rockstar cut the fridge restocking system because it was too realistic, thoughts?

Saw the GamesRadar piece about Rockstar cutting a fridge restocking system for Jason and Lucia. Apparently they had it in at some point, you'd have to keep the safehouse fridge stocked, and it got to be too much. They said they wanted to find the right balance between realism and ease of play.

I'm torn. On one hand, I love the idea of little domestic details. Coming back to the safehouse after a long day of crime and seeing the fridge empty because you forgot to shop would be weirdly immersive. On the other hand, I don't want GTA to turn into a survival sim. I already have enough chores in real life.

Rockstar usually knows when to pull back. They've talked about not wanting the game to feel like a job, and this seems like that philosophy in action. The safehouse stuff we've seen so far already looked pretty detailed, so maybe the fridge was just one step too far.

The article's comment section had someone joking about losing the ability to perfectly align everything, which is a mood.

What do you all think? Would you have wanted the option to toggle it on for a hardcore mode, or is cutting it the right call?

Source: GamesRadar+ · Curated content.

Cutting it seems right, but I keep wondering about the edge cases they must have hit before pulling it. Like, did food spoil? Could you leave groceries in a car and come back to a trunk full of rotten milk after a three-day police chase? Systems like that get weird fast once physics gets involved. A toggle for it might've been fun though, just to poke at it.

ngl i'm glad they cut it, i already forget to buy groceries in my actual apartment, i don't need jason and lucia's fridge guilt tripping me mid crime spree lol

come back to a trunk full of rotten milk after a three-day police chase

ok but this image is so funny to me. like you're wanted by half of leonida and now the game hits you with a spoiled milk debuff on top of it. i kinda get why they bailed

a hardcore toggle would be funny for streamers fr, watching someone speedrun a grocery run sounds like peak content. but for me personally? i boot up gta to escape chores. doing them with better graphics is still chores lol

Correct call. I still have MC resupply trauma. Fifteen minutes hauling supplies across the map while the nightclub passively printed $50k a day. That loop is what taught half the playerbase to do $/hr math. Fridge restocking is resupply with extra steps, and the payout is $0.

Good call. Only restocking I wanna think about is fuel in the tank. MC resupply trauma is REAL, never again.

Right call, I think. Little domestic stuff is nice for atmosphere, drinking a beer on the couch before going out to cause chaos, that kind of thing. But a system you HAVE to maintain becomes job very fast. And here in brazil an empty fridge is basically a family tragedy, my mãe would never forgive Jason for letting that happen.

MC resupply trauma is REAL

This is the real reason. GTA Online already showed what happens when Rockstar turns chores into gameplay loop, nobody wants to do $/hr math on groceries with zero payout.

Streamers doing hardcore grocery speedruns though, that I would watch.