Gaming Today… Too Easy?

Jenifer from Explicit Gamer gives a solid case for why games have become WAY too easy in the past generation of gaming. While games as a whole are clearly (to any gamer from the 90's or earlier) getting easier, she pinpoints the top 5 trends in gaming that are responsible.

[alphakennybody]

KZ2 and its terrific AI might turn your opinions on the need of close checkpoint especially on elite difficulty, played MW2 wouldn't call it difficult really. Demon's Souls might be the game you're looking for and hopefully more games like it will start pop in up soon.The only check point are after beating a boss or at the very beginning of the lvl, when you die you go into what's called soul form and lose half of your life until you reclaim you body by defeating a boss, helped someone defeat one or invade someone's world and kill em. There's also item burden anything you carry has a weight and you have a weight restrictions which and have direct impact on your movement and probably one the best thing is all in one currency system so for each character you choose you can't fill all attributes ( int,stam,strgh,etc) in one play-through and also doubles as you upgrade em so you have to choose carefully in which direction you're going, either either straight up ranger or melee and also wich weapon/armor to upgrade. of course certain class allows you both but you still need to restrain of some attributes. You can fill em al after each play-through but the enemies becomes twice as fierce than your previous play-through. Almost forgot, enemies can kill with one or two well placed hits doesn't matter what enemy even the wkeast looking can easily make you lose thousand of collected souls from carelessness.

[GUCommander]

I second the vote for Demon's soul. Honestly, it is the only game this past year that had the difficulty found in older games that made us happy and angry gamers at the same time. I remember playing Contra for NES. Even with the code that game was hard to complete, but without getting THIRTY extra lives the game was almost impossible.

[mfwahwah]

Demon's Souls is amazing.

If you die in body form you get half health. If you die in body form again the world tendency turns black making enemies STRONGER.

FINALLY a game that teaches you to get good or get the **** out.

[BattleAxe]

Killzone 2 is hard as hell on difficult. I'm hesitant to try it on Elite. Also if you want to try something hard and frustrating, play CoD: WaW on Veteran.

There are too many people in the gaming media and on N4G that seem to think that the last gen was better and harder, but I don't think that could be further from the truth.

[peeps]

"hard and frustrating, play CoD: WaW on Veteran."

i'd agree with that but not cus the game/ai were good, but cus ur teammates where useless and the ai didn't behave realisticaly (wtf cant spell that haha)

e.g. i was in a bunker in some trenches stocking up on ammo and my teammates were outside in the trench. an enemy kamikazi sprinted right past my teammates in the trench, not caring about them at all and them not caring about him and came into the bunker almost taking me out. it's like the ai soley focused on my and not the other ppl who were out to kill him lol (except of course they didnt cus their ai is stupid :p)

[BattleAxe]

Its the endless grenades that piss me off the most. I got about half way through the game on