Poll: Do you believe games today are too easy?

[Dusquad]

I was playing Demon's Soul's today and I said to myself (big surprise coming) "This game is incredibly difficult" then I started to play Fallout 3 which in turn made me want to replay Fallout 2. The comparison of difficulty in the games is absolutely amazing. Not to drag on so my question is this, are games too easy nowadays?

 

[Radeonx]

I guess.
But, then again, most games for the NES and the other older consoles were too hard.
It's really all a matter of opinion.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Hell no. There are plenty of challenging games available in today's gaming market, like Left 4 Dead 2.

Old games like Fallout 2 are hard, but sometime it's for stupid reasons. For example right from the beginning Fallout 2 looks insanely hard, but that's because you've been forced to fight bugs with your fists when you specialized in small guns instead. The game also lets you wander into danger blissfully unaware, rather than warning you about the gang of fire geckos that can rape you if you go the wrong way on the world map. Plus your AI partners are incredibly incompetent and weak towards to end of the game, taking away the support you will most likely need.

I guess.
But, then again, most games for the NES and the other older consoles were too hard.
It's really all a matter of opinion.

A lot of those games were to hard because you could die far to easily and many sent you back to the beginning of the game if you perished. Save systems have made modern games a lot more fair.

 

[Allan53]

I don't think they are too easy, but I find most games these days more frustrating then difficult. Batman: Arkham Asylum, much though I enjoyed it, did suffer from repetitiveness and simple boring going from one end of the map to the other. That's not a good example, but hopefully you get my point.

 

[OctoBush]

Im not sure how i can answer this.Looking at certain series (.i.e pokemon blue/red/whatever((go ahead, set me on fire)) games have become much easier. Playing games on older systems, or even remakes have shown me difficulty in comparison,yet new(for me) mechanics bought into certain styles of game sometimes prove a challenge.
I'm not sure where i'm going with this...
Umm,yeah, I think so

 

[Flos]

The problem being that most old games were too hard.

Ever play an old Castlevania game? Those games were 'fuck you!' hard. They wouldn't even give you hints as to what you were suppose to do. They had traps, invisible staircases, and completely inane plot items.

I think games today are just fine. Games that are difficult for difficulty's sake are missing the point.

 

[Wintermoot]

depends on the game but there are also "unfair games" they make you die in unfair ways like with COD 4 just because I took a wrong turn I gotta die?

 

[Kelbear]

Different kinds of enjoyment. I don't want a story-driven game to be hard. A shoot'em up should never be easy.

 

[UnravThreads]

I guess.
But, then again, most games for the NES and the other older consoles were too hard.
It's really all a matter of opinion.

I agree fully with this, and you can see it in our key games series. For example, HL2 was much easier than HL1. Oblivion was easier than Morrowind and so forth.

I would hate for us to go back to the days of Legend of Zelda 1 + 2, where it seems like you need some form of telepathy to know what to do or where to go. But, at the same time, I don't think games should be too easy. RTS games, for me, still hold a challenge whether they're 10 years old or 1 year old, but FPS games tend not to offer such a challenge anymore.

 

[GodofDisaster]

God no in my personal opinion games are just as hard as they use to be.

Anyone played Ninja gaiden? Or try to complete Devil May Cry 4 on heaven and hell mode. Oh and who could forget Mile High Club on Call of duty 4. Yeah games are still hard, if you look at those examples.

Also I am still stuck on the Wardriving spec ops level in Modern Warfare 2. But I'm getting closer and closer each time.

 

[TheEndlessGrey]

A lot of those games were to hard because you could die far to easily and many sent you back to the beginning of the game if you perished. Save systems have made modern games a lot more fair.

A lot of those old NES games and the like were hard because they were essentially at-home versions of coin-op arcade games. Arcade games are hard because that's how they make money. You die, you have 10 seconds to insert a coin to continue. They make sure you die a lot. At-home consoles are now much bigger business than the coin operated arcade machines - at least in North America, I did see some pretty huge arcades in Japan when I was there - therefore difficulty is being adjusted to what will encourage more people to repeatedly purchase the $40-$70 boxes from company X. A frustratingly difficult experience rarely contributes to customer satisfaction.

 

[orangebandguy]

Yes they are too easy these days. But people don't play for the Singleplayer these days do they?

I think traditions like Singleplayer should be kept alive.

