10 Times Video Games Were Too Realistic
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00:00As our technologies become better and better, more video game companies strive for more
00:04realism in their releases. Developers spend an excruciating amount of time perfecting
00:09minute details that reflect the real world, and this provides us with truly immersive experiences.
00:15However, sometimes things can go a little bit too far. I'm Sci for WhatCulture.com,
00:20and here are 10 times video games were too realistic.
00:2410. A Trip to the Bank – The Witcher 3
00:27Going to the bank is the annoying little cousin at the table of adulthood. No one likes it,
00:32but everyone has to tolerate it. But hey, at least video games let you avoid the
00:36joys of adulting, right? Well, The Witcher 3 would beg to differ.
00:40A side mission in Witcher 3 called Paperchase takes Geralt to the wondrous and fantastic
00:45location of… a dimly lit bank, where he performs the exciting feat of reinstating
00:51his account after the bank has mistakenly proclaimed him dead. Yes, this is a real
00:55mission, and it's even complete with all the bank activities you know and love, like
01:00speaking with frustrated clerks, filling out confusing paperwork, and everyone's favourite,
01:05waiting in lines. The quest perfectly captures the existential dread of wasting an entire day
01:10trying to resolve one simple matter at your bank. And to truly nail the realism on the head,
01:15all the paperwork and effort you put into getting your account back doesn't
01:19actually do anything in the end. As it turns out, the bank has already, uh,
01:23invested all of your money. Whoever wrote this quest clearly had a bad bank experience one day,
01:29and channelled all their hatred into their work, and you know what? I'm here for it.
01:339. Depleting Resources – Cities Skylines 2
01:37There are two kinds of Skylines players, those who want to build the city of their dreams,
01:42and those who want to unleash the worst possible plagues upon their unsuspecting virtual citizens.
01:47Those in the former category usually enjoy the more realistic aspects of the game,
01:51as they want their creations to feel and look like actual places in the world.
01:56However, there is one overly realistic mechanic that the same people have a major gripe with,
02:01and that is the problem of depleting resources. As close to home as this mechanic hits,
02:06the fact that resources like coal, oil and ores can be fully excavated by your city's industries
02:12means that the industry districts you spend hours designing will eventually have to be removed.
02:17This is obviously a terrible situation for someone who plays the game to design pretty cities,
02:22and doesn't want to worry about sustainability. Which is why most city builders usually resort
02:27to installing mods that allow them to get rid of the resource-depleting mechanic altogether.
02:32Sure, maybe it does closely resemble our real-life issues with resource exploitation,
02:36but then again, you don't play an idealised city-building simulator
02:40to worry about real-life, unideal ecological struggles.
02:45Malaria Far Cry 2
02:47It isn't uncommon for video games to tackle real-life issues, and Far Cry 2 is a good example.
02:53Not only does the game have a strong portrayal of the struggle of war survivors,
02:57but it also addresses the terrifying reality of contracting malaria by giving it to you.
03:03In the game, your character is infected with a disease early into the story.
03:07He regularly suffers episodes of disorientation and overwhelming lethargy,
03:11which can only be treated with regular doses of an extremely rare medicine.
03:15Mechanic does an amazing job of showcasing the effects of malaria,
03:19and creating a fitting sense of anxiety by having to experience them.
03:23But let's be honest, from a gameplay perspective,
03:25being accurately infected with a deadly disease is the most tedious and annoying thing possible.
03:31The malaria attacks are so frequent and debilitating that they take away
03:34all the fun from most of the action scenes.
03:37You can't fight or shoot, with your vision going blurry every other moment,
03:41and if you try to ignore them, your character will simply keel over and fall into a coma.
03:46Maybe we could dial back on the realism just a little bit in Far Cry 2,
03:49at least let me shoot some people in peace every now and then.
