Alex Hutchinson: "A lot of games have been ruined by easy modes," he asserts. "If you have a cover shooter and you switch it to easy and you don’t have to use cover, you kind of broke your game.
"You made a game that is essentially the worst possible version of your game."
It's a problem unique to videogames, he continues, lamenting the fact that this is the only creative industry that needs to provide difficulty options.
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If anything they should add a 'hard mode' or Stealth mode and make combat dangerous..imo
You took the words right out of my mouth. And the worst part about it is the series doesn't even have a difficulty setting. The lack of a challenge is the biggest turn off about the AC games for me.
No one is forcing people to play the easy mode, hell I play every game on the hardest difficulty straight off if possible, I enjoy the challenge that much more :)
It's a game for a mature audience. Hard mode or go home.
I will decide what is and isn't suitable for my daughter, not some random keyboard warrior. Whether you disagree or not is up to you, but you have no right to tell anyone how to raise their children.
By the way, assassins creed IMO doesn't deserve a BBFC 15 rating
-_-
"Whether you disagree or not is up to you, but you have no right to tell anyone how to raise their children. "
Not in all cases. If I saw a parent strike their 4 year old with excessive force at my local Pathmark, I'd follow them to the car, get their license plate number, and have CPS at their house by the end of the week. If you see a child getting abused, its your right as an ethical human being to step in.
But since we're talking about strictly gaming, I wouldn't see a problem with a child as little as 6 years old playing M rated games. By 5 years old, your kid should understand that their would be consequences to randomly stabbing someone in the face.
Because maybe I didn't jump to the conclusion that just because she's a girl gamer she's too retarded to play a game beyond easy mode? How is that any better than assuming she's too young to play the game?
LOL @ all the bad assumptions in this discussion.
Gaming companies are trying to misdirect people with the easy setting to have more people playing (like grandmas and such). It;s like a sport: Would you make a recket much bigger so it is easier for people to play tennis? Or the basketball ring bigger?
The problem is that they are trying to hold hands now when playing a game. They give more lives, more saves, or make them ridiculously easy, but they are breaking the game in the process.
In your case, your daughter could very well play a game without having to be easy. Just look at Super Mario Bros Wii, that game is not easy at all if you want to collect everything, but it is a game that she could very well enjoy. The problem is that Nintendo adds this guide or something where the game plays by itself, and that's what wrong.
The easy mode is optional. If it somehow does put a damper on the experience of the game (which it wont for a lot of people), then they can change it to hard mode and get their enjoyment then. It's that simple.
There is no problem with game difficulty these days unless the game doesn't have a difficulty mode. Most games do though. Assassin's Creed doesn't, it would be nice if it did though.
TLDR: Assassin's Creed needs to stop humping easy mode.
Adding more health or higher damage to enemies is not more complicated. There are options for a reason. Some like a challenge and some don't. The quality of a games depends on those playing it. Is it ruined if someone plays the game on "easy mode" and enjoys it?
And I've been a gamer since 1994.
At the selection menu just give then many warning pop-up messages that say:
1 "You understand by choosing "Easy Mode" you are not experiencing the game in it's intended form."
2 "Your selection will allow you to progress easily but it may present you with a lackluster gaming experience are you sure that you want to play in "Easy Mode"?
3 "You have selected "Easy Mode" do not count this as a valid view of the play value of our game. Should you later want to experience this game in all of its intended richness select "Normal Mode".
After that it's all on the player. And I think the same thing should be done if a "Nightmare Mode" is added. People who know how to play the game won't care if the Big Baddy (that you had a hard-time playing in normal mode) Re-spawns. Why? Because it is "Nightmare Mode" and they had been thoroughly warned!
(But I have seen many times, where a reviewer was ratted-out after trashing a game for its lack of challenge after the readers discerned, from the details in the review, that the journalist had played the game in "Easy Mode".)
Also i hate how harder difficulty rarely means just an improved AI but rather results in less health for the player, and more health for the enemies.
Then again, i think Achievements have lessened the impact of this issue as you rarely want to change the difficulty midways and you don't usually gain an achievement by completing the game on easy difficulty.