Have videogames become more challenging?

[3rdnode]

I remember in the good ol megadrive days when I could get a game and have it completey licked in a few weeks. Now a days I dare not play any of the games on hard. Mabey I am getting old (22) and my reflexes are getting slower(unlikely).

What do you think?

[Che Musashi]

I'm 29 and I'd have to say yes. I think on some games Normal is hard and easy is normal. On other games the AI is retarded. I think it has to do with the processing power of the current machines.

[Pikman]

I'm of the opposite opinion.

I believe the new breed of games are difficult to get to grips with but easy to master, and thus easy to complete.

Ofcouse there are exceptions to the rule (Super Monkey Ball, Ikaruga and F-Zero GX to name but a few) but with increasing frequency modern videogames surrender their final level all too easily.

[3rdnode]

I thought that part of the problem for a bit of an old skooler is that the control system of the 16 bit days was quite complete as in you had all of the stuff you needed under your fingers at one instant. Nowadays (I sound like such an old man) the controls are a lot more fiddly but the player game interaction is more complicated.

A lot of my time is spent being a bit cheesed of at how the controls cant quite do what I want them to. FPS console games being one of the main examples.

[dataDave]

As of late most games I play are piss easy. With the exceptions being Perfect Dark", Majora's Mask, Ikaruga and F-Zero GX. Those are the only games that have had me swearing at the TV.

Donkey Kong Country 2 was intense at later points, especially the lost world levels. It felt like you were playing G+G after so many trys. I remember Pilot Wings being a tough number to clock back in the day.

Art of Fighting 2 was extreme up until you worked out the attack patterns of the weak opposition AI - then it became as easy as reading a Mr. Men book. Still a great 2player game though.

I'd say I'm better at games now though compared to say 10/12 years ago. I know I'd whip my younger ass at SF that's for sure.

[DeanLinkHaila]

Hmmm I can't help but feel games now are much easier. Take Zelda windwaker for example, I completed it with in 4 days whilst oot took me 3 years.*


* No it did. Simply because i traded it in then bought it again.

Any way the fact that i completed the windwaker in 4 days makes me a good gamer doesn't it? YES?... Yes? ... oh

[dataDave]

Ocarina took me 5 days

Majora took me 4 days (a lot more thinking here though)

Perfect Dark took me 6 months (to complete everything on PA and complete all 30 challenges)

F-Zero GX took me 6 days (to unlock and complete AX cup - still trying to get 2 of the AX craft without touching an AX cab)

[Streets Of Rage]

i thnk games used to be alot harder, bn playing some of my fave old skool games on MD recently and finding them alot harder than i remembered and ir eckon this is because ive become used to todays easier games!!

[Mr Spew]

Back in the day, due to the lack of being able to "properly" save the game, it was understandable if you could complete the game within 5 or so hours, if that. Or more with codes and whatnot.

But, as things have become more complicated dimension and coding-wise, games have become more frustrating for the player. Due to it being harder to find the correct balance.

As with 3D games, a set balance of difficulty has been hard to attain, that balance is what makes deciding if games are more difficult now or then. As it varies so much.

So, my answer is yes and no...

[TheForce]

I can't say that games are easier or more difficult there days, from the games of yesterday there were some quite difficult games (r-type, Ghost'n'Goblins, ProjectX, F-zero (mastermode) and more....)
but now we also have quite a few difficult games (Ikaruga, F-zeroGX, Halo legendary, Goldeneye, PerfectDark and more..)
The old games are more like trail and error and now we have smarter enemies.

So I say it's now about the same like the old days.

[puyan 0_0]

I think that games generally are easier now then before. It seems that most games concentrate on amazing graphics and less so much on original gameplay.

Also i reckon that games are easier because the main market for gaming isn't for true gamers, but for little kids or people with money that just want to win something.

In saying that though there are a lot more games with original gameplay thinking into it now which are cool. Things like Bishi Bashi, Monkey Ball, Pyvariar, F-Zero, etc etc...

As the consoles these days become more powerful it's also becoming a regularity that it's not really about the gameplay but most of the time more about the story. I kinda found that Metal Gear Solid (SOL) for the ps2 had a interesting (but confusing, yet intreaging) storyline, but not much gameplay i found in my opinon.

[Mayhem]

Ocarina took me 5 days

Majora took me 4 days (a lot more thinking here though)

To just complete the game, or to obtain EVERYTHING?

I believe it took me a week to beat OoT and another week to get all the items (and 100 Skulltulas), and Majora's Mask a similar time frame...

[Stroker Ace]

Games are piss easy nowadays.

The difficulty in modern games typically comes in the form of absurd challenges in order to reach 100% completion (Skulltulas, hidden packages in GTA) - These challenges provide a kind of 'faux' longevity - Forcing you to scour the gaming environment to get those last unlockables through sheer patience rather than skill. With very few exceptions, you'll be hard pressed to find a modern game that's even a fifth as hard as much of the gaming output of the eighties.

The reason is simple: Games are designed to be finished nowadays. typically, games of the eighties were based around 'score attack' style gameplay and were intended to thrash the gamer to within an inch of his or her life in as short a time as possible.

Nowadays, we can fit a fifty hour gaming marathon onto a DVD that you'll ultimately complete. Back then, you'd have a shooter that fits into 48K of memory that you won't ever finish unless you're a gaming colossus.

Games were harder back then because that's where the longevity came from.

As the array of F-Zero GX/Ikaruga/Etc. 'it's too haaaaaarrrrrd' complaints suggest - Modern gamers are soft saps.

[Hail_Il_palazzo]

I think rpg,s are getting easier...all of them after ff6 have been realy easy apart from the sub bosses...And final bosses are becomeing easier...(SPOILERS)
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Even though quite a few of the snes games had easy final bosses...I beat kefka first try and Neo X(ex)-death second try as i wasnt prepared...Zeromus took me quite a few tries until i found a trick...Sephiroth was easy ultimecia was harder..slightly..and necron was poor...Apart from grand cross that was just cheap..Ant then we get to ff10
...YU YEVON! ft: Whats up with that thing...Even the final aeon wasnt too hard on a reasonable level...I found chaos on ff1origins a reasonably hard boss as he can fully heal but after a few goes he dead...



END SPOILERS

I bought skies of arcadia not long ago...i liked the game(Alot) but as with most rpg,s nowadays it was easy...I got game over 3 times...Against the sub bosses which took 2 goes for the hard ones...I havnt tried THAT secret boss yet (The looper)though so i may be wrong...
Overall rpg,s are getting easier

[Wools]

I got Zelda: OOT in 2000 and recently started replaying it on the GC.

I still have not completed it. Thats probally saying more anout my freetime than my gamesplaying skils.

I started gaming when I got my Master System 2 for my birthday when I was very young so I cant compare older games for the commadore 64 and spactrum because ive never played on them. But I belive there isint to much diffrence in difficulty.

And I hope it stays that way as I really enjoy an involving, long, in-depth games such as Deus Ex, Ocarina of time and Virtua Fighter 4 Evo and simpler, quicker games such as Super Monkey Ball, Tony Hawk's 2 and SEGA Bass Fishing

As I could as a kid, I can still blast through Sonic 2 in under an hour