The Greatest Glitches

Sometimes breaking a game can be more fun than playing it.

As games get more and more complicated, the vast network of interconnecting processes makes it more and more likely that something's going to go horribly wrong. Call them glitches, bugs, or just a reason to fire the QA department, they're a fact of life. Most of them are just annoying, but every once in a while they can be elevated to the realm of high art. In this feature, we're spotlighting our favorite bugs of all time, with handy video.

When Saint's Row shipped in 2006, people immediately wrote it off as a Grand Theft Auto rip-off. Which, well, it was. But it was also an incredibly buggy, poorly-tested piece of software that featured dozens of easily replicated glitches. This little video takes some of the funniest and puts them to music, to create Buggy Saint's Row - The Musical. Enjoy!

This next one isn't anything spectacular in concept - just a simple clipping bug, where a guy's Madden game can't figure out where to put some polygons. But the placement and timing of it earn it a spot in the Hall of Fame. You'll never look at Rex Grossman the same way again.

Assassin's Creed was an interesting if flawed game that unfortunately got overshadowed by some curious marketing decisions. The impressive crowd dynamics allowed the main character to interact with innocent bystanders and guards in some very physically realistic ways. Unfortunately, that same system led town guards to get a little... amorous with nearby walls. Things were lonely in Jerusalem, I guess.

With the recent release of Mortal Kombat vs. the DC Universe, we were reminded of one of our favorite fighting game glitches ever. In Mortal Kombat: Deception, losing players could do a "Hara Kiri" move to kill themselves with honor. However, if the winning player did their Fatality at the same time, the game would get a little... confused. Because the target was "dead," the Fatality would be performed on the player who was doing it. Translation? Lots and lots of hilarious gore.

This glitch from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. shows physics gone horribly wrong. Normally, programmers institute safeguards to prevent things from going too far off plumb, but the Ukranians behind this post-apocalyptic FPS decided to just let things go. The result? When a player drives a certain way, they vault hundreds of feet into the air only to be sucked into a space-time vortex that defies description.

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