A Chunk Of The Launch Went To Veterans
Alongside announcing the record-breaking sales figures, Activision confirmed it was donating $3 million to the Call of Duty Endowment, the charity it runs to help veterans find work after leaving the military.
All Knowledge
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Halsey's Journal Planted the First Clue
Long before it was ever spelled out in later books and games, Dr. Halsey's personal journal entries were the first real hint that fans picked up on suggesting she was Miranda Keyes' mother. It stayed as fan theory territory for a while before eventually being confirmed properly.
Germany Got a Softer Cut
The German release trimmed the blood out of the sniper mission One Shot, One Kill and dropped the arcade mode entirely. Even the on-screen word for headshot got swapped, changed from the English term to 'Volltreffer', which just means direct hit.
REX Written in Blood
During the frantic final Warthog dash off the exploding Pillar of Autumn, if you're brave enough to ignore the countdown and take a detour instead, there's a hidden side room with the word REX scrawled across the walls in blood, one of the more unsettling little secrets in the game.
The War Tortoise Has a Shell-Shocking Secret
Examine your familiar War Tortoise closely and you'll spot a pretty blatant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference tucked into its design, which feels like a fun bit of cross-pollination for a summonable pet that's supposed to just be a tank on legs.
A Hornet Hidden in the Jet Pack
Fire up your jet pack and hover in place, then flip over to Theater mode and take a look. There's a tiny painted Hornet graphic on the pack itself, a nod to the vehicle from earlier Halo games that never made it into Reach as a flyable ride.
The Final Boss Was Built to Fit the Island, Not the Other Way Around
In an old EGM interview, co-president Evan Wells admitted the ending boss fight was shaped by the confines of the island they'd already built, and that a bit more time might have let them do something flashier. Amy Hennig chimed in too, noting games often struggle with escalating to a climax the way movies don't have to.
Fifty Scraps of Paper
Alongside the spaceship parts, GTA V hides fifty individual letter scraps across Los Santos and Blaine County, wedged behind road signs, on top of construction cranes, inside skate parks, and even balanced on a ping pong table. Collecting the full set unlocks its own separate reward, quietly rewarding players who like to explore every inch of the map.
Cavill Wrecked His Eyes Filming In The Canary Islands
Geralt's contacts weren't kind to Henry Cavill. He was told never to wear them for more than three hours at a stretch because of the damage they could cause, but he kept them in longer anyway, and while shooting in the Canary Islands, volcanic dust got trapped behind the lenses and scratched his eyes badly enough that he could barely open them.