Alice in Gamerland – The Creepy, Scary World of Glitches and Easter Eggs

Inspired by Halloween I thought, in this blog, I would investigate the weird and wonderful world of glitches and Easter eggs in video games.

One of the most well known Easter eggs hidden away in game is probably the Monkey Family in Halo 3. Whilst wandering through the first level of the game you can come across these creepy little mammals.

They aren’t NPCs and don’t even move, they just sit there, watching you, all with the same face. Another monkey man can be seen sitting alone later on in the game if you respawn in a certain point. If you move your stick to the left during the credits for Halo ODST you will see yet another monkey sitting there with Buck. Weird!

If these furry fellows don’t freak you out enough then how about we head over to Little Lamplight in Fallout 3? The character Angela, nicknamed Princess, is normally a nice blonde looking girl, however in this particular glitch she’s looking a little… different.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/CHYqwiPw3Ok[/youtube]

Yeah, her skin is missing. I’m sure Dr Von Hargens would be most pleased with this plastination style glitch, but for the rest of us, it’s a little disturbing. It does make me wonder if all the characters in Bethesda games all have digital organs inside them. Is there an NPC hospital somewhere to help them with these ailments?

In keeping with the internal organs theme, GTA 4 brought us a large beating in heart in the centre of the Statue of Happiness. If you wish to view this oddity, get in a helicopter and fly to the island jumping out onto the rooftop that has four doors. Go through the door that’s labelled “No Hidden Content Through Here” and up the ladder. You should now be staring at a rather creepy beating heart suspended by chains. Nice!

If obvious gore isn’t your thing then the hidden rooms in Portal 2 may well be of interest. Between the two games Valve released a comic about a survivor of GLaDOS called Doug Rattman, and the secret chamber is thought to be his. Rattman is a schizophrenic and the only person to have survived the neurotoxin attack by GLaDOS and is now reputed to live in the wall.

The chambers contains a lot of scrawled messages and images on the walls and an encrypted recording in one which has been decoded to provide a spoiler that I won’t put here. As Easter eggs go, this one is creepy as hell, knowing that you are alone in the test chamber but somewhere there’s a mad man, scrambling about in the walls. *shudder*

I think one of my favourite freaky game glitches is the one from the demo of Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis. Doctor Watson is, as always, your trusty companion and follows you everywhere like a trusty NPC should. However, his walking animation didn’t work or was just missing and so he simply teleported around constantly appearing at the back of you or just out of shot like a ghostly stalker. The video below has beautifully set Waton’s antics to music. Enjoy… from behind the sofa!

[youtube]http://youtu.be/13YlEPwOfmk[/youtube]

The glitch, however, that gets my number one position in the chart of weird, is the baby glitch from the Sims 3.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/krUKQSqM3QA[/youtube]

Now babies weird me out anyway. I don’t understand the appeal of breeding (except that bit) but these things are a whole new level! Like the spawn of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the babies appear as decapitated Mr Tickle limbed women with a Kuato-like small head in the stomach. I think the only acceptable response to these is ‘Kill it! Kill it with fire!’

Don’t have nightmares!