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A face in Searing Gorge
Folks are saying this has been around since release, but I've never seen this before, either-- Serevarno found a face in the landscape of Searing Gorge. You can really only see it on the minimap, and while it is pretty messy, it's too clean to have happened by chance. The image almost looks like that "Andre the Giant has a posse" picture, doesn't it?Bornakk jokes that the Titans left their face there before heading off to another world, but while that's probably not the case (Titans aren't that grubby), it is interesting that he should say the Titans leave their images sitting around-- we've already seen Titan statues appear in the videos for Northrend, and it's been confirmed there's a Titan instance up there. Leaving their images sitting around is definitely something they are wont to do.But of course it's doubtful this has anything to do with the lore-- at most, it's just a developer hiding an Easter Egg, and at least, it's just a coincidence. Still neat, though.
Remember! Noblegarden tomorrow! [Updated]
Don't forget, tomorrow, April 8th, is Noblegarden in the land of Azeroth. What does that mean to adventerous players like us? That there are colorful eggs to collect -- and some of them might contain unique prizes. (I'm still hunting for that Noblegarden dress!) For those interested in egg hunting this year, they're found in the lowbie zones around major cities. So hunt in Mulgore, Tirisfal Glades, Dun Morogh, Elwynn Forest, Teldrassil, and Durotar Eversong Woods, and Azuremyst Isles -- at least presuming they've updated the event to include these new zones. The screenshot above (Blizzard's official Noblegarden shot) is deceptive -- last year, at least, the eggs were half that size at best.Happy hunting, everyone!Update: Fixed two errors in my initial post, adding Teldrassil and Tirisfal Glades as locations, and removing Silverpine Forest. Also, according to reports, there seem to be no eggs spawning in the new Burning Crusade zones, Eversong Woods and Azuremyst Isles. Thanks to commenters Auriea and Rob!
Weekly Webcomic Wrapup: beware the Easter Cow edition
After an insightful episode of South Park that explained the relationship between bunnies, eggs, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we decided to do some of our own research into the history of the seemingly bizarre Easter rituals. After becoming bored with that, we thought about easter eggs in the virtual sense -- i.e. those hidden treats found on CDs, DVDs and video games.Celebrate Easter by telling us your favorite virtual easter eggs; while you're thinking, check out our picks for the week's best game-related webcomics. Be sure to vote for your favorite! Where's the dice? Brunch-out! Illustrative diagram Popular trends The real winner It's a-fatal! Truth stretching We wouldn't be surprised Partied out
The evolution of game extras
The Associated Press describes how cheat codes, Easter eggs, unlockables, and in-game advertising are converging as marketers try to create more money and drive more game sales. While the article takes a broad swipe at the topic, and it's just plain wrong at times -- Easter eggs are "brightly decorated circles or balls ... that [unlock] bonus points, monster-slaying swords, extra lives, or infinite health" -- it covers the evolution of cheats and Easter eggs. These tricks used to be added by programmers as a way to surprise gamers, but they've become co-opted by marketing departments that release the secrets on a schedule to raise interest in a game.With unlockable content, its transition to a for-pay service bothers us. We don't begrudge publishers the opportunity to change their business model to give gamers more options to buy a game; instead, the trend seems to be selling us the same game more than once. Where are the cheaper games with for-pay content?
Today's weirdest game video: Gears of War secret man on toilet
Gamers will find anything, and we mean anything inside a game. Take this video for instance. Apparently in the Rooftops multiplayer level of Gears of War, there's a dead man sitting on a toilet inside one of the nearby buildings and you can see him through the window. You can follow the links to instructions on how to find it, but you'd do just as well to watch the video and see it in super slow motion.How do people find stuff like this? If they're anything like us, then they get tired of being pwned and start exploring the scenery. Our money's on that. Check the video out after the jump if you can stand the annoying music.
Why hello, Easter eggs!
If you've explored a little bit, you've no doubt come across numerous Easter eggs -- amusing and sometimes obscure references to the real world that are just enough to make you grin when you encounter them. And, of course, the Burning Crusade has not been immune to such treatment, and we probably haven't found the half of them yet. Who is the Blood Elf pictured to the right? Well, according to the game, it's Haris Pilton <Socialite>. You can also meet her pet, a wolf named Tinkerbell. And then there's Adam Heman (complete with tiger), Slim <Shady Dealer>, Floyd Pinkus, and even Eyonix himself (he's an innkeeper). World of Raids has a thread covering a few of these (including a full version of the Haris Pilton shot), a link to a screenshot gallery at JudgeHype with more (the site is in French, but I'm sure we can all figure out how to click on screenshots), and then there's the soon-to-be-legendary thread about Eyonix's in-game appearance.
