Poll: The difficulty you prefer.

[Kinichie]

"You completed the assault course, your recommended difficulty is Regular. Which difficulty do you want to pick?"

"Veteran"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes"

"Veteran difficulty is very hard, are you sure?"

"Yes"

"The assault course recommended Regular, are you sure you want to pick Veteran"

"YOUR MEDIOCRE FPS WILL BE TOO EASY ON ANYTHING BELOW VETERAN, LET ME PLAY THE DAMN GAME AND STOP ASKING ME IF I CAN MAKE UP MY MIND!"

 

[skittlepie345]

I usually play on normal the first time through, to let me get fully immersed into a game and it's story. The second time through I usually play on easy and focus on finding everything there is to know about the game and it's story, plus unlocking as many achievements as I can. The third time through I play on the hardest difficulty, though at this point I probably won't finish the game for 2-5 months because I mark it as completed/get bored of it.

 

[TraderJimmy]

I'm more of a "Normal" player, but sometimes I feel bad if I don't beat it on super-duper hard mode. How do you play your difficulty?

For me it's:

Easy: for rushing through the campaign and messing about
Normal: first play-through
Hard: not very often, as it's in between normal and super-hard
Impossible: to prove that I have skill (More like extra time on my hands)

Usually Normal. I should've chosen the equiv of "Impossible" on Torchlight though, that game is too damn easy.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

The 2nd hardest generally. The hardest (at least in the past) was where the developers just decide to make the enemies all out cheesy, but the 2nd hardest is doable while being enjoyable, and if I can do it I feel legit.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

Hard if I want a challenge and if I'm familiar with th genre, normal if I'm a newbie

 

[Trivun]

Impossible, because I love a good challenge. However, I usually play games on the easiest setting first. Then the next time I play through them, I'll move up to the next setting, then the next, and each time I replay the game I'll move up until I've completed it on all possible difficulty levels. Then after that I'll just stick to whichever setting I enjoyed the most...

For example, before it was stolen early this year I was halfway through a play through of Gears of War on the third difficulty setting. That said, I haven't played it since getting a replacement from the insurance, purely because I've been too busy trying to finish FFX-2 100% (I only have an Xbox 360 at university, the PS2 belongs to the family and stays home, so I'm trying desperately to finish it this week in between training for my new part-time job and doing jobs around the house while we redecorate...).

 

[McAster]

For most games, ignoring the deep story ones such as Mass Effect, I'll play it on the hardest difficulty level offered for a good period of time to learn how to do it and become decent at it. Then, when I feel I'm solid at it and feel the need for a more casual entertaining run through of the game rather (as some games I do go for the challenge because it's better for it) I restart at one difficulty level below the hardest.

That way I know what I'm doing, I have the game play and controls set into me mind and it's a solid play through at a difficulty level of comfort without being interrupted by "how do I do this" or "I need to learn how these enemies react".