Poll: Difficulty of Games, too hard?

[s0p0g]

i think if you even found ME2 on normal setting rather hard, you're just not a shooter-person (i am by no means saying you should stop playing those; i rather say that there are things you're good at, and there are things you're bad at. i for example suck at micro-heavy strategy games. and LoL. but i still like playing them from time to time. i am far better at 1st & 3rd person shooters; it's the other way 'round with (for? proper preposition?) most of my friends)

the only challenging shooter recently released is Hard Reset (damn it felt good to play a decent shooter for a change ^^ )
aah, love it <3

 

[anthony87]

Step 1: Play a game from today.

Step 2: Play a game from 10 years ago.

Follow the above steps and you will notice a clear decline in difficulty in the games nowadays.

No, a number of games appear to be aimed at complete morons. Hitman: Absolution is set to allow you to see the exact route a guard will walk along, and where he will stop, meaning all you have to do is move out of the way. And they demoed this at a point where another guard had gone "hey, look over there," and fucking pointed to where the guy was going anyway! Likewise, Crysis 2 has a visor mode that reads like a fucking design document for every single area you enter.

I wonder though if that's not the game's being easy, but the designers just giving you way too much help.

Please tell me you're over-exaggerating that Hitman example.....please?

 

[Vibhor]

Too easy I would say. I was playing Ass Creed when I realized it. No I don't care about retro bullshit but at least don't add some friggin overpowered move so that one can spam it into oblivon. Also regenerating health makes the game much more easier than tactical these days. Especially the "Bloody screen so real" effect that is in almost every shooter.

 

[Harley Duke]

I played through BioShock (okay maybe this one isn't so recent but it serves the point well) on the hardest difficulty setting they made available to me and I don't think I died more than twice.

To this day, I STILL cannot beat Sonic the Hedgehog 2 without cheating.

You decide.

 

[oppp7]

Games have gotten less BS. Instead of having to restart the entire game when you fail 3 times you get to retry as much as you want. I don't get why people complain about this or fail to make the distinction.

Note that there probably are examples that are exceptions, as with everything.

 

[Woodsey]

Step 1: Play a game from today.

Step 2: Play a game from 10 years ago.

Follow the above steps and you will notice a clear decline in difficulty in the games nowadays.

No, a number of games appear to be aimed at complete morons. Hitman: Absolution is set to allow you to see the exact route a guard will walk along, and where he will stop, meaning all you have to do is move out of the way. And they demoed this at a point where another guard had gone "hey, look over there," and fucking pointed to where the guy was going anyway! Likewise, Crysis 2 has a visor mode that reads like a fucking design document for every single area you enter.

I wonder though if that's not the game's being easy, but the designers just giving you way too much help.

Please tell me you're over-exaggerating that Hitman example.....please?

Go from 2 minutes; it lets him see through walls too. Oh, and I believe they've removed the tactical map. You know, that one that did kind of the same thing but still required you to possess more than 5 brain cells.

 

[Zarmi]

Not hard enough at ALL. The difficulty slider itself just seems pointless. Personally it's been years since a game I set to "Hard" was anywhere near hard. It seems to me that today games need to hold your hands, and teach you how to do stuff, so you don't screw up and start crying. Hard games simply teaches you how to be better at gaming, and I sincerely miss that.

In b4 someone going: BUT DURK SULZ IS VRY HARD HURR. No, it isn't. It's simple trial and error that barely punishes error. It's not hard.

 

[hazabaza1]

Even the whole "difficulty levels" thing seems a bit pointless because most games are really easy nowadays. You'll get the occasional arse kicking on normal from say, Bayonetta, but these games are few and far between.

 

[monkey_man]

I have a few comments and question regarding difficulty. Just to give a bit of context I have been playing games wince I was about five year old when I had the original Pokemon Red and Tetris for the Gameboy and Sonic and Tails for the Sega Genesis. At that age I could not get past the Green Hill Zone in Sonic or even finish a simple game of Tetris. I eventually grew out of that phase but my first PC game was MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries, which I only beat that game because there is an invincibility toggle right in the options menu. Eventually I got a PS2 mainly because I fell in love with the Ratchet & Clank series, and despite some difficulties along the way I beat them on my own.

Now a days I play a lot of action games including First and Third Person shooters, along with other action games such as Assassin's Creed, God of War () along with some Real Time Strategy games such as Starcraft 2 and Dawn of War 2. Most of the time, if not all the time I have to set the game to Easy difficulty, and on a lot of games I start on normal and eventually switch to Easy or else I won?t be able to finish the game, one such example was Bulletstorm. Other game where I just got tired of dying so often that I turned the difficulty to easy include Space Marine (and I have not played very much of it), Crysis 2, Resistance 3, all Call of Duty games. I went back and started another play through of Mass Effect 2 on Normal and also find it rather hard. There are some games I haven?t been able to finish even on easy including Crysis, the Killzone series and Company of Heroes, not to mention Armored Core games. I also gave up on a lot of Racing games single player campaigns, which include Motorstorm, Blur, and Split/Second.

