What difficulty do you play on?

[DANGERMAN]

I've nicked the idea for this thread off Gaf, only with a much worse title, but here goes anyway.

I play all my games on the normal or default difficulty now, I'm not entirely sure why though. I'd argue that games are easier nowadays, I dont think there's any doubt about that, and if you do get stuck there's usually some video or guide to give you the advice you need. If I'm reviewing a game then I have to play it on the default, and if it's too easy/hard then that's something for the review. I think also that games are kind of ubiquitous now in the way skills from one game transfer to another, so if I can do Gears then I can do every other cover based combat game.

When I was younger I used to play on easy, even when I was at uni I'd put fighters and shooters (such as Ikaruga) onto an easier setting. Sometimes you want to sit and play, hassle free, and the thought of getting my arse handed to me on KOF wasn't the way I wanted to spend a free 45 minutes. Ikaruga is the other side of that, I played that game a lot, and it was still hard on easy, certainly you werent going to see the end levels on your first few goes, going on easy helped you learn the game.

Aside from Street Fighter 4, I cant remember the last game I actually upped the difficulty on. I guess part of this is because I return to so few games, but I think that experience has also taught me that 'hard' in a game is less an increased test of your skill, and more about the enemies becoming flawless. You end up having to play cheap to get through sections, or at least that's how I remember it.

So what do you lot play on, and do you feel like you should push yourself more?

[Jimboxy]

I also tend to leave games on there default settings now a days.

When i played bioshock i put that on easy instead of normal, and in a way it sort of ruined it. The Big Daddies are much easier and you don't need to think tactically about killing them.

At the time, i made the choice because i could never play FPS's on consoles, i'd never forced myself to get to grips with the second stick, so making the game as easy as possible seemed like a sensible route to take. Now i'm pretty nifty with the dual sticks, i probably wouldn't resort to putting it down to easy.

That's the only one that springs to mind off the top of my head.

[dante76]

Hardcore! You know the score!

Easy's not challenging enough , normal is okay. I don't have the time to replay games much so it will go to the highest skill setting possible just to get my moneys worth. Not a big fan of locked difficulty levels.

[Bob]

I play on Normal unless a game is a bit rubbish, then I might stick it on easy just to get it over with. Also if I am playing games that my mum watches I will put it on easy so I'm not repeating sections too often, me dying over and over again isn't exactly the most thrilling thing in the world to watch. Unless you really don't like me I suppose.

It's quite rare that I play games on the harder settings and Achievements have certainly helped to encourage that. Since the 360 came along I have played a lot more games on higher difficulties and mainly enjoyed the challenge. Getting something at the end of it is a real encouragement as well. Before I always felt that it was a bit pointless to play something again on hard, the reward for completing it on normal was obvious. You got to see the end so what was the point in going back on hard? BLOOP! Ah, of course

[spatular]

i think this is an interesting question, i play most games like gears of war, mass effect, uncharted 2, on easy, i'm not entirely sure why i do this, could be limited time, and i get annoyed easily if i have to repeat sections of a game. i tried one level of cod2 on veteran, the amount of retries it took me to do one tiny section of the level was enough to drive me mental and i really don't gain any enjoyment from it. but i know a lot of people play these games on veteran - they wouldn't do it if they wern't having fun surely? so there must be some fun in there somewhere its just i don't see it. (edit - achievements have been mentioned - i don't care that much about them, although they can add to a game, i don't think they'd encourage me to play on a harder difficulty)

but other stuff like rhythm action games i often play on harder modes, because i enjoy the manicness of it, and if you mess up a little you don't have to repeat the whole thing you can just carry on. reapeating short games to get better/more points doesn't annoy me but reapeating small sections in long games really does for some reason, maybe because of time constraints.

when doing reviews Ben, do you mention the other difficulty settings? just wondered as obviously you wouldn't play through the game on each difficulty, if you thought it was too easy/hard on normal, but there was loads of different difficulty settings then it's likely the player can find a good difficulty for them, but if there are no options for it then that's rubbish. i'd like all games to have lots of difficulty levels but i guess it's not practical as getting the balancing right through all the difficulties will be hard.

also difficulties are subjective as different people are better at different types of games, i wish turn based RPG's had more extremely easy modes because for example i couldn't get past the a fight really early on in skies of arcadia, but thought pgr3 was spoiled to some degree by not being hard enough on the hardest difficulty.

so yeah, i need to stop rambling, to answer the question i only push myself when i still find it fun.

