The problem with "Implausible Reload"

[LZachariah]

In most FPS games over the past few years, reload mechanics are oddly unrealistic. My brothers and I have taken to calling this phenomenon "Implausible Reload," and I shall illustrate it easily:

If you have a 30-round magazine, and you fire one shot, then reload, you have just thrown away 29 bullets. Only weapons like shotguns reload by slotting individual rounds into the chamber. However, in most games, "reloading" just takes ammunition out of your total ammo and replenishes your weapon back to full. I am sometimes confused at how games overlook this fundamentally simple fact. Battlefield 2142, for instance, had a plausible reload system; your magazines contained ammunition, and if you reloaded too early, you necessarily threw away whatever bullets were left in your discarded magazine.

To me, Implausible Reload makes so little sense, and certainly nobody thinks that this is actually how reloading works. So, my question to everyone is, what is your preference? (and why do you hold that preference?)

1. The more realistic system of "each magazine contains a certain number of rounds."

2. The more convenient system of "the act of reloading magically replenishes your gun's ammunition back to full."


~Zachariah