10 Times Video Game Realism Went Too Far

Like Naughty Dog, Rockstar spends an inordinate amount of time on small details that most other developers don't bother with, all in an attempt to make their open worlds as rich and immersive as possible.

With Red Dead Redemption II, all of that effort led to a game that is absolutely gorgeous to behold, but on the downside, it's also a game that tries to do far too much in the name of realism, which can make it a real chore to play.

Almost every action in the game has its own animation, whether you're skinning animals, grabbing items, or playing a tabletop game of dominoes. These are cool to notice at first, but over time, those precious seconds will start to add up, and you'll soon wish that the game just did things the old fashioned way: a tap of a button instantly picks up an item, without the need to sit through a special animation.

This aside though, by far the most ridiculous and pointless way that Rockstar added realism to Red Dead II is the fact that they coded in horse balls that actually shrink when the weather turns cold.

We probably don't need to explain why this is a step too far in the realism department (for one thing, you won't even see your horse's junk through normal gameplay), but we would like to give a shout-out to the poor developer who had to go into work on Monday morning and create some realistic horse nuts.