The highest difficulty...

[Alarien]

If the game is good enough to make me want to play through it twice, then I consider playing on the harder settings. Most games I play on normal or the first of the "harder" settings.

That said:

COD4 MW1+2 were both ok on Veteran.

ME1 and 2 are both good on Insanity, but they take the game's combat from being a good mix of difficulty and progression and slow it down a bit too much. I actually prefer Veteran or Hardcore, just on a fun factor level.

I do not play most action games on their harder settings (i.e. Bayonetta, God of War, DMC), mostly because they are still playable, but it takes so many reloads as to be frustratingly un-fun. For example, with Bayonetta, I got through Normal without any problems. Hardly ever reloaded, then tried hard and the difficulty went through the roof. Yes, it was still beatable, but it was no longer entertaining to play.

 

[-Seraph-]

The highest difficulty in Gears of War is total bullshit for the fact that instead of just making you die quicker, they decided "hey lets make the locust fucking damage sponges even more than they are and make the lancer a rapid fire BB gun". Yea....fuck you Gears, I love you and you are fun, but you insane difficulty is poorly balanced bullshit.

Crysis on the other hand was a blast on Delta difficulty. I actually couldn't be bothered to play it on any other setting because I thought it was too easy. Then I got into Delta and it was hard without being obnoxious about it like so many games do. I really brought out the potential of your suit and got the creative juices pumping when it came to handling situations. So many fun ways to kill enemies. The improved AI mod made the game even better too....just leave the gore option off unless you want to see chunks of meat fly out of your enemy lol.

 

[the_tramp]

Modern Warfare 2 needed another difficulty in my opinion, I walked through Veteran. Yes I died a lot but that was mostly due to stupidity on my part, COD4MW did it quite well in that I easily did some levels and some were very challenging [waiting for the helicopter to arrive in Chernobyl anyone!?].

I've recently finished a vanilla run through Crisis Core: FFVII on hard [e.g. a first-time play through, not an easy->hard replay where I'm levelled up]. Now THAT was a challenge but I loved ever minute of it, despite the combat being a slug-fest of hit this enemy 100 times whilst dodging constantly as enemies were often 50% damage with one hit, rising to 90-150% later in the game. For those not aware your health maxes out at 9999 and you have to have done a load of side quests to unlock the break 9999 health limit, however a lot of bonus bosses and even a few of the latter bosses did over 9999 damage [insert over 9000 joke here /sarcasm]

Despite it being a ***** and wanting to kill the game I loved it, maybe I'm just sadistic. The only thing that game needed was a skip-cutscene button... god there's only so many times you can hear Zack say 'And...? And? And? And?' without muting the game, walking away and coming back 2 minutes later.

 

[Hobo Joe]

Oh yes - now I've remembered I feel that Fallout 3's Very Hard mode was still too easy what with the infinite instant-healing stimpaks and so on. Hopefully Fallout:New Vegas will present more of a challenge with the much-toted hardcore mode.

 

[shadow741]

Hardest difficulty would HAVE to be S.T.A.L.K.E.Rs hardest. If easy is hard as hell, imagine the hardest mode. (I most likely got ninja'd but I'm too lazy to check)

 

[Sleekgiant]

I find CoD games frustrating because of the infinite enemy respawns(haven't played MW2 yet).Halo 3 Legendary wasn't bad at all, especially two player co-op. Fallout 3 just made all your enemies take tons of damage, so nothing special there.

 

[jimduckie]

gee i found that mgs4 was a ***** on the max difficulty play through but also i learned that i could do it ... now that fallout new vegas is coming out soon i'll play fallout 3 on very hard just to see if i can do it ... yeah it helps having some time to play too

then there is racing games , playing forza 3 on the hard setting makes the driving sim real but i don't have to pay for smashing a million dollar car which is great ... oh and adding the steering wheel would be nice but the controller will do

 

[Byrn Stuff]

I typically play games on the hard or normal setting. I like them to be challenging, but not frustratingly so. In the beginning, I want to experience a game and its nuances. Afterwards, I consider going back to play the highest difficulty settings, but I almost never do. That's mostly a matter of me never replaying video games I've already beaten.

 

[Halleys5th]

The new Macintosh game Return to Dark Castle never even lets you see the ending unless you beat the game on the hardest difficulty setting, which seems impossible at first but becomes more feasible when you've played through at easier settings. It's completely worth it. The game is the most fun when it has the highest density of challenging situations to figure out how to get past.

Return to Dark Castle plays like a 2D version of the likewise excellent Demon's Souls, and provides a similar level of excitement and jubilation at succeeding. These games have ruined cutscene-heavy, partially-non-interactive games for me, especially those where the interactive part is mindlessly easy, or where they have the same result no matter how badly you do.

