Difficulty modes then

[Zed]

Normal myself too.

I see it that Easy is designed for those a bit challenged in the hand-eye coordination department (massive generalisations incoming!) like old gamers (50+), young gamers (<10) or casual gamers (everyone else thats crap). Normal is for the "average" non-casual competent gamer, this is what the designers aimed for as the challenge level, and should be what you play it as. Hard is for the masocists, or completists. As people have said it rarely adds more to the experience, and often involves tweaking the numbers more than anything else.

Sometimes i might start a game, play a bit and think its too easy, and so restart on hard. Or visa versa on easy. And a rare few games offer an good enough experieance i've replayed on hard because i want that hit again, but know enough more challenge is required. Some offer bonus stuff.

Games i have bothered to (re)play at harder levels this gen are: MGS2 (bonuses), TImeSplitters 2 (maps and objectives changed, bonuses), Armored Core: Silent Line (changes part balance, re-experience), Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance (items), SOCOM (harder, items), Tenchu 3 (items, slight changes to maps), WH40K Firewarrior (masocisim), maybe some others. I didnt bother with Halo, nice to experience it, but i didnt think the storyline changed and its not exceptional in the greater scheme of FPSs.

[MarkyB]

NEVER play anything on easy...

i'd always start off on standard, normal or whatever, then if the game has the playability or i wanna get better on somehting, like a beat em up, then up the difficulty... most beat em ups i never play on anything but the highest level if i know what i'm doing ^_^

[Riskbreaker]

My first run through of a game is always on normal. If the game is worth replaying for added items, bonuses, extra's or simply because it was a great blast first time round, then I'll up the difficulty.

How well I know a game also affects the difficulty setting. Some games simply aren't worth playing again without upping the difficulty. Quake 3, is a real bore unless I play it on Extreme simply because knowing the game so well makes eliminating computer opponents easily with all but the hardest setting. Apart from Xaero that is

Same thing with PN03, knowing the layout of the levels and enemy locations means playing through on normal lacks any challenge. The Papillion suit however, almost turns the game on its head, going from allowing you to take damage, to one hit deaths, making you rethink the way the game is played.

What I love about VF4 Evo at the moment is the way the difficulty varies to suit the player. You can move on to each arcade when you feel you are ready to progress or just stay at the current arcade to work on your game. And there is enough to do at each arcade to keep you occupied, getting 100% completion, fulfilling each quest order, ranking up and collecting prizes. But not so much as to stop the player from wanting to progress to the next 'level'.

You don't have to change a games difficulty to make it harder though. My completing Contra SS, normal difficulty, with A rank and using nearly all my continues is a league away from S rank completion, normal difficulty, without losing a life. And it took long enough to get A rank too

[PeteJ]

If I want to get through something quickly, such as a game which I'm not too fussed about but would like to play most of it anyway, then I'll set it on easy. Most of the time I play on Normal, I think this generation only Halo has been played on anything higher.

I'm not a fan of difficulty levels to be honest, probably the best solution is to only have one difficulty to begin with, then you unlock the next challenge after finishing the game. An ultra-mega difficulty after finishing Halo legendary would have been great for example...

[Saurian]

I always start on normal and go through as best I can to the finish, then reset my data and go back through normal properly (good rankings/scores where it applies) - then I go to hard and ultra-hard if it's there.

[Geoff D]

I play through on normal first - it depends how badly I want to revisit a game as to whether I go through it again at all, let alone on a harder difficulty setting - some games are worth it though.

[Moodmon]

Normal as with everyone else, unless I've been warned in advance that I won't be able to hack normal without throwing the console out the window. The only one I've done that with recently is Viewtiful Joe, and I struggled on easy then. Still, after that, Adult fell like the tart it is.

[TheShend]

I'll play Normal from the off.

On Street Fighter Alpha 2 i would notch up the stars after a particular easy arcade run through. Then slowly change tac to suit.

Halo had Easy, Normal, Hard and Legendary settings. To me that game was such bliss to play that i completed the game on all difficulties to get all the badges. I remember starting a level on Legendary when i first goth the game, just to see what it was like, one raping later, i thought it was insane, unfair and ultimately pointless. And i'd never bother. But after finishing Hard i moved onto Legendary and it wasn't as bad, more a proper challenge for your honed skills, still very difficult, but in a different way. I think, after a while, that the difficulty settings of Halo were more a sort of pure Learning curve. What-a-game.

I'm just starting to play Viewtiful Joe and after completing Kids (with some difficulty in parts ) i think i'm ready for Adult. But the game is so sublime i'll put up with "cut,cut,cut" screen ad infinitum and never tire.

On Qauke 3 for the DC, before going online, i'd train up a few difficulty levels with the CPU, get me in the zone, or, at least a challenge to folk online. Great days.

[dataDave]

Depends on the genre for me.

With 2D shooters I'll start off on normal and then once I finish it I'll progress onto the next difficulty.

With anything retro (SNES/MD) I'll slam it up to the hardest everytime. 8)

With 2D fighters vs. AI I always start off on the hardest. With the exception of SuperX on the DC all the others are piss easy when set to the hardest setting, even the SNK ones. I rarely ever play arcade mode, nearly all of my time is spent fighting a dummy in practice.

You have to admire FPS games like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark", the higher the difficulty the more you're rewarded with heavily extended mission objectives and the like. IMO those games don't properly begin until you start to play on 007 and Perfect Dark difficulties with the enemy aiming and response speed tuned into 'Smith' mode. Pant wettingly difficult - although again, it's all about refining paths and routines until you finally bag it. Some missions are impossible however, and I do mean literally impossible.

[Brighter than Daz]

Depends on the genre for me.



With 2D fighters vs. AI I always start off on the hardest. With the exception of SuperX on the DC all the others are piss easy when set to the hardest setting, even the SNK ones. I rarely ever play arcade mode, nearly all of my time is spent fighting a dummy in practice.

Forgot about Street Fighter, I always turn the speed and difficulty up to max, the game is sooo different.