What difficulty do you games play on?

[Consignia]

Given the choice in a video game, what difficulty do you set it to?

Personally, I almost always leave it as the default, normal. On the one hand, I feel I'm cheating myself by not putting the difficultly up a bit, and just letting myself free-wheel through the experience. On the other, I don't really want to add extra frustration to experience, were there's no real extra challenge, it just makes the game longer without any additional content. There are a couple of games that I will play on the hardest, but they are more the arcadey sort.

I suppose it's always difficult to gauge what difficulty to play on as well. What do "easy", "normal", or "hard" actually mean for a particular game and how does it compare to other games?

[Jerzy Bondov]

I usually go with the default. I like games where you can change the difficulty as you play. If I'm halfway through a game and it's just too hard, I'm not likely to go all the way back to the start to try a lower difficulty level. I'll just stop playing it. I got a little way into the first Mass Effect, wrestling with the controls and generally having a terrible time, before putting it away. When I realised I could drop the difficulty without starting again, I whizzed through the rest of the game and had a lot of fun. It depends on the game; I don't always want a challenge these days. I'm quite happy just to cruise around blowing holes in everything of an evening.

That said, I think Resident Evil 4 did a really good job with its difficulty levels. Easy mode gets fairly frantic at times, so you certainly get the proper Resi4 experience, but it also leaves out a few key bits, so that when you go back through on Normal you're not just doing the same thing except it takes an extra bullet to kill a man. Having to go down into the hedge maze with no idea what was going to be there (

Spoiler alert

a bunch of fucking bastards

[close]

) was a great surprise.

Aside from that, I can think of very few games where I've bothered to go through on more than one difficulty level. Hitman Blood Money and Max Payne, I think. Oh and things like Rock Band, where increasing the difficulty is just part of progressing through the game.

[madhair60]

Depends.  I'll usually stick with normal, and very rarely replay on a higher difficulty, with the exception of Mega Man games which go from good to awesome when you crank up the difficulty.

[Dark Sky]

I'm a wuss and am, quite frankly, terrible at games and get bored easily if they're too difficult.  So I generally drop the difficulty down to Easy.

But sometimes not!

Resident Evil 4 I started playing recently and decided in a fit of bravery to leave it on Normal.  I'm about half way through it, yet I find it so difficult, I have little motivation to go back to it.  Even though I'd love love LOVE to have completed it.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution I left on Normal because it's stealth, and I like stealth games; the Thief games I have to play on Expert now or they're absolutely no fun whatsoever.

[Cerys]

Where I have the option, I play with easy combat and difficult puzzles.  Everywhere else I play with default or easy combat.  This is because I am a wimp.

[Still Not George]

Normal. Unless it's a grand strategy game, in which case Easy, half a playthrough, then Normal (grand strat tutorials are notoriously shite).

[Custard]

Easy

Very Easy, if there's the option

Very Fucking Easy, You Loser, if there were such a thing

And there should be

[biggytitbo]

If there was 'a puppy could play at this setting and still win by randomly snorfing the controller' I'd choose that.

[Big Jack McBastard]

Most I'll leave at the default but certain games I find myself playing a lot like the Halos, yer Gears of Warses the first two Mass Effects, yer Elder Scolls games and shooters where there's a ton of collectables (provided I get 'the obsession' for hoovering them up) I'll put up to Insane (or whatever their equivalent is) for the second run through.

Guitar Hero always goes on Expert I can barely play it at the lower levels now.

[madhair60]

Where I have the option, I play with easy combat and difficult puzzles.  Everywhere else I play with default or easy combat.  This is because I am a wimp.

You should play Myst, it has NO combat and difficult puzzles!

[Cerys]

SNG may have said exactly the same thing.  Many times.  I still haven't got around to it.

[Neil]

Hardest level, or the one just below it. Mostly, anyway. Have to edge upwards on fighting games, as the final bosses tend to be such uber-cunts.

[Thursday]

It might depend on how experienced I am with the game, if it's franchise/genre I'm familiar with, I'll often opt for normal/default if I'm less experienced I might opt for easy. Sometimes where possible I'll end up putting the difficulty up, in some cases though I'll have to put it down or end up thinking "what the fuck, did I put it on an a harder mode by mistake?"

In a way I suppose feel slightly embarrassed I'm not better at games considering how much I play them, but on the other hand I prefer games to be a relatively seamless experience and frequently dying and having to replay long sections of a game and looking at loading screens over and over takes me out of the experience and makes me feel like I'm wasting my life.

