Game has:
>Easy
>Normal
>Hard
>Very Hard (locked until you beat Hard)
Why would you ever not choose Hard?
Your first playthrough is for learning the game.
normal is how the developers intended the game to be played for the first time
there is no need to make games more difficult than they already are
i dont enjoy artificial challenge and i play video games forfun
tl:dr harder difficulties are for when you actually like a game enough to play it multiple times
>Pick hard
>The only difference is enemies do more damage
>choose hard
>enemies just have bloated health, nothing else is changed1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9
>play game on normal
>every enemy has an appropriate amount of health but deals virtually no damage
>play game on hard
>every enemy is a bulletsponge that deals half your HP in a single shot and you get almost no ammo
difficulty settings are just for shit designers
>>341802006
Fuck with the settings and unlock very hard
>>341803567
Sounds like quantom break senpai
Dunno. Not playing on Hard to begin with means you can get away with subpar gaming/strategies/etc. and might develop bad habits, which you'll have to spend time fixing when you play Hard later to unlock Very Hard
>>341803169
>normal is how the developers intended the game to be played for the first time
Does not apply to all games. One example is DMC.
>there is no need to make games more difficult than they already are
Games throughout the years have gotten significantly easier.
>i dont enjoy artificial challenge and i play video games for fun
http://www.learntocounter.com/i-play-for-fun-the-four-dumbest-words-in-video-games/
>>341803169
I see you just got awoken from your cryogenic sleep. Welcome to the future! Things are a lot different than they were in 1996. Did you know, nowadays, when a game has 'easy' 'normal' and 'hard' settings, the normal setting is actually the equivalent of easy or very easy, 20 years ago. Because games now appeal to a much, much wider audience, the developers try to make the game as simple to play for as many people as possible with out demeaning them by making them play on the simplest difficulty. As a result, easy has been renamed to normal, and an even easier mode has replaced easy.
Locking higher difficulties is retarded.
If people want to punish themselves on the first playthrough, why the fuck not?
Basically yet another non-subtle form of padding.
Same goes for NG+ mode that so many retards fall for.
>Theres another difficulty level locked behind Very Hard
>>341804674
what the fuck is wrong with ng+
>>341802006
Generally normal is the difficulty the devs intended for you to play at so I go that route for the first time through.
There are exceptions though, like when the game's lore specifies that the combat is meant to be challenging and requires the player to use everything to his advantage. Examples of this are Halo and the Witcher series.
Well?
>>341804981
middle right
>>341804084
>playing DMC on anything other than normal or maybe even easy your first time around
it is literally not possible so what is your point
>Games throughout the years have gotten significantly easier.
i agree but at the same time i have also grown much more intolerant of bad game design and unfair difficulty
>posting some link where an autist spergs over people saying "i play for fun" because it just gets him so extremely butthurt that not everyone tries their hardest go understand every video game the way he does
bravo you really showed me with that
>>341804418
whats your point dude?
normal is still the way the developers want you to play the game the first time around or else they wouldnt put seperate difficulties in the first place
Because the game handles difficulties poorly but then I wouldn't play a piece od shit game like that in the first place
>>341804946
I'd assume it's usually implemented poorly but only increasing difficulty by padding enemy stats, rather than actual mechanical difficulty.
>>341802006
>>341804981
Medium -> Hard. I would prefer the entry barrier be high, but I also want the game to get harder as I get better. If it just stays one difficulty, once you get over the entry barrier the game stays the same and loses its challenge, since by mastering the entry barrier you've mastered the game.
>>341805147
Nah normal is actually easy mode nowadays but devs don't call it easy mode because then players would avoid it
>>341804946
The fact that it's padding for stupid people.
>>341805147
>whats your point dude?
My point was that normal is what the developers intended you to play on 20 years ago, but the definition of normal has changed, and now hard is the equivalent of normal back in the day. The game is now meant to be played on hard, unless the devs are total hacks that think hard = double enemy HP and halving damage.
>locked difficulty modes
Explain how this makes any game better.
Explain how any game with locked difficulties would NOT be made better by having them all unlocked from the start.
Even having all levels unlocked from the start would be an objective improvement in every game, because you would still have the choice of playing them in order and thus nothing is lost. But I bet someone is going to try to tell me that having more choices is bad.
