References, Secrets, and other Easter Eggs inside games

[Xzarloxara]

I think I just found a reference to Boo from the Baldur's Gate series in Pathfinder: Kingmaker!

What are some of your favorite references, secrets and other Easter eggs in some of your favorite games?

 

[Antimatter]

In Disco Elysium, when rereading the case notes for the so-called "Unsolvable Case", you see how your character uses a reference to Planescape: Torment - the famous question of "What can change the nature of a man?" during the dialogue between Ravel and the Nameless One.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Unfortunately I don't have screenshots, but in Mass Effect 2 you can buy a "Space Hamster" as a pet from Citadel Souvenirs, and it squeaks, too.

One of my favourite Easter Eggs that made me smile when I discovered it was in Siege of Dragonspear.
If you use the Spectacles of Spectacle in the Coalition Camp in chapter 10, you can draw the genie Nazramu into the Prime Material Plane. He sells some unique items, supposedly gathered during his travels across the planes.
On of those items is a "wizzard hat" that gives +1 casting speed and +2 movement speed, because "A wizard who runs away from combat lives to run away another day, after all."

That's a reference to Terry Pratchett. Rincewind, the main character of his first books, is a wizard who is famous for running away really often and fast, and he wears a hat with the misspelled word "WIZZARD" written on it.

Sir Terry Pratchett, you are deeply missed.

 

[Antimatter]

In Kingdom Come: Deliverance, near Sasau, you can find a grave with a skeleton: a red cape, a broom, and the Golden Snitch in its hand— together, it all creates a Harry Potter and Quidditch easter egg.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

A Codex entry in Dragon Age: Origins, found in the Deep Roads of Orzammar:

 

[mlnevese]

Just noticed this one in Pathfinder II. May the Force be with you!

 

[alice_ashpool]

Not my favorite, but a bit obscure: In pathfinder: kingmaker, if you talk to people in the tavern in your capital they will tell little stories, some of which are "pop culture references" - robbed by a "racoon and a treant", another which is a Steven King Dark Tower ref, some others I didn't know.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Found in Trompdoy's Cave (Braccus' vault quest) in Divinity: Original Sin 2.
The corresponding journal entry says that the ring wants to be worn.

I wonder if it's a Lord of the Rings reference, or just coincidence?

 

[m7600]

In Icewind Dale 2, there's a Half-Goblin that says "Join the Legion of the Chimera, they said. See the world, they said." This is a reference to Warcraft 2. In that game, if you click multiple times on a footman, he gets annoyed and says "Join the army, they said. See the world, they said. I'd rather be sailing."

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

In Icewind Dale 2, there's a Half-Goblin that says "Join the Legion of the Chimera, they said. See the world, they said." This is a reference to Warcraft 2. In that game, if you click multiple times on a footman, he gets annoyed and says "Join the army, they said. See the world, they said. I'd rather be sailing."

View attachment 307

And the origin of that quote goes even further back, it's a trope with a long history. I only knew it from Asterix comics (from the 60s. No, I'm not that old, but the books are).

In English they translated it with "Join the army, they said. See the world, they said."

Apparently Goscinny, the author of the Asterix comics, was poking fun at that sentence which was often used by the French government in the 1930s to advertise recruitment for the colonial army.

 

[Antimatter]

Dragon Age is full of secrets.

Did you know Thedas (this is how the world is called there) stands for ... The Dragon Age Setting.









And a bonus about the Qunary (this is one of the races in the game) word.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

And a bonus about the Qunary (this is one of the races in the game) word.

Seems fitting. I mean who wouldn't be reminded of a tiny, bright bird with a cheerful voice when meeting Sten?

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

A very touching Easter Egg in Divinity: Original Sin 2:
In the Stonegarden, the graveyard on Reaper's Coast, there's a room in Ryker's Rest with a piano and a book on it:

A nod, or rather a deep bow, to Kirill Pokrovsky, the composer of the music in the other Divinity games, including Divinity: Original Sin (he died a year after its release).

And even more, when you cast Spirit Vision in that room, there's a lady at the piano and you can ask her to play his music from the Divinity games and listen to it.

 

[Antimatter]

That pianist moment should be one of the most beautiful tributes in gaming I've ever seen. Kirill Pokrovsky was a genius and I will straight up admit I shed a tear in that mansion when I listened to the previous Divinity games music.

 

[Antimatter]

Distinctly angled whiskey glasses from Blade Runner can be seen in Cyberpunk 2077. The glass from Blade Runner is called the Cibi Old Fashioned Glass (hand-blown crystal).

That, of course, is not the only Blade Runner easter egg in Cyberpunk 2077. One of the most iconic scenes from that movie (a classic cyberpunk film, if you haven't seen it) is the "Tears in Rain" monologue by Roy Batty. During this, he has a white dove, and a reference to this can be found on the rooftop of the Advocet Hotel in-game, in Vista Del Rey. Head to the top and you'll find a character that looks strikingly similar to Roy, holding a bird.

 

[Xzarloxara]

The flavor text for the Giant Diamond in Divinity Original Sin 2 is likely a reference to the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the opening of which features Indiana Jones recovering a bejeweled cross from a smuggler/collector and repeatedly stating that the artifact "Belongs in a museum."

 

[Antimatter]

This Easter Egg in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn with the Sword Coast Stratagems (SCS) mod installed was shared by Reddit user Arkansasmyundies. According to the SCS mod files, this item is an Easter Egg: "The Emergent Multiverse' is a real book, which I wrote (it's an academic text on quantum mechanics), and the quote in the item description is from the real book. So far as I know it hasn't been translated yet!"

What makes it even more interesting, there is a real book 'Emergent Multiverse: Quantum Theory According to the Everett Interpretation' by David Wallace. The author of the SCS mod is 'DavidW'. According to one review of that book, "David Wallace is a philosopher of physics who teaches at the University of Southern California; he previously taught at the University of Oxford."

In this comment, the SCS author said his surname was Wallace.

A physics professor who created a famous mod for BG? I'd take that! Hardly anything can be cooler than this.

 

[Antimatter]

In Dragon Age 2, if you order 30 drinks and then leave, the next time you enter the Hanged Man (inn), the patrons will all shout "HAWKE!!" It's a reference to the sitcom Cheers where they would all shout "Norm!" when he walked in.



Here are also a few other pop-culture references from David Gaider:

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

In Dragon Age 2, if you order 30 drinks and then leave, the next time you enter the Hanged Man (inn), the patrons will all shout "HAWKE!!" It's a reference to the sitcom Cheers where they would all shout "Norm!" when he walked in.

You know, with some of those Easter Egg references, I really wonder if the information was leaked after a time by the mischivous developers who added it, if someone found it in game code, or if people found out by accident.
There are obviously things that you can just happen to stumble upon, but did someone actually keep drinking and discovered that?
I ask myself the same about the trick in BG1 Candlekeep, where talking 30-something times to Firebead Elvenhair gives you 300 GP... there's no way someone would try talking to everyone like that, I mean it could have been something similar with Dreppin (he gives you his cow then?) or Winthrop?

Edit: Mind you, I really like hidden references in games, I'm just sometimes surprised how it could even happen that people found out for the first time.

 

[Antimatter]