Re: Hardline EE Compilation (2020 Edition)
by Collision_TNOriginal Post
According to EA, there were apparently still many EEs that were undiscovered in Hardline.
https://www.ea.com/games/battlefield/news/the-hardline-easter-egg-hunt
At the very end of the page after all of the major discoveries were uploaded to the site (e.g. The American Dream driveable couch, the Oprah Winfrey reference, etc.), EA states that there are still many undiscovered EEs:
Challenge accepted. Below are the ones discovered this year as far as ones that were undiscovered or undocumented. They may very well have been found before, but were either shrugged off, or documented and hidden away somewhere else.
------------------------------------------
+ BF1942, Bad Company's Sweetwater, and Frostbite 2 bottles
New versions of the bottles found in BF3 and BF4 can be found in BFH - a recurring theme.
The ones in BFH can be found in multiplayer on the Dustbowl, Riptide, Code Blue, Train Dodge, Break Pointe, and Double Cross maps. The one in single player can be found in Episode 4 at the top floor at the beginning of the episode. You may notice that many of these bottles are facing away from the player (patron side of the bar) to better conceal the bottles' identity. Unlike the paper labels on the bottles found at the 5 other maps, Riptide is the only map known to have bottles with metallic labels.
- Riptide:
Objective D
Objective C, #1
Objective C, #2 - Dust Bowl:
Objective C Kitchen
Diner - Code Blue:
Night Club 2nd Floor #1
Night Club 2nd Floor #2
Night Club 2nd Floor #3
Night Club Rooftop #1 - Double Cross:
Restaurant - Train Dodge:
Bar - Break Pointe:
Objective A, Restaurant Bar
Objective A, Restaurant Kitchen - Single Player:
Episode 4, Top Floor
Episodes 2, 7, and 10
+ Dead Space references
Although many Dead Space references have already been found, there were still some that weren't documented.
- Dead Space Video Games - although the first one gets cited often as you see the 2 criminals playing on the big screen, the others were either overlooked or simply not documented
- Episode 9 Comics - although previously known, I believe these comics were put here at least in part to make the Marker reference clearer.
- Episode 10 Dead Space Marker - although the large obelisk marker can be found on the Hollywood Heights map at objective A, you can find a miniature version in SP
+ Direction Sign to DICE
General direction from the Florida Keys, FL USA to Stockholm, Sweden where DICE is headquartered, found on the Riptide map from the cop's side.
+ Programmer humor - "It works on my machine."
+ Black Friday Stores and Big EE Hint on In-Game Map
On this first DLC map, hints at the big EE were found on Black Friday's in-game map.
- Big Eggie Spaghetti's Restaurant Name - Big Eddie Spaghetti's is misspelled as Big "Eggie" Spaghetti's. The big EE weapon came with the final DLC of the game, where you had to finish the Become Big Eddie's Wise Guys assignment to unlock the Syndicate gun (Lewis gun).
- Ishimura we know is from Dead Space
- Lars of Sweden refers to Mr. Battlefield
- Capt. Monkey Pants is a dev
- Hotwire is a Hardline game mode
- Domo Roboto is missing from the list
- Zittlé is missing from the map list and replaces the Sweetwater store in MP
- Sweetwater has his own store - a Bad Company character - whose store is missing from the list
- Where the "Sweetwater" store is supposed to be on the Black Friday map, it doesn't exist. Instead, we see the "Zittlé store", which has no known direct translation from what I can find. In English, zittles are zits or pimples/acne. "Zittlé" also doesn't appear on the in-game mall map. Sweetwater is the big brain or nerd in the Bad Company squad, who scored a 1500 (out of 1600 then) on the SAT, so it could be a semi-derogatory reference to Bad Company's Sweetwater character.
- Note that in SP in Episode 4 at the mall, you can see that the Sweetwater store is there at the same location. It must have been removed for some reason for the Black Friday map.
+ Award for over 500K copies sold (of Hardline pre-orders?)
