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 realism in
00:05their releases. Developers spend an excruciating amount of time perfecting minute details that
00:10reflect the real world, and this provides us with truly immersive experiences. However,
00:15sometimes things can go a little bit too far. I'm Sy from WhatCulture.com and here are 10 times
00:21video games were too realistic. 10. 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 joys of adulting,
00:37right? Well, The Witcher 3 would beg to differ. A side mission in Witcher 3 called Paperchase
00:42takes Geralt to the wondrous and fantastic location of… a dimly lit bank. Where he performs the
00:49exciting feat of reinstating his account after the bank has mistakenly proclaimed him dead.
00:54Yes, this is a real mission and it's even complete with all the bank activities you know and love,
00:59like speaking 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 actually do anything in
01:20the end. As it turns out, the bank has already, uh, invested all of your money. Whoever wrote this
01:26quest clearly had a bad bank experience one day and channeled all their hatred into their work,
01:31and you know what? I'm here for it.
01:339. Depleting Resources
01:35Cities 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. However, there
01:57is one overly realistic mechanic that the same people have a major gripe with, and that is the
02:02problem of depleting resources. As close to home as this mechanic hits, the fact that resources like
02:07coal, oil and ores can be fully excavated by your city's industries means that the industry
02:13districts you spend hours designing will eventually have to be removed. This is obviously a terrible
02:19situation for someone who plays the game to design pretty cities and doesn't want to worry
02:23about sustainability. Which is why most city builders usually resort to installing mods that
02:28allow them to get rid of the resource depleting mechanic altogether. Sure, maybe it does closely
02:33resemble our real life issues with resource exploitation, but then again, you don't play an
02:38idealized city building simulator to worry about real life, unideal ecological struggles.
02:448. Malaria 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, but it also
02:57addresses the terrifying reality of contracting malaria by giving it to you. In the game, your character
03:04is infected with a disease early into the story. He regularly suffers episodes of disorientation and
03:10overwhelming lethargy which can only be treated with regular doses of an extremely rare medicine.
03:15Mechanic does an amazing job of showcasing the effects of malaria and creating a fitting sense
03:20of anxiety by having to experience them. But 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 all the fun from most of the
03:36action scenes. You 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, Far Cry 2,
03:49at least let me shoot some people in peace every now and then.
03:527. A Finger Cutting Tutorial Heavy Rain
03:55Heavy Rain's story isn't completely grounded in reality, even if you disagree, well then remember
04:00Agent Jayden uses a set of hyper-advanced Google Glasses that require him to snort hard drugs in
04:05order to operate them. This game's weird. However, when things do get realistic they also get kind of
04:11disturbing, and 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 in
04:21order to receive a clue about his missing son's whereabouts. And yes, the actual gameplay and visuals of
04:27this scene are just as bad as that sounds. Being an interactive experience, the game makes you cut
04:32the finger off yourself, giving you plenty of choices along the way, such as what tool you'll
04:37use for cutting 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, which is why even those who aren't
04:47Fate of Heart can barely stand watching it, and you probably can't see it right now, there's probably a
04:52lot of blurring going on because YouTube. It's as though the developers wanted you to feel like
04:57you're actually cutting someone's finger off, and that's quite disturbing.
05:026. Breaking a Leg – Project Zomboid Project Zomboid puts a great emphasis on realism in
05:08order to make your zombie apocalypse experience feel more dreadfully immersive. Thanks!
05:14One of the most detailed and fleshed out systems in the game is the health tracker for your character.
05:18Each injury you suffer can be applied to a different part of your body, and comes in a variety of kinds,
05:24such as cuts, fractures, burns, and of course, zombie bites. The game makes sure to make the
05:29virtual injuries last as long as their real-life counterparts would, and while this definitely
05:33sounds impressive, you quickly realise it's also excruciatingly frustrating the moment that your
05:39character breaks a leg. Those who have had the displeasure of breaking their leg in real life will be
05:43surprised by the cringeworthy accuracy of Project Zomboid's take on it. Your character,
05:48of course, can barely walk, but the intense pain prevents them from doing work and even sleeping,
05:53and the broken appendage takes almost a whole month to heal. Yes, the game is so realistic that
05:58it will have you lumbering around and resting for weeks just to make sure your previous injury is
06:03accurate to real-life experiences. Oh yes, sitting around and barely doing anything, that's
06:08my favourite kind of gameplay. 5. The Subway – Grand Theft Auto 4
06:13Grand 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.
