Difficult or Cheap?
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CoD1, in the early missions in St. Mere-Eglise or whatever, when the rest of the paratroopers land and you have to run across a field raked by artillery fire. Nothing says "pwnt" like running straight into a shell explosion. Then later, when you've taken the town and the tank shows up, where you need to run about a hundred feet (estimated) to a Panzerfaust, little or no cover to speak of, German soldiers coming out the wazoo and the bloody tank machine-gunning the road. Took me a good few tries before I dodged enough bullets to make it to the church, then assumed the game was realistic enough for a Panzerfaust to act the way it's supposed to so I aimed above the tank to compensate for range. Of course, it works like a rocket launcher instead of a ballistic grenade - that's what I call a "dick move" in the face of people who actually know shit about WWII-era weapons beyond the Thompson and MP40.
And then there was that bloody Russian level. The first one, that Wikipedia says is similar to Enemy at the Gates, where all you get is one clip and no rifle, and you can't pick up dead guys' rifles. While I do agree that that has a sense of realism, since you're supposed to be some peasant fresh off the fields of Outer Bass-Ackwardistan and not Tommy Testosterone Tits shooting all the machinegunners on the ridge with sniper-like aim, but the intensity of the artillery barrage just sucked Bawls(tm). It took me at least six tries just to get up to the wall with the sniper behind it, and even then I had only a glimmer of health left over.
Second Soviet mission sucks as well, I tend to hang back and pick up every rifle in sight, but apparently the commissars think that trying to fight worth a damn is high treason and shoot me in the back, or I just get hit by stray fire from a friendly machinegunner, I could never tell.
Or in Homeworld 2, the mission where you have to fight the Movers while the Mothership is out of control - those things are bloody impossible to kill. In the end I went back and started the mission with a full complement of Interceptors, Flak and Torpedo Frigates, and the bleeders STILL took out roughly 80% of my forces within the first two minutes.
And then there was that bloody Russian level. The first one, that Wikipedia says is similar to Enemy at the Gates, where all you get is one clip and no rifle, and you can't pick up dead guys' rifles. While I do agree that that has a sense of realism, since you're supposed to be some peasant fresh off the fields of Outer Bass-Ackwardistan and not Tommy Testosterone Tits shooting all the machinegunners on the ridge with sniper-like aim, but the intensity of the artillery barrage just sucked Bawls(tm). It took me at least six tries just to get up to the wall with the sniper behind it, and even then I had only a glimmer of health left over.
Second Soviet mission sucks as well, I tend to hang back and pick up every rifle in sight, but apparently the commissars think that trying to fight worth a damn is high treason and shoot me in the back, or I just get hit by stray fire from a friendly machinegunner, I could never tell.
Or in Homeworld 2, the mission where you have to fight the Movers while the Mothership is out of control - those things are bloody impossible to kill. In the end I went back and started the mission with a full complement of Interceptors, Flak and Torpedo Frigates, and the bleeders STILL took out roughly 80% of my forces within the first two minutes.
Impenetrable front armor in any game makes me instantly mad.
For me Army of Two started this trend, although it was forgivable once I noticed that a shotgun blast to the chest is enough to drop anyone in that otherwise invulnerable armor to the ground. And once on the ground anyone is a quick kill.
The newest experience on this front happened today, when I played through the 4th Story in Dead Space. There was this heavily armored, hulking, monstrosity that just kept charging me and everything I fired at the thing bounced off harmlessly. After a reload I noticed that I could shoot the things arms off and use stasis to get behind the bugger.
Still, cheap tricks like nearly invulnerable front armor piss me off to no end.
For me Army of Two started this trend, although it was forgivable once I noticed that a shotgun blast to the chest is enough to drop anyone in that otherwise invulnerable armor to the ground. And once on the ground anyone is a quick kill.
The newest experience on this front happened today, when I played through the 4th Story in Dead Space. There was this heavily armored, hulking, monstrosity that just kept charging me and everything I fired at the thing bounced off harmlessly. After a reload I noticed that I could shoot the things arms off and use stasis to get behind the bugger.
Still, cheap tricks like nearly invulnerable front armor piss me off to no end.
Yes, this is the ultimate dick move of difficulty levels and it should be lambasted whenever spotted.Killerbunny001 said:
Up the difficulty, and enemies absorb more hits, and you absorb less. No AI change at all.
Trying to get the International A lisence on Gran Turismo 2 made me cry.
