Poll: Do you believe games today are too easy?
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For the most part it seems like games are easier... but (this has already been said) demon's souls brings back difficulty and usually it doesn't make you want to kick down sandcastles... though when you are on your second play through with pure black soul tendency not much can help you and you might begin to feel like heading towards the nearest beach.
If you look at games as a whole (so not specific achievements), there are a lot of games that I would have gotten a lot more enjoyment out of if they were a little harder. Then there are games that are frustratingly difficult (ie. Demon's Souls just finished kicking my ass, which is why I'm here). Back on (S)NES games tended to be hard because of the lack of a save option. Multiplayer difficulty is really determined by the other players, so that's a different problem, but as a whole, I think that most games should be a little harder, just so that I can't run through the game in less then a week.
Yeah, but the enemies are unpredictable, you don't know if they'll try to flank you, charge you, or just grenade spam you, whereas a game from the Eighties was just something like "This guy shoots, and this guy doesn't. If you don't avoid them, you die." Also, that level was a *****!Jekken6 said:
Difficult question, but I would say that they aren't too easy.
One of the things that made games so difficult 20 years ago was the concept of limited lives and continues. But this sort of difficulty was a stupid holdover from arcade games. It didn't make the games more challenging in a meaningful way, it just frustrated you by making you replay the same parts over and over again.
With that in mind, think about how difficult some modern games would be if you had to restart the whole story every time you died 5 or 6 times. I'd probably still be on the 1st Act of Modern Warfare 2. I guess that would make the game more difficult, but it would be a pointless difficulty. Who wants to replay an entire game just to get to the point that killed them on their last play through?
One of the things that made games so difficult 20 years ago was the concept of limited lives and continues. But this sort of difficulty was a stupid holdover from arcade games. It didn't make the games more challenging in a meaningful way, it just frustrated you by making you replay the same parts over and over again.
With that in mind, think about how difficult some modern games would be if you had to restart the whole story every time you died 5 or 6 times. I'd probably still be on the 1st Act of Modern Warfare 2. I guess that would make the game more difficult, but it would be a pointless difficulty. Who wants to replay an entire game just to get to the point that killed them on their last play through?
No.
Where's the fun in a balls-to-the-walls rock hard game where you only get 3 lives over 20 hours of game?
Nowhere, that's where.
Anyway, personal preference in the end, but you can still turn up the difficulty if you need - most hard modes are actually hard. If not, someone will have modded the game you're playing so that it's stupidly hard if you're that way inclined.
Where's the fun in a balls-to-the-walls rock hard game where you only get 3 lives over 20 hours of game?
Nowhere, that's where.
Anyway, personal preference in the end, but you can still turn up the difficulty if you need - most hard modes are actually hard. If not, someone will have modded the game you're playing so that it's stupidly hard if you're that way inclined.
If you're going to make a game challenging, you have to also make it interesting enough to make someone want to keep playing it after meeting failure several times. Here's some games that frustrated me because they were challenging and DID NOT hold my interest:
The Legend of Zelda (original NES version). While I'm thankful that it exists because without it, there would be no Ocarina of Time, it didn't even hint at what you were supposed to do or where you should go next. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to figure out that you need to go into the cave to get the sword from the old man.
Metroid (original NES version). I understand that the Metroid series is about exploration and figuring out what to do, but the original just confused me. I got more enjoyment out of Super Metroid than the original. It just seemed more intuitive to me.
Final Fantasy III (NOT Final Fantasy VI, but the DS remake of the original Japanese FFIII). My first exposure to Final Fantasy was with this game. Honestly, it's not the best place to start if you're new to the series. The story was generic and hard to follow, you were constantly being told the name of the place to go next, but not where it was, and I personally died a lot because you can't buy Phoenix Downs, and you're characters don't recover from sleeping in an inn. As far as the Phoenix Down thing goes, some friends of mine said that not being able to buy them in the early games just encouraged people not to suck, but (no pun intended) it sucked the fun right out of the game for me. The second Final Fantasy game I played was FFVII, and I can honestly say that it blew me away. This could have been partly due to the fact that I had low expectations due to my prior experience with Final Fantasy.
I think recently, when people make difficult games, they make you actually want to push through the challenges, which could be why some people think they're easier than they used to be. A couple of games that I think are challenging but fun enough not to frustrate me are Castle Crashers and Dragon Age: Origins. These are both recent games, but they know how to challenge you without making you want to kill the people who made them. The difference is that older games took zen-like patience to make it to the end, while newer games have found a balance of difficulty and fun. Personally, I would much rather be challenged with something fun than be challenged in a way that makes me lose my sanity.
The Legend of Zelda (original NES version). While I'm thankful that it exists because without it, there would be no Ocarina of Time, it didn't even hint at what you were supposed to do or where you should go next. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to figure out that you need to go into the cave to get the sword from the old man.
Metroid (original NES version). I understand that the Metroid series is about exploration and figuring out what to do, but the original just confused me. I got more enjoyment out of Super Metroid than the original. It just seemed more intuitive to me.
Final Fantasy III (NOT Final Fantasy VI, but the DS remake of the original Japanese FFIII). My first exposure to Final Fantasy was with this game. Honestly, it's not the best place to start if you're new to the series. The story was generic and hard to follow, you were constantly being told the name of the place to go next, but not where it was, and I personally died a lot because you can't buy Phoenix Downs, and you're characters don't recover from sleeping in an inn. As far as the Phoenix Down thing goes, some friends of mine said that not being able to buy them in the early games just encouraged people not to suck, but (no pun intended) it sucked the fun right out of the game for me. The second Final Fantasy game I played was FFVII, and I can honestly say that it blew me away. This could have been partly due to the fact that I had low expectations due to my prior experience with Final Fantasy.
I think recently, when people make difficult games, they make you actually want to push through the challenges, which could be why some people think they're easier than they used to be. A couple of games that I think are challenging but fun enough not to frustrate me are Castle Crashers and Dragon Age: Origins. These are both recent games, but they know how to challenge you without making you want to kill the people who made them. The difference is that older games took zen-like patience to make it to the end, while newer games have found a balance of difficulty and fun. Personally, I would much rather be challenged with something fun than be challenged in a way that makes me lose my sanity.
So you find it hard to learn key-bindings, you use your character as a human shield, you're a button masher and you never sidestep. I don't think you can blame the games themselves for being difficult here. That's like saying essay scoring is strict because you bash your head on a keyboard and hand in the results and the evil teacher gives you an F.faceless chick said:
you know i was exaggerating for the sake of comedy, right?achilleas.k said:
geez i can play and win lots of games, i was trying to make a joke..you guys laugh when yahtzee says it, you ingrates *grumble mumble*
Ye I see what you mean but in a lot of cases kinda being unfair is what makes said games hard which I know is bad way to do it and sometimes it seems like that in Ninja Gaiden and in CoD4 with a grenade spam.henritje said:
Yes I would say that mission is easy there is nothing wrong with that mission they give a P90 which does make it easy even without cheats although with cheats it actually kinda takes the piss with slow mo.TZer0 said:
Most games on the hardest difficulty these days offer just about the right level of challenge/pain/reward.
MW2 was a tad too eay on Veteran though, compared to the last 2 games.
MW2 was a tad too eay on Veteran though, compared to the last 2 games.
Most are indeed. But i don't play most of them so i wouldn't know. The ones i do play, they are fine and have a good difficulty scale. meanwhile i just got one that wasn't, and it was boring as hell as i ran up to another guy in the horde and slit his throat for the millionth time.