>>341804981
Depends on the game senpai. A game's difficulty curve should reflect it's story. Are you just an ordinary guy in a cruel and bleak world? Game should be hard all the way. Are you a Demi-God in training? Game should curve towards becoming easier. Are you a hero facing larger and more challenging threats?game should curve towards becoming harder etc..
>>341805286
watch out guys, hardcore gamer over here
>>341805838
From what?
>>341805727
it made sense for a game like Mass Effect, because playing Insanity with a brand new character is a chore, and makes combat take much longer than it was intended. then you have games like The Last of Us that also do it, which doesn't make sense to me.
>>341805147
>it is literally not possible so what is your point
Doesn't mean that the game was meant to be played on normal difficulty. DMC is one of those games where, when you play at higher difficulty, you know that the developers meant that specific play style.
>bravo you really showed me with that
So you didn't read the article then.
>>341805906
>it made sense for a game like Mass Effect, because playing Insanity with a brand new character is a chore
But I should still be able to do it first, if I want to. The game shouldn't try to protect me from myself.
I play through a game on easy most of the time
If I really like it I'll go back and do a playthrough on the hardest difficutly
Because 90% of the time "hard" (and anything above it) is just normal but the enemies are annoying bullet sponges instead of any worthwhile changes, and in that 10% where they actually make higher difficulties worthwhile you basically need to play it on normal first time around to just get the hang of what you're doing before tackling it on higher difficulties when you have the mechanics down.
>>341805621
>the game
unless a developer explicitly states that his game is supposed to be hardcore and normal/easy players are missing out on core gameplay experience i see no reason to play that way
>>341805910
as a matter of fact i didnt read the article since i find it disrespectful that you just think you can convince me by posting some shitty blog post
at least cite some stuff and try to form your own argument, you tool
>Doesn't mean that the game was meant to be played on normal difficulty
DMC and other character action games may be excempt from this since platinum likes to make "hardcore" games but i dare you to name me 3 other games where it is actually worthwhile to play at the highest difficulty right off the bat
>>341802006
Sometimes hard isn't exactly hard it's just tedious because most hard difficulties are just "you do less damage while they do more, and thats it"
If the game actually has differences between normal and hard that is not just the above mention, then I choose hard.
>>341803169
Not true quake is best on hard and doom is best on ultra-violence and this also applies to just about every other classic fps game
>>341804981
true center or bottom center
>>341805906
>he didn't do an Adept Insanity run his first time in ME2
Every warp explosion and victory was earned and satisfying thank you very much
>>341806619
are you sure that is not just your opinion?
is there actual proof the game is objectively superior on these higher difficulties for everyone playing the game?
>>341805838
He's not entirely wrong
It's just that when hard = bullet-sponges everywhere, things are lame
difficulty depends on the player
every game should come with difficulty modes
>>341806515
>unless a developer blah blah blah meaningless fluff
I don't see what's so hard to understand; if the devs intend for you to play on normal, but mislabel the difficulties, then normal isn't actually normal difficulty. If the game mislabels the difficulties to the left, the normal difficulty has only 4 letters, h, a, r, d, instead of the usual amount, but normal difficulty is still there, just mislabeled. What part of this is rocket science?
>>341806515
>but i dare you to name me 3 other games where it is actually worthwhile to play at the highest difficulty right off the bat
STALKER, REmake, Ys Felghana.
>Game is actually harder on the lower difficulties
Has a game ever done this?
>>341807000
>playing a ys game at the highest difficulty
>ever
its like you dont want to have fun
>>341806951
but thats complete bullshit
you have zero proof that devs purposefully mislabel their difficulties
maybe the game was just that easy to begin with
>>341807138
Some Paradox games are easiest to go for world domination on the hardest difficulty because those have a more aggressive AI which can be exploited. Constantly declaring war can be costly, getting declared war on by the AI not so much.
>>341807157
You don't know what fun is if you don't think Nughtmare Ys is fun. Hard is okay but most bosses barely require any practice.
>>341802006
Because I choose to.