"Easter Egg" spotted in Serenity HD DVD
We like high-def Easter eggs around here and they can be from TV shows to the Serenity HD DVD -- we don't care. This one comes in the form a 90 second featurette called "Fruity Oaty Good Time" and to navigate to this extra-extra, highlight "Extra" on the main menu of the disc and then press LEFT twice. This will trigger the Serenity logo that will take you to the said "Easter Egg." By the way, this Easter Egg can be found on the standard DVD the same way. We don't know what exactly is featured in the 90 sec video but we're sure it will be worth your time...we hope so at least.
HDTV Listings for September 21, 2006
What we're watching: All-new tonight is the series premiere of Shark on CBS, featuring James Woods as a defense attourney turned prosecutor who doesn't lose his underhanded style of winning cases after switching sides. Our old friend Grey's Anatomy steps into its new night on ABC, first with a series recap and then the season premiere at 9, followed by new series Six Degrees. NBC brings back My Name is Earl, The Office and E.R. for another season, we'll keep our eyes peeled for more easter eggs, you've gotta figure there will be one sooner or later. Damon Wayans' The Underground is new tonight on Showtime, no word on if it's any funnier, while college football lights up ESPN HD as Virginia takes on Georgia Tech.Our traditional high definition listings continue below.
High-def presenting new challenges to set designers
Doesn't it just tear every fiber in your body when you are immensely enjoying a TV show only to be distracted by a bad set? You know, kind of like when Sidney Bristo (Alias) is racing down an exhaust vent to 'disarm' a satellite gizmo on a random rocket just before the launch and therefore the utter distruction of the world but the rocket they show is the Saturn V used in the Apollo program. These distractions could be minor like how the rocks just don't look like rocks or you can clearly see a sailboat off in the distance when a group of people are suppose to be Lost. HDTV doesn't help these issues ether as that extra resolution can ether make or break your viewing experience. Emmy and Telewest award-winning set designer Eve Stewart understands this and indicated that filming in high-def presents new challenges with the likes that have not been seen since the advent of color television. A suvey conducted bt Telewest found that 23% of people will go as far to change the station if the show has an unconvincing or unrealistic set. We don't know about going that far but we do like it when that easter eggs shows that HDTV rocks.Do you change the station if something just doesn't look or feel right about a TV show?
Apple easter egg in Pixar's "Cars"
Brian at FreeMacBlog writes in to point out an Apple easter egg he spotted in Pixar's Cars. During the opening race, one of the cars that is briefly on screen has an Apple logo on the hood, and is fittingly numbered "84." Pretty cool, Brian! Did anyone else spot this car?
Ethan Suplee of My Name is Earl interview @ TV Squad
A star from one of our favorite shows took a minute to talk to our friends over at TV Squad about the show and how it feels to have the weight of saving NBC on your shoulders. Ethan Suplee plays Randy on My Name is Earl and was the one holding the sign in the first HDTV easter egg. He also talks about some additional content that may be on the (HD?) DVD release.The season finale of Earl is tonight, hopefully we'll get at least one more high definition easter egg out of them to tide us over until the second season.
Your mighty mice!
Yesterday, we linked to an image that showed up on Flickr that seemed to be the red, glowing visage of a mouse as generated by the light on the underside of an Apple Mighty Mouse. Whether or not Apple intended for their mice to put on this little display is really irrelevant, as it's just fun to show people ("Hey, want to see my mouse's mouse?"). A number of you sent in pictures of your own mice generating the little guy (apparently it works with the older Apple Pro Mice, too). Thanks to Zach, Jason, Jonathan and Gary. We're happy to receive more, so feel free to link to an image of your own mouse's...um...inner mouse.**Kids, do not say "mouse" this many times at home. I am a professional.
Does the Mighty Mouse LED project a mouse?
This one is a bit weird, so bear with us. It seems that Flickr user Dan Bowels noticed that the light on the underside of his Mighty Mouse produces what (kind of) looks like a mouse's head on the surface of his desk. Has he stumbled upon an ultra-rare hardware easter egg, or is this just an optical illusion? You decide. We're a little more than skeptical, but if you can replicate the image of the little red mouse face with your own Mighty Mouse, we'd love to see it.[Via Infinite Loop]
Straight from the Yak's mouth
Back in February, we posted about the infamous Bruce the Yak Easter Egg in Final Cut Pro. Since then, one of the members of the original FCP development team, Max Whirl, has left a great comment describing just how this particular Easter Egg was born. He writes:"Why a yak? Well, FCP was a long and arduous development process and we were nearly shut down several times. During one of the more miserable schedule meetings, we were each asked if we could meet the latest schedule...and one of the engineers remarked that 'if we can't make that schedule, we might as well give up and go herd yaks.'"Check out his full comment for an interesting story. Thanks, Max!