03:53Finger-Cutting Tutorial – Heavy Rain
03:55Heavy Rain's story isn't completely grounded in reality, and if you disagree,
03:59well then remember Agent Jaden uses a set of hyper-advanced
04:02Google Glasses that require him to snort hard drugs in order to operate them.
04:07This game's weird.
04:08However, when things do get realistic, they also get kind of disturbing,
04:12and in the case of the chapter called The Lizard, the realism is downright traumatising.
04:17In the chapter, the origami killer forces our protagonist Ethan to cut off his own finger
04:21in order to receive a clue about his missing son's whereabouts.
04:25And yes, the actual gameplay and visuals of this scene are just as bad as that sounds.
04:30Being an interactive experience, the game makes you cut the finger off yourself,
04:34giving you plenty of choices along the way, such as what tool you'll use for
04:38cutting it off with and whether you'll try to cauterise the wound with alcohol or fire.
04:42Each choice in the trial is as immersively gruesome as it can be,
04:46which is why even those who aren't fate of heart can barely stand watching it,
04:50and you probably can't see it right now, there's probably a lot of blurring going on, because
04:54YouTube.
04:55It's as though the developers wanted you to feel like you're actually cutting someone's finger off,
05:00and that's quite disturbing.
05:026. Breaking a Leg – Project Zomboid
05:05Project Zomboid puts a great emphasis on realism in order to make your zombie apocalypse experience
05:10feel more dreadfully immersive. Thanks!
05:14One of the most detailed and fleshed out systems in the game is the health tracker for your
05:18character. Each injury you suffer can be applied to a different part of your body,
05:22and comes in a variety of kinds, such as cuts, fractures, burns, and of course, zombie bites.
05:28The game makes sure to make the virtual injuries last as long as their real-life
05:31counterparts would, and while this definitely sounds impressive, you quickly realise it's
05:35also excruciatingly frustrating the moment your character breaks a leg.
05:40Those who have had the displeasure of breaking their leg in real life
05:43will be surprised by the cringeworthy accuracy of Project Zomboid's take on it.
05:47Your character of course can barely walk, but the intense pain prevents them from doing work
05:52and even sleeping, and the broken appendage takes almost a whole month to heal.
05:56Yes, the game is so realistic that it will have you lumbering around and resting for weeks,
06:00just to make sure your previous injury is accurate to real-life experiences.
06:05Oh yes, sitting around and barely doing anything. That's my favourite kind of gameplay.
06:105. The Subway – Grand Theft Auto 4
06:14Grand Theft Auto 4 is full of details that ensure it's the most immersive an experience it can be.
06:18This said, sometimes striving for realism can cross the line between reasonable and
06:22why is this even in the game. Liberty City's subway system is a great example of this.
06:28It will probably come off as a surprise to some players, but GTA 4 does in fact feature
06:32a fully functional and perfectly accurate replica of the New York subway system,
06:37and you can actually use this to travel via around the map,
06:40as divided into different lines and stations based on real-life locations in NYC.
06:45Now this is definitely an impressive feat, but considering how much faster and more convenient,
06:50well, every other mode of transportation in GTA 4 is, you have to ask, why?
06:56Why did Rockstar spend so much time designing and implementing an entire public transit system
07:02when 90% of the playerbase will never use it,
07:05opting for better travel options like taxis, personal vehicles and helicopters?
07:09Yes, it's an impressive detail, but you can't help but wonder if all of this extra work could
07:13have been dedicated to other things like, say, making the driving in the game feel
07:18less awful and slippery. Just saying. 4. Gruesome Death – The Last of Us 2
07:24The story of The Last of Us Part 2 is a gruelling and depressing experience. Ellie's transformation
07:29into a rage-filled instrument of her own vengeance is one of the saddest and most
07:33heartbreaking things in recent gaming history, and yet if the storyline wasn't enough to make
07:38you feel dead on the inside, the developers thought they'd take all of the fun out of
07:42killing your enemies as well. Unlike most other games where taking down NPCs is as quick and fun
07:47as pressing a button and watching a delightfully bloody death animation, The Last of Us offers a
07:52different kind of spectacle. Each enemy dies as realistically as possible, which means before
07:57they go down they do things like beg for their life, break into tears, scream about their relatives
08:03and all the other fun parts about murder that games conveniently leave out for your pleasure.
