The highest difficulty...

[MiracleOfSound]

Playing on the hardest difficulty can sometimes be challenging, rewarding experience and sometimes make you want to punch holes in walls (or heads).

So which games do you feel got thier uber-hard setting right?

And which failed horribly in providing you with anything other than rage and frustration?

For example:

Gears of War 2 on Insane was a nightmare due to Dom's AI and the fact that you had to save him everytime he ran out into a crossfire. It was utterly broken.

Oblivion on the hardest setting was just a boring endurance test.

Mass Effect 2's combat flaws are made more obvious on Insanity, I can't count how many times Miranda and Grunt have ignored orders, taken cover on the wrong side of cover, or run out in front of heavy mechs brandishing thier peashooters, or how many times Shepard decides to pop out of cover for no reason...

The one game I can think of that was challenging but fun on the highest setting was MW2. As much hate as it gets, the campaign was a blast on Veteran, unlike the other COD games.

Discuss who got it right and who got it all wrong, and why.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Let's see... Well, Dragon Age Origins on the highest difficulty is.... evil. I think it is rewarding to win a fight, but I wouldn't know, because it wouldn't stop kicking my ass!

Rockband and the like is fun on expert if you're good. Of course, there's always those sections that are just ridiculous.

InFamous was just that you died easier, so it wasn't that big of a deal if you didn't play like a moron and rushed all the enemies.

 

[ben117]

It has to be realistic on the r6 vegas games. Enimies would spawn behind you with a raging bull and in terrorist hunt its possible to run in to a spawn point and have them spawn in your face with a spaz.

 

[Mozza444]

Honestly... I never bother to even attempt to try the hardest difficulty in games. Nearly every one i have tried just gets me so frustrarted..

So i think fuck it, put it on easy and have fun.

 

[Professor Cubbage]

MW2 was a bit too easy, COD5 was an absolute pisstake with all the grenades and narrow levels, but I think COD4 got it right as it was challenging and extremely satisfying when you finally finish it.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Let's see... Well, Dragon Age Origins on the highest difficulty is.... evil. I think it is rewarding to win a fight, but I wouldn't know, because it wouldn't stop kicking my ass!

.

Dragon Age kicked my ass even on Normal difficulty man.

It's tough. Especially if you've never done that style of game before.

There were even parts on easy where I died a few times...

 

[Cherry Cola]

Let's see... Well, Dragon Age Origins on the highest difficulty is.... evil. I think it is rewarding to win a fight, but I wouldn't know, because it wouldn't stop kicking my ass!

.

Dragon Age kicked my ass even on Normal difficulty man.

It's tough. Especially if you've never done that style of game before.

There were even parts on easy where I died a few times...

Normal was so damn hard. But the good thing was that the game felt so rewarding when you did something. Like when I killed a dragon (the spoilerific one). At that moment I was so incredibly proud of myself that I had to hug me. I deserved it!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Honestly... I never bother to even attempt to try the hardest difficulty in games. Nearly every one i have tried just gets me so frustrarted..

So i think fuck it, put it on easy and have fun.

Nothing at all wrong with that.

Having fun is of course, the most important part, but sometimes more of a challenge can be fun too if it's not making you angry.

I guess play whichever setting feels like it has the right amount of challenge for your abilities.

For example, I will finish most shooters on the highest difficulty, but give me an RTS or fighting game and I will be wishing there was an easier setting than 'easy'.

Thank goodness Street Fighter 4 had 'very easy'...

 

[FactualSquirrel]

Well, TFU got it slightly wrong, due to the fact that there's an unskippable cutscene before a fight on the last level, which I must've watched at least 50 times.

MW2 got it okay, although it was a bit of a cakewalk for a hard mode.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Let's see... Well, Dragon Age Origins on the highest difficulty is.... evil. I think it is rewarding to win a fight, but I wouldn't know, because it wouldn't stop kicking my ass!

.

Dragon Age kicked my ass even on Normal difficulty man.

It's tough. Especially if you've never done that style of game before.

There were even parts on easy where I died a few times...