Apple Seeks (Poetic) Justice
Seems Apple has hidden a secret message to OSX86 hackers to find in the 10.4.4 build of Mac OS X for Intel. And this time it's in verse!Your karma check for today:There once was a user that whinedhis existing OS was so blind,he'd do better to piratean OS that ran greatbut found his hardware declined.Please don't steal Mac OS!Really, that's way uncool.(C) Apple Computer, Inc.Sure, it's not the greatest poem, but how funny is this! I've always loved easter eggs in software and this is the best kind. The people who run OSX86 Project site have offered up their own poetic reply to Apple. You can read it at their site.I humbly offer up my own poetic reply in the style of William Carlos Williams after the jump...
Another HD Easter Egg courtesy of Earl
Another one! This is starting to become a regular feature on My Name is Earl. This one comes in the form of a sticky note on the beer tap in the Crab Shack that says "HD Draft" (huge image - slow load times) It happened about 3/4 of the way through the episode when Filo goes to meet Joy at the Crab Shack. It actually was on the screen a few times unlike the last ones that came and went. Reader Scott M was quick with this one. He sent us a tip while all of us were enjoying The Office. I have to admit that I missed this one; in fact, I have missed all of them. Oh well, I am sure there will be more. Did anyone else notice this one?Past My Name is Earl Easter Eggs. HD Rocks Vote for high def Blind Recording
Easter Egg in Final Cut Pro 4?
I don't have a copy of Final Cut Pro, so I can't confirm this. Resexcellence forum user BK (the king?) was poking around the STRL resources in Final Cut Pro.rsrc and found what appears to be the ramblings of an overworked programmer. It reads, in part:"If we can't ship this puppy by then, we might as well be herding yaks. I'm glad it's getting weird again. I didn't understand it when it wasn't weird. The little cartoon man is messing with my head! Many Yaks were exploited during the creation of this product. I'm concerned because the cow sounded pretty threatening. When you have a car that's that uncool, you just gotta drive stupid. Don't look at me. They're not my flying monkeys. The disco ball is spinning, but no one's home. Cows didn't have dynamite and steam shovels. There exists, but you can't get there from here."It goes on (and on, and on) from there. If anyone can confirm this for us, we'd appreciate it.Update: Reader djones has offered up this confirmation. Thanks!
Is Lost challenging My Name is Earl for king of the easter eggs?
While we were watching last weeks Earl for Easter Eggs (I didn't notice any), maybe we should have been checking another one of our favorite high definition shows more closely, Lost. Luckily TV Squad is more than willing to dissect each frame looking for clues about the survivors, the mysterious island they are on and the Dharma Initiative. After careful (re)viewing they noticed a date in the future on an X-ray shown during Jack's flashback. A mistake/red herring or something more? Additionally, during that episode some viewers could see the makeup covering Jack's tattoo, wonder why that is. Maybe they should have called our friends at Numeric Proof or they wanted us to notice. I can't call it, but rest assured, I'll be going over Grey's Anatomy tonight with a fine toothed comb.
WoW easter eggs
Have you found the Shiny Dinglehopper? Have you seen the Sea Giant fart and then try to pop the bubbles? Do you have a pet chicken yet?If you think I am crazy and I have no clue what I am talking about, I would advise you to check out the WoW easter egg text file!I would highly recommend combing through the file a bit; there is some funny stuff in there! I know I will be running the chicken quest soon - stay tuned for screenshots...[Edit: As GameFAQs doesn't allow direct linking, here's a link to a list of FAQ's including the WoW easer eggs one. You can get there from here.]
My name is Earl in HD ROCKS
HDTV viewers of My Name is Earl (self included) got another treat tonight. During the episode Earl's brother Randy holds up the sign in the picture above reading "High Def Rocks!!!" which couldn't be viewed by people watching on non-high def TV's. While it was tongue in cheek, it was a great example of the extra detail you can notice with a wide screen picture and enhanced clarity. If you're not watching in HD, you're not seeing the whole show. And isn't that the rubberband man from the Staples commercials? [Thanks to HDBeat reader Paul for being quick with the camera and nabbing a pic] Check out the full picture as it appeared after the jump.
