Last of Us 2's pupils dilate... Why?!
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00:00In the past, we here at WhatCulture have covered a lot of video games with, uh, details that,
00:05for lack of better words, are downright pointless. They say that the devil is in the detail,
00:10and when considering the dark, depressing, and downright gross content that we're about to cover
00:13today, you have to imagine Satan himself is rubbing his little paws together at the thought
00:17of what's to come. So let's not keep the big red waiting, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:22and these are 8 Video Game Details That Went Too Far.
00:268. Horse Testicles React to Weather
00:28Red Dead Redemption 2. Now, you knew this was gonna be on this list, so let's just get these
00:32big swollen meat balloons out of the way early doors. Yes, for some reason or another, the devs
00:37working on Red Dead Redemption 2 thought that it would be pertinent to include horse testicles
00:41that grow and shrink depending on the weather. Now, I know that the player spends a lot of time
00:46on horseback throughout the experience, but I doubt that any, bar a select few,
00:50were spending those journeys gazing at their steed's bollocks. And to be honest,
00:53unless you're a vet or an actual ranch owner, then I really don't wanna hear for your reasons
00:57why you were staring either. What was quite comical about this whole affair, however,
01:01was that some real-world horse owners pointed out that this detail was actually incorrect,
01:06seeing as the real-world equestrian equivalent doesn't bounce as much,
01:10meaning that Rockstar was perhaps a little too enamoured with those meat marbles.
01:147. Ice Cubes That Melt in Real Time Metal Gear Solid 2. Of all the Hideo Kojima
01:21moments that exist within the Metal Gear franchise, this is the one that keeps me
01:25up at night. Why? Why did the man get somebody to program ice cubes that melt in real time?
01:31To try and fathom the reasoning behind this would likely send me to a padded cell,
01:35but one can't argue that it's an impressive, almost fanatical moment of dedication.
01:40The fact that the player can shoot these individual ice cubes out of a bucket in the
01:44first place is pretty incredible, especially considering the still very apparent limitations
01:48of the PS2, but to then find out that they melt slowly over the course of several hours is
01:53just uncomfortable. This is what makes it a detail that goes too far. Nobody asked for it,
01:59nobody noticed it for years, it does nothing to enhance the plot, and all you do is walk
02:03away from this situation with a deep concern for the auteur director's state of mind.
02:086. Pupils That Die Late The Last of Us Part 2.
02:13Here's a detail that, while being utterly impressive from a technical standpoint,
02:16is one that arguably wasn't just pointless, but was something that directly contributed
02:20to a rather nasty aspect of the gaming industry at large. I'm speaking, of course,
02:25about crunch culture – no, that's not another YouTube channel we're thinking of starting – but
02:29actually the often-enforced work ethic that sees developers and designers of video games
02:33work way past contracted hours under the passive-aggressive threat of repercussions
02:37should they want to do things like, I dunno, have a life outside of work.
02:41The Last of Us 2, and Naughty Dog as a whole, were hit with reams of allegations about the
02:45excessive and unfair working conditions of its employees. However, Neil Druckmann responded to
02:50the situation by stating that the Last of Us team enjoyed crunch culture as they were
02:56perfectionists. Now, while it's all well and good to give your heart and soul to a project
03:00if you truly believe in it, considering the much less enthused workforces of other companies that
03:05are forced to go through crunch culture, it seems like a little too far to almost begin
03:09championing it. The dilation of the eyes is truly impressive, but one has to ask the question,
03:14is crunch culture as a whole worth detail like this?
03:185. The 10-Hour Tutorial – Final Fantasy XIII
03:23Sometimes it's not the individual detail that goes too far, but the sheer amount of them that
03:28really yanks at your nostril hair, and such a plucker was how Final Fantasy XIII decided to
03:33dole out its player tutorials. Now, as it stands, Final Fantasy XIII and its weird offshoots are
03:38considered to be the Sonic 06 moment for Square Enix, where they double down on characters that
03:44few enjoyed, told a story that even less understood or cared for, and took a hand-holding
03:48approach to its gameplay that left bruises thanks to its vice-like grip. It's a game that defenders
03:53will say gets good after about 10 hours, which is a statement that carries as much water as a bloody
03:58sieve, but does inform you that Final Fantasy XIII has some huge gameplay flow issues.
04:03The biggest assassin of your fun comes in the form of a protracted 10-hour tutorial that will
04:09feed you meagre information pieces about the battle system and the world around you. It's
04:14these details that should have been present from the start, as seeing as the level design for these
04:18opening hours is basically corridor paradise, would have allowed the player some flexibility
04:24on how these battles play out, or how to build a party. We wanted the details, in this case,
04:29up front, damn it. 4. Every Single Special Move
04:34The Mortal Kombat Franchise
04:36I mean, how could you not include talking about the worrying amount of detail that the Mortal
04:40Kombat devs put into their brutal special moves? From the moment you witness your first bone
04:45breaking in two, or your first eyeball being gouged, you might find your phone rising from
04:49your pocket to dial your parents and ask if they still kept that security blanket you had
04:53when you were a kid, and yet, somehow, it just keeps getting worse. Intestines are pulled from
04:59opponents through their mouths, bodies are contorted and twisted, forcing bones to break
05:03through the skin, and muscles are ripped and blasted apart with rather shocking detail.
