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Niko's look was partly based on actor Vladimir Mashkov, who's known for playing Sasha in Behind Enemy Lines, and Rockstar actually approached him to voice the character. He turned it down - reportedly he wasn't that interested in video games, Rockstar were being extremely tight-lipped about the whole project, and the recording setup would've meant constant flights between Moscow and New York. Word is he ended up regretting the decision once the game blew up.
Among the confirmed landmarks players will be able to walk into are a full zoo, a working Vice City Metro Station, a massive airport, a football stadium, and a large military base, on top of the malls, hotels, nightclubs and pawn shops already shown off in trailers.
The 2024 PS5 remaster added a roguelike mode called No Return, where you fight through randomised encounters as one of ten unlockable characters, including Joel, Tommy, Dina, and even a couple of names from Abby's side of the story. Each character controls a bit differently, so runs never quite feel the same twice.
Irelia gets a reputation as the champion who's forever getting patched down, but Kassadin's numbers have quietly taken more hits over the years than almost anyone. Cooldowns stretched, damage trimmed, again and again, the poor Void Walker just can't catch a break.
Before Lifetime picked it up, You was actually developed with Showtime in mind. Showrunner Sera Gamble has said the earliest draft just didn't line up with Showtime's vision for the show, and that Lifetime ended up being a better creative fit despite it not being the obvious home for a story this dark.
Elite Tauren Chieftain isn't just a joke band that shows up in-game, it's a real group made up of actual Blizzard staff, including art director Samwise Didier on vocals and former company president Mike Morhaime on bass. Their song 'Power of the Horde' plays hourly at the Darkmoon Faire, and the band has genuinely performed it live at BlizzCon in full costume.
In the Canal District of Stormwind runs a flower shop owned by a man named Bernard Gump, a florist with an unmistakable nod in his name to Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump. A second, older reference (a long-missing character called Gubber Blump) predates him.
NPCs will occasionally warn you about land dreugh and call them 'Billies' for no reason the game ever explains. Turns out that was a genuine internal dev nickname - the team apparently referred to the creature as 'Codename: Billy' during production and the name just leaked straight into the finished dialogue.
Naughty Dog's own team sits at around 350 people, but the finished game credits roughly 2,169 developers spread across 14 different studios who chipped in on everything from animation to localisation over the years it took to make.
