gaming What difficulty do you usually start at?

[Whiteshade 1,426]

Easy for every game. Not that I'm bad, but effort isn't something I'd put into a game until I am sure I love it.

[mintfreshAD 55]

Unless it's a particularly tough game, I'll usually go for whatever the second highest difficulty is. That gives me something to go up to on a replay, without me starting out too easy (because most games have difficulties above the usual easy/normal/hard these days).

[The Milkman 186]

When i was a kid, i usually started playing on easy. Now i play in normal every time i start, if it's a game i know very good, i start it at the maximum difficulty, like Silent Hill.

[kirbyboi 587]

I always start on normal. Just normal. So I can get used to the game.

[Unexard 50]

Always on hardest difficulty except for fighting games and str but it's common sense to do that for those two type of games.

 

I like challenge! and since I started playing video games even before I was able to read or count, I'm pretty damn prepared for all the games nowadays. Because games nowadays are eeeeeeaaaaaaasssssssyyyyyyyyyyy

[Thyflesh 35]

Always on hardest difficulty except for fighting games and str but it's common sense to do that for those two type of games.

 

I like challenge! and since I started playing video games even before I was able to read or count, I'm pretty damn prepared for all the games nowadays. Because games nowadays are eeeeeeaaaaaaasssssssyyyyyyyyyyy

 

I have to totally agree with you, nowday's you can't even decide the difficulty for some games, and harder modes just give the mobs a bit more HP.

 

Have you played Diablo 3? That's an example of where they did difficulty VERY VERY wrong.

 

edit: spelling

Edited July 19, 2012 by Thyflesh

[Unexard 50]

I have to totally agree with you, nowday's you can't even decide the difficulty for some games, and harder modes just give the mobs a bit more HP.

 

Have you played Diablo 3? That's an example of where they did difficulty VERY VERY wrong.

 

 

Yeah, Diablo 3 is just a joke IMO. You need to no-life the game to get to the hardest difficulty, and even there it's not about skill whatsoever it's about how much you no-life the game to have stuff. Oh, and to make that even more stupid, once you get on nightmare difficulty, story bosses don't leave yellow equipement anymore, because they don't want us to farm them T_T. Wtf blizzard?

[One 498]

If its a new game then usualy easiest, fps's I choose the one harder then easiest, because if its on the easiest I find it just way to easy. If ive had the game for awhile, like Skyrim, well I play Skyrim on hardest always. (even when I began because I accidently set it for the hardest instead of easiest and I just never changed it) If im co-oping I aleays insist that it never is on the easiest (especialy if its an fps, then I love to set it to hardest for a challenge) So I start on the most newby level, to the "hey im not that much of a noob to play that low of a difficulty"

[Vido 37]

I always leave the difficulty on normal unless it's too hard or easy

[Dave247 568]

I pretty much play normal almost all of the time because if I chose harder and I get stuck somewhere the games I've come across don't let you change the difficulty mid game so I'd just stop playing the game because I couldn't be bothered starting the game again on a easier level.

There are times though is there's a level between normal and hard, the description sounds more suitable and I don't doubt my skills that I'll go the next level up though there aren't a lot of games like that.

[WhiteLightning 339]

I always start on Normal but but most of the time it's too easy after a few levels, so I simply crank it up to Hard and sometimes, when I'm feeling badass, go all Expert on it.

[ProjectRKA 2,838]

I always start off at Normal, but if it gets too easy or hard I just change the level to whatever I'd prefer.

[Brook 663]

Depends on the game, I generally start on easy though, untill I get the hang of it.

FPSs - I start on normal but change to easy if it gets too hard in later levels.

RPGs - Well, usually there's no difficulty setting, but I go easy for first time plays.

Rythem games - Always start on hard, because it's the only difficulty that makes the notes count.

Anything else - I don't play that many games anyway But usually easy, and then switch to normal/medium or hard.

[FaZe Vinyl 521]

Depends what game I'm playing. If it's NASCAR or NCAA Football I put I on hard. All others it's normal for me.

[Sky 746]

I finish it once on easy then once on normal then once on hard you get a great playtime if you play that way.

