10 Video Games That Pushed Consoles To The Limit
5. Red Dead Redemption 2 - PS4
Rockstar games have garnered a reputation for being the graphical benchmark of the generation they release into, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Red Dead Redemption 2.
No other game, not even RDR2's own predecessor back on the PS3 and Xbox 360, truly captures the feel of being in the Wild West in the 1800s. The land is vast and grand but intimate and dangerous. Civilization is mostly just a suggestion instead of anything tangible. Most importantly: horses' testicles shrink in the cold. The entire game would simply fall apart if that detail didn't make it in!
Jokes aside, such wide breadth yet intimate detail is the kind of thing that would break other dev teams, and indeed RDR2's developers were pushed to the breaking point by their unreasonable bosses to make this game happen. But they did indeed make it happen and this modern American Epic put the PS4, Xbox One, and the standard spec PCs at the time through their paces.
This is the kind of game you can only make if you have a lot of money to burn, and Rockstar sure has cash to spare thanks to GTA Online. It might have come at a genuine human cost in development, but the results speak for themselves.