Poll: The difficulty you prefer.

[nickjastrzebski]

I always go for normal on my first play through. I like to think it's how the game should be played, because it's 'normal'. If I keep getting my ass handed to me, I'll probably swallow my pride and downgrade to easy though; it's better than raging at the game.

After that, I might dial it up to hard to get a few more hours out of the game, up the ante a bit and challenge myself.

I've only ever done the hardest difficultly on The Force Unleashed, and it wasn't all that much harder until the end few levels. Then the grind really set in...

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Whatever the makers intended. For instance, I played Halo 3: ODST first through on Heroic(Hard) because that is what Bungie announced it was meant to be played on. I usually play normal because the designers first make a game from the ground up and then tweak it for the other difficulties so if you want the full experience, play on normal.

 

[C95J]

I always start on the hardest difficulty unless its a genre I have little or no experience in, then I go for the normal difficulty.

EDIT:

FPS-Impossible
RPG-Impossible
Survival/Horror-Impossible
RTS/TBS-Normal
Other-Normal

 

[Stewardesses]

I played Halo 3: ODST first through on Heroic(Hard) because that is what Bungie announced it was meant to be played on.

High Five.

 

[Nwabudike Morgan]

Hurt me plenty. Ultra-violence if I'm in the mood.

 

[oplinger]

I used to play on normal, because it just seemed right.

I've come to realize I'm just too bad ass. So now I go with as hard as it comes right out of the box.

 

[imagremlin]

Normal is supposed to be the way the developers intended you to play.

For sequels where I'm comfortable with the mechanics I tend to go for hard.

 

[Stormz]

Normal mode always. Then hard if the game is worth it. I used to play easy but you have to draw the line somewhere. Easy these days I could play the games with my eyes closed. Easy used to at least have SOME challenge as you progress.

 

[AvsJoe]

Easy for genres that I have little skill; medium for most others; impossible for EA's NHL series games.

 

[VanityGirl]

Normal first, no need to frustrate and break my gameplay flow by putting the game on a hard difficulty.
If the game's enjoyable enough, I'll replay it on the hardest setting.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Most games I play normal for a first run through. For FPS, I usually play on the hardest difficulty the first time to get used to the mechanics for multiplayer.

 

[Theninja'skatana]

Easy for fun(Closest thing to "God Mode" nowadays.
Insane/expert for acheivements

 

[Mikeyfell]

it really depends, of course i start on normal, but I never go down in difficulty
this philosophy fucked me over in call of duty because veteran difficulty is designed for some hypothetical future human with the reflexes of a cat on coffee who's had a 2 liter coke injected directly into it's heart
but in most games the only way to keep them interesting is to challenge myself
I don't understand people who play on easy
why i don't like playing Halo with friends because I try to throw it on Legendary and they insist that Easy is more fun,

for RPG's the harder the better, trying to play Oblivion as a light armored archer with the difficulty slider cranked all the way makes for some ridiculous fun

 

[Outright Villainy]

Normal. However if there is a higher normal (such as solid normal in Mgs4) I'll always go for that instead. It's a pretty great option, because it's hard to tell how daunting regular hard can be. It seems to be on the whim of the developer.
Compare Timesplitter 2's hard to Timesplitter 3's hard even, the former is impossible, and 3 hard mode is easier than normal in 2!

 

[Stewardesses]

Challenge in a video game for me is very fun, it get's my mind sharp, my fingers twitchy, and my death count high.

 

[Marik2]

I always go to insane because I dont want to play the same campaign twice. Now if its too hard then I just go back down a difficulty, but most of the time I go to insane.

 

[octafish]

Normal for a few levels, than I'll see if I need to go to hard, never easy though. For example: Fallout 3 I played Normal, then Hard, then I downloaded some mods untill I found the right balance.

 

[ICanBreakTheseCuffs]

most of the time normal or hard,it's more fun if you're trying to survive
insane only on cod 4 got through half of it

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I played Halo 3: ODST first through on Heroic(Hard) because that is what Bungie announced it was meant to be played on.

High Five.

[image/]http://media.funlol.com/content/img/internet-high-five.jpg[/IMG]
HIGH FIVE!

 

[L-J-F]

Since in most games the difficulty only makes the bad guys harder to kill, normal. If I'm playing a simulator like DCS Black Shark though, difficulty OVER 9000!!!