Poll: What difficulty do you play on?

[Damien the Pigeon]

I start on normal difficulty mode, and then I take it up to harder difficulties after I beat the game (if I'm still interested). Then again, I would always play the hardest difficulty I could at the time when I played The World Ends With You. It depends on the game.

 

[Sir_Montague]

I'm always for the second hardest first and then the hardest difficulty so every game has some element of replay-ability and value to me after I have beaten it once...

 

[FLSH_BNG]

Depending on if its a style or genre of game that I'm used to, I will start on either the easy or normal difficulty levels. Once I'm confident that I'm good enough, then I play on the hardest.

Though, some games just have AI thicker than a bunker's walls so the difficulty setting is kind of meaningless.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Depends on the type of game...

I play story based games on Easy, so I can enjoy the story and I play most pure Action games on Normal (Medium) unless that play style is slap in the face hard.

 

[TommyGun465]

Medium, of course. Easy makes me feel like a wuss, while Hard makes me want to shoot myself, most times.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Medium most of the time. If I buy a game that is really difficult (i.e. God of War, Ninja Gaiden), word of it's difficulty will usually precede it and I'll set it to Easy the first time. Unfortunatley this will usually mean after I've beaten everything else, I'll skip the absolute highest one in favor of a different game, particularly with Metal Gear's 'Extreme' and 'European Extreme' modes.

Zelda should so have difficulty modes.

 

[Quick Ben]

Second hardest. That way I can replay the game later on hardest. But if it's a sequel to something I've played before I go for hardest straight away.

And I mostly pick hardest in RTS games because they're supposed to be a real challenge and that's often the only way of making sure the AI can beat me.

My general rule of thumb is: I should spend between 25%-40% of total play time redoing things because I failed/died/could have done them better. And I am actually completely fine with games having sequences where i want to map Quicksave and Quickload to MB4 and MB5.

 

[SnowCold]

Easy...

T_T

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Generally I start with whatever's the default. I don't think I've ever played on "Easy" mode in any game... if the default's too much for me, I generally don't bother finishing it. Then, on replays I ramp up the difficulty a notch each time... that extends replayability in a lot of games, and I'm cheap like that.

The only exception so far was Halo 3, because the studio itself said that "Normal" was designed for people new to the series and that veteran players would enjoy "Heroic" or "Legendary" more. I may do this for Gears of War 2, too, depending upon what the reviews say.

-- Steve

 

[KSarty]

Most games I just play on the default on my initial playthrough. If I like the game, I'll play through again on hard, and then again if theres another level of difficulty. RTS games though, I always start off on the hardest because those are the games I'm best at.

 

[D_987]

By the way, don't be fooled, the ones who voted on hardest are the noobs you see online shooting guns on full auto and spamming grenades in random directions.

I voted hardest because thats what I play....Gears of War on Insane, COD 4 on Vetren, Halo 3 on Legendary (Disk broke after cortana) are a few examples of games with a difficulty setting I actially completed(EDIT: Except for Halo 3) (most of the games on my GT are rented)

I assure you I don't spam grenade and I constantly come top in online matches (regardless of game)

 

[tendo82]

I used to be a medium/normal guy. Now I'm an easy guy with a few exceptions. I played Halo 3 on heroic because I don't care about the story and the enemy AI at heroic keeps the game interesting.

 

[raankh]

I leave it at the default. In a few rare cases I crank it up or down if the game somehow is to easy or difficult. When going down I usually go back up when I get better at the game in question.

I think the only game I've made a conscious choice to go for the highest difficulty setting was Loom, but since I have some musical schooling it was sort of a given. In case you aren't familiar with the ancient relic that is Loom: you learn spells by listening to musical notes and then replicate them to cast it; at the highest difficulty you are required to learn them by ear without any visual aids.

 

[BasicMojo]

Normal - Hard - Easy. Don't know why, but I've been doing it for so long now that the formula has simply become force of habit.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

By the way, don't be fooled, the ones who voted on hardest are the noobs you see online shooting guns on full auto and spamming grenades in random directions.

I assure you I don't spam grenade and I constantly come top in online matches (regardless of game)

Yes. Let's hook you up to a polygraph test. There is one type of game that I will always play on Easy, and that is games that are known for being hard.

 

[zirnitra]

I usually start complete on medium first, then replay on hardest for achivements etc. the only exception is guitar hero/rock band where I start at easy and always work myself through all the difficulties.

 

[CoziestPigeon]

First try is always Hard. Then, after a sound thumping, I move it up to hardest, and usually never finish again.

 

[runtheplacered]

i go to second hardest first to get a feel for the game and then i play hardest if there are achievements for it.

This.

 

[CoziestPigeon]

By the way, don't be fooled, the ones who voted on hardest are the noobs you see online shooting guns on full auto and spamming grenades in random directions.

I voted hardest because thats what I play....Gears of War on Insane, COD 4 on Vetren, Halo 3 on Legendary (Disk broke after cortana) are a few examples of games with a difficulty setting I actially completed(EDIT: Except for Halo 3) (most of the games on my GT are rented)

I assure you I don't spam grenade and I constantly come top in online matches (regardless of game)

You can also assure me you don't spell very well.