The guy named on the award worked at EA / Visceral as Director of Product Development for BF Hardline. It says over 500K copies sold, and this award asset can be found on a vanilla map (Hollywood Heights). I'm wondering if those > 500K copies sold figure refers to pre-orders, and the award asset was added to the game relatively last minute or in a later update. I don't think that it refers to first week sales because Hardline sold 1.433 million copies.
The first album's award can be found in the bathroom at the Rockstar's house. The other 7 album awards are in the same house at one of the larger rooms.
- https://imgur.com/pexSZeM
- https://imgur.com/tEmnucp
- https://imgur.com/lawbBKp
- https://imgur.com/NjHHCWb
+ Alcatraz Shower Room Movie Reference
The Alcatraz map's shower room matches the shower room from the movie, "The Rock" (1996):
The Rock (1996) shower room shootout scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-_OTOkDtRk
Hardline Alcatraz cinematic trailer's reenactment of the shower room shootout from the movie. It's not one-for-one, but it's an homage to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2vVsvNgZYw
https://imgur.com/y1MdH4D
+ "The Shawshank Redemption" Movie Reference
+ There are a pair of highly polished shoes on display, and I think that's a reference to "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994) movie.
https://imgur.com/BxFJQx7
+ Muscle Car Rear View Mirror Hanger
On The Block map, you can find a green muscle car with a dynamite cigar character hanging from the rear view mirror, which is the same one found in SP in Episode 6 in the car you arrive in at Kang's TOSO car dealership. But, the one in MP has the initials J.B. I believe these initials are for Julian Beak, one of the designers who worked on both Hardline and Need for Speed. The same can be found on the muscle cars at the dealership in The Beat map. These vehicles also have a badge on either side of the car with the same design. They can also be found on various muscle cars and even on a boat in single player. Furthermore, the design can be found on the center of the steering wheel on the boats in single player and on the Riptide map on both the patrol vessel and the smuggler's boat.
- Episode 6 Car Hanger w/o "JB"
- Episode 10 Boat #1
- Episode 10 Boat #2
- Hanger design w/ "JB" - example shown from The Block map
- Side Car Badge
- Boat's Steering Wheel
+ "24" TV Show Timer Sound
The timer sound with seconds left to deploy is a reference to the TV show "24". You can hear the sound at the beginning of the first link, and hear the sound that it was inspired by in the second link.
+ Crowbar Message
The left box text on the crowbar is nonsensical but I can sort of follow its intended message, except the Loch Ness part.
The right side text says:
"Crowbars hurt a lot when you get hit by them. You should probably do something to stop that from happening."
The bottom text says:
"(EA) Beatdowns provided by Battlefield Hardline and Sasser Designs..."
The hand cuts off the rest of the text.
Sasser Designs refers to Hardline's Creative Director, Thaddeus Sasser.
https://imgur.com/zIK7emi
+ Wine Bottle Label Message from Visceral Games to DICE
On the back of all wine bottles, there's what looks to be a thank you message from Visceral Games to DICE. There's also a wine named "DICE Cellars" wines (a reference of course to DICE). It's hard to make out what it says exactly since the label isn't high resolution, but it looks to say something like:
"The last of the "Hooch" wines. Thanks to all the memories that got us this far."
https://imgur.com/4Z1H2bu
https://imgur.com/zgiGDdP
https://imgur.com/cr9iqTj
+ Canned Chili Label Message
A little bit of humor by Visceral on the canned chili label
"This Chili is made with... fist fulls of chili powder. It has zero artificial flavors (that we know of)...."
The word "guarantee" below it is misspelled, which if intentional, would mean that there's no guarantee and they mean something else by it. Otherwise, it's only a typo.
https://imgur.com/Hwky9u8
+ Canned Peaches Label Message
More of that humor, this time on the canned peach label
"Organic foods are known to not last, which is troublesome to many of our customers, who value shelf-life over quality and health."
