I think people are really missing something here.

Difficulty is not the same thing as punishing the player.

Some games, you can die a lot but it doesn't really hurt you except you have to start that particular encounter over.  Other games, dying can bring with it all kinds of negatives, such as losing resources or having to redo entire sections.

Personally, I don't mind challenging or dying but I really get annoyed with additional punishments for failing.

So, you don't want to lose half your HP bar when you die? :(

Give me a hard mode and i wont be bothered at all by this

Only masochists want that!

A lot of people don't mind hard games but hate harsh penalties for failing.  I know games that make me pay with currency for dying really frustrate me ...

Different difficulty levels.

Problem solved.

Again, even hard mode wasn't a challenge to gamers on Gamescom. But it was an early build and such a game can easily made more difficult.

Agree. Just give people various dificulty levels, like easy, normal, hard and finally stolckom syndrome dificulty.

That's what happened in Demon's Souls. Whenever you died, half your bar was lost until you recovered your own body (which is no easy task). When you have your body, you regain your HP bar to its original status, until you die again.

I really like it hard and punishing.
I always ask my partner to go all out.

Wait... wrong thread.