Normal was so damn hard. But the good thing was that the game felt so rewarding when you did something. Like when I killed a dragon (the spoilerific one). At that moment I was so incredibly proud of myself that I had to hug me. I deserved it!

I presume you mean

Spoiler

Flemeth

, yeah, that battle was a *****. Literally...

I really want to play it again now though. I got a fair bit through in on Normal after beating it on Easy.

But than ME2 came out...

 

[Cherry Cola]

Let's see... Well, Dragon Age Origins on the highest difficulty is.... evil. I think it is rewarding to win a fight, but I wouldn't know, because it wouldn't stop kicking my ass!

.

Dragon Age kicked my ass even on Normal difficulty man.

It's tough. Especially if you've never done that style of game before.

There were even parts on easy where I died a few times...

Normal was so damn hard. But the good thing was that the game felt so rewarding when you did something. Like when I killed a dragon (the spoilerific one). At that moment I was so incredibly proud of myself that I had to hug me. I deserved it!

I presume you mean

Spoiler

Flemeth

, yeah, that battle was a *****. Literally...

I really want to play it again now though. I got a fair bit through in on Normal after beating it on Easy.

But than ME2 came out...

Screw Star Wars Mass Effect, Middle-earth Dragon Age is waiting!

 

[D.L.390]

Crysis got it oh so very very right.

Halo 3's legendary was good.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R is impossible on anything harder than normal... For the average gamer anyway.
BF2 is good on hard.
AOE 3 is way too hard on the highest setting.


Can't remember any other games that deserve a mentioning...

 

[MiracleOfSound]

[
Screw Star Wars Mass Effect, Middle-earth Dragon Age is waiting!

When I finish ME2 on Insanity it'll be back to Ferelden.

Man, Bethesda would want to get TES5 out soon, my fanboy tendencies are slowly being drawn more in Bioware's direction every day...

 

[Cherry Cola]

[
Screw Star Wars Mass Effect, Middle-earth Dragon Age is waiting!

When I finish ME2 on Insanity it'll be back to Ferelden.

Man, Bethesda would want to get TES5 out soon, my fanboy tendencies are slowly being drawn more in Bioware's direction every day...

Damn them if they make F4 first, F3 got nothing on Oblivion!

 

[tetron]

I guess Devil May Cry always gets fun on the hardest difficulties. Mostly because enemies become actual enemies and they have the health for you to pull off some pretty cool shit. Personally I don't find todays games any kind of challenge unless I play them on the hardest difficulty.

 

[Kramcake2516]

Has to be splinter cell double agent for me felt well good when i finaly kicked its arse lol

 

[MiracleOfSound]

[
Screw Star Wars Mass Effect, Middle-earth Dragon Age is waiting!

When I finish ME2 on Insanity it'll be back to Ferelden.

Man, Bethesda would want to get TES5 out soon, my fanboy tendencies are slowly being drawn more in Bioware's direction every day...

Damn them if they make F4 first, F3 got nothing on Oblivion!

That hurt my feelings, F3 is my favorite game

But yeah, I'm pretty sure TES5 is next. They have all but confirmed it. And it will be wonderful.

 

[Nutcase]

Hard difficulty on Half-Life is tedious. It's okay for enemies to do a ton of damage and to act faster, but they should not withstand much more fire because that breaks the flow of the game. What is probably designed as a difficult assault on an enemy position, flanking them and not getting flanked, turns into prolonged sitting behind cover and taking potshots around a corner because you can't kill anything fast enough.

 

[Deadonstick]

The hardest difficulty would probably be in the command & conquer series, it's really really hard to get that right on max difficulty. The easiest max difficulty would probably be the original AVP from 1999 in the alien campaign, seeing as you insta-kill almost all opponents, only difference the hard setting makes from the easy setting is that the enemies have tougher guns (which they can't aim properly anyway and won't have time to use) and your health regenerates slower.

 

[TriggerHappyAngel]

ANY Fire Emblem game on Hard is HARD
also
Left 4 Dead can be a real pain in the ass on Expert