 

[dommyuk]

Shouldn't there be a half way option? Some are easy, some are hard. If there were, I'd choose that one.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Hell no. There are plenty of challenging games available in today's gaming market, like Left 4 Dead 2.

Old games like Fallout 2 are hard, but sometime it's for stupid reasons. For example right from the beginning Fallout 2 looks insanely hard, but that's because you've been forced to fight bugs with your fists when you specialized in small guns instead. The game also lets you wander into danger blissfully unaware, rather than warning you about the gang of fire geckos that can rape you if you go the wrong way on the world map. Plus your AI partners are incredibly incompetent and weak towards to end of the game, taking away the support you will most likely need.

Actually... you have a spear and OMG it doesn't TELL you which way to go to stay out of danger?

CRIME!!! How could they? ZOMG

AI partners are good in both F1 and F2 and you can even control their equipment and control how they fight so yeah...

Oh, I get a spear. An incredibly weak spear that does pitiful damage. That still doesn't change the fact that the whole Temple of Trials was long, tedious, and unnecessary. It's the only tutorial I've ever managed to get myself killed in.

And yeah, they should have really given you some more indication as to where you are supposed to go. The game does sometimes give you subtle hints, and occasionally flat out telling you were to go, but that still doesn't prevent you from getting an incredibly unfortunate random encounter with Super Mutants. I spent weeks trying to find Vault 13, all because I didn't exam one specific computer back when I was inside Vault 15. And don't lie; the AI in Fallout 2 was thick. I was forced to save scum constantly because they kept getting killed or they killed me.

 

[Trotgar]

Mostly.

 

[NuclearPenguin]

Hell no. There are plenty of challenging games available in today's gaming market, like Left 4 Dead 2.

Old games like Fallout 2 are hard, but sometime it's for stupid reasons. For example right from the beginning Fallout 2 looks insanely hard, but that's because you've been forced to fight bugs with your fists when you specialized in small guns instead. The game also lets you wander into danger blissfully unaware, rather than warning you about the gang of fire geckos that can rape you if you go the wrong way on the world map. Plus your AI partners are incredibly incompetent and weak towards to end of the game, taking away the support you will most likely need.

Actually... you have a spear and OMG it doesn't TELL you which way to go to stay out of danger?

CRIME!!! How could they? ZOMG

AI partners are good in both F1 and F2 and you can even control their equipment and control how they fight so yeah...

Oh, I get a spear. An incredibly weak spear that does pitiful damage. That still doesn't change the fact that the whole Temple of Trials was long, tedious, and unnecessary. It's the only tutorial I've ever managed to get myself killed in.

And yeah, they should have really given you some more indication as to where you are supposed to go. The game does sometimes give you subtle hints, and occasionally flat out telling you were to go, but that still doesn't prevent you from getting an incredibly unfortunate random encounter with Super Mutants. I spent weeks trying to find Vault 13, all because I didn't exam one specific computer back when I was inside Vault 15. And don't lie; the AI in Fallout 2 was thick. I was forced to save scum constantly because they kept getting killed or they killed me.

You died in the temple of trials? Oh. My. God! I didnt even get damaged the first time there <.<
I loved Fallout 2 and I didnt find it too difficult.

OT: Most games today are too easy with puzzles and such. But alot of games are too difficult when it comes to not getting your brains blown out on the hardest difficulty. I always start on the hardest difficulty and I got my ass raped on games such as Resident Evil 5 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R SoC.
I still play old games just because I like them more.
Granted, i'd love a proper remake of Castlevania Symphony of the Night. Man, that game was confusing at times. I loved the free-roam part of it. I loved everything. I think the graphics on it trump most of todays games, just for the art style. Making it 3d would take a hell of alot of work.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

depends on the game but there are also "unfair games" they make you die in unfair ways like with COD 4 just because I took a wrong turn I gotta die?

COD 4 wasn't hard I don't see what the big deal about it is try CoD2 or CoD on Vet if you want hard for those games.

Yes I find the majority of games today too easy but there are exceptions ie Ninja Gaiden and DMC.
Halo3 would definitely be up there for too easy with so many other games like Bioshock.

 

[Chaos Theory]

three titles, Demon Souls, Ninja Gaiden 2 and The Metroid series, plus allot of games these days are going for more the cinematic and storytelling stuff.