My question is why? Most of my friends play these game on normal, hard, or even harder. Have I missed something along my gaming life because I have been playing games for as long and as often as they have. Have I made myself a worse player by just playing on easy? Is because I play a great variety of genres and not focus on one and get better at it? Or is it the fault of the games and developers? What do i need to do to get better? What are your opinions of game difficulty now a days? Also, I will not be picking up Dark Souls.

It seems like you are quite bad, if you can't finish a game on a harder difficulty. Are you perhaps an aggressive rusher? Or someone with a terrible aim? Try pushing your limits until you reach your absolute maximum. Set some goals for yourself.

I often find games a bit easy, even on harder modes. But That's mostly because I game a lot. I remember getting my ass handed to me in quite a lot of games, at the point of frustration. So I quit them for a while and returned later, strolling through them (more)easily. I also disprove of using easier modes myself.

 

[Koroviev]

Most games, even on the hardest difficulty, are too easy. Only fake difficulty, for the most part - Which is easy to overcome because it relies on the exact same system as before.

If I recall correctly, Mass Effect 2's difficulty doesn't scale very well. Following completion on normal difficulty, I played it on Hardcore and discovered that a small group of even the most basic mechs could take obscene amounts of damage.

Too easy I would say. I was playing Ass Creed when I realized it. No I don't care about retro bullshit but at least don't add some friggin overpowered move so that one can spam it into oblivon. Also regenerating health makes the game much more easier than tactical these days. Especially the "Bloody screen so real" effect that is in almost every shooter.

This is why I'm having such a great time with Resistance 3. One actually has to learn the levels and remember where the health and ammo are located. Moreover, one has to actually survive getting there. Unfortunately, it still has the bloody screen effect, which has never made much sense to me. If I'm dying, why on earth would I want some red paint obstructing my view of the health drops? Last time I checked, one's eyes do not fill with blood when one has been shot in some place other than the face.

 

[Master_Fubar23]

Games are way too easy I finished rage on nightmare mode with no problems. Heck Wolfenstiens uber mode was a joke. You name a game and if I played it I beat it on the hardest difficulty. Sure there are some games that are a challenge and I love that but I hate how retro games pose that "difficulty". Currently, I'm playing dark souls and I love it. Although it?s not hard in the sense omg I just can't beat this guy. Its only difficultly comes from your lack of knowledge. I enter an area and get beat to a pulp by some abominations but after I learn their attacks and moves I can easily defeat them. I love games that are difficult but not impossible or near impossible like some fighting games end boss that does a stupid "omg I'm going to rape your face" move that kills you at the start.

 

[Mr Thin]

If you mean modern games, they have been getting constantly, consistently easier for a long time now. It's getting to the point where you can't lose; where games refuse to let you die, and if you fail often enough, they'll just let you skip that bit and go on ahead.

If you mean games in general, and you've been playing games your entire life yet still find them hard on standard difficulties, then you're probably just plain bad at them.

 

[Koroviev]

I have a few comments and question regarding difficulty. Just to give a bit of context I have been playing games wince I was about five year old when I had the original Pokemon Red and Tetris for the Gameboy and Sonic and Tails for the Sega Genesis. At that age I could not get past the Green Hill Zone in Sonic or even finish a simple game of Tetris. I eventually grew out of that phase but my first PC game was MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries, which I only beat that game because there is an invincibility toggle right in the options menu. Eventually I got a PS2 mainly because I fell in love with the Ratchet & Clank series, and despite some difficulties along the way I beat them on my own.

Now a days I play a lot of action games including First and Third Person shooters, along with other action games such as Assassin's Creed, God of War () along with some Real Time Strategy games such as Starcraft 2 and Dawn of War 2. Most of the time, if not all the time I have to set the game to Easy difficulty, and on a lot of games I start on normal and eventually switch to Easy or else I won?t be able to finish the game, one such example was Bulletstorm. Other game where I just got tired of dying so often that I turned the difficulty to easy include Space Marine (and I have not played very much of it), Crysis 2, Resistance 3, all Call of Duty games. I went back and started another play through of Mass Effect 2 on Normal and also find it rather hard. There are some games I haven?t been able to finish even on easy including Crysis, the Killzone series and Company of Heroes, not to mention Armored Core games. I also gave up on a lot of Racing games single player campaigns, which include Motorstorm, Blur, and Split/Second.