The trial and error gameplay of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the PC: Walk down street get killed reload, Sneak down street get killed reload, crawl down another street get killed trade in game.
The trial and error gameplay of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the PC: Walk down street get killed reload, Sneak down street get killed reload, crawl down another street get killed trade in game.
That has me laughing till now.buy teh haloz said:
Mario Kart. Sure, the game is fun as any, but occasionally I become so infuriated because despite my driving near-perfect laps and going faster each lap, the rubber-band AI launches a blue shell at the last instant, and I come in second place by .2 seconds.
Of course, the reverse applies: I occasionally luck out and am able to win from being in the last position simply because the rubber band AI relaxes and I get all the nice power-ups.
"Difficult" is when the skills you've been learning are suddenly tested at a much higher level, or when you are forced to think outside the box and use your skills in a different way.
"Cheap" is when they didn't teach you the skills beforehand, or the capabilities of supposedly similar characters are skewed to an unrealistic degree, or if there is no way to avoid a bad situation.
Gears of War (on Insane or Horde) is Difficult because it tests your co-op skills. It would be Cheap in a single-player game because the enemies can take hilarious amounts of damage.
Braid is Difficult but never Cheap.
Final Fantasy Tactics (as described above) is Cheap because the skill it tests - fighting solo - is a bad strategy for the rest of the game, and you have no warning it will occur. By contrast, the action-RPG Silver has a similar "solo versus the boss!" moment that is Difficult, because the game has prepared you with easier solo sections beforehand.
There is a fine line to walk here - Devil May Cry 4 is Difficult because you still have answers to every question, but Ninja Gaiden 2 is Cheap because you are not given enough answers, and Devil May Cry 3 is Cheap because your answers are taken away on a slippery slope so that learning from your mistakes is too difficult.
Sometimes, you can fix a problem with a simple tutorial or short message. Supreme Commander is often criticized for its expanding, multi-part missions, which unveil a new enemy threat from a different direction every time you complete an objective. If you play defensively, they are not objectively difficult, but the player feels betrayed because they had no warning the enemy would pounce on them. A quick heads-up over the intercom saying, "We have word of enemy forces to the north" when you are 75% done with an objective would work wonders.
"Cheap" is when they didn't teach you the skills beforehand, or the capabilities of supposedly similar characters are skewed to an unrealistic degree, or if there is no way to avoid a bad situation.
Gears of War (on Insane or Horde) is Difficult because it tests your co-op skills. It would be Cheap in a single-player game because the enemies can take hilarious amounts of damage.
Braid is Difficult but never Cheap.
Final Fantasy Tactics (as described above) is Cheap because the skill it tests - fighting solo - is a bad strategy for the rest of the game, and you have no warning it will occur. By contrast, the action-RPG Silver has a similar "solo versus the boss!" moment that is Difficult, because the game has prepared you with easier solo sections beforehand.
There is a fine line to walk here - Devil May Cry 4 is Difficult because you still have answers to every question, but Ninja Gaiden 2 is Cheap because you are not given enough answers, and Devil May Cry 3 is Cheap because your answers are taken away on a slippery slope so that learning from your mistakes is too difficult.
Sometimes, you can fix a problem with a simple tutorial or short message. Supreme Commander is often criticized for its expanding, multi-part missions, which unveil a new enemy threat from a different direction every time you complete an objective. If you play defensively, they are not objectively difficult, but the player feels betrayed because they had no warning the enemy would pounce on them. A quick heads-up over the intercom saying, "We have word of enemy forces to the north" when you are 75% done with an objective would work wonders.
More like USED to be, I remember playing Halo 1 and 2 on Legendary and my friend and I could just barely pull it off. Halo 3 they dumb-ed down so much I beat it by myself on legendary. Sure there's the occasional 1 shot sniper bullet, but it was pretty easy.Avida said:
Fight Night Round three had an impossible learning curve. It went from your first few fights against mediocre opponents to extremely difficult ones who could knock you out in one round, dodge ever punch you through and some how avoided all of your blocks.
CoD4 hardcore isn't THAT hard really.
Once you know the maps from playing softcore its an easy switch.
Once you know the maps from playing softcore its an easy switch.
When a game will be able to kill you without giving you and chance to defend yourself, or it requires to be cybernetically connected to the machine and playing with your mind to dodge the attack/bullet/sniper/whatever.
