It depends on my mood. If a game is intentionally being unfair I go easy. If the game's combat is stale but the story is good I go easy. Those are the only times I go easy mode. Most of the time it's normal.

I usually go for normal. If i really like the game I go for hard on my next play. Unless someone advices to play on hard from the start because normal is too easy (God Of War III for example)

Always the hardest it can be, especially nowadays.

Except for some survival horrors game like silent hill 2 (and resident evil gamecube, chris is the hard mode, i begin with jill), because i was freaking scared with this game.

Easy for games I don't feel confident with (FPS, TPS, strategy games...), and hard with genres I feel confident with.

I always go with the default difficulty which is pretty much always Normal.

Used to be the "hard" level during my Uni days, now that time is more valuable to me, I usually play normal.

Usually normal. With Far Cry 3, I felt brave and chose hard. Still pretty easy.

Also, I don't like dynamic difficulty level. I don't want the game to adapt to my playing. If some part of a game is hard, I want to beat it by improving instead of the game pitying me. And if I improve, I want to feel more skilled instead of the game making it more difficult. That is also the reason I find some games very annoying towards the end: the game keeps throwing stronger and stronger enemies to be difficult. It kinda breaks immersion a lot of the time.

Normal, like it was meant to be played.

Then if I happen to be interested in a game enough to play it so much I know it like the back of my hand, I'll play it in a harder difficulty, like the Hero Modes in recent Zelda rereleases. That's very rare though.

Usually normal, but if I hear a game is a little too easy I'll play it on hard.

The only thing worse than being stuck in a spot because you can't beat it....
is feeling like you're just playing it to get it over with because it's too easy.

Always hard first.

Also, people dont realize it, but hard mode is what makes you efficient and smart.
For example, when I first played killzone 2, I did what I could to beat the level, and parts were hard but I made it through them by refining my skills and understanding the map.
When I played it on the hardest difficulty, I realized that some parts were actually impossible to beat the way I had approached them, so I had to think of something else, to look outside the box. The answer, was run and gun and melee.

I didn't think there would be any other way. It took hard mode to make me understand that there was a better way.


ie;
"sometimes, less difficulty makes it easier to accomplish the wrong way to do things."