Yeah that's why it's a marketing term.  You call something "hardcore" when you're trying to convince fanboys that it's really really cool and made just for them and nobody else.  And then it usually loses a bunch of money.  I don't think it makes sense either.  It seems like Tetris is the most hardcore game of all time, the most casual game of all time, and the most successful game of all time.

Maybe "hardcore" just means "intentionally niche?"

ikaruga <---most hardcore game out there

It's not "cool"core but "Hard"core as hardcore usually has a steep learning curve.

 Mario Kart = casual since you can totally suck at driving yet have no trouble racing on MK. No knowledge of  Real-life physics required.  
 

F1:CE (ps3) =  very hardcore as knowledge of how real physics required and  lots and lots  of practicing around track to have any chance of winning even on easy settings.

 F1:2010 = part hardcore part casual as most gamers don't have the patience to learn a hardcore sim like F1:CE

 As far which is cooler I would say Mario Kart is clearly the winner.

I think what Rubang doesn't get is that games are evolving.

Nowadays almost every single game has a difficulty selection, so casual and core players can play and enjoy the same game.

No need to make only ultra hard games, because every game can be easy and incredibly hard at the same time.

So.. Have you beaten Halo 3 single player on legendary with all the skulls enabled? No? That's what I thought.

Difficulty levels are a crutch for developers who have a poor grasp of how to make a rewarding difficulty curve, at least in some games. Obviously some are more suited to skill levels, but i hate this mentality of "why don't they just put difficulty levels in so that those who want a challenge can have it and those that don't won't." Something so blunt as difficulty settings should not be the key that makes the experience different for different users.

No I don't really have the time.  I only played it a little bit and didn't really like it.  But if you're doubting my 1337 gaming skillzorz, I must let you know I play Doom on Nightmare Mode and I speedrun SMB1, and when I was younger and had more free time I could beat Contra without the Konami code.

Most games that are really hard these days are hard either due to frustrating controls, poor design, or a need for rote memorization of all enemies.  Or all three really.

They don't make FPS games as hard as Doom's Nightmare Mode anymore.  At one point id Software admitted they threw that difficulty in there as an impossible joke and never expected people to get used to it (I'm definitely not used to it, I can probably only beat half the game that way).  Every single enemy in the game respawns after 8 seconds so you can never stop to catch your breath.  There's no auto-aim, or health regeneration, or save points, and you just run faster with a mouse and keyboard, and so do the enemies.

I don't care for your gaming skills. You just say stuff like Halo is easy when you haven't even played it through on the hardest setting.

Memorization? Are you sure that you aren't talking about NES-games, like megaman and so on?

When a game isn't fun, I don't turn up the difficulty.  I just stop playing.

Halo IS easier than Doom.  I played Halo 1 on Legendary and Doom 1 on Nightmare Mode.  That's my comparison for you.