GTA 6 has a smell reaction system, which immediately joins Red Dead Redemption 2's dynamically shrinking horse balls on Rockstar's list of immersive symbols of excess

Any reminder of Red Dead Redemption 2's temperature sensitive horse testicles brings a smile to my face. In truth, I can't say I've ever zoomed in close enough to properly take in the spectacle of Arthur Morgan's mount having its nuts dynamically expand and contract based on whether he's riding through snowy mountains or across baking plains, but I do always get a kick out of knowing such a thing's happening as I play. To this point, the horse balls have been the most infamous or meme-worthy example of Rockstar's obsession with going all-in on realistic detail to an arguably unnecessary degree, one that borders on overindulgence which players could conceivably never notice if they weren't expressly told about it.

That philosophy's gone nowhere, so GTA 6 was always going to have a feature that'd become as much of a metaphor for excess as those beloved balls. It may well be the smell reaction system revealed in Edge's long read on the game.

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