>>341806826
You're right it is subjective but to me at least in quake everything felt well balanced on hard. Your enemies hit hard but so can you because of the balance of the weapons the damage that they do and how accurate they are i felt like hard made me switch up my tactics much more than the other diffuculties which in turn is what made games like quake so good, the delicate balance between what weapons should be used under the circumstances given. Except on shubnigguraths pit that level was ass
>>341802006
I always pick the hardest difficulty available. Artificial difficulty, bullet sponges, and tedium rarely actually exists. More often than not they are terms used by scrubs to explain away their shitness. 9 times out of 10 a difficult game described as "boring" was just too difficult for the person describing the game. Anyone that labels themselves as a souls series veteran is likely a casual neo /v/ scrub.
>Play game for first time
>Game is, for all intents and purposes, fun and finished, but a few loose ends at the end of it all
>"You have unlocked the true game"
>Entire gameplay and storyline is changed a revamped, enemies, puzzles, and bosses are actually challenging instead of just becoming bulletsponges
>Explains all of the missing bits and unfinished plotpoints from the "Normal mode"
>10/10 final boss that will whip you around if you aren't set up to wreck shit
>>341807157
>maybe the game was just that easy to begin with
then it's not worth anybody's time to play in the first place and is a waste of code.
The difficulty of games has gotten easier over the years, control-related nonsense notwithstanding, and games have also been designed to appeal to a wider audience. The wider audience still wants the gratification of beating a game without having to go to the babby difficulty, but the game would be too hard if it wasn't on babby difficulty. So, babby difficulty is renamed to normal, and that way nobody gets hurt feelings. I'm sure there's screencaps of people complaining about that shit on some forums that some /v/irgin has a collection of. Not to mention focus testers reflect this wider, shallower market. I'm sure you're not so divorced from the web to not know of that one valve playtester that went right for over half an hour in a maze at the same turn, which was subsequently removed. Face it, easy is the new normal.
>>341807981
what is undertale genocide run after a pacifist first run
>>341807330
neat
>>341806515
>as a matter of fact i didnt read the article since i find it disrespectful that you just think you can convince me by posting some shitty blog post
Then your whole argument is rendered invalid.
>at least cite some stuff and try to form your own argument, you tool
If a piece of information directly correlates to the same point of view of my own and written in a better structure while still getting the point across, why wouldn't I use it to my gain? Not only does it save me the time from typing to sub-humans like you, it's also easier.
>DMC and other character action games may be excempt from this since platinum likes to make "hardcore" games but i dare you to name me 3 other games where it is actually worthwhile to play at the highest difficulty right off the bat
There was already some games listed by another poster, and it seems like, as I expected, you would reflect it and again use buzzwords. You have lost the argument, and you are wrong about game design and difficulty, next time, save yourself the time (I know you really have nothing to do except being a parasite), and don't discuss subjects you have no fucking clue about.
>>341804981
what the FUCK kinda difficulty curves are those
only middle right, bottom right and bottom middle are engaging at all and even then are just flat
>>341803378
Checked.
>>341802006
>Why would you ever not choose Hard?
>pick hard
>unfamiliar with the game
>unfamiliar with the genre
>game expects you to be familiar with both
>boipussy gets slammed left and right
>lose interest and quit
>Poopsock420 brags on /v/ that he's beaten it on INSANITY 47 times
k
>>341807981
and what game would that be?
>>341806826
Yes, you dipshit! It is quite objective since your body is gonna produce more dopamine for the harder task achieved!
Wow /v/ is full of fucking casuals.
>>341808369
Making the game all out is usually the best way to learn, you just sound like a gayboy quitter
>>341804981
First off, who the fuck changes difficulty during one playthrough?
Second, top right is always the right answer.
>>341808036
Don't waste your time with that idiot. There was a screenshot going around for a while from a British developer saying the exact same thing you have said. Normal today is actually Easy but it's changed to make people not feel bad about themselves because it's in a condescending way. There are thousands of example of this on youtube.
>>341804981
Witcher 2 was pretty much top left
>>341804981
top-middle. pretty much nocturne on hard. barely scraping by, but after about 10 hours, shit's smooth sailing as long as you're not retarded.
>>341808430
It's known as casual neo /v/ these days for a good fucking reason.
