Battlefield 1 Easter egg recreates the floating house from Up

A new Battlefield 1 Easter egg, this one introduced as part of the recent They Shall Not Pass expansion, treats players to the sort of sight you wouldn't normally expect from a First World War battlefield: The floating house from the Disney animated film Up. 

It's not an exact match—instead of being raised by thousands of normal-sized balloons, this one is borne aloft by three giant ones bearing the colors of the French Tricolore—but it's the obvious pop culture reference, and so that's what we're going with. More importantly, it's also a whole lot easier to pull off than the wickedly complex Morse code puzzle. 

As YouTube guy Jackfrags explains, you first have to find three hidden bottles of wine on the Verdun Heights map, and shoot them all. It's a terrible waste of fine French wine, but war is hell, as they say. After that, find (and, naturally, shoot) three rooftop weather vanes with roosters on them. 

Having done that, turn your eyes to the south and soon you'll notice three giant balloons climbing into the sky, carrying a house up with them. The contraption floats across the sky for awhile before sinking beneath the horizon to the east. The full significance of the Easter egg isn't known—as Jackfrags says, it could be simply that one of the designers is a fan of the film—but it's a cute little thing, and nicely balances challenge with accessibility. And as Kotaku points out, it's also a handy distraction: Dazzle 'em with reminiscences of a classic Disney tale of love, loss and dreams, and then put two in their heads while they're not paying attention. 

Jackfrags' full video explainer is below.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.