- 10/07/2025
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 as they want
01:52their creations to feel and look like actual places in the world. However, there is one overly
01:58realistic mechanic that the same people have a major gripe with, and that is the problem of
02:03depleting resources. As close to home as this mechanic hits, the fact that resources like coal,
02:08oil and ores can be fully excavated by your city's industries means that the industry districts
02:13you spend hours designing will eventually have to be removed. This is obviously a terrible situation
02:19for someone who plays the game to design pretty cities and doesn't want to worry about sustainability,
02:25which is why most city builders usually resort to installing mods that allow them to get rid of
02:29the resource depleting mechanic altogether. Sure, maybe it does closely resemble our real life
02:35issues with resource exploitation, but then again, you don't play an idealized city building simulator
02:40to worry about real life, unideal ecological struggles. 8. 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 is
03:04infected 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 of
03:20anxiety 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. The malaria
03:31attacks are so frequent and debilitating that they take away all the fun from most of the action
03:36scenes. You can't fight or shoot with your vision going blurry every other moment, and if you try to
03:42ignore them, your character will simply keel over and fall into a coma. Maybe we could dial back on the
03:47realism just a little bit, Far Cry 2? At least let me shoot some people in peace every now and then?
03:527. A Finger Cutting Tutorial Heavy Rain Heavy Rain's story isn't completely grounded in reality,
03:58and if you disagree, well then remember Agent Jaiden uses a set of hyper-advanced
04:02Google Glasses that require him to snort hard drugs in order to operate them. This game's weird.
04:08However, when things do get realistic, they also get kind of disturbing. And in the case of the
04:13chapter called The Lizard, the realism is downright traumatising. In the chapter, the origami killer
04:18forces our protagonist Ethan to cut off his own finger in order to receive a clue about his missing son's
04:24whereabouts. And 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 cutting it off with and
04:39whether you'll try to cauterise the wound with alcohol or fire. Each choice in the trial is as
04:44immersively gruesome as it can be, which is why even those who aren't Fate of Heart can barely stand watching
04:49it and you probably can't see it right now. There's probably a lot of blurring going on because
04:54YouTube. It's as though the developers wanted you to feel like you're actually cutting someone's finger
04:59off and that's quite disturbing. 6. 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! One of the most detailed and fleshed out systems in the game is
05:16the health tracker for your character. Each injury you suffer can be applied to a different part of
05:21your body and 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 counterparts would
05:32and while this definitely sounds impressive, you quickly realise it's also excruciatingly frustrating
05:38the moment that your character breaks a leg. Those who have had the displeasure of breaking their leg in
05:42real life will be surprised by the cringe-worthy 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 it will
05:58have you lumbering around and resting for weeks just to make sure your previous injury is accurate to
06:03real-life experiences. Oh yes, sitting around and barely doing anything. That's my favourite kind of gameplay.
06:105. The Subway Grand Theft Auto 4 Grand Theft Auto 4 is full of details that ensure it's the most
06:16immersive an experience it can be. This said, sometimes striving for realism can cross the line
06:21between reasonable and why is this even in the game? Liberty City's subway system is a great example of
06:27this. Now 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 to
06:38travel via around the map as divided into different lines and stations based on real-life locations in
06:44NYC. Now 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? Why did Rockstar spend so
06:58much time designing and implementing an entire public transit system when 90% of the player base will never
07:04use it? Opting for better travel options like taxis, personal vehicles and helicopters. Yes,
07:10it's an impressive detail but you can't help but wonder if all of this extra work could have been
07:13dedicated to other things like, say, making the driving in the game feel less awful and slippery.
07:20Just saying.
07:204. 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 into a
07:29rage filled instrument of her own vengeance is one of the saddest and most heartbreaking things in recent
07:34gaming history. And yet, if the storyline wasn't enough to make you feel dead on the inside, the
07:39developers thought they take all of the fun out of killing your enemies as well. Unlike most other
07:44games where taking down NPCs is as quick and fun as pressing a button and watching a delightfully bloody
07:49death animation, The Last of Us offers a different kind of spectacle. Each enemy dies as realistically as
07:56possible, which means before they go down they do things like beg for their life, break into tears,
08:01scream about their relatives and all the other fun parts about murder that games conveniently leave
08:06out for your pleasure. Each time you kill someone the game has to remind you how much of a monster
08:11you are, meaning 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 these atrocities,
08:22at least let us have some kind of fun with it.
08:243. 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, The Sims 4 takes its tax game to
08:56the extreme. Splitting your Sims cost of living between utilities and property tax as well as
09:01raising the price significantly for the size and value of your property. Say goodbye to covering your
09:07expenses with a fraction of your paycheck. The improved tax system is more likely to take away almost
09:12all of it and if you don't get the money on time, you get to experience the simulated nightmare of
09:17having your water and electricity cut off as The Repo Man lurks right around the corner to take away
09:23all of your stuff. Dang you Repo Man! You know the economy is bad when even The Sims can't afford to
09:29take a shower. 2. Shrinking Horse Bits
09:33Red Dead Redemption 2 The level of detail and realism
09:36in Red Dead Redemption 2 has been the talk of the gaming world ever since the game was released.
09:40I mean if you clicked on this video you were pretty much waiting for the Red Dead Redemption 2 entry
09:45weren't you? You 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. If you followed Red Dead Redemption 2 release
10:01at all you'll know that this detail has been mentioned over and over on every forum,
10:05reddit 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 if
10:21the 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 they
10:30could they er er er er er er didn't stop to think if they should. That's Jeff Goldblum, yeah sure.
10:37Keep that in there. 1. A Realistic Drive to Vegas
10:40Desert Bus Desert Bus is an infamous title that has earned notoriety on the internet for its simple
10:46yet incredibly sadistic premise. Driving a bus for 8 real life hours from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas,
10:53Nevada. That's right, despite its retro graphics, Desert Bus is probably the most realistic driving
10:58simulator to date, as 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. The path you take
11:10to Vegas is a straight road, splitting an empty desert in half. Nothing about your journey is
11:15difficult, but that's actually the biggest detriment to your success. Because your environment is so
11:20desolate and the path you travel is so devoid of anything to keep you alert, it's really easy to grow
11:25bored of the game and suddenly find the bus swerving a little bit to the left or the right,
11:30which causes it to drive off the road and then crash, forcing you to dial that clock back and
11:35do it all over again. If you've never experienced what it's like to fall asleep while driving,
11:40and I really hope you haven't, then Desert Bus is probably the most realistic way to do so in a safe
11:46and controlled environment. Not that that's anything to really brag about.
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