April 1st is notorious for a day of jokes. Every year companies and individuals alike come out with whacky pranks and gaming is no exception so I have decided to create a list of all the gags you could be facing this year.
GeForce Academy of Gaming (G.A.G.)
Ever wondered where the experts in gaming get their knowledge? This is the hypothetical question that GeForce asking you in a promotional stunt to join their recently launched academy of gaming which offers a variety of classes such as Crysis: You Still Can’t Run It or perhaps SIM 200 – Urban Studies & Planning: Surviving Disasters in Sim City.
Going to their website located here will give you the option out of three majors to study, each complete with their own courses. Selecting your favorites and signing a form with your personal details will reward you with a downloadable PDF file with a certificate claiming your place in the fictional academy.
GPU Abuse
Corsair mocks donation adverts straight up with one of the profitable ways to use GPU’s, bitcoin mining. Their selling point? Everyday graphics cards are being abused my bitcoin miners and donating (ironically bitcoin is an option) gets you a printed out picture of the GPU in a PC, where it should be (according to Corsair).
Stronghold on console
This one speaks for itself really and although this may seem like a crazy but Vblank released their tribute to Back to the Future Retro City Rampage on DOS in 2015 and followed up with a PSP release in 2016 making it the last game released on Sony’s popular handheld console.
Discord – @Someone
Discord has now added a feature where you can call out someone using the @someone command which will prompt a roulette-style game picking out a user at random. Server owners have also reached out to discord and have managed to use the app to trick people; for example, the No Man’s Sky server has two false notifications.
The weird marketing video is the cherry on the top to what is Discord’s best April fools yet.
Silent Thunder
It looks like Gajin are working on a new project titled Silent Thunder, a submarine combat MMO available to play right now until the 3rd April. Gajin shares some details:
“In the test version of the game, players will be able to try modern nuclear submarines from the three major military powers, the United States, Great Britain and Russia, where each vessel is armed with a unique selection of guided torpedoes and missiles.
The test will be held in a location inspired by the Spitzbergen ocean area, players will battle to capture one of the strategic zones, and once it’s captured cruise or ballistic missiles will be launched.”
This isn’t the first playable April Fools joke Gajin has pulled. Last year we got choppers while the year before Gajin took us to the high seas, adding pirate ships.
Cuisine Royale
Who knew culinary and battle royale was such a good combination? DarkFlow Software (Enlisted) and Gajin (War Thunder) team up to create this whacky and surprisingly fully-functioning battle royale you can download right now and play through till the 2nd April.
If only this was permanent.
Pokemon GO Graphical Update
Pokemon goes back to its original roots with this new update to Pokemon GO changing all the monsters to 8-bit versions of themselves.
FINAL FANTASY XIV GO
Most of your time in FINAL FANTASY XIV Online will be spent gathering resources in order to craft better items but why not take that gameplay mechanic on the go? With this revolutionary app, you can do just that.
This game (which is labeled as coming soon) will let you carry out chores such as mining or fishing using AR tech. As Square Enix puts it:
“FINAL FANTASY XIV Online GO brings the thrilling experience of gathering to wherever you are, transforming your location into a literal hub of gathering nodes.
With the unique combination of Square Enix’s cutting-edge software and your smartphone geolocation capabilities, you can harvest in-game resources outdoors, in the real world.
GO brings our incredible community even closer together. By connecting with your friends you can discover what Eorzea has to offer in your own city, country, or beyond!”
PAYDAY: The Animated Series
PAYDAY gets an animated outing in this ‘family friendly’ show about four bank robbers descending on Washington D.C on a crime spree. Visiting their website will grant you access to a paragraph summarizing the plot of each episode complete with a special discount for the series, available on VHS and Betamax.
Remedy transforms into a coffee company
Out of all of the companies out there Remedy (Quantum Break) has decided to change its production completely by shifting into the coffee making business. Above is a clip of the CEO explaining the change in detail.
Brexit Simulator
“Stock markets have crashed, the Eurotunnel was looped back to England. The price of Toblerone’s was increased & the space between pieces got even bigger (again!). Only one person, with muscles bigger than the will of the people, can save the day, and the lady is not for turning”
Want to pre-order? You can do so here. Critics are calling it “Game of the year, without a doubt” with exclusive features such as the option to take control of Jeremy Corbyn in local co-op mode or maybe the fact that Tony Blair is excluded from the base game and only included as a microtransaction.