My question is why? Most of my friends play these game on normal, hard, or even harder. Have I missed something along my gaming life because I have been playing games for as long and as often as they have. Have I made myself a worse player by just playing on easy? Is because I play a great variety of genres and not focus on one and get better at it? Or is it the fault of the games and developers? What do i need to do to get better? What are your opinions of game difficulty now a days? Also, I will not be picking up Dark Souls.

It seems like you are quite bad, if you can't finish a game on a harder difficulty. Are you perhaps an aggressive rusher? Or someone with a terrible aim? Try pushing your limits until you reach your absolute maximum. Set some goals for yourself.

I often find games a bit easy, even on harder modes. But That's mostly because I game a lot. I remember getting my ass handed to me in quite a lot of games, at the point of frustration. So I quit them for a while and returned later, strolling through them (more)easily. I also disprove of using easier modes myself.

Aggressive rushing is certainly a common cause of failure. It's the main reason I lose matches in Tekken 6. I have to remind myself to stay calm, block consistently, and keep scanning for an opening. Not only does it aid in victory, but it also just looks better. Spamming the punch buttons is only conducive to short-lived, not to mention graceless, wins.

 

[Something Amyss]

I used to consider a game easy if someone of my skill level could actually beat it without help or a large amount of practice.

Now I consider a game comparatively hard if it stops holding my hand long enough for me to fail or succeed on my own.

So in short, I think games are generally too easy, and "normal" modes rarely do it for me. If there's a hard difficulty, great, but a lot of them are too easy, too.

 

[Worgen]

The only game I have had to play on easy was heroes of might and magic 5 and that is because it is potentially really really damn hard (like take 3 hours playing a level then find out the enemy hero is just too powerful to kill hard, usually I enjoy a game the most on hard mode.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Also; CoD Veteran mode is pure bullshit. I can drop any boss in Demon's Souls; however, I can't defeat a single fuckin' level do to respawning enemies. Which is bullshit.

They aren't really related at all so I do not see the problem with you being good at one but not the other.

I can be beat the hardest settings in a lot of genres(Action[Ninja Gaiden style], shooters, platformers, retro, etc) does that mean I am grat at rhythm, racing and sports games? No I am not exclude trick style sports games and driving games like Mario cart where I am passable. Just because I can do Halos or CoDs on the hardest setting doesn't mean I should and can be able to do Through the Fire and Flames on the hardest settings.

OT: No games are certainly not too hard. I am glad that we don't have forced Nintendo hard but they have gotten too soft. This is why there are supposed to be difficulty settings and stuff like FFXIII's 5 star rating(not the best example but you know the system I mean) but even they are too easy now. When I put something on the hardest setting I should want to snap screen in half at some point due to genuine difficulty and not bad design which has become lost in recent years.

 

[Shymer]

Have I missed something along my gaming life because I have been playing games for as long and as often as they have. Have I made myself a worse player by just playing on easy? Is because I play a great variety of genres and not focus on one and get better at it? Or is it the fault of the games and developers? What do i need to do to get better? What are your opinions of game difficulty now a days? Also, I will not be picking up Dark Souls.

Games vary in difficulty and how much skill versus luck is involved in winning. Players vary in their skill. People improve with practise, but everyone has their limits.

If you play a game on easy, then, usually, you can make mistakes and not be punished for them. This means less learning - or worse - getting into habits that would otherwise get you killed on higher difficulty levels. This says nothing about how good a player you are - you've just got used to a particular way of playing.

I played Gears of War on easy and, really, taking cover is optional. Crank it up to Hardcore, and my 'normal' play style suddenly gets me killed often and progress stalls. I have to learn a new approach - experiment and struggle. The feeling of achievement you can get from successfully working out new techniques and mastering them is very positive and one reason I like gaming.

However - sometimes I am not after a challenge from my games. I want to relax and enjoy the feeling of mastery. In this case 'easy' is the right choice. All you need is confidence that the goal is your enjoyment - not some arbitrary measurement of how 'good' a gamer you are.

 

[Firstmark_Bannor]

Even retro games were pretty easy for me, Hell I don't even play Starcraft 2 and have finished some of the hard mode single player missions. My biggest problem and a big reason I just don't play as many new games as I used to is that they are too easy. I find my self replaying old titles to find a challenge. It has become the default setting for me to swap to hard mode right at the beginning of a new game. Consider that i rent most games because it takes less than a day for me to finish them. I rented Killzone 2 and Resistance 2 and finished them both in the same 5 hour sitting. I don't know that I died on ether game. Ninja Gaiden was refreshing with it's high difficulty curve but IMO still too easy. I've played Demons Souls and found it was not the impenetrable wall of difficulty so many claimed it was, which rather severely depressed me. I had such high hopes for that game.

OT- Not to be rude, but yes you have been hurting yourself playing on easy. Normal should always be as low as your willing to go on difficulty. Easy mode just sets you up for tactics that don't work on normal or hard modes. Turn up your difficulty and practice.