After witnessing the rumpus sparked by Ninja Gaiden being difficult (j00z a n00b1 Iz el1t3 cus Iz playing on h4rd111) and remembering the screaming matches on games like mario sunshine (itz so easy I play it when dead Like my gr4n c4n finish it111) and Devil May Cry (izz rock hard but Iz el1te dudz cus I beats it in 2 minutes111), also the subject on MTW game difficulty in the main hall (yay, it's in proper English) I thought I'd try for a more readable and wide ranging discussion on the subject

Do you like selectable difficulties for games?

Do you like a choice from the get go like in MTW or so you like having to unlock difficulties (die 5 times for easy mode, beat the game for hard etc)

Most importantly: What is your preferred difficulty? Do you like dying many times and fighting your way through a real tough challenge or do you prefer to die 3 times at most on each boss or hard bit and have a relatively smooth trip?



Personally I have played and beaten many games that are acknowledged as very hard, I have also played many easy games. So which did I prefer? Probably the easy ones, Don't get me wrong I had a fantastic few years plugging away at X-Wing and its sequel, TIE Fighter. Each victory was well earned and satisfying, in the end I did have some really good skills but there are some missions I was stuck on for literally months...I still remember half the com chatter for the first mission of the fifth campaign in TIE Fighter for this reason. Repeating bits over and over gets dull, after 5 or so goes I begin to get fed up and feel like I am wasting my precious time. Same goes for many of the other hard games.

That's not to say I love very easy games, I do like a challenge. MTW's battles have lost their appeal, lost it ages ago because I can beat the AI on hard when taking on two 16 unit enemy armies with just my one. Easy, far too easy, mostly because they won’t attack in concert so I get to rout one before taking on the other. It is not as if I am some kind of expert player either, merely average at best. Now Shogun TW is another matter, the AI can still kick my froggy rear from time to time and I really do have to work for victory on a suprising number of occasions. Final Fantasy is another series I have found rather dull because they are too easy, the older ones are hardish but the new ones...hum. I only died twice in Final Fantasy VII , both deaths were on the first boss due to a translation error - I got told to attack it while its tail is up rather than the correct don't attack it while its tail is up, leaving me to get hit my super attacks turn after turn I didn't know you could just pick 'defend' and do nothing, I had been playing some other game where defend just launched a weaker attack. I didn't die once in Final Fantasy VIII, have yet to die in Final Fantasy X, since I have the PAL version I will be able to take on the dark aeons if I feel like it, that is supposed to be really tough but maybe too little, too late. Final Fantasy IX however is another story - that game kills me more than I'd wish All things considered the series doesn't seem to have a fair middle ground, I do actually prefer getting killed in IX to being bored in VII. Hundreds of easy battles are tedious.

I also found Knights of the Old Republic very easy, I think my party died once, twice at most. There were only two fights I found really tough, and one for less fair reasons:
Spoiler Alert! Highlight to read. The fight against Davik is the hardest in the game for me. The Battle with Saul almost always leaves my characters with just a couple of HP remaining. Malak was tough the first time but only because I couldn’t harm his Jedi and had to fight him 8 times [/QUOTE]
Thing is I didn't really care about KOTOR being so easy, I was playing more for the story and dying would have interrupted that.