Poll: Are games too easy nowadays?

[Mordekaien]

A little of mine opinion on this topic: I don't think that games are easier than they were in the past- I think of the improved mechanics that these new games have. For instance, in old Medal of Honor (for PS1) , there were stealth missions that failed whenever an enemy found out youre not nazi ideologist. Nowadays, the player usually has a chance to succeed even if he screws up at some point. So the failiure is not so frustrating. What i'm getting at, is that even a hard game ceases to be hard, if the player is give enough resources to battle the obstacles in the games- For example, Painkiller is hell on it's hardest mode, and it shares similarities to DOOM series. There's no cover-based combat, no physics based traps you can lure your enemies into, just you and your gun vs the entire legion of hell. Hell, even first prince of persia would be a piece of cake if you had rewind time spell.
To sum this up; If you have a game that approaches obsacles in more than one way, you can fid a strategy that fits you're playstyle, thus the game becomes a walk in the park for you. Strip the game of it's multi-possibilities, and those games would become more harder.

 

[MGlBlaze]

Games? Easy? Have you seen someone new to games trying to play anything we'd consider standard and easy? It's painful. Then again, that might be more to do with accessibility and the rate of difficulty ramp-up rather than the difficulty itself.

Besides, some games are hard for quite bad reasons. Call of Duty: Black Ops comes to mind on that front. Generally, games also have difficulty levels to try and adapt for different skill levels. Game difficulties themselves can vary quite a bit too; Half-Life 2's hard difficulty is comparatively quite tame and hasstle-free. Not to a newbie by any means, but still; compared to hard (or 'hardened') on CoD: Black Ops, HL2's hard is a cakewalk.

It depends on who you're asking and on the game itself. It's also hard to make a game difficult without it being just plain unfair. I think Demon's Souls is one of the few games that got it right.

 

[The Rockerfly]

Try I wanna be that guy
Demons souls
Guitar Hero Metallica Expert + on all instruments
COD4 MW
Super Meat Boy
Halo 3 on veteran, if you think that isn't hard enough put on some skulls
Ninja Gaiden 2

I await your bleeding hands, tears of frustration and screams. These games will make you hurt

 

[TheOtherDaniel]

There's certainly a trend to making games that are fun by being immersive, or having a great narrative (which is great) or visually more appealing than the old 8-bit days (which is not necessarilly good). But are they too easy? Much as I'd like to say that a game that's too easy won't hold someone's attention, there are too many Farmville players that make me wrong....

 

[Dragonforce525]

I don't think games have gotten easier, they've just evolved. Controls are smoother so there's less jumping into death pits, graphics are better so enemies can't blend into their environments as much, and because 99% of games allow you to move in 3 dimensions you don't find yourself being cornered by enemies as much, if you're ever in too deep you can run away and have a breather. Also it doesn't help that alot of games have regenerating health.

But one thing I do enjoy is the death of the cheat, I remember a time when every game had to have cheat codes, they were as standard as the health bar.

My point is I don't think games are easier, just the perks games come with allow you to make it easier, I think you'll find that if we took away all the things that make "next gen games" next gen games, we'd wind up making mega drive/PS1 games.

 

[Zorg Machine]

do not pray for easy games my friends. pray to be better gamers.
-JFK
Games that are frustratingly hard usually don't sell well. therefore, hard games are harder to come by.
There are still many hard games out there. play super meat boy if you're not convinced.

 

[DevilWolf47]

Undoubtedly. I haven't bought an RPG that provided more than one tricky puzzle or required an advanced level of strategy since the GBA. Nowadays when people release a game with an E to T rating they think they have to dumb out down for the child gamers. That's what the EC rating is for you fucking idiots. Give us a challenge in the games we play on the go that doesn't involve making an ass out of yourself with the DS microphone, would you kindly?

 

[jcallen]

I find games far to easy now. I can beat a "10 hour game" in six. But last gen games seemed much harder to me.

 

[MrhalfAwake]

My problem isn't in regards to difficulty but they do hold your hand now way more than they should from a mechanical standpoint.

Far to many on screen prompts telling you when you can interact with someone or counter this and that attack, Gamers today barely have to stop and think what they're dong and how to do it because the game practically spells out every action you can take for you

 

[pyrosaw]

Obviously, you haven't played enough "I Wanna Be the Guy".

 

[Gameslayer_93]

There were easy games back in the day. The Super Mario series was a cake walk, so were the Kirby games, Silkworm, Gradius, Life force, Legend of Zelda and so on.

There are easy games now. Some of the games I like, Boy and His Blob, New Super Mario Bros, Other M, Boom Blox, Tekken, Street Fighter IV, Tatsunoku Vs Capcom, Mega Man 9,Resident Evil 4 and 5, BlazBlue, even God of War, are not difficult games. I have a medium skill in video games and I find the games above easy.

have you played tekken 5 or 6? cos Jinpachi and Azazel are 2 of the hardest enemies ive faced in a long time

 

[malestrithe]

There were easy games back in the day. The Super Mario series was a cake walk, so were the Kirby games, Silkworm, Gradius, Life force, Legend of Zelda and so on.

There are easy games now. Some of the games I like, Boy and His Blob, New Super Mario Bros, Other M, Boom Blox, Tekken, Street Fighter IV, Tatsunoku Vs Capcom, Mega Man 9, Resident Evil 4 and 5, BlazBlue, even God of War, are not difficult games. I have a medium skill in video games and I find the games above easy.

have you played tekken 5 or 6? cos Jinpachi and Azazel are 2 of the hardest enemies ive faced in a long time

Yes and Yes. With the amount of money I've put into the the Tekken series over the last 15 years, the games are not difficult for me anymore. I think I've purchased a brand new machine at least once or twice.

In the arcades, I beat Jinpachi every time. At home, Jinpachi would win more often than me, but his advantage ended when I got me a arcade controller.

I beat Azazel every time, with or without my official fight stick. It's about being aggressive and knowing when to duck.

 

[ssgt splatter]

No, not really.
There are times when I'm playing Black Ops were I swear the difficulty is higher than I selected. The new A.I. in "Blops" makes it a decent challenge even on recruit. I'm almost afraid of going for the difficulty achievements for fear of breaking my controller in frustration.