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Post by ReyVGM on Jan 3, 2018 17:25:11 GMT -5
A thread like that was probably already created on this forum on one point or another, but I think it would still be interesting to share opinions and discuss one of the things exclusive to a video game medium - in this case, difficulty settings. As for me personally, I've spent a decade mostly ramping difficulty to the max - to challenge myself, give more playtime to often short games, and just out of weird sense of pride. However, during last 2-3 years or so, I've started to try more and more games on Normal setting, as well as revisiting games I've completed before on lower difficulties, and that eventually evolved into some sort of epiphany. Several conclusions I've made for myself when playing same games on different difficulty settings: 1) Most games aren't really designed with "Hard/Expert Mode" in mind, and at times it breaks the fun or balance of the game - like how in Hitman and Manhunt games you lose the way to track enemies on the map, which turns both games into trial-and-error; or how fun shootouts of Uncharted transform into cover-based slogfests due to how quickly you lose your health. There are exceptions (like rhythm games, which are actually more fun and rewarding at higher difficulty), but they're much more rare. 2) Challenges are often "artificial" - most of the time, you don't get harder levels or intricate obstacles, but something like "you have less health" or "dudes take more damage". 3) Aside of couple of unlockables and achievements, in most cases you don't even lose out on anything - story and levels are the same, from start to finish. I like challenging games a lot, though, which is why I'm quite a Mega Man and Castlevania fan - it's just the first two points above that made me tired of harder modes, since challenging games are actually designed with their level of challenge in mind. Either way, I would really like to read your opinions and tastes when it comes to difficulty settings .u. I always pick normal, precisely for your #2 reason. However, some games did get made thinking of different difficulties, such as Contra 3, Rocket Knight Adventures, and some other Konami games. When a game adds new bosses, story, endings, items, or whatever to a hard mode, then I will play it.
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Post by alphex on Jan 3, 2018 17:27:11 GMT -5
Normal.
Easy if the game is super hard or if we play coop and the other player isn't very good.
Hard if it's Double Dragon Advance (or whatever the hardest difficulty is called) or a Street Fighter game that isn't SSF2T. The nature of the gameplay changes if you get away with non-safe bullshit because the CPU won't punish you for it, and it's not for the better. That being said, mind-reading crap like the Mortal Kombat games or some SNK fighters don't make it more enjoyable, so it always depends on the game. I certainly don't play Art Of Fighting 2 on the hardest setting.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2018 17:27:48 GMT -5
Pretty much concur with everyone else here. Expert mode in Rock Band is a trip, though. More people should try that out.
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Post by Owlman on Jan 4, 2018 8:09:43 GMT -5
On my first try, I generally play on normal. I won't play on easy, because that dampens my sense of accomplishment. I'm a silly person.
On later playthroughts, I stick with normal for FPSs and other action games, and go with hard for real-time strategy.
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Post by Exhuminator on Jan 4, 2018 9:29:59 GMT -5
One game I'm still bitter about never managing to complete on harder difficulties is Viewtiful Joe. I wanted to unlock the other modes and characters, but Episode 6 is just so soul-suckingly awful that it breaks my will every time on anything higher than Normal/Kids. Wait a second, Kids was Normal?! I beat that game on Adults because I thought Adults was supposed to be Normal! No wonder it was so damn hard! >jackcaeylin >Why do you even create a crafting system? >What is the point of unlockable difficulties? The answer to both questions is artificial longevity.
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Post by Bumpyroad on Jan 4, 2018 9:40:31 GMT -5
Normal/Medium usually. Depending on how fair and balanced the game is, i take it from there.
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Post by JoeQ on Jan 4, 2018 10:19:28 GMT -5
One game I'm still bitter about never managing to complete on harder difficulties is Viewtiful Joe. I wanted to unlock the other modes and characters, but Episode 6 is just so soul-suckingly awful that it breaks my will every time on anything higher than Normal/Kids. Wait a second, Kids was Normal?! I beat that game on Adults because I thought Adults was supposed to be Normal! No wonder it was so damn hard! The PS2 version had Easy, Normal and Hard, with Normal being Kids and Hard being Adults... or so I think anyway.
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Post by Exhuminator on Jan 4, 2018 18:47:53 GMT -5
Wait a second, Kids was Normal?! I beat that game on Adults because I thought Adults was supposed to be Normal! No wonder it was so damn hard! The PS2 version had Easy, Normal and Hard, with Normal being Kids and Hard being Adults... or so I think anyway. Hmm, I just watched a PS2 video longplay, to see the game start screen. The PS2 version indeed shows: Easy, Normal, Hard ...and that's it. There's no correlation to matching those difficulties to Kids or Adults. How disingenuously confusing! At any rate, I can believe Adults is Hard. It was hard for me.
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