>>341802006
First playthough on hard because its dumb to die because youre clueless about the game
after the first playthrough, max difficulty
>>341808646
nobody's changing difficulty
it's your preferred difficulty curve
>>341808369
>not being capable of beating hard even when youre unfamiliar
out baddie
Alien Isolation actually recommends you start the game on hard for the best experience.
>>341808141
Still have yet to saveAsriel, Chara, and Gaster. Honestly mostly want to save Void Dad, don't care that much for shotegote and the murderchild.
>only easy, normal, hard available at start
>unlock very hard, still a bit too easy
>unlock revengeance difficulty
>it is trivial because of the parry damage
DMC and MGS have best difficulty settings, generally
>>341809387
keep meaning to play through on nightmare; any mode that fucks with your hud wrecks me (ranger in metro, grounded in TLOU)
Normal was balanced by the developers. Hard is some half assed thing they threw in without much thought. I doubt they even playtest the harder difficulties.
>>341809671
Pretty wimpy of you to impose a general rule like that on all games.
>>341803169
>implying hard isn't the only way to play rhythm games
Some games, especially modern games, handle difficulty poorly. Enemy life, damage, and amount tend to just scale upwards and it really doesn't make the game harder, just more time consuming. Difficulty is largely artificial to begin with, it doesn't need to be made needlessly so
>>341810009
>hard
>not extreme
This is why Mirai is a bad miku
>>341809892
he's right though
difficulty sliders are added for cheap "replayability" to make the game seem like it's more valuable than it really is. it's why they're often locked and require you to beat the game first
if you're replaying the game they really don't give a shit what you think of it at that point, and reviewers don't play those difficulties either. what matters is how most people, and reviewers, will perceive the game, so the most shine and polish is put into the default difficulty
Play on whatever difficulty you like, they're single player games and it doesn't matter a fuck or have any effect on anyone else. Just don't go bragging about anything unless you're on the hardest difficulty, and even then, don't be an autist.
Difficulty settings are just a way for the developers to get away with not designing one decent difficulty curve.
>>341804981
Top right.
>>341804981
a U shaped line would be the best
rough at first but then you get the hand at the mechanics and you get better gear or simply skill and then the game is yours; for a while, then the difficulty should be raised to be challenging like it was in the beginning
m&b games did that properly, some others like total war series for example fail at the end - giving you infinite money and lowering the difficulty to zero.
>>341808306
>boss battles
no thanks, this shitty mechanic is well buried in the past
you should have the intelligence as a dev to create a good challenge without this artificial "i create the rules" shit
it's pretty much cheating your way out of game designing since you opt for the easiest way to increase the game's difficulty
>>341810885
>no thanks, this shitty mechanic is well buried in the past
>>341802006
Witcher 3 Death march is the most unbalanced shitty difficultly implementation I've seen forever. The enimies take same damage but are insane and just keep charging at you, you die in 3 strikes from even the easiest enemy. This effectively renders the armor mechanism obsolete. Death March means you just roll and eveade a lot more. None the less i finished it in DM for Achivement.
>>341806191
Well in the old days they won't try to protect you from yourself, but in todays world with all the autist reviwers fucking up game sales, they have to make sure that no one goes through the utter stupidity of playing their game is an impossible difficulty from the very start.
>>341810885
>Fun, climactic battles that either stretch your skills learned in a segment to the limit, test a related skill that ties the world's lessons together with combat, or brings the focus back in to combat
>Easily ties up sections, able to gaurd macguffins and progression in a more satisfying way than nearly any other blockade
>a lock where the key is not some collectible doodad but pure skill
>"shitty mechanic buried in the past"
oh, I'm sorry, I thought we were talking about the same boss battles. You must be thinking about bullet sponges, instead of dynamic creatures with exciting patterns.
>>341809387
I remember ign calling the game too hard
>>341810693
Kingdom Hearts II FM did this
I always chose Hard because most games are really poorly designed around difficulty. But boy, do you ever learn your lesson in games like Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry.
>>341802006
There's really no way to know in advance what a game is going to make different on different difficulty levels, unless you research it I guess. Some games' harder difficulties actually make it more fun by forcing you to utilize mechanics more effectively, and some just make it more boring with bullet sponges or whatever.
Best to just start out on normal, and if the hard mode sucks then you're done, and if it's good then hey great gives it replay value.
