Do you ever lower the difficulty?

[Jackpot524]

In Game Pop-up: "Do you want to lower the difficulty?"
Me: "No! I refuse! I will not degrade myself by sinking to a lower level! The very fact that you question my video gaming prowess is insulting! I'm insulted... Hurt even."
*Click 'NO'*

I usually play through a game on 'Normal' the first time round, then a harder setting if I feel like a challenge or if I'm very familiar with how to play the game.

The only game in recent memory that I've played in 'Easy' mode is Civ 5, mostly because I love watching my enemies try to shoot down my planes with archers.

 

[badgersprite]

Usually only on achievement runs where I've already beaten the game on the hardest setting. I've beaten the archdemon on Nightmare difficulty enough times already; I'm not going through all that again just for the sake of getting the different endings. That's just boring.

I don't always play on the hardest setting on the first playthrough of a totally unfamiliar game, because, in games without tutorials, that default mode is basically my tutorial - getting used to the controls if they feel weird, or if I'm not sure what the best character build is. I don't want to ruin the experience of the game by looking at the internet for all the answers first, after all, so I leave that room for error open. After that I change the setting. However, if the control scheme functions the same as other games I've played (eg any sequels) then I start on the hardest available difficulty.

 

[Mr.Napier]

i have a very bad temper at times so for the sake of my controllers I keep it at normal or easy.

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

I do it when I don't want to play a game for the challenge, or to defeat enemies.
Prime example: Red Faction: Guerilla. Fuck, I just want to demolish shit.

Likewise for me with Just Cause 2. I don't care about a challenge, just let me hijack cars and blow up helicopters, and I'll have a great time.

 

[GodofDisaster]

I usually start a game on normal, but then again it depends on the game itself.

For example Devil May Cry 3 now call me what you want, but I just couldn't beat Virgil on normal mode I had to switch to easy to do it.

Also like others I've said before me, I often switch the game to easy mode to have fun and mess around, other than that it's on normal or higher.

 

[ryo02]

only did that with dragon age and oblivion all others on normal and some times go through on the harder difficulties (after doing it on normal).

 

[Nouw]

I try and play games in mixed difficulties.

In RTSs I start on easy to get the feel and nearly all the time do Normal. When I'm with friends I like to do Insane! And when the achievements come in I'm forced to do it on a harder difficulty like in Starcraft 2.

On Shooters I always do Normal or higher, easy is boring for me.
Games like Castle Crashers where there's a lot of replayability I go on harder difficulties, once again with friends.

 

[northeast rower]

Prime example: Red Faction: Guerilla. Fuck, I just want to demolish shit.

Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes. I turned the difficulty down to "casual" because it kicked my ass, chewed me up, and spat me out. I often find myself starting a multiplayer game with only myself to demolish the maps.

 

[moose_man]

I suck at games. Nearly all of them, so I'm almost always on Easy.

 

[Jake0fTrades]

Beat the campaign once on easy, then pump it up to hard from then on.

 

[onewheeled]

I only put the difficulty on Easy for fighting and strategy (both RTS and TBS, I just suck.) games.

Everything else, I play on Normal, always. Except rhythm games, I usually pump the difficulty up to Expert if I'm familiar with how the game works. So games like Rock Band 2, after playing the original to death, I was able to hop right up to expert. For DJ Hero, I understood how to read the charts on Expert, so I went straight to that difficulty within the first two days.

 

[scar_47]

I'll usually start on hard and adjust if needed, theres been a few games that at certain points I got stuck and had to lower the difficulty but it happens pretty rarely, for any second playthrough thats not a trophy run I usually go for the hardest difficulty and have had to do lately for trophies, it almost always requires a different play style on the hardest difficulty and learning it is fun for me.

 

[SoranMBane]

If I'm playing a game on the higher difficulty settings, it usually means I've played the game on its "easy" and "normal" settings to the point that I find them too easy, so I never find the need to lower the difficulty.

 

[AMMO Kid]

I usually play games on hard in the first playthrough, but on games like Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Oblivion I tend to go for lower difficulty settings so I can have more fun

 

[killamanhunter]

In Ace Combat I start at Normal and go to hard extreme and ace difficulty in that order, damn Ace is hard

 

[captaincabbage]

I do it when I don't want to play a game for the challenge, or to defeat enemies.
Prime example: Red Faction: Guerilla. Fuck, I just want to demolish shit.

lol perfect exmple man. ^^

OT: I'll always start on normal difficuly but I'll lower it if I get stuck on a single part of a game for like 20 minutes or something.
Example: That fucking inpenetrable bullshit armor wearing fucktard in Black Ops. The first time I met one of them I got completely raped time and time again and you can't leave the room because you have to defend the fucking guy who's in no danger whatsoever.

Am I the only person who got stuck on that guy? I must have tried it a hundred times, but I just couldn't kill him.
After a bit of raging I turned down the difficulty, nursed my bruised ego for five minutes and carried on my merry way.

 

[Outright Villainy]

It started with Dragon Age.

I don't blame you for that one, I did the same thing.
The combat in that game is a fucking chore, especially for someone like me who doesn't have the first clue about RPG's. It's not very noob friendly. Also, the combat just kinda sucks, and I much preferred talking to people.

I also kinda inadvertently killed wyn.
I think about 3 people I talked to after that just told me to restart because of that...

So yeah, Dragon age is the first game in ten years I've played on easy.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

Mass Effect. That fight with the Matriarch is almost impossible if you do it before anything else. Getting killed within five seconds of starting the fight and not being able to get off a shot was so frustrating that it nearly ruined the game for me. I assure you that the "easy mode" was not easy a bit. I practically had to cheat and exploit AI bugs and glitches to barely (and I mean barely) survive. All this "game of the year" talk for the sequel made me buy it, but I have serious doubts.

I also hated it in God of War when there are a bunch of instant death trap platform sections and puzzles. It keeps offering to lower the difficulty, even though it won't help because it only affects combat. Again, a black mark on an otherwise good game. The idea of difficulty levels kind of bugs me anyway. People are more or less the same. Just balance the game properly and you don't need difficulty settings.

 

[thedeathscythe]

I go the hardest difficulty there is available. If that's normal, then if the game was fun and I want more, had replay value, or for whatever reason I feel the need to beat it on the now unlocked hard difficulty, then I'll do it. With a game like Bayonetta, I didn't feel the need to replay it on hard, but it's been months since I beat it, and if I can buy the game really cheap (I had rented it) then I think I'll replay it on hard. I can understand people not wanting a grudgingly difficult game because that could take away from it being fun, and I don't want to act like I'm just amazing at gaming or anything, but it's pretty much my only hobby, so I'd be lying if I said that normal doesn't (generally) feel too easy.