08:07Each time you kill someone the game has to remind you how much of a monster you are,
08:12meaning that any attempt at going on a mindless killing spree will have you questioning your
08:16life choices within minutes. Look, game, if you're going to force us to commit all of
08:21these atrocities, at least let us have some kind of fun with it.
08:243. Updated Taxes – Sims 4 Over the years, the Sims 4 developers have
08:29added plenty of updates and patches to flesh out the game after its rather lacklustre launch.
08:35These have included things like swimming pools, ghosts, functional toddler life stages,
08:40and a more realistic depiction of paying taxes. Whoopee!
08:44Death and taxes are the two things every human, and apparently every sim, can be certain of.
08:50Instead of the simplified tax system the previous Sims games utilised,
08:54the Sims 4 takes its tax game to the extreme, splitting your sim's cost of living between
09:00utilities and property tax, as well as raising the price significantly for the size and value
09:04of your property. Say goodbye to covering your expenses with a fraction of your paycheck.
09:09The improved tax system is more likely to take away almost all of it, and if you don't get the
09:14money on time, you get to experience the simulated nightmare of having your water and electricity
09:19cut off as the repo man lurks right around the corner to take away all of your stuff.
09:25Dang you, repo man! You know the economy is bad when even the Sims can't afford to take a shower.
09:302. Shrinking Horse Bits – Red Dead Redemption 2
09:34The level of detail and realism in Red Dead Redemption 2 has been the talk of the gaming
09:38world ever since the game was released. I mean, if you clicked on this video,
09:42you were pretty much waiting for the Red Dead Redemption 2 entry, weren't you?
09:46You have NPCs that actually eat their meals, enemies that react accordingly to which part
09:51of the body you shoot, and the one thing that raises the eyebrows of everyone who hears it,
09:55horse testicles that shrink in the cold in real time.
09:59If you followed Red Dead Redemption 2 release at all, you'll know that this detail has been
10:03mentioned over and over on every forum, reddit post, and gaming site on the internet. The concept,
10:09although certainly realistic, is just so weird that it raises so many questions.
10:14Who is in charge of modelling and programming this? And why do they make everyone who played
10:18the game look at their horse's junk from behind just to see if the rumour was true?
10:22This detail is one of the rare examples of rockstar realism that makes you want to quote
10:26Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park. The devs were so preoccupied with whether or
10:30not they could, they, uh, uh, uh, uh, didn't stop to think if they should.
10:381. A Realistic Drive to Vegas – Desert Bus
10:42Desert Bus is an infamous title that has earned notoriety on the internet for its simple yet
10:46incredibly sadistic premise. Driving a bus for 8 real-life hours from Tucson,
10:51Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada. That's right, despite its retro graphics, Desert Bus is probably
10:57the most realistic driving simulator to date, as it's the only driving simulator that captures
11:02the true feeling of boredom, exhaustion, and frustration that you feel after spending hours
11:08behind a wheel. The path you take to Vegas is a straight road splitting an empty desert in half.
11:13Nothing about your journey is difficult, but that's actually the biggest detriment to your
11:18success. Because your environment is so desolate and the path you travel is so devoid of anything
11:23to keep you alert, it's really easy to grow bored of the game and suddenly find the bus
11:28swerving a little bit to the left or the right. Which causes it to drive off the road and then
11:32crash, forcing you to dial that clock back and do it all over again. If you've never experienced
11:38what it's like to fall asleep while driving, and I really hope you haven't, then Desert Bus is
11:43probably the most realistic way to do so in a safe and controlled environment.