Poll: Do you believe games today are too easy?

[Godhead]

Hell yes. Name me one game in recent history that doesn't have checkpoints every five minutes and an unlimited number of lives. In the era of NES/SNES, you lose your three lives and you have to either restart the game entirely, or at the very least lose all progress up to your last save point (which was at least thirty minutes back usually).

Yes, you can turn up the difficulty on newer games, but that wasn't necessary on older games because they were already challenging. And I was playing/beating those games when I was seven. So of course I'm going to find newer games far too simplistic in my twenties. Are many games still fun? Yes, but challenging? No.

So now twenty-somethings get these impossible-to-fail games, and kids who used to be able to learn a bit of problem solving from games instead get games that treat them like they have downs.

Star Wars: Starfighter on the highest difficulty. Yeah, the first few levels are pretty easy. But once you get to the lava planet it becomes pretty hard. Also i'm pretty sure a kid with down won't be able to beat Portal or Braid. 2 amazing puzzle games that are deceptively simple but challenging the first run through and sometimes the second.

 

[rhyno435]

Quite a few MW2 Spec Ops levels are pretty crazy on Veteran, but they are really intense and fun.

That's the difference I find between (some) games these days, and old Nintendo games.

Maybe it's just me, but I never found it fun when I was right at the end of a level in Super Mario Bros. 3, only to be killed for the 18th time and sent back to the start of the level.

 

[TheTaco007]

I don't know if it was just me, but the last few levels on MW2 drove me insane, and I was only on regular difficulty! I can't imagine trying to beat that shit on veteran, especially, the one in the house where you're trying to download the files, I accidentally got trapped inside in the beginning and had to stay there for the next 20 minutes, while constantly being destroyed by about 80 enemies at a time, and it kept giving me checkpoints at the STUPIDEST TIMES! There were two occasions when I got a checkpoint while hiding behind cover, one shot from death, and a grenade landed right next to me. I died about 20 times in a row in under 2 minutes, just trying to break out of that point.

 

[Pain_Inflictor]

I think that every game should have multiple difficulty settings to fit each player. God of War and Uncharted are good examples. Easy difficulty on the two is more simple than turning on a computer but god mode/crushing difficulty are a test of how many controllers you can break before you give up, on the first level.

 

[dududf]

Hardest Difficulty= Meh.

It's HARD, but it's easily overcomed if you merely just think ahead. Like * Gee whiz that looks like a good cover spot, and they will probably flank there and there, so lets toss some C4 thatta way and start killing them *30 seconds later* AHA! They are flanking me! *Hits button* BOOOOM HEAD SHAAAAWT!

 

[LeonLethality]

well they are trying to appeal to more people and that means making it easier.

 

[Nova5]

Depends. I've beaten a lot of games with little to no problems recently, but there are occasionally titles that have kicked my ass (say, for example, Far Cry 2 - on hardest I kept dying in collisions with other vehicles). S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was really unforgiving, as was the Killing Floor and Borderlands to a point.

Games have been made easier on the 'main stream' to prevent from alienating potential consumers. Business-wise, I can understand this. As a gamer, I think it's a fucking ugly trend that needs to stop right where it is. If I see one more goddamn shooter where I can't turn off aim assist, I just blow a gasket.

 

[Chunko]

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?

Can you add an option for people who feel that some games are too easy while others are not necessarily, also quote me when you do so I can vote.

 

[Mordwyl]

It's not that the games are too easy, we're just too good for them.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go beat Perfect Cherry Blossom's extra stage.

 

[hotdogoctopus]

Yes, I haven't bought a new strategy guide for years. But on old games, I still find that if I'm going to maximize the effects of my effort, I still need to harken back to the internet.

 

[aaronmcc]

Ninja Fucking Gaiden
/thread

 

[SimuLord]

QTE-driven action games sure don't seem easy to me...but that's mostly because I've completely fallen out of love with anything that's not a heavy-duty strategy game or a sports game lately. I struggle mightily with the Grand Theft Auto series, for example.

I used to be remarkably good at standard console-style action games...back when I was in sixth and seventh grade and didn't have a ton of other things pressing on my time.

 

[Adanos]

My Idea of a game isn't supposed to be lol hard for me to feel good for accomplishing something. A game must be fun. Look at Ninja Blade. Srsly I was face palming at every quick time event. I rl had a good time.