I don't usually find it satisfying to get stuck on one bit, and then complete it after hundreds of tries, I'll usually just still be pissed off that the game fucked me over for so long. (And yes in 99.9% of cases it's the game's fault, not mine, shut up)

[RickyGerbail]

PC game difficulty has generally gone down, so if i played all games on normal back in 2000 i now play all on at least one step above normal. I had to go up to the hardest difficulty on Mass Effect 2 in order to get a feeling of resistance and danger.
It's annoying in one sense because i recon that normal difficulty is the difficulty that developers spend most time on trying to get the right gameplay feeling for, so that means i generally play games on difficulty levels that haven't had as much attention given to them, ie the higher difficulty has been achieved by just rising HP for enemies across the board etc.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I prefer having no option to change the difficulty as it forces you to work at it.

On some games such as Ninja Gaiden, even the easiest difficulty level forces me to work at it.

[RickyGerbail]

those old super hard games are really not for normal people, they're more for OCD/ADHD types.

[Hank Venture]

Mostly normal, unless it's in a genre I'm confident in, such as Resident Evil. I'll probably crank the next one up to Hard, as I've played through Resident Evil 4 countless times on all platforms and all difficulties. Probably the single player game I've spent most time on.

[buntyman]

Normal. I don't think I've ever even attempted a game on hard apart from a call of duty game and that was only for the 30 seconds it took for my ass to be handed to me. Actually, I tend to play football games on hard mode but that's different.

[Still Not George]

those old super hard games are really not for normal people, they're more for OCD/ADHD types.

Ah, but... could it simply be that those games are for normal people, and you're really just a TOTAL PUSSY?

One man's meat is another man's dismally challenge-free snoozefest, and all that.

[RickyGerbail]

Ah, but...contemplate the difference between learning the complete content of a 300 page book in memory and having a deep understanding of a complicated subject.

[Still Not George]

Ah, but...contemplate the difference between learning the complete content of a 300 page book in memory and having a deep understanding of a complicated subject.

No amount of cod philosophy will make your tiny gamer-penis any bigger.

[RickyGerbail]

two tasks can be difficult but that doesn't mean that both tasks demands the same level of intelligence and skill. that's not cod philosophy, it's just common sense. if you like to memorise things, i'm not judging, i'm just saying that my gamer penis is bigger.

[Consignia]

Gah, thanks pointing out my erroneous title, taggers. Clearly I play "English Language" with a handicap set.

[Still Not George]

two tasks can be difficult but that doesn't mean that both tasks demands the same level of intelligence and skill. that's not cod philosophy, it's just common sense. if you like to memorise things, i'm not judging, i'm just saying that my gamer penis is bigger.

C'mon, dude. You're a casual. It's not a mark of shame these days, people can openly be casual gamers if they want to be. TV shows about gaming often feature hilariously skill-free casuals, I'm sure one day we'll probably have a casual gamer Prime Minister. You don't have to stay in the closet any more. There's no need to keep fighting it.

I mean, obviously it's disgusting and unnatural, and you'll have to stay away from my kids, I don't want them to think this kind of perversion is in some way OK. And don't think for a minute we're going to let you multiplayer. Multiplayer was defined by the Gaming God as between one hardcore gamers and another hardcore gamer (and whatever the fuck it is COD players do), and we can't let you twist that to your... lifestyle.

But really, man. It gets better.

[Thursday]

Kids, Kids, You're both wrong.

[Still Not George]

Sorry, just wanted to mention, Social gaming is fine. Nothing I like more than watching two sexy ladies social gaming each other senseless.

But casual? That's just... sick.

[hoverdonkey]

I tend to err towards hard. If I start storming through a game too quickly I worry I'm not getting full value and enjoyment. That said, I've only ever completed about 2 games in my 24 years of gaming because as soon as I lose momentum (don't get to go on it for a few days), I lose the incentive to play. So I should probably play on easy, just to see what the occasional ending is like.

[Cerys]

Sorry, just wanted to mention, Social gaming is fine. Nothing I like more than watching two sexy ladies social gaming each other senseless.

But casual? That's just... sick.

And yet you married a Casual Gamer.  You filthy deviant.

[Mary is not amused]

He was hoping to have is social circle widened.

[Still Not George]

And yet you married a Casual Gamer.  You filthy deviant.

Duh, I'm BISEXUAL!