06:28Now, it will probably come off as a surprise to some players, but GTA 4 does in fact feature a fully
06:32functional and perfectly accurate replica of the New York subway system, and you can actually use this
06:38to travel via around the map as divided into different lines and stations based on real-life
06:43locations in NYC. Now, this is definitely an impressive feat, but considering how much faster
06:49and more convenient, well, every other mode of transportation in GTA 4 is, you have to ask,
06:55why? Why did Rockstar spend so much time designing and implementing an entire public transit system,
07:02when 90% of the player base will never use it, opting for better travel options like taxis,
07:07personal vehicles and helicopters? Yes, it's an impressive detail, but you can't help but wonder
07:12if all of this extra work could have been dedicated to other things like, say, making the driving in
07:17the game feel less awful and slippery. Just saying.
07:204. Gruesome Death – The Last of Us 2 The story of The Last of Us Part 2 is a gruelling and depressing
07:27experience. Ellie's transformation into a rage-filled instrument of her own vengeance is one of the
07:32saddest and most heartbreaking things in recent gaming history. And yet, if the storyline wasn't
07:37enough to make you feel dead on the inside, the developers thought they take all of the fun out
07:41of killing your enemies as well. Unlike most other games where taking down NPCs is as quick and fun as
07:47pressing a button and watching a delightfully bloody death animation, The Last of Us offers a different
07:52kind of spectacle. Each enemy dies as realistically as possible, which means before they go down,
07:58they do things like beg for their life, break into tears, scream about their relatives and all
08:03the other fun parts about murder that games conveniently leave out for your pleasure. Each
08:08time you kill someone, the game has to remind you how much of a monster you are, meaning that any
08:13attempt at going on a mindless killing spree will have you questioning your life choices within
08:18minutes. Look game, if you're going to force us to commit all of these atrocities,
08:22at least let us have some kind of fun with it. 3. Updated Taxes
08:27Over the years, The Sims 4 developers have added plenty of updates and patches to flesh out the
08:32game after its rather lacklustre launch. These have included things like swimming pools, ghosts,
08:37functional toddler life stages and… 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 Sims cost of living between utilities
09:00and property tax, as well as raising the price significantly for the size and value of your
09:05property. Say goodbye to covering your expenses with a fraction of your paycheck. The improved tax
09:10system is more likely to take away almost all of it, and if you don't get the money on time,
09:15you get to experience the simulated nightmare of having your water and electricity cut off,
09:20as the Repo Man lurks right around the corner to take away all of your stuff.
09:24DANG YOU REPO MAN! You know the economy is bad when even The Sims can't afford to take a shower.
09:312. Shrinking Horse Bits
09:33Red Dead Redemption 2
09:34The level of detail and realism in Red Dead Redemption 2 has been the talk of the gaming world ever since the
09:39game was released. I mean, if you clicked on this video, you were pretty much waiting for the Red
09:44Dead Redemption 2 entry, weren't you? You have NPCs that actually eat their meals, enemies that react
09:50accordingly to which part of the body you shoot, and the one thing that raises the eyebrows of
09:54everyone who hears it, horse testicles that shrink in the cold in real time. If you followed Red
10:00Dead Redemption 2 release at all, you'll know that this detail has been mentioned over and over on
10:04every forum, reddit post and gaming site on the internet. The concept, although certainly realistic,
10:10is just so weird that it raises so many questions. Who is in charge of modelling and programming this?
10:16And why do they make everyone who played the game look at their horses junk from behind just to see
10:20if the rumour was true? This detail is one of the rare examples of rockstar realism that makes you want
10:25to quote Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park. The devs were so preoccupied with whether or not
10:30they could, they uh uh uh uh didn't stop to think if they should. That's Jeff Goldblum, yeah sure.
10:37Keep that in there. At number one, a realistic drive to Vegas, Desert Bus. Desert Bus is an infamous
10:43title that has earned notoriety on the internet for its simple yet incredibly sadistic premise.
10:48Driving a bus for eight real life hours from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada. That's right,
10:54despite its retro graphics, Desert Bus is probably the most realistic driving simulator to date,
11:00as it's the only driving simulator that captures the true feeling of boredom,
11:04exhaustion and frustration that you feel after spending hours behind a wheel.
11:09The 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 success.
11:18Because your environment is so desolate and the path you travel is so devoid of anything to keep you
11:23alert, it's really easy to grow bored of the game and suddenly find the bus swerving a little bit to the
11:29left or the right, which causes it to drive off the road and then crash, forcing you to dial that
11:35clock back and do it all over again. If you've never experienced what it's like to fall asleep while
11:40driving and I really hope you haven't, then Desert Bus is probably the most realistic way to do so in
11:45a safe and controlled environment. Not that that's anything to really brag about.