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What? Are you guys serious? There is no cow level, everyone knows it's just a hoax...
Secrets are not in good terms with casual gaming. Why spend time developping stuff that will not be seen by most of the gamers... I mean "cutsomers"?...
This is really sad, but this is how it works now. Develop the minimum for casual players, don't waste time on extra stuff... or keep this extra stuff and sell it for 10 bucks, 2 weeks after the game release date...
I know your pain, I was thinking exactly the same thing some days ago while playing Duke 3D. I really really miss secret places and secret levels...
Edit: oh yeah, this secret chained ewok in Dark Forces is so good. The best of the best is to shoot him, and then see him all burned! What a laugh! XD
Post edited March 22, 2009 by DarthKaal
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IH: What? Are you guys serious? There is no cow level, everyone knows it's just a hoax...

A smiley would help to determine whether you're trying (and failing) to be funny, or you're just unbelievably misinformed.
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DarthKaal: Secrets are not in good terms with casual gaming. Why spend time developping stuff that will not be seen by most of the gamers... I mean "cutsomers"?...
...

Screw this, when I'll be a game designer/developer there will be so many secrets and story branches that you'll have almost unlimited replay value (well probably not exactly, but there will be stuff!)
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Wishbone: A smiley would help to determine whether you're trying (and failing) to be funny, or you're just unbelievably misinformed.

I'll leave that for you to deduce.
Post edited March 22, 2009 by IH
Painkiller is great for secrets. When you finish a level the entirety of it opens up so you can explore at your leisure. You're not going to just run into most of them, you'll see it or have a suspicion about an area that you can't get to and the fun is figuring out how to get there. Always rewarding to find and sometimes necessary to unlock tarot cards.
I remember secrets in Wolf3D and Doom. And Descent, definitely (actually replaying that now, thanks to GoG!).
I think some of my favourites were in the original Zelda and Metroid games on NES though. Nothing like accidentally torching a bush or blowing up a rock...or looking for them intentionally in some areas. And Metroid had some that were just really cool and often helpful. When you got stuck, it was always a good idea to try and bomb-jump your way up the side of a wall looking for hidden tunnels--not all the ball tunnels were at gun height!
Surely, I'm not the only one who found John Romero's head in Doom 2 ( in the final level I believe and only accessed by using IDCLIP??)?
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CannibalBob: Ah secrets secrets. I miss them, too. Actually, I don't think I've played many games recently that could have secrets in them... mainly because I've been doing plenty of multiplayer and RTS, so secrets just don't work with those games.
Anyway, some favourites of mine are:
Dopefish in Quake 2
Dopefish in any game :D
"Moon" secret in Keen 4... where you stand on that part in the pyramid and keen moons you! :O
Wolfenstein level in Doom :D Friggin awesome
Serious Sam, holy crap this game had the most amazing secrets. I remember seeing a giant pair of eyes floating in the air... (so creepy, but surprisingly easy to miss) but a giant guy appears when you shoot them! THEN HE EXPLODES. Insane.
The game that disappointed me most was Half Life 2. It had so much potential for awesome secrets, what with the gravity gun and the ability to "pile stuff up". I actually got to some places I wasn't supposed to but there was nothing :( So disappointing!
Anyway the secret that gets the cake is DOPEFISH. Holy crap, it blew my mind to see so many games that have DOPEFISH in it as a secret... Jazz Jackrabbit, Max Payne, Quake 2, Duke3D (check it out at dopefish.com) etc. I wish more games these days have the DOPEFISH SECRET

The most recent game that I know of that had secrets was Sin Episodes: Emergence. Sadly they only got one episode out before going under, but the game was very good. It even had the Dopefish in it.
Mmmm.. secrets. Always so fun to find. I too miss secrets and easter eggs in games. My favorite one is "golden pants" easter egg in BG, it is also probably longest and hardest to complete out of all secrets in any game (without guide).
Little Big Adventure 2 --> If you do "obscene movements" on a cow ass you'll get clovers (which are like continues)
I agree, I miss them too. Nowa days there seems to be a much bigger emphasis on collectibles rather than secrets, which I don't really like personally. Collecting 20 of whatevers on a level is nowhere near as fun as discovering a meaningful and interesting area or item. :/
The first level in Duke Nukem 3D, where right at the beginning you have a chance to score a Rocket Launcher, and if your smart later in the level, skip about a 3rd by finding a Jetpack. God I miss secrets, and BioShock seemed to be the last game with some good secrets, and maybe Little Big Planet. The point is, that secrets are no longer as widespread as they once were, and not as well hidden (that secret wall with small indentations perhaps). The last game I played with old school secrets was Doom RPG (a good game if you have a mobile that can play it).
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Bluekkis: Mmmm.. secrets. Always so fun to find. I too miss secrets and easter eggs in games. My favorite one is "golden pants" easter egg in BG, it is also probably longest and hardest to complete out of all secrets in any game (without guide).

Also collecting all the Nasher items...which they rolled over into more than one game...
And who can forget the MDK Suit and the Big Gun? :D Mind you, not for a serious BG campaign, but fun to load up a saved game and just go wreak havoc over a screen.
One game with annoying secrets recently was PoP2: Warrior within.
I don't know why, but it seemed like in the first game there were secrets you could find that'd boost your max health, but they weren't needed.
WW however made them much harder to find, yet without the health they gave the game was almost impossibly difficult at later stages. Plus you needed to find ALL of them to see the "real ending".
Secrets are cool, but they should be optional and fun...
The monkey email in System Shock 2.
The reference to Duke Nukem Forever in Serious Sam: Second Encounter (one of the phone booths -- "Is this blondie?")
Finding the bridge of the Enterprise in Duke Nukem 3D. "Hmm, looks like I have the conn."
Cows with FRICKEN LASERS, and bullet curtain (er... coconut curtain?) gorillas in Raptor: Call of the Shadows.