Poll: Difficulty Selection Screens

[Vykrel]

i usually just pick normal. sometimes ill pick easy for a game i just want to rush through, kind of. and sometimes ill pick the hardest difficulty, like for Halo. i always play new Halo games on legendary.

 

[nuba km]

I go with default normally but if I just want to mess around I'll set it on easiest, and there are a couple of games which I play on the hardest difficulty.

 

[Rayansaki]

Depends a lot on the game. Normal is my standard, but some games I'll start hard right away. Last examples were Infamous 2 and Killzone 3.

 

[Cheesus333]

I play it normal the first time. In some games I'll ramp it up a difficulty for the next go round.

 

[Isgandar]

I went for hard. My reasoning behind this is I like the challenge but I also like to create a bit of replay value by being able to go back and test myself on the nightmare (insert equivalent) difficulty setting. Playing a game on hard generally means you'll get to experience more of the game by virtue of having to play for longer/learn it's nuances. I'm surprised so many people plumped for the normal difficulty setting!

 

[justnotcricket]

Start with normal. I like to think this is how the makers of the game 'saw' it being played. Additionally, if the game isn't great, then you don't have the additional burdens intentionally placed on your gameply. If it's good, then you might look at a second playthrough on hard =)

Example: Uncharted 2. Played it on Normal, then went back and played it on every other difficulty (except INSANE) 'cause I loved it so much. The reason I didn't play it on insane is because I feel no compulsion to play on a difficulty that stresses me out. Some insane modes are a fun challenge (like DW5 Chaos mode). Some make me want to bite through my controller. I leave the latter ones alone...

That being said, I'll happily play a game on 'novice mode' or whatever the easiest is, if I just want to chill out and go zen with it.

EDITed for appalling typing...

 

[Doclector]

Normal, then hard, then whatever comes next. Starting at a lower difficulty then moving up increases a game's life span. I used to do easy too...y'know, back when easy didn't just play itself.

 

[Kargathia]

Normal. Chances are that's what the game is best balanced for.

To be honest, I wish they'd have something more organic. Difficult varies from game-to-game, and having to pick difficulty before I've played anything seems a bit backwards.

Yea, some times I find myself wishing more developers followed the example of an old game called Redline Racing. It effectively made you play against your last performance. Not too sure how you can implement that in RTS (unless you start counting clicks/minute), but it certainly could be done in fighting and FPS.

OT: Hard for FPS games, medium for pretty much everything else. Insane for CoD equivalents - after all I've been playing that same game under different names for the last 10 years now.

 

[infernovolver]

Really depends.
1. Old school Nintendo hard games? Easy, every time.
2. Rhythm games (my preferred choice is something from the Rock Band series) and it's expert.
3. Something like Mass Effect? Normal and keep going up in difficulty each time I beat it.
4. Oblivion, where it takes 5 hours to kill a mudcrab if you didn't spend 50 hours awkwardly trying to get through dungeons for the best weapons, grinding skills, and trying to level as efficiently as possible? Easy mode.
5. Games where something is critically wrong with the difficulty like Torchlight where normal mode is easy mode and easy mode is braindead mode? Hard, after finding out the hard way (and I mean easy way) of normal difficulty.
6. Games where you can't even beat the game unless you have it on a certain setting? Well I don't have a choice there do I?

 

[Alcamonic]

Very Hard/Insane/Extreme or whatever is hardest for FPS games.
Hard for the rest. I like a challenge, if I can just walk through the games then there is no learning curve and then I won't improve, at all.

 

[CleverCover]

If I can't change the setting mid-play: Normal.

If I can: I start on Easy and then change or keep it depending on how well I'm doing.

Once I master the game, if I like it, I'll go back to it and try it on harder levels.

 

[bakan]

Always going with the highest difficulty except for some RPGs especially older ones, they can be frustrating - though if I beat it once on a lower setting and it is still appealing I do the higher difficulty

 

[Bugerion]

Hard for shooters and normal for all other games

 

[CaptainHook69]

I go normal on my first play through because on my first playthough I'm playing for the story.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

I usually play normal first, the the hardest, and then if there's any collectables or anything left i'll run through on easy to get them if i really want

 

[Grell Sutcliff]

I start on easy first time through then I go to the hardest for the second time.

 

[Argonian alchemist]

I start every game on the hardest difficulty, just throw myself out into that games world with no experience...

Sure, I'll die (if possible in that game) thousands upon thousands of times, however it will just harden me.

Then, when I go online... real life opponents are usually easy.

 

[Blue Musician]

For me it depends in the game. Say for example an RTS I tend to pick the easiest, as I'm not good in the genre, although sometimes I do have fun. Stealth games I always choose the hardest option, except maybe with MGS. Thief and Splinter Cell I always did choose the hardest, as it made them more fun. FPS I normally go with normal, unless I replay them where I tend to ramp up the difficulty.

 

[LookingGlass]

I used to start on normal and tell myself that I'd play the game again later on a harder difficulty... but I never seemed to actually do that. So these days I go for hard unless you can't change the difficulty during the game and I think it's going to cause me great pain later on.

However, the final boss in Silent Hill 3 scared me off "hard" a bit a few months ago. Oh my god that took over 20 minutes, just on my successful attempt. I didn't even remember having trouble with it on normal.