It’s April Fool’s Day, which means everyone is stumbling over themselves trying to dupe you into believing complete lies. The gaming industry is particularly fond of this day, with a wide variety of companies spouting complete nonsense in the hopes that we plebians will fall for it hook, line, and sinker.
The GameRevolution editorial team described our favorite game-related April Fool’s Day pranks below, and you can do the same in the comments section. As always, we’ll feature our favorite response in tomorrow’s Tell GR.
Paul Tamburro, executive editor: “The PlayStation Flow (as listed in our rundown of the best April Fool’s Day gaming pranks ever) was a memorable one. Announced by Sony back in 2015, the Flow was a way for PS4 players to enjoy their favorite water levels in virtual reality. It was, of course, a complete fabrication, but it probably caused less motion sickness than the PlayStation VR.”
Jason Faulkner, senior editor: “I think the Play as Akuma in Resident Evil 2 April Fool’s Day joke from the April 1998 issue of EGM2 is the one I remember most. It wasn’t marked as an April Fool’s joke, it was instead presented as an entirely plausible trick, and given that Tofu was an unlockable character, it wasn’t absurd to think Akuma was too. This was before Photoshop made it easy to fake this kind of thing, and the burgeoning internet only spread this rumor further.”
Mack Ashworth, lead editor: I always enjoy Razer’s April Fool’s Day content. Last year’s “Project Venom v2″ came with its own product video, which showcased a drug that would turn players into super gamers. I think the best April Fool’s jokes are those that are obvious, and so in no way misleading, but reinforced with some awesome official product art.”
Bradley Russell, news editor: “I always felt like Runescape always had the best holiday-themed events and April Fool’s Day was no exception. I vividly remember one year where developers Jagex promised to fill everyone’s inventory with cabbages, the most useless item in the game. People lost their shit but also, weirdly, it made the price of cabbages go up slightly in the player-led economy. Because if you can’t make profit off of a joke then are we _really_ in a capitalist society?”
Michael Leri, features editor: “My favorite April Fool’s joke was the Assassin’s Creed and Metal Gear Solid 4 crossover because it did mostly what I want from an April Fool’s joke. It was unexpected, silly, and then it was actually in the game. The Assassin robe costume in MGS4 was silly but a good nod to that budding franchise. Brotherhood in 2010 then had a Raiden costume, which was a nice way to return the favor.”
Yesterday’s best reader comment
Question: “Tell GR | What do you want to see in Borderlands 3?”
Marco Caballero: “Without a doubt, Quality of Life improvements. You know what is cooler than a billion different guns? Being able to efficiently go through them and pick the best one, not go out, kill 5 enemies, get 20 guns, full inventory, and then check one by one to see if you got anything better.
Also, fix the fucking quest system. In Borderlands 2, 90% of the side-quests were pointless by mid-game. Not to say they were not entertaining, but the rewards (exp. & loot) fall way behind as you level up, and I don’t mean grind, I mean as you normally progress through the game.
If they fix those 2 things, I will sink an ungodly amount of hours in Borderlands 3.”
