10 Outrageous Hidden Moments In Video Games
Never forget the hugging Elite from Halo's Legendary ending.
The great advantage that video games have over other visual media is their sheer expansive potential, where players are given the freedom to proceed as they wish, but perhaps only scratch the surface of what the developers have embedded within the game's code.
For as long as the medium has existed, developers have relished sneaking strange Easter eggs, jaw-droppingly weird moments, and secret levels into their games, all in the hope that they'll be discovered by the most dedicated of players. Or, you know, accidentally stumbled upon as a pure fluke.
Or, sometimes players take too long to find the secret and the developers just end up blurting it out themselves.
These 10 video games, then, all hid totally bats**t crazy moments within their adventures, from secret missions that went undiscovered for years, to mind-blowing boss strategies, icky mini-games, behind-the-scenes videos, and even jokey non-canon endings.
Whether these moments left you howling with laughter, a little pissed off, or just totally confused, they were ingeniously and unexpectedly concealed within these video games, such that even die-hard fans might not be aware of them...
10. Liberate The Alien Seals - Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Though Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent was released back in 2006, it wasn't until 2010 that its most absurd and unexpected secret mission was uncovered, by Ubisoft Montreal's own level designer Simon Lasalle no less, who expressed disappointment that players didn't report it themselves.
The mission in question only appears to be available on the Xbox version of the game, and is accessed by playing Double Agent's co-op mode, whereby five alien seals - as in, the clap-happy animals - can be discovered throughout the game world.
These bizarre-looking extraterrestrial pups, named Cookie, Buddy, Pepperoni, Vanilla, and Muffin, can be rescued by carrying out various fetch quest-style tasks.
Saving all five alien seals will result in the seal princess (really) descending from the heavens to thank you for saving them and, inexplicably, the universe, before venturing back to their home planet and dubbing you both "Splinter Seals" for your efforts.
In a series known for its grit and "realism," this truly shattered the suspension of disbelief for any player who stumbled across it. Or more likely, they saw one of the 2010 articles written about it and then tried it for themselves.