+ "The Wizard of Oz" movie reference
A reference to "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) movie and its flying monkeys. The Wicked Witch of the West says "Fly, my pretties, fly!" They can be found in single player mode in Episode 8, "Sovereign Land" on the hangar, and on the Thin Ice map.
https://imgur.com/YBDfW4l
https://imgur.com/bgGbQBD
+ Origin Logo
A stylized Origin logo made to look more like a hurricane can be found when entering the mall that was closed due to the hurricane in single player in Episode 4, "Case Closed":
https://imgur.com/1thpD4E
+ NOTICE: THIS IS A BOX
This one's on the Double Cross map, but it can also be found on objective A of The Block map and probably on some other maps, too. You can also find it on various episodes of single player, e.g. on Episode 4 at the Growhouse.
https://imgur.com/CexpZvX
+ High Resolution Burgers
So far, there are 4 known high resolution burgers - 3 in MP and 1 in SP.
- Single Player
Episode 1 at School - Multiplayer
Museum - Top of Display Stand
Museum - Reception Desk
Break Pointe - the burger can be found in Squad Heist mode.
My guess is that they are Serf burgers, probably named as such to poke fun of Americans' love of burgers and fast food in general.
Here's an in-game patch you can get. The packaging for that brand can be found throughout the game.
+ Hacker Singing "What a Wonderful World"
You can hear the hacker start singing Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" with the line "I see trees". It's very difficult to hear even when there is no background noise. Take a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8GR40dsk6E
+ Transformers TV Show Reference
When the hacker class player backdoor hacks a transformer, he will sometimes say "Transformer, explosive in disguise". That's a play off of the Transformers cartoon series slogan, "Transformers: Robots in Disguise". There was a 2014 cartoon series that came out then, but I remember watching the older cartoons.
Transformers cartoon (various but time-stamped to one of the relevant examples): https://youtu.be/cQ5xyUWoM4U?t=363
BF Hardline's hacker audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfqk9ke5nH4
+ Vending Machine Gives You "Zilch"
Shooting the soda vending machine gets you "Zilch" (as in "nothing"). It's not among the brands shown and a couple of these cans will pop out and roll around. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teC3WwsTh-k
https://imgur.com/ILTJ0dE
+ 2013 Subway Footlong Controversy Reference
There is a reference to the 2013 Subway footlong controversy, where it was only 11" instead of 12"
https://imgur.com/5zEMMCo
Original pic put on Facebook in 2013 that went viral.
https://imgur.com/BCErqRo
Subway's official response via Facebook to the person uploading the picture:
https://imgur.com/pKEK2FM
https://imgur.com/cVOt8Gx
https://imgur.com/KeYDaqG
+ Cuban Cigars: Codenames Havana & Omaha
Two of the confirmed codenames for Hardline during development were Havana and Omaha. You can see the reveal trailer and/or game files refer to the game with these names. In-game on the Downtown map on the Criminal side, you can see a huge poster for the "Havana" movie depicting the cast of Hardline. Those codenames can be found on the Cuban cigars.
+ DICE Intern Names
Found this in an out of bounds area on The Block map. They are the names of Robin Jeppsson and Tom Buhr-Berg, who are in "intern service" (interns) for BF4 at DICE Studio. The interns (?) snuck their names onto a worn cardboard box asset that was placed out of bounds?
https://imgur.com/zRyqLYv
https://imgur.com/WiwHJNk
+ Names...
Any time you see a name, it is most likely a reference to a developer, artist, characters from another game (e.g. Dead Space, Bad Company), etc.
The green smiley face is the logo for an artist community called Polycount, where members created an inter-game, inter-studio Easter egg inserted into various games they helped to design. "Greentooth" is the rank title given to new members of the community.
The first 2 can be found on the Downtown map at Objective D and on 3 large banners on the sides of the LA Natural History Museum. The last one can be found on single player mode on Episode 9 at the Blue Badge Cafe on the second floor of the building.
Battlefield 3:
Polycount logo:
Some examples of games where you can find this logo are from Hitman, Wolfenstein, and Tom Clancy's The Division. More recent finds from 2020 are in Control, Sims 4, and Black Mesa. Find more examples from other games here: https://polycount.com/discussion/92534/greentooth-sightings-in-videogames. Could they be in other BF titles? Perhaps, at least, there may be more of them in Hardline and BF3.
