That's another thing. When did hardcore become associated with difficulty and genre?

I always though hardcore was a reference to how much you gamed, not to which games you played, how you played them or what you played them on.

There have been so many revolutionary distortions in how things are perceived this gen. Its like gaming has been completely redefined to fit various groups benefits.

I know what you mean but ultimately there is no such thing. There is no balance that fits all players. Some players plain suck while some are gaming Gods and there's everything in between.

Either you make several difficulty levels (99% of games) or you accept that the game will not attract players of all skills (1% of games).

Assassin's Creed tries to attract the large masses by being very easy and forgiving, but it will bore the people who love a challenge.

Dark Souls attracts people who love a challenge but scares away the rest.

Easy mode is good when you do not have much time to play on games and you just want to play through the game as quickly as possible. Easy mode is also good for younger and casual gamers.

You are right about its core meaning, but there's also a strong statistical relationship between how much a gamer plays and how skilled he is.

In other words: hardcore gamers - players who game a lot - are typically much more skilled than casual players, and typically they're also more interested in a challenge.

Why complain about a game mode that's entirely up to player to play it or not? besides AC games aren't really difficult

Assassin's creed may be easy to play, but they have done stuff to make it harder. If you played Brotherhood or Revelations, you would know that you have to complete a few extra objectives to get a full synch, but if you fail those, you only get half synch. It's lets you complete the game, if you are a new player but if you want a bit of the challenge, you will work for it.

While, games like Uncharted and Halo cater quite well with difficulty levels, which are very hard on their highest difficulties but easy on their lowest difficulties. It's better than it used to be in the 90's i say, with games like Mario being hard (it still is!)

this is coming from the creators of the easiest game i ever played? honestly i never got killed once in AC brotherhood and revelations from enemies killing me. i love AC but its WAY to easy.

The Assassin's Creed devs clearly aren't the best devs around. Hell, they announced that they will be releasing the Wii U version incomplete and they aren't even trying to make any improvements.

@bold. What makes you say that? One of the best games I've ever played.

I agree, I often choose the hardest difficulty setting when I really want to enjoy a game. I choose easy for my other, less important games.