[Eavath 278]

I usually start myself on normal, unless I'm feeling particularly confident or cocky. I started Halo 3 campaign on normal, but played copletely through on Legendary before I finished normal. I played Normal the first time on Kingdom Hearts, but went straight to Proud mode in Kingdom Hearts 2. My friends said I shouldn't have went straight to Proud, but honestly, it felt easy : Maybe I just knew my way around the skills available to me in order to maximize my effectiveness?

[Gigachip 148]

On games that allow a change in difficulty I normally set it to the highest possible.

For two reasons, one being that I like the challenge

the other because I just like getting achievements

[Sand Piper 12]

In general I start any game I play on normal the first time I play, however once I've beaten it from start to finish I crank it all the way to the hardest level. For the most part I only really do this for fps' and hack & slash games. I tend to avoid choosing the hardest mode in side-scrolling or top-down shooters otherwise I'll just end up rage-quitting.

[Matus 130]

I start on normal if it is a game I've never played. If its a game I've played before, then I go to the hardest difficulty possible, unless its too hard. Never again will I pick European extreme mode in MGS3

[Carbon 57]

I normally play through a game on normal first. If the difficulty didn't satisfy me, then I play through it again on the hardest difficulty.

[HomuraBL 848]

I pretty much always choose easy if its a game series I never played. Then I go to normal afterwards.

[Espeon 338]

It depends on the number of difficulty levels. For example, if there's a scale of Very Easy / Easy / Normal / Hard / Skull-Crushing, I'll go on Easy. If it's Call of Duty, for example, I start at Recruit. Most of the time I begin at some sort of easy difficulty level, and let me tell you why. (insert "Let me tell you about Homestuck" guy here)

 

Games have many facets of different characteristics, but most of it boils down to two distinct categories. There's the gameplay itself - it's directly altered by the difficulty level, and I like a game that feels good to play. That's not to say difficult feels bad, man - far from it, sometimes. It's the next category that influences my decision more often than not: the story. Vidya gaems tell a story, and my goal, first and foremost in a first playthrough, is to take that in and appreciate it. It's hard to have a solid flow of events that triggers you to realize what's going on and the full implications of it if you have to reload a save ten times when you reach a difficult part near a climax or something. A lesser factor in my decisions is what I call the World at War factor. If you've tried to play through the campaigns of various Call of Duty games on Veteran, you know that some games are much more difficult than others. World at War was particularly frustrating, given the approximately twenty grenades that land at your feet each second. Compared to this, Call of Duty 4's infamous ferris wheel mission, One Shot One Kill, seemed like a walk in a particularly balmy park. The point here is that, at first, there's no way of knowing how well the difficulties are scaled and to what degree other factors influence the real difficulty. This all hearkens back to my earlier point about fluidity of story, of course.

 

All of that is not to say that I don't enjoy a challenge. I often play through a game a second time on a harder difficulty for the hell of it. After beating Uncharted 2 on Easy, I went back and beat it on Hard and unlocked the secret difficulty (which I haven't done, mind you). I've Platinumed Modern Warfare 2: all Spec Ops stars, finished campaign on Veteran, the whole nine yards. I much prefer to know what I'm in for when the difficulty increases, however. But then this thread is about what difficulty we all start at, not what we do in later playthroughs, so I'll leave that to another thread maybe?

[Shiki 5,851]

For first person shooters, it's always the hardest difficulty available (gotta get those achievements). For more unique games, like Mirror's Edge or something along those lines of individuality, I'll play on normal, but usually start over back on hard mode once I get the feel for it.

[Lemon003 13]

Most of the time I play on normal, but I often up the difficulty if I'm decent at the game. It depends though, I play The Conduit with the cheats for infinite ammo so I can play it like a run and gun game, because that''s more fun. I'll always play fighting and bullet hell games on easy though. Because they're always so hard.

[Anonymous~ 588]

I usually play games at hard difficulty, to make my gameplay more challenging. Sometimes, though, when I'm fighting a insanely over powered boss that one hits you all the time, I set the difficulty to easy.