Azzanation said:
My point of view is different here. I see games designed around there difficulty. Some games even mention that the best way to play them are on the harder modes. Can you imagine a gamer who plays a game on easy when its meant to be played on hard where the A.I shines and after that gamer beats the game on easy, than comes out and says the game was average because he never played it the way the game was intended. I finished all the DK games on the SNES, the satisfaction of beating them all was amazing. In fact I finished Battletoads on the NES a long time ago and I felt like the king of gamers because only a couple of my friends could have completed the game at the time. I refinished Battletoads on Rare's Replay and aside from replaying such a legendary game, my satisfaction for completing it with the cheat of rewinding the game dropped immensely, plus just about every other friend of mine was able to finish it as well. The challenge of completely games as an option can ruin the experience for me. It still comes down to the game. I am playing Ashen atm and I am quite enjoying it. Every achievement I earn and my friends earn feel like we deserve it. Rather than seeing everyone rush and finish the game and obtaining all the achievements because they are playing the game on easy mode. That's just how I feel. |
There are different sections in games requiring different reaction times and/or memorization skills. There is no such thing as designing a game around one set difficulty for all. Besides who cares if they think it was average on easy, they would probably say it was shit if they got stuck and went to play something else instead. I would never recommend a game with only hard difficulty level to friends that only play occasionally.
Achievements have ruined gaming imo. Unlocking behind the scenes footage or concept art was at least something to strive for. The only thing they are good for is to check how far a friend is so you don't spoil the plot when talking about the game.
I don't mind hard games, I played Everquest for 4 or 5 years as an enchanter, hardest class in the game. I love the online competition in GT Sport and nowadays always start from the back without qualifying to see how far I can get through the field while avoiding all the crazy drivers online. However when I play a single player game I would like to have the option to skip bits (or make them easier) that I do not enjoy.
It depends on the game. Story driven, I don't care much for difficulty. Platformers, bring it on as long as the checkpoints are frequent and there is no loading between retries. Everyone has their own preferences. I grew up with PC gaming where difficulty is meaningless as everything can be modded anyway. I already altered the run-time library in civ.exe with a hex editor in '91 to re-balance the game for different challenges. Everquest was the first game where difficulty was locked as it was all online. Yet that ultimately made me abandon the game, no time to keep up with raids anymore to continue.
Anyway, if it's optional you can still beat it on the hardest difficulty level to feel satisfied and rub it in your friends faces when they only complete it on a lower difficulty. At least you can talk about the ending!
