Difficulty settings - What do you pick?

[racketboy]

I stick with the defaults unless I feel dangerous -- which isn't very often

[Ack]

To be honest, while increasing damage and health might work for more arcadish games, something like Resident Evil 4 would be suited with an enemy AI improvement. If all the computer is gonna do is more damage, I feel as if there's almost no point for me to run through a title like that, because it doesn't really make me think any harder on what to do. Fewer healths might make me hesitate a bit before going into a room, but if I can beat the game the same way I did on normal or easy, I don't really feel it was very hard.

Resident Evil 4 would be impossible with smarter AI. Enemies already outnumber you, and certain enemies in the game have the element of surprise, plus extra speed and terrain advantages working to their advantage. And it's not like Leon has that many moves to work with. Plus, some of the bosses would rape you if they were any smarter. RE 4 does the increased damage thing on Pro difficulty and some enemies seem to take more hits to kill and I think it works better that way. I just hate how they ruined the helicopter sequence

Most people stumbled their way through RE 4 using lots of health items along the way. Forcing players to avoid getting hit so much is a good way to make the game more challenging in my opinion. It's a survival horror game, your character is supposed to be fragile and easy to kill so its good to make players have to avoid getting hit on Pro.

Now I can see other types of games benefiting from smarter AI, but that should already be present on normal difficulty. There's no excuse for dumb enemies in a game, unless they have many other advantages over you already. In which case, the player's ability to outsmart the enemy is the only way to succeed without lots of health loss or death

Actually, I didn't really find the AI all that intelligent anyway. But the purpose of hard is to make the game hard, and outside of the instant kill cut scenes and a few boss fights, I didn't think Resident Evil 4 was all that difficult...

Either way, I'm glad we agree about not needing dumb enemies in games. Honestly, dealing with poor AI in some games...well, it tends to lower my opinion of the game. Going back to an old game like Mario, not so much, but something like Half-Life having dumb AI just wouldn't work.

[Niode]

I tend to crank the difficulty on most games. Especially Rock Band/Guitar Hero. I learnt to play Guitar Hero 1 when it first came out on Hard, screw medium or easy. I comped GH1 on Expert after about a week of solid playing. Played every single one since then at Expert level only and completed them all. I'm currently working through GH3 again on 360 to get the achievements. (yes I own 2 copies of it on 2 formats, im looking at buying GH2 on 360 if anyone is selling btw ).

Games like DMC or Ninja Gaiden I tend to play on normal as they are hard as nails anyway and then work my way up. I played MGS and MGS 2 with radar off. I comped MGS2 on European Extreme mode. Comped MGS3 on hard and MGS3:S on hard.

Generally I like to increase the challenge to the max (either straight away if i'm confident in a game or I work my way up), I get a bigger rush when I achieve things when I do it that way.

[equalsign]

I usually pick normal. I feel that developers should create the closest thing to their ideal vision and experience of the game at that setting, so I usually consider it the definitive version. If that makes any sense...

[UBERTRON777]

I think rhythm games are different to others when concerning difficulty. It seems like it is the creator's intention for the person to be playing at expert eventually, where in other games the creator could care less.

[Pingfa]

Normal. Generally, I don't get much enjoyment out of games I can just glide through (e.g. GTA) but it's no use going in on the hardest mode when you haven't learned the technicalities. I like to work my way up, personally.

[Gamerforlife]

To be honest, while increasing damage and health might work for more arcadish games, something like Resident Evil 4 would be suited with an enemy AI improvement. If all the computer is gonna do is more damage, I feel as if there's almost no point for me to run through a title like that, because it doesn't really make me think any harder on what to do. Fewer healths might make me hesitate a bit before going into a room, but if I can beat the game the same way I did on normal or easy, I don't really feel it was very hard.

Resident Evil 4 would be impossible with smarter AI. Enemies already outnumber you, and certain enemies in the game have the element of surprise, plus extra speed and terrain advantages working to their advantage. And it's not like Leon has that many moves to work with. Plus, some of the bosses would rape you if they were any smarter. RE 4 does the increased damage thing on Pro difficulty and some enemies seem to take more hits to kill and I think it works better that way. I just hate how they ruined the helicopter sequence

Most people stumbled their way through RE 4 using lots of health items along the way. Forcing players to avoid getting hit so much is a good way to make the game more challenging in my opinion. It's a survival horror game, your character is supposed to be fragile and easy to kill so its good to make players have to avoid getting hit on Pro.

Now I can see other types of games benefiting from smarter AI, but that should already be present on normal difficulty. There's no excuse for dumb enemies in a game, unless they have many other advantages over you already. In which case, the player's ability to outsmart the enemy is the only way to succeed without lots of health loss or death

Actually, I didn't really find the AI all that intelligent anyway. But the purpose of hard is to make the game hard, and outside of the instant kill cut scenes and a few boss fights, I didn't think Resident Evil 4 was all that difficult...

Either way, I'm glad we agree about not needing dumb enemies in games. Honestly, dealing with poor AI in some games...well, it tends to lower my opinion of the game. Going back to an old game like Mario, not so much, but something like Half-Life having dumb AI just wouldn't work.

I didn't find RE 4 especially difficult either, even on Pro. Though I don't think smarter AI would have worked out well. The cabin sequence would have been a nightmare. I mean it's not exactly a hardcore shooter, and you are fighting zombie like creatures so a certain amount of dumbness is expected. I can see how smarter, more aggressive enemies can work for something like Gears of War. I thought that for the most part, RE 4 was pretty much a perfect game.

You ever try Mercenary mode? It's a bit more intense, if you try to stay alive long enough to get a five star score.

[Ack]

Yeah, Mercenaries ended up my favorite part of the game. I never did get five stars with all characters in all levels, but I did do it with most. I was missing...two levels with Leon and one with Hunk.

Personally I enjoyed Krauser the most. It was the way I learned how to use flashbangs. Plus the bow was phenominal.

[CantStrafeRight]

A few years ago I used to think I was rubbish at games so I always went for easy but now that I know I'm not that bad at games I usually go for normal or hard if I want to make the game last.

[Bev]

I think rhythm games are different to others when concerning difficulty. It seems like it is the creator's intention for the person to be playing at expert eventually, where in other games the creator could care less.

My feelings exactly. I do normal on the majority of games (the exception being if I am replaying), but work my way up difficulties on rhythm based stuff.