 

[faceless chick]

i answered the 3rd
the games nowadays are incredibly difficult.
it might just be me since i've only been playing mario and circus (and the likes) for the snes for the 1st 12 years of my life, but trying something "new" and especially 3d killed me.
for 1, i get lost in all these brown buildings. someone please use any other color palette!

secondly, there are waaaaaaay too many buttons!
i received as a gift a copy of vampire the masquerade:bloodlines and the guy showed me how to play it. i had no idea what to do the 1st day, and after checking the manual and playing about 3 hours, i mapped out 3 buttons that were of any use out of the WHOLE DAMN KEYBOARD the guide had mapped for me.

same thing for every game past 2001.
why do i need 2 control sets for the camera?
i just re-set the camera every time i turn,and i automatically nullify 7 buttons i will never remember!

another problem you kids/guys/same thing will find laughable- i hate moving in 3d.i don't use the extra space. if i have to fight a monster i'll just stand next to it, or draw back.sidestepping is useless since it'll still attack me and i'll be defenseless- which brings me to another thing i never ever ever use- THE BLOCK button.

i have this stupid tendency, even IRL, to just use my own body as a wall against attacks and take blows head-on. sure, i lose a lot of life(bruises), but i never stop attacking. i'm a button smasher pro, and defense is not my thing.
new games forces you to defend otherwise you're toast, which is a thing that doesn't agree with me.

and thirdly:
the games are very damn difficult!
not just because they felt the need to turn a "go there, get that" into an interactive harry potter movie,but also all battles are insanely hard. i barely have time to learn the moveset before the 2nd boss presumes i'm already an expert at acrobatics.

and don't get me started on my weak point-shooters..jesus..i don't think i can last there.


tl;dr-i'll just stick to my pre-century change games which i can play and have mastered contra without losing a life in all 8 levels.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

Difficulty is pretty much what YOU make of it.
The reason games seem easier these days, is because

a.) games are MUCH longer
and
b.) games have exponentially more depth than their early NES/SNES counterparts.

Take a game like Bad Dudes.
Back then, Bad Dudes was hard as hell... because you had basically TWO attacks.. and it was pretty straight forward. Die three times, START OVER, erase whatever TIME you had invested.
However the game was what? 3 hours long when you beat it?
Once you had, you started over and it was just the same game. No extras, no various ways to play, nothing to extend the "fun". Once you mastered it, the game was effectively done and tossed into the bin of "beaten games" to rot for all eternity.

Now take a game like GTA IV. Sure some of the missions seem simple. But then again, it's because you have 100 different ways to tackle scenarios. If you fail one part, you get to start over and try a DIFFERENT strategy! It isnt about "starting over to do exactly the same thing over and over again until you get lucky enough to win".

In short, modern games are more about the JOURNEY than the Destination. The payoff is better because the presentation is better in most modern games, but since they have fantastic stories to tell and endless opportunities in game play, they want to let people actually enjoy that variety.

Ninja Gaiden can be quite challenging, but you have many different ways to dispatch your foes and even when you start over, no battle goes exactly the same as previous attempts, unlike in the NES days when there was really only ONE strategy and until you figured it out, the boss would just pwn your ass ten ways to Sunday.
Such things are not "fun" to me. So if EASY = FUN, give me Easy any and everyday.
I'd rather be having a simple blast than a frustrating "challenge".

 

[MiserableOldGit]

Not as a general rule, no. I've been playing them for twenty years now, and the main difference I've noticed is a tendency to put the choice as to how difficult a game is in the hands of the player. The other thing to bear in mind is that a lot of the older games people look back on with nostalgia weren't difficult at all, merely unfair. Some of the big titles people get all misty eyed about couldn't even be finished due to some glitch or other (Jet set fuckin Willy, I'm looking at you).
Games have also moved away from the old arcade model, which was designed to fleece as many 10ps out of you as it could in the space of a few minutes.

 

[saxist01]

For most games, ask this question. Can I beat this game (on whatever difficulty) before I die three times? Because this is where many of the older games got their difficulty. Essentially, the invention of saving changed the concept of what difficulty was. There used to be financial incentive to make spots in games challenging, so that you would spend more money. This type of difficulty doesn't really make sense any more since every time you die, you start very close to where you died.

 

[Eggsnham]

They're difficult in a different way, A game like CoD requires actual quick thinking and reflexes, whereas a game from the eighties requires you to just memorize the shit out of sequences and patterns.

 

[Nazulu]

Well I have not played all games, mostly Wii games and they are very easy. So I say 'yes', Nintendo games are too easy at the moment.