[hinn888]

I play on normal and work my way up, sometimes i start on the hardest difficulty but thats not often.

Achievements do play a massive part of this of course.

[pickled]

i think this is an interesting question, i play most games like gears of war, mass effect, uncharted 2, on easy, i'm not entirely sure why i do this, could be limited time, and i get annoyed easily if i have to repeat sections of a game. i tried one level of cod2 on veteran, the amount of retries it took me to do one tiny section of the level was enough to drive me mental and i really don't gain any enjoyment from it.

this is pretty much exactly me and games, repeating the same bit over and over utterly takes any enjoyment away, that coupled wiht my general ineptitude at most games means for me it's always on easy mode so i can actually play the game

[Hendo]

Most games I start on Normal and if I like it and it isn't a crazy long length, I'll finish it and start again on the hardest mode. I do this with the Gears and Call of Duty games, and extended it to Halo and Resi 5 but co-op is more advisable if you have the option on the hardest modes. The thought of trying to fight General Raam on Insane mode with an AI partner just gives me nightmares.

Old school shooters like Ikaruga and fighters like Street Fighter, I go for the easiest setting because I'm rubbish at them and I don't want to have to learn tactics and ultra special combos, I just want to see as much of the game as I can.

On Rock Band, I tend to be most comfortable on Hard. Medium is mostly too easy and boring for me and Expert just destroys my fingers.

[CelShadedDreams]

i think this is an interesting question, i play most games like gears of war, mass effect, uncharted 2, on easy, i'm not entirely sure why i do this, could be limited time, and i get annoyed easily if i have to repeat sections of a game. i tried one level of cod2 on veteran, the amount of retries it took me to do one tiny section of the level was enough to drive me mental and i really don't gain any enjoyment from it.

this is pretty much exactly me and games, repeating the same bit over and over utterly takes any enjoyment away, that coupled wiht my general ineptitude at most games means for me it's always on easy mode so i can actually play the game

I'm the same, there's just no fun in failing. I tend to try the default mode first and if I die early on I take it down to easy.

[Sly Reflex]

I normally go for the default setting, unless I'm not enjoying and then the fecker gets turned down. However, if I am enjoying a game or playing in co-op, the setting goes up a notch or to the top if we really like it.

[HandsomeDead]

I'm a default difficulty type of guy, if I am struggling I have no shame bumping it down but I can't remember the last time I had to do that. If I do like a game though I may try the hard modes. Thats it really.

[Bob]

There's just no fun in failing.

Of course not. The fun comes when you finally crush that game and it's puny challenges!

[TopGunKnacker]

normal first time through, unless its a fighting game. id crank it up to hard for fun on certain other games, great example being Doom or Halo - so much more fun on harder difficulties - but now i almost always do as theres usually an achievement for it.

[retroed]

i think this is an interesting question, i play most games like gears of war, mass effect, uncharted 2, on easy, i'm not entirely sure why i do this, could be limited time, and i get annoyed easily if i have to repeat sections of a game. i tried one level of cod2 on veteran, the amount of retries it took me to do one tiny section of the level was enough to drive me mental and i really don't gain any enjoyment from it.

this is pretty much exactly me and games, repeating the same bit over and over utterly takes any enjoyment away, that coupled wiht my general ineptitude at most games means for me it's always on easy mode so i can actually play the game

I'm the same, there's just no fun in failing. I tend to try the default mode first and if I die early on I take it down to easy.

I concur with the above. I tend to start on Normal, but if a game gets frustrating or I feel I'm being taken out of the story to concentrate too much on not dying, then I'll knock it down to Easy. I like that a lot of games allow you to adjust your difficulty part way through a game, I do miss the option when it's not there. There's been a few games I've played on Hard from the start, Blood on the Sand and Quantum of Solace, and they weren't too bad difficulty wise.

