Preferred difficulty for non-strategy games

[frogbeastegg]

You load you your new game, and when you are offered a choice of difficulty you pick ...

This is the final entry in that series of topics I started a while back.

Strategy games are not included because I am working on the assumption that nearly all of us will play them on the hardest setting we can manage, excepting games which feature cheating AI. They are an entirely different topic, and I doubt I want to start that one.



I usually go with normal, unless the game is a FPS. My uber 1337 FPS skillz require me to play on easy.

[Andres]

Nowadays, I always chose "normal". And if "normal" is too much trouble, I even switch to easy or easiest if available.

After a hard day's work, I want to play my game without much effort, because my feeble brains need rest.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I even play RTW most of the time on Medium/Medium

It's probably a form of laziness Or maybe I'm just a wuss.

[Kekvit Irae]

Depends on what game it is. If it's Condemned 2, I prefer FPS mode (harder than hard, but with infinity ammo). If it's Bioshock, Normal.

[TinCow]

I picked Hard, but it depends on the genre. I've been playing FPS games for so long now that I tend to go right for the hardest difficulty level, unless that level is equivalent to one-shot kills. At most I'm one notch down from the highest difficulty on FPS games the first run through, simply because nothing else is challenging. A second run through is always at the max difficulty possible.

RPGs are generally done at normal or 'core rules' if that is an option. Same with simulator games. I also tend to take the evil path first, if that is a choice in a game.

[Veho Nex]

I always pick the hardest I can, play a few level on it and beat it if possible then it just becomes so easy to go down to normal and easy

[Fragony]

Not too hard, Halo's heroic is just about perfect.

[PBI]

If I'm playing an FPS, it's generally because I'm taking a break from proper "grown-up" games like TW, so I generally go for normal, since I want to be able to cruise through without too much exertion.

[Raz]

I'll play it on normal to get a feel for it... After the first level I'll almost always switch over to a more difficult setting. Unless I get stuck a few levels later and then I'll switch it back down to normal. I always laugh at games that give you access to the Easy setting if you've died a certain amount of times... Like Devil May Cry. If you fail two or three times it'll say "You have unlocked easy mode"... what an achievement.

[FactionHeir]

If its a RPG, then normal.
If its a FPS, very hard.

As such I voted both

[RabidGibbon]

I always go for easy on a FPS, just to y'know, get a 'feel' for the game. Then once I've got a 'feel' for the game I decide I can't be bothered playing through the bits I've completed again on another difficulty level and finish it on easy.

(I make an Exception for co-op games, as my brother in law (usual team mate) is much, much better than me at FPS, so we'll play on a harder difficultly level and I'll just blaze away unhelpfully in the background.)

I can't think of any other games I play that aren't strategy or FPS. Oh except for RPG's of course. Normally go for easy on them too, see above for reasoning.

[Xiahou]

I always default to 'normal' and change it only if necessary. If I pick 'easy' I can't shake the feeling that I'm playing the kiddie version and hard and above usually means making it unnecessarily frustrating.

[Craterus]

Normal. But I'll notch it up after a few levels if I'm finding it easy.

[drone]

Usually start on normal. Depending on the type/length/fun level of the game, I will either finish it there, or restart on a more difficult level before I get too far in.

[TevashSzat]

I usually go for the hardest on rpgs/fpss mainly because I have rarely ever found them to be challenging in single player. Only games I usually set to normal are rts games since it takes a while to learn build orders/ general tactics in every game

[Csargo]

Normal usually

[Martok]

I nearly always start with the easiest setting. Aside from strategy titles, I pretty much suck at video games.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Hard for FPS's. I'm usually pretty good at them.

Hard as possible w/o AI cheating on games like the Total war games.

Normal for game like Civilization.

CR

[Ice]

Not too hard, Halo's heroic is just about perfect.

I thought heroic was hard until I finally beat the game on legendary. That consisted of me replaying some parts 20+ times and swearing at my tv.

[The Foolish Horseman]

always on Hard or very hard.


I like a challenging game.......although perosnally i found bioshock too easy even on the hardest setting,, but thats just me.

[doc_bean]

Normal, pretty much always. It's how the game was meant to be played.

[CountArach]

Normal on my first play through so I can get a feel for the game and I can go through teh storyline. After that though I ramp it up a bit.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Start on Easy although, once I've got the essential grasp, I either up the difficulty to Normal or start a new game on Normal if the former is not possible. I may later move on to hard, but these FPS and similar games seem to follow a fixed almost unchangeable storyline which makes multiple plays quite uninteresting - a bit like watching the same film several times over.

[Quirinus]

I don't normally progress beyond 'Normal' difficulty-- aside from the fact that I'm a mediocre gamer, I don't like it when the enemy gets health/attack/wjatever bonuses (or when I get penalties). If I really like a game that I play again and again, I might progress to a higher difficulty if the only bonuses the AI gets are accuracy, reaction speed or intelligence, in other words, simulating more skilled opponents instead of merely opponents who are harder to kill.

The highest difficulty I've gotten to was Expert on Condition Zero, back when I was playing daily with other human players, but once I stopped, everything sort of just slipped away. Now I can play maybe on Normal or Hard only.

[Kongamato]

If the focus of the game is the story, like an RPG I'll play on Normal. A high difficulty level in games like that usually just adds extra enemies or lowers your strength. If the game is action-oriented, like Max Payne or Painkiller, then I usually replay at the highest difficulty level, as extra enemies means extra fun.

There are also player-enforced difficulty levels, such as ghosting in Thief or Iron-Manning a certain mission. In SWAT 4, I often played on Hard difficulty and only used lethal primary weapons. Back in the original Counter-Strike I would often go knife-only for the unique challenge. I've never done a speedrun before, but there appears to be a sizable cult of folks who do this.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Normal, pretty much always. It's how the game was meant to be played.

I agree with you and Omanes.

[Xehh II]

I start on normal, then, depending if it's hard or easy, I change to difficulty accordingly.

[Mikeus Caesar]

I've only ever completed one game on super-mega-uber-make-you-want-to-cry-difficulty, and that was Halo on Legendary with a friend. We were up for two days doing that. Considering how it was the first real shooter we'd ever played (Unreal Tournament doesn't count at all), we were quite proud.

But god, did that send us crazy or what. I hate the Library, with a passion.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
Solely depends on the game, my reverend lady. Sometimes it means little. For instance in good old Sea Dogs difficulty level only determines the number of free skill points you get upon rank promotion. Easy gives 5 and it gets lesser. Just for the sake of those free skill points I've always played on easy.
.

[Bob the Insane]

I play a lot of FPS's...

Because I rarely replay them (at least not for a significant period of time) I like to go in at Hard to start with to make it last longer...

I avoid the Impossible, Nutcase difficulty levels usually... I want a challenge, but I don't want to be fustrated...

Sometimes (in newer CoD games for one example) playing on the highest difficulty level can alter the dynamic of the game in a good way. No longer and you run and gun the whole game, you must pay some respect to the enemy, fight from cover and think about what you are doing...

[Husar]

Usually Normal, and usually I'll stick with that. Except in Mount & Blade where I put everything on hardest except combat speed to slow simply because I'm a slow person ion general, which may also explain why I play other games on normal usually. When a game forces me to hurry and be faster, that's stressful and the fun ends for me, so I usually stick with normal, I may try a bit higher if normal is too easy but usually it's fine and if the AI just gets more hitpoints or so I often don't like it, similar to what Quirinus says.