Every year as April 1 approaches, game companies large and small plant gags to amuse their fans and confuse the poor game reporters who have to distinguish between fiction and fact. And every year, we pick the best of the best so that no one misses the high quality hijinks. This year's mood is a bit more subdued than in previous years, and the reasons for this need not be explained here.

This list will be updated as more gags are added.

With googly eyes, anything can be funny. One of Canada's most beloved media figures is the googly-eyed sock. This is a definite winner, as the hamster with the sensation of being on a heavily armed mechanical ball has a googly eye.

It's not funny, but it's kind of weird, and that's good enough; "GTA Online" players can even collect and throw snowballs at each other.

When you log into the game this week, you receive a strange message from the king of all cats, with a strange potion attached. Drink it and little cats will spawn all around you. Big cats are also spawned, but fortunately they are far away. Very big cats. Meow.

Just kidding, this is a real thing: Pong Quest plays on nostalgia for the old Atari 2600, with various dungeons and modes based on old games like Centipede and Breakout, and 50 different balls that grant different abilities. See the trailer here.

If you've ever wondered why game journalists sometimes get annoyed on April Fool's Day, here it is: FDG Entertainment made a straight-up announcement with assets for "DuckTales QuackShots" and then 12 hours later, "Just kidding!" They said. If this response convinces Disney to move forward with the project, the net effect may be positive, but then again, if you're going to do an April Fool's gag, ideally you should include a gag. And now we are also saddened that this does not exist.

It has been seven years since the last Crysis. So when Crytek updated crysis.com and posted a flashy new image of Nomad (or maybe Psycho or Prophet, but it's hard to tell with the mask on), we were really excited. Sadly, the HTML source code contains the following meta keywords: Crysis, FPS, Crytek, Vidoe Games, April Fool's Day, Launch. Oh well.

War Thunder is a free-to-play vehicular combat game: tanks, armored vehicles, planes, that sort of thing; Space Thunder is War Thunder in space, a game that is about the war in space! And if, like me, you saw that trailer and thought, damn, I wish this was a real game, you'll be happy to know it's real until April 6.

From the makers of Superhot, a fighting game where time only moves when you move, comes Picohot, a playable remake based on Pico-8. To launch, press the Z and X keys simultaneously, arrow down to "chirp.exe," press Enter to load, and scroll down the fake message base until the "download" button appears. Once the download is complete, select "picohot.exe" from the main menu to start the game or jump directly to the level you cleared.

Bugs are a fact of video game life, so Landfall has accepted the inevitable with DLC adding 11 new bugs to the game. Not only that, but if you want it, you have to pay for it; all proceeds earned by Landfall (minimum $2.5 per DLC) will be donated to "Doctors Without Borders."