3
03:09 when it thought The Last of Us was to be announced by the time it was out.
03:13 Well, it wasn't, and with the reveal delayed, the easter egg was left in, teasing a game that nobody even knew about.
03:20 And the rest, as they say, is history.
03:22 *Easter egg*
03:24 "Child's Play."
03:25 "And... open!"
03:28 *Easter egg*
03:30 Lots of games make Minecraft references, but Borderlands 2 goes all out.
03:35 Whilst belonking through the Caustic Caverns location, you may well find some unmistakable dirt cubes blocking your way.
03:42 Bust through them with your melee attack in classic Minecraft fashion, and you'll find a cave filled with creepers on the other side.
03:49 Killing them may even net you a Minecraft helmet accessory, complete with chunky pixelation.
03:55 "What a perfectly normal life you have, Peter Parker."
03:59 *Easter egg*
04:02 PlayStation's webbed adventure is packed with comic easter eggs on this list.
04:06 Stark's Department of Damage Control makes an appearance, for example, whereas Fogwell's Gym is where Daredevil's dad trained, and can be seen down a side street in the open world.
04:14 The Clinton Mission Shelter, where Daredevil's mother works, can be seen too, and Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum.
04:21 The full list of MCU locations can be ticked off within the game's landmark side quests, and all makes for some interesting sightseeing.
04:28 "Very sane. Why don't you take a look? Maybe you'll get lucky."
04:35 Resident Evil Village's resident shopkeeper, The Duke, is for the most part a friendly, chatty fellow, who appears to specialize in trivial conversation.
04:45 By interacting with him several times, he will randomly ask the player, "What are you buying?"
04:50 This is, of course, in the same fashion as the merchant from Resident Evil 4 when talking to Leon S. Kennedy.
04:56 "What are you buying?"
04:58 When repeating this line, The Duke will also mention the fact that an old friend of his used to say this.
05:04 There's no way of knowing what happened to the merchant in the end, but The Duke's words suggest that they were buddies once upon a time.
05:10 The Last of Us 2 is full of nods to previous Naughty Dog games.
05:22 There's a dusty old PS3 with copies of Uncharted 2 and Jak and Daxter, for example.
05:27 There's also a Jak X Combat Racing game in the arcade that you visit.
05:31 You can even find what appears to be Nathan Drake's Sig Parvis Magna Ring in a Westlake Bank safety deposit box.
05:38 Then there's the so-called "Strange Relic", which can be found in the Chinatown street in the Hostile Territory level.
05:44 It's actually a Precursor Orb, a collectible from Naughty Dog's old Jak and Daxter games,
05:50 which has turned up in every Uncharted game so far, and now in The Last of Us as well.
05:57 "Agent Swan, are you still there?"
05:59 Hitman 3's secret UFO level exit can be activated by circumventing the line at the front of the Berlin nightclub,
06:10 locating the entrance shortcut door and taking a photograph of the UFO graffiti that's scrawled on the wall.
06:17 Once you've offed the targets on your mission's hitlist, you can then head to the gas station payphone and dial 1993,
06:25 and then ascend skywards in a glowing green light. 1993, of course, being the year that The X-Files first aired.
06:33 "Have the flamingos stopped screaming?"
06:39 "Perhaps I ought to return after all."
06:42 Metal Gear and Death Stranding masterhead Hideo Kojima makes a cameo appearance in CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077
06:50 that's actually quite easy to miss.
06:52 When on a mission called The Heist, the Kojima Productions top man can be found in a bar regaling his company with stories.
06:59 It's all very Kojima.
07:01 "When it comes to comedy, it's comedy, and when it comes to fear, it's horror."
07:05 You can also find a Death Stranding BB as part of a side quest called the hunt for a character called River.
07:11 And there you have it, that is some of the best easter eggs that we've ever found in video games.
07:18 Let us know your favourites in the comments down below, and remember to subscribe to GamesRadar here on YouTube so you don't miss any of our future videos.
07:25 [outro music]
07:31 (dog barks)