What do you lot think of realistic games, and can a game be too realistic?

For example, when I play shooters, I get shot a fair bit. I don't really want to die from a couple of bullets, because that game would suck. Unless I purposely put it onto a harder mode for funsies. And with driving games: I like doing mega-drifts in games like NFS and that, but I recently bought GT4 and I like it even though it's a real pain in the arse sometimes because I have to slow down to, like, 20MPH on some bends.