I get your point.

But, first and foremost, games are meant to be fun TO PLAY. Final Fantasy XIII was 7 hours of pressing forward and x before anything happened. It was atrocious! And since we're on the subject of FFXIII, the story really wasn't very good.  The characters weren't great and some of the voice acting was terrible. Graphics and sound was great. But if that's what gets your engine running you REALLY should rather game on PC.

"I always start with the "normal" difficulty as it seems to be the right choice. If there is a trophy for beating a game on the hardest difficulty level I play it and normally I can beat it... but I don't like to replay a game on various difficulty levels. I prefer 1 long playthrough where you can gain 100%."

- playing for trophies has never been part of this conversation. It's quite lame if that's someone's motivation.

- you sound very whiney in this paragraph. I mean really. What on earth does, "I prefer 1 long playthrough where you can gain 100%" figure into any of this!? If you only want to play a game on normal and only play it once then be my guest. But your so called 100% most asuredly doesn't mean you experienced the game mechanics the way they were meant to be.

"Take Demon's Souls. It is a game that is famous for its difficulty level, but on the storytelling side this game was really lacking... Most of the time I was running around questioning what this whole game is about. I managed to get the Platinum trophy, but I did not like the game. There was nothing there to get me interesting in replaying the game."

You got a platinum in Demon's Souls with this attitude!!!?!?!?!

I DON'T BELIEVE YOU! PROVE IT!

That is a major point I'm trying to make in this thread. Some people here seem unable to grasp it.

Alarm bells are ringing in my head. Here are my issues with what you have said:

- People who have finished the Souls games don't classify them as difficult, yet you give off the impression that you did.

- You say you didn't like the game. People who finish it love it. Almost all of them.

- You said you didn't find it interesting enough to replay it, yet you got the platinum trophy.

These three things imply that you are lying about finishing it. Not only that, but saying there was no story!? COMEON. The untold lore in DS is exactly the reason it is so foreboding and awesome. You sir need to prove you've platinum'd it or gtfo.

Thanks Obama!

in my opinion, "normal" is the default setting that is supposed to be the most balanced one. it's how the developers originally intended the game to be played.

sure, the game shouldn't be too easy but it shouldn't be too hard either.

if I really like a game and the normal setting is no challenge anymore I like to play it again on hard but I think reviewers should definitely play games on normal.

I agree that reviewers should state the difficulty they played on and time it took them to complete the game. I can't comment on South Park specifically though (as I haven't played the game)...

EDIT: @ Dr. Grass:
I don't know who you've been talking too but I've beaten Demon Souls and I can say with complete confidence that it was tough as nails!

Definetely.

Reviewers today seem to be such lazy gamers. Most of them barely play 1 hour of a game to make a proper review. 

Do movie critics watch half a movie before writing a critic of it? Of course not. Do culinary critics eat half a meal to review it? Of course not.

It would be ideal that the game should be played entirely, that is to say, all the story mode at least before making a review, but some games are just too long for that, then the reviewer should indicate the time they spent with it.

Wait, are you serious?

-So, no one is allowed not to have liked the game just because some people who finished it, said they liked it?

-Some consider souls games easy and others don't.I thought they are difficult. If you call souls games not difficult, then what are Mario/Kingdom of Amalur games? Still an opinion to which he's entitled.

-Ever heard of people playing countless hours just to get a platinum? You think people enjoy grinding when going for a platinum? I've trying platinuming some games, and had to replay the games even though I didn't want to.

Accusing someone of lying is seriously not cool, dude. Especially with your incredibly flawed logic.

He's stating his opinion.

I don't really understand this thread. Normal is considered default and should be the difficulty level chosen by reviewers, as it is going to be the overwhelming choice of consumers. If a reviewer does not state the level they played on, it should be assumed they played on normal.

If a game is so easy on Normal that a reviewer bumps up the difficulty level, I can understand that, but I can also understand if a reviewer keeps the game at the level they started for the sake of continuity.

"A game is meant to be fun, and when things are too easy it's not fun (like Final Fantasy XIII which sucked balls)."

You single out Final Fantasy XIII as an example of an easy game? ...Really?