April Fools' Day 2021 round-up

Another year, another April Fools' Day, another tragically anxious minefield for news writers across the globe. As is tradition at PC Gamer, we've rounded up the best (and worst) pranks and buffoonery that games companies are concocting today (but we don't do any April Fools' jokes ourselves, just so you know).

We'll update this gaggle of gags throughout the day—and don't forget to drop us a comment for the ones we may have missed.

Overwatch gets experimental

Blizzard has decided to "fool around" with the Overwatch experimental patch for April 1, which makes a range of changes to the game's characters. Highlights include:

• Point blank Coach Gun to the face now matches expectations more closely.
• The enemy team will often disrespectfully ignore pilot D.Va. It will now be more difficult to survive a mech being dropped on top of you.
• Players weren't spending enough time admiring the beautiful floor textures so we're enabling Junkrat to place a few more hazards about. Discovery is a very powerful and exciting motivator so now there will potentially be even more surprises lurking beneath the ground.
• There's certainly a desire to get in close and deal some damage when playing Moira so we'll lean into that but also pull in the opposite direction by incentivizing actually healing allies. steepled-fingers-maniacal-scheming intensifies
• There may actually be no limit to Zenyatta's power, but he demonstrates great discipline in his moderation. He enters and leaves the meta at will.

G Fuel Chili Dog Energy Drink Inspired by Sanic Hegehog

This is technically not an April Fools' Day gag but an actual product you can buy. But yes, it is a chili dog-flavoured G Fuel energy drink inspired by the Sanic Hegehog meme, and that makes it close enough for inclusion on this list. The website comes complete with a warning that the drink "really tastes like chili dog!" but unfortunately shipping is restricted to the US and Canada, surely a crushing disappointment for gamers in other parts of the world.

Because I am a serious journalist, I have requested a sample of the G Fuel Chili Dog Energy Drink Inspired by Sanic, and will hopefully find someone else to inflict it upon for your edification/amusement.

For Honor: Playground Edition

"Young man! Stop flailing around with those swords! You could hurt somebody."

(For Honor's Playground Edition is actually a real, one-day event featuring "whimsical gameplay elements" including shiny rainbows and colorful confetti that runs until 9:30 am PT/12:30 pm ET on April 2.)

Logitech announces a new Chewforce-enabled racing wheel for dogs

If there's one thing that dogs love, it's car rides. Nothing causes immediate and absolute pandemonium in my house like saying "Who wants to go for a car ride?" Recognizing that very niche but utterly underserved market, Logitech has unveiled the all-new K923, the first racing wheel designed specifically for dogs and the flagship of its new Dogitech line.

World of Warcraft 9.0.5.0.5 patch notes leak

An early draft of the next World of Warcraft patch has leaked, revealing plans for a new raid, dungeon, and two new professions, Sea Shanty Singing and Wand Vision:

A study in empowering yourself, Wand Vision gives you the ability to re-cast your spells, and it also allows you to steal someone else’s best ability to use as your own. Starting in black-and-white, and then later moving to color, Wand Vision causes everything that drops for you to always have best-in-slot stats. Unfortunately, after some time, you have to come back to reality. There are rules in life. We can’t rush aging just because it’s convenient, and we can’t reverse death. But what is loot, if not RNG persevering?

There are also extensive changes to Covenants, The Maw, all character classes, and WoW Classic.

Valorant adds a butterfly knife to its arsenal

Butterfly knives are perhaps the coolest of the bladed weapons, because of the way you can flip them around to expose and conceal the blade at blinding speed. They're a bit like stabby nunchucks that you can hold in one hand. Fans have been demanding that one be added to Valorant, and Riot has finally made it happen.

Immortals Fenyx Rising 'Godly Patch'

Immortals Fenyx Rising title update 4.1.0, unofficially called the Godly Patch, corrects a number of issues with the Greek god Zeus, and may in fact have been developed by Zeus.

