Yes, we're basically talking about inflicting "psychological stress" (aka pain / torture).
To the person being killed the most prevalent trauma is death. Dying is not any less traumatic when you're being shot or poisoned, than being decapitated. The only person who cares about the gruesomeness of a killing is the murderer. The more bloody a murder, the harder it is to kill someone. The graphics, the physics, the interactivity, etc. etc. all combine to produce realism, obviously.
The average human has about 7 liters of blood - and it does not cascade out of a simple knife wound all at once. After stabbing a person, the wound creates a low pressure, making it very difficult to pull the knife out again (if you don't know how, and pressing the 'X' button isn't good enough) unless you're using a dedicated combat knife like a KA-BAR. The violence being depicted in Manhunt 2, and the violence depicted in Animaniacs are roughly equally "realistic". Again, I would ask why you would derive pleasure from this.
I don't. I couldn't care less about Manhunt 2, because it's a poor videogame. The way you kill people isn't even remotely imaginative or funny (as opposed to The Punisher which although it has Frank Castle putting a criminals head through an industrial strength ventilator, never got a rap for "being violent" - possibly because it wasn't made by Rockstar Games, so there was no political motivation for defaming it). Sure, you're not actually causing real agony, but neither would watching an animal be tortured cause real agony.
I'm not sure the animal agrees with that. For example, how would you feel about an animal torture simulation, complete with screams of terror and agony, and highly realistic blood?
Sounds a bit boring to me. Kinda like those Japanese Hentai Rape games. And Manhunt 2. And Harry Potter. Do I need to explain why this is extremely distasteful?
Sure. While you're at it, explain why games like Ethnic Cleansing are in good taste.Claiming that violent videogames promote violence is as stupid as claiming that Operation promotes medical malpractice.