Game developers often hide goodies inside their games that gamers have to discover – we call these “easter eggs”, which is a very appropriate name for them. Sometimes, these easter eggs are just minor hints on their other games or pop culture references. Sometimes, in turn, games go the whole nine yards, giving their players something to write home about.

Doom Eternal

The latest entry in the long-running Doom franchise was one of the most anticipated games of 2020 – and it didn’t disappoint. Gamers got the chance to kill, dismember, and otherwise terminate demons in a never-before-seen quality. And the game took easter eggs to a whole new level by including both of its classic ancestors in the game.

Finish the game and collect all the floppy disks (they are in “secret” locations across the game), then return to the Fortress of Doom and access the old school computer. It will reveal two icons – if you collected all the disks, you’ll be able to play Doom on it. If you access the icon on the right, it will ask you for a code. If you enter FLYNNTAGGART (a reference to the Doom novels published in the 1990s), it will unlock Doom II.

Borderlands 2

The Borderlands series is filled with pop culture references – Borderlands 3 is especially full of them, covering everything from Half-Life to Bernie Sanders (look for the names and descriptions of the weapons in the game). Perhaps its biggest tribute to a world outside Pandora is, in turn, hidden inside Borderlands 2, in the Caustic Caverns (a network of tunnels underneath a Dahl mining operation on Pandora).

After completing Chapter 9 of the story, you can head into the area in the north-west corner of the Caustic Caverns map called “Guardian Ruins”. Here, you’ll find two tracks with minecarts on them – go to the end of the one on the right, jump off the ledge – you’ll find a small cavern blocked by some dirt piles. Break them apart with a melee attack and proceed into the area beyond them – and you’ll reach a cavern inhabited by Creepers, the scariest baddies in Minecraft.

After shooting all the Creepers (the Badass variant is pretty tough), you can proceed to “mine” (melee) the blocks around the cave – the Gold blocks will give you money, the Coal blocks will give out ammo, and all blocks have a chance to spit out a gun with a Minecraft skin.

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Finally, let us mention another game that hid its classic version inside the reboot: Wolfenstein: The New Order. In it, B. J. Blazkowicz wakes up after years of coma to find out the Nazis have won World War II and have pretty much taken over the world. It’s up to him – and the Resistance, of course – to break the rule of the (often supernaturally powered) Reich.

B.J. has been through a lot since the 1990s – and this has left a mark on him, apparently, because he keeps reliving his escape from the ominous castle in his dreams. When he goes to sleep in a safe house, he is dropped into the classic Wolfenstein 3D, released in 1992 (with his modern-day weapons, of course) and has to fight his way through German soldiers and their dogs to be able to wake up.