Game loading screens and loading bars aren't as common as they once were, but are still fairly easy to find in modern gaming. What is incredibly rare, though, is a smooth loading bar that glides from one end of the screen to the other.
Even if you've got a PC that would impress NASA, loading bars will always pause at certain moments and then move a chunk forward. Apparently, according to indie game developers on Twitter, this is by design.
Indie dev Mike Blithell noted when replying to a post about smooth loading bars by comedian Alasdair Beckett-King that "players don't trust a smooth loading bar. The stutters and pauses show you that the load is 'biting'."
<social>https://twitter.com/mikeBithell/status/1674085999205392391</social>
Another developer Rami Ismail then added that they've worked on "projects where we faked loading bars, extended loading times, or artificially made loading bars move at uneven speeds."
<social>https://twitter.com/tha_rami/status/1674311222282407936</social>
It's a bit of a bombshell, to find out that the loading bar does not reflect the game actually loading, but what the developer thinks the screen should look like. I don't think I'll ever trust a loading bar again, now.