• Fixed Zeus not having his proper six-pack
• Fixed an issue where Prometheus didn’t laugh at enough of Zeus’ very funny jokes
• Fixed an issue where Typhon stole the powers of the Gods
• Fixed an issue where Zeus was not shown as the hero
• Fixed Prometheus’ sour attitude

There are also a number of gameplay tweaks for Fenyx, including +2000 percent damage to all abilities, an infinite stamina buff whenever Fenyx praises Zeus, and a maximum monster health value of 10.

Razer's RGB hair dye

It wouldn't be an April Fools' round-up without some cheeky escapades from the RGB overlord itself. I feel like Chroma hair dye is genuinely something Razer would do if it was at all a possibility. Then I could synchronise my hair with my Razer face mask while I wear my Razer clothing and take a sip of soda from my Razer straw.

Yet another unobtainable GPU with the RTX 4090

Let's face it, trying to get your hands on any graphics card at the moment is a joke in itself. Hardware YouTuber Captains Workspace takes a sly jab at the disastrous state of the 3000-series availability while showcasing a remarkably well-put-together gag of a GPU twice the size of my head and powerful enough to blow away a small child.

The zero gravity Roccat mouse

I have to admit I'm a bit of a sucker for cute skits from companies for April Fools', and the video for Roccat's Burst HE floating mouse gave me the fuzzies. The perfect blend of light-hearted humour while also being a painfully obvious joke.

Control, circa 1996

Don't have a PC capable of running Control with gorgeous, raytraced surfaces and lighting? Remedy's got you covered with short proof-of-concept for a version that'll supposedly run on the original PlayStation. Shame it's an April fool's joke, really—I'd play this demake in a heartbeat.

Deathloop Deathloops

Ahh, the cereal box. Once a haven of free PC game goodies, now relegated to various videogame puns—looking at you, Lucio-Ohs.

Deathloop isn't even out yet, but that hasn't stopped Arkane Lyon from jumping straight in the clown car with tons of time loop-related puns. At least the endless loops mean you'll only need to buy one box.

De-bugged snax

I have to applaud whoever handles Bugsnax's marketing. The way they used that Onion quote lives in my head rent-free. Now they've taken it a step further by completely de-bugging their Bugsnax, reduced to nothing but waddling burgers and floating strawberries.

They've even revamped Kero Kero Bonito's peppy theme song to just "kinda bug," no "kinda snack" about it. Does this mean that Bunger no longer chunters his own name?

Get Discord notifications from Lil Yachty

Technically an April Fools' prank, but one that Discord has gone all the way with by making it a real thing for a limited time. There are three notification sound packs to choose from, including one called "My Uncle" which is just a very confused man trying to figure out if the wi-fi's down.

I want to hate this one but I'm also kind of enjoying having Lil Yachty bully me into answering a call. Almost seems a shame to limit these to just April 1.

Unreal unveils MetaPets

The Unreal Engine's MetaHuman tool, announced earlier this year, aims to make realistic-looking digital character creation possible. It's real, and kind of uncanny. The MetaPet Creator would be the same thing, but for "the next-generation of fur-ever friends". At least it would be, if it wasn't an April Fool's fake. The animation is actually the work of 3D artist Jelena Jovanovic.

New Blood's new icons

Dusk, Amid Evil, and Ultrakill publisher New Blood Interactive gave its games some nice new icons on Steam today.

Minit Fun Racer

It's Minit, but a racer, and it's on Steam for $3 to $20—the proceeds go to charity.

Vermintide 2: Return to the Reik

The latest Vermintide 2 DLC tells a familiar tale: "Some dozy merchant’s got his ship wedged good and proper between the banks of the River Reik, and there are vital cargo vessels backed up all the way from Marienburg to Nuln. I wouldn’t mind, but there’s a mess of building materials aboard that Rosalinde needs to get this here keep into proper shape for what’s to come."