[DANGERMAN]

when doing reviews Ben, do you mention the other difficulty settings? just wondered as obviously you wouldn't play through the game on each difficulty, if you thought it was too easy/hard on normal, but there was loads of different difficulty settings then it's likely the player can find a good difficulty for them, but if there are no options for it then that's rubbish. i'd like all games to have lots of difficulty levels but i guess it's not practical as getting the balancing right through all the difficulties will be hard.

I remember writing a couple of reviews where I've specifically mentioned the difficulty, or replayed parts/the game on a harder difficulty. Cant find which reviews they are though (Trion Cube was one I think). There was one that was way too easy, I tore through it on normal, then played it on hard writing that it should probably be played on hard by anyone that plays games regularly. I'm not the worlds greatest gamer, I'm decent enough I'd think, so if a game is too hard (and its a genre i play enough) or too easy then its worth mentioning

As an aside, I'm surprised how many people play on easy, or will go to easy. But I'm glad that they're prepared to and theres none of the macho bullshit you see elsewhere

[dante76]

Pfft....

You kids have it easy these days, what with your checkpoints and multiple saves. In my day we had to start from the beginning, and Dizzy was a fucker, falling in water and dying like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say.

Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[illdog]

Pfft....

You kids have it easy these days, what with your checkpoints and multiple saves. In my day we had to start from the beginning, and Dizzy was a fucker, falling in water and dying like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say.

Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

If you did all that from memory then thats slightly diturbing though.

The difficulty i play games on is entirely dependant on the game. Its not like it used to be either, these days you can have four or five (or more) difficultys, you have your Easy, Medium, Harcore, Insanity sort of thing. Gears/Halo get played on the Hardcore type setting, one down form the toughest. I tend to find in FPS's that if its too easy i just wade into the middle of a room and stand there untill everyones dead, running up to the strays and shotgunning them to the face regardless of my health bar. Tactics seem to go out of the window and i get bored easily. Up the difficulty to this Harcore type setting and tactics are forced on you becasue you can only take 3 or 4 shots before your bleeding out on the floor. This encourages me to use cover and grenades, to retreat or try to flank and separate the enemy. Also when your done you feel like a big man.

Beat em ups i tend to start on Normal but then crank it down to Easy to practice my moves with less resistance from the CPU. Then you just increase the difficulty the better you get. I still find Beat Em Ups far too hard on their hardest difficulty settings, im just not that good at them.

Platform games i tend to start on the hardest difficulty setting. Ive been doing platform/action games most of my life and i find these sorts of games the easiest so just to get my moneys worth i always put them on hard.

The rest of the time im a default man, im not one to dumb down a game and start again on an easier difficulty setting and even though im a very angry gamer i have a high level of perseverence and will sit down and do the same bit for hours if needed bacause i refuse to let the stupid game beat me.

I love the difficulty's on Music games, i remember finding Guitar Hero so tough on Medium when i first started. After I completed Normal and went back to beat my score on some of the earlier tracks i found I could five start them with not much trouble. Then on to Hard with the Orange button to overcome but once you got used to that it was only the hammer on/off which i still cant do in quick succession.

[CelShadedDreams]

I'm wishing I played Bayonetta on easy mode now. I'm right near the end and I'm finding it really tough. I just keep dying while fighting stupid repeated bosses. I loved this game when I started playing it but now I hate it, it's just making me angry and I'm not having any fun anymore. I'm too far in to start over on easy mode and I jusy can't be bothered to finish this if each level is a real struggle to get through like the last two.

[DANGERMAN]

that game does fall apart a bit at the end. I suggest returning to the early few levels, stock up on orbs or whatever they are (and red fragments to make your own health), at least that way you can buy stuff, heal, and maybe level up a bit

[HandsomeDead]

I can't say first hand but I've read that Bayonetta isn't that easy on easy. I don't think you take less damage or anything, on easy it has an auto combo system where you just mash buttons and complex combos happen, it might help you deal out more damage so it might work, the lack of control may be a problem.

You can only try first hand.

That reminds me, I must get back to my hard play through on that, I'm probably rusty as hell already.