 

[CheckD3]

The God of War games did it right. It's challenging to the point that each boss takes awhile to figure out how to beat them, and then another while to put it to practice. The 2nd part of Ares boss battle is near impossible as well.

Though question, am I the only one who gets kinda upset that you have to beat the game first to unlock the real hardest mode? Because I started playing God of War 1+2 on the hardest modes since my friend had unlocked them, but when 3 comes out, I can't start the game on the hardest difficulty and learn it as I go on, which makes it a little easier, taking some of the difficulty away

 

[monkey_man]

Brutal Legend (ps3) failed in the hardest setting. I started it in the niveau, and though i accidentally clicked easy...

But Prototype (ps3) is really good in hard.. when you get to fight, not to protect, that is reaaaalyyy hard

 

[monkey_man]

The God of War games did it right. It's challenging to the point that each boss takes awhile to figure out how to beat them, and then another while to put it to practice. The 2nd part of Ares boss battle is near impossible as well.

Though question, am I the only one who gets kinda upset that you have to beat the game first to unlock the real hardest mode? Because I started playing God of War 1+2 on the hardest modes since my friend had unlocked them, but when 3 comes out, I can't start the game on the hardest difficulty and learn it as I go on, which makes it a little easier, taking some of the difficulty away

i envy you... i never got to Ares on God mode.. stuck on the minotaur..
and the god of war 2.. yeah. stuck there too


and yes. it is bad to finish a game, to replay it in a harder mode..
BUT if the game rocks, it should not be a problem (and about taking some difficulty away, it only saves you time, right?)

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Devil May Cry 3's Dante Must Die and Heaven vs Hell difficulty...Good God those were a ***** but in the end i got rewarded with Virgil as an unlockable character then got to kill everything with Yamato

 

[derelict]

How about differences between platforms on the same game? Original halo for Xbox: played co-op on legendary and we beat the game, eventually. Legendary on PC = enemies with x-ray vision that took 2 full clips of ammo to the face to kill. Never got past the crash recovery mission.

 

[Look-a-Hill]

Uncharted and Uncharted 2.
Crushing on Uncharted was a horrible experience. Crushing on Uncharted 2 was the best thing about the game. I thought it was fairly rubbish on the whole but Crushing makes me want to play it again.

Also finishing a Metal Gear Solid game on the highest setting is always extremely satisfying.

 

[ChipSandwich]

-Devil May Cry, IMO, gets it quite right. Dante Must Die mode is very challenging but quite doable if you have the skills. When I started DMC4 (first one I played), I was getting Cs and Bs on the easiest difficulty. 2 months later, S ranked every mission on Dante Must Die. DMC3 ups the ante considerably, but it's still very fun, although it's hell for OCD since I can't SS every mission .

-I've always had a thing for Halo's Legendary difficulty setting. It doesn't leave a lot of room for experimentation, but the action is heavy without being TOO overbearing. It does require a bit of planning, but nothing too complex. 2 and 3 didn't do it so well though. In a nutshell, 2 is too hard and 3 is too easy. Luckily with 3 you can just turn on all of the skulls .

-MW2 on Veteran is easy. WAW is bullshit insanity. 4 is a good balance. Ferris Wheel on Veteran is probably my favorite level.

-Mass Effect 2 is decent. Being forced out of cover is annoying, until you realise that it' because of Harbinger's warp attack which, surprise surprise, is designed to force you out of cover. Move a bit to the left or right when he launches the black fireball. Getting bum-rushed is annoying though.

-I've only played the first xbox Ninja Gaiden on Very Hard, but I did manage to cheap my way through some enemies (ever heard of "turtling"?). Still, you won't get through the game unless you're very good at it, the Alma boss fight in particular being a brick wall to most people.

-I Wanna Be The Guy's highest difficulty setting is pretty funny . Although there are quite a lot of people in Japan who've cleared Impossible Mode, but, well... you know. The highest realistic difficulty setting, Very Hard, is still pretty hard, but tbh, this is one of those games where the first time is the worst.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

With the exceptions of Azazel and Seth, Tekken 6 and Street Fighter IV are pretty damn fun on maximum difficulty.

 

[UberLemonBoy]

Original Devil May Cry 3
Dante Must Die is the apropriate name for that difficulty

 

[Jolly Madness]

HAWX is quite broken, less ammo and more damage (you can only survive being hit once with a missile). The AI doesn't get any smarter or anything, just more damage and less ammo. ARGH

Must be horrible as I remember some levels being murder on easy.

Seriously? I cleared that game on elite difficulty in off mode 95% of the time xD

 

[joshthor]

mirrors edge didnt do it right, though i do love the game. i like how you had to unlock the highest difficulty, but even then it wasnt much more difficult.