05:08It's not rainbow rhythms, is what I'm getting at. While it would be wrong of me to chastise
05:13the franchise for the success of violence and gore because, spoiler alert, I love the MK
05:17franchise, things are approaching a worryingly fanatical approach to detail that it makes my
05:22stomach churn. Because what else are the devs going to subject us to down the line? At what
05:26point will the line be so crossed that we lose sight of it? Only the person programming Scorpion
05:32sucking the bone marrow out of his victims truly knows the answer. 3. You Never Actually Get The
05:37Crown – Fall Guys So, as we all know, Fall Guys is a game for absolute sadists that is dressed up
05:44in a manner that makes it look like a 90s Saturday morning cartoon. It's a game that will make you
05:48coo with awe before then crying out, oh, fuck this bullshit, as it swings wildly between being so
05:54cute that butter wouldn't melt to roasting your very soul as your friends betray you at the final
05:59hurdle. Compounding all of this frustration, however, is a small detail that admittedly
06:03breaks my heart every single time I see it. And that's that even when winning the elusive crown
06:08by persevering through drunken bean hell, your little fella over here never, ever gets to have
06:14the crown, either losing it or failing to grasp it before it floats away again. It's a scenario that
06:19seems like the cruelest moment in the cruelest of games, a shattering of glass that reveals that
06:24you're locked inside a gameplay loop of chasing a crown that you'll never actually win. Woof.
06:292. Some of the Enemies Are Forced Conscripts
06:33Call of Duty World at War
06:35Now, the Call of Duty games are well known for their rather bombastic approach to warfare,
06:39often resembling a Michael Bay venture with the excess of explosions and patriotism that oozes
06:43out of every orifice. However, there are key moments when COD decides to get shockingly real,
06:48and for some, it's a little too much like the real thing for comfort. Take, for example,
06:53the shocking revelation that in Call of Duty World at War's sixth mission, Burn Them All,
06:57you're not just fighting against the Imperial Japanese Army, but also conscripts that were
07:02forced to serve the Japanese Army after being captured. This rather grim detail was found by
07:07fans who analysed the speech of some of the soldiers you're roasting alive, as it was revealed
07:12that not all of them were speaking Japanese. Some, it turns out, were speaking Indonesian,
07:16and thus leading many to believe that these soldiers are forced conscripts who really
07:20don't want to be fighting either way. We've witnessed nuclear devastation and multiple
07:25player deaths in the first person in these games, but somehow, this is the moment that feels like
07:30things were most real, and most painfully traumatic. 1. Burning a man alive to open a door
07:36God of War
07:37When you're a seething mass of muscles and might, and might as well have I Love Revenge tattooed on
07:43your head, you'd likely expect a lot of people to out and out just try everything in their power to
07:47never have your shadow darken their doorstep. This is likely why very few people have Kratos
07:52on their Christmas cards list, as this God of War will truly stop at nothing to get vengeance,
07:57meaning that he's murdered more than his fair share of innocents along the way.
08:00Take, for example, the absolutely shocking scenario within the Temple of Pandora,
08:04where Kratos finds that the way is blocked. Now, the devs at this point could have easily
08:08just had the God of War find a key or bust down the door using his brute strength,
08:12but for some reason, they decided that this particular door could only be opened with a
08:17human sacrifice. So Kratos drops back from the gate and lowers down a soldier who's trapped in
08:22a cage, who, at first, is relieved that he's being saved from a rather terrible fate.
08:26Except the fate that's actually in store for him is much worse, something the soldier realises
08:31as he's dragged at an agonisingly slow pace up to the entrance. He pleads with Kratos,
08:35asking what he's doing, that they could just return to Athens together, but it appears he's
08:39just yelling into the void, as Kratos then burns the man alive in order to proceed.
08:44It's a detail that's dragged out, feels unnecessarily cruel, and doesn't even further
08:49our relationship with Kratos as a character, making the whole affair feel like excess for
08:54excess's sake. And there we go, my friends, those were eight video game details that went too far.
08:58I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the
09:01comments section below. As always, I've been Jules, and you can go follow me over on Twitter
09:05at RetroJ, but the O is a zero, or you can swing by Liv and Let's Dice, where I do all of my
09:10streaming outside of work, and it'd be great to see you over there. But before I go, I just want
09:13to say one thing. Consider this to be a detail that I don't think gets pushed far enough,
09:18and that is that you, my friend listening to this video, should be kind to yourself,
09:22both physically and mentally, because you deserve all of the best things in life,
09:26all right? I know I say this a lot, but I truly believe it. You are a massive ledge,
09:30and I just want the best for you. So please go out there with love in your hearts, try to build
09:34bridges instead of burning them, and remember, above all else, that you deserve all the good
09:38things, all right? As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that,
09:42and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.