Poll: Are games too easy?

[wkrepelin]

I don't want games to be total pushovers but it really comes down to two points for me (assuming the controls are adequate etc.): If it's a story based game of an immersive world game is that story or world compelling enough for me to want to spend a lot of time with it? If it's more of a gameplay based game do I find the gameplay addictive so that it doesn't get old too fast? That's really it, I don't care if the game is "hard." That's why I haven't picked up Demon's Souls because the selling point I keep hearing is that it's punishingly difficult. It's an adventure-fantasy/Rpg, are those qualities fleshed out or is it just hard? Keep in mind, I'm not saying it's bad, I have no idea, but all I ever hear is that it's hard.

 

[Z(ombie)fan]

Well are they? I personally found that in games like Mass Effect 2 and Fallout 3 at the standard difficulty setting unless you seriosley fuck up you can get out of most any tight spot (not to say these arent good games) but I used to play games like time splitters where it starts easy but then you reach the level "the mansion" ,plonk! you in the middle of a mansion filled with almost immortal zombies with a shotgun and theres no ammo pick-ups with no idea where to go. It took me weeks just to find out what I had to do!

Another example is baldurs gate,a pre-oblivion (W)RPG where you command a party of adveturors around a map,only to realise that the games difficulty slope is the equivalant of everest.For example:at the beggining I only had my guy and a thief you get at the start,I'm told to go to an inn for two more members,at said in a guy very forthcomingly asks about me I realise hes an assaain,he casts spell,INSTAKILL,game over.

Where did difficulty of games go

to the indie games scene. Try La-Mulana Or Hydorah. utterly cruel games. another good example: IJI and Hero Core

 

[Z(ombie)fan]

Another thing, why do you have to be playing the newest games? have all the older games inexplicably stopped existing?

 

[MicrosoftPaysMe]

Splinter Cell Conviction, 'nuff said

 

[Biffy Cakeo]

I find that if you do concentrate playing a game it really is easy. Ninja Gaiden 2 for example, the water snake thing under a Venice like place, I bet that in one solid combo with the claws. Patience, that is how i roll. Also Mass Effect 2 on hardest diffuculty was a joke in my opinion. Maybe harder with other classes but my Soldier plowed right through them.

 

[oreopizza47]

there is no such thing as a hard game, and there never was. what there is, is games that haven't been mastered yet. with enough plays, any game can become easy, because you've learned the patterns and styles of the enemies, paths for the levels, and mastered the controls. then it becomes a breeze.

so, no. games are not too easy, gamers are just too critical. it's not really about the difficulty, it's about the enjoyment. although if hard games are enjoyable for you, then just up the difficulty level and stop complaining.

 

[Senaro]

A resounding no. I thought Bayonetta was difficult enough on normal, then I learned there were three more difficult settings to play on above that. Can't even clear the second mission on the step up from normal, yet I can almost breeze through most Normal mode stages untouched.

Edit: Not that normal is easy, I just finally learned how to play the game well enough. I died loads of times before that.

 

[Marik2]

Where did difficulty of games go

Did you think this was easy?

 

[Rafe]

I think its to do with the frequency of checkpoints in most games these days. Now you get Save points and checkpoints so you pretty much get straight back in, handy but it removes most threat. Final Fantasy XIII would be an example of this, you just load back to the battle.

 

[Dfskelleton]

I don't like games that are too easy, but I don't like ones that are too hard. If it's a game like Half life 2 where it's a definite challenge and you die a fair amount of times, yet it's not so annoying that you start yelling at the screen. Alan Wake, while an interesting game, was extremely easy. In my statistics, the game said I had been killed 15 times. 9 of those 15 were when I accidentally walked off a cliff, while the other 6 were when I was overwhelmed by axe murderers or got hit in the face by a flying wire spool thrown by a swirling black tornado. Another example is the original Splinter Cell. While I love it, it can be really hard at some points.

 

[AWAR]

They are certainly more forgiving even in higher difficulties, especially rpgs. Back in the day rpgs weren't for everyone let alone casual gamers.

 

[Vorlayn]

Games used to be difficult. We got good at them and they are no longer as difficult. While I admit games are holding your hand a lot more these days the main reason of them not being as hard as they used to is because we have experience.

Someone new to gaming will find games a lot harder than veterans will.

Try some old games. I think you'll be surprised enormously by something like Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt for SNES, or Ghouls 'n Ghosts(NES), even as a vet gamer.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

No, not at all. Ever play the first Zelda game? I tried recently.

Maybe I don't have the knowledge of the first generation of gamers but I can't seem to win.

 

[Marter]

Games used to be much harder. I don't find them too easy though. They're pretty balanced as far as I'm concerned when it comes to difficulty.

 

[blah_ducks]

Trauma Center will make you its ***** if you ever say that again.

As for my own personal thoughts, games are tools for fun. For some people, that fun includes getting smacked around until their sanity breaks. For most people it includes cool abilities/toys to mess around with or an engaging story (or both). Many people have already said that they don't care if its hard as long as they have fun, and I'm with them. I also see the appeal of hard games.

I mentioned trauma center above, and it's probably the hardest game in my library (I have no idea if that's good or bad) and I still love playing it. Though I haven't beaten the final boss, and every time I play I use words I never thought I knew, the challenge is fun and the accomplishment is ecstatic. Playing it is by no means fun, but the end feeling is, which makes the game fun on average.

Excuse my mini-rant; I think games are still hard, though that might be due to my own incompetence.

 

[Jark212]

Only if you put them on "easy"...

Other wise getting killed every 30 seconds by a random sniper wouldn't count as "easy"

 

[Chicaine]

I play games on easy, i play for the interesting game mechanics, graphics and story not to be shit scared all the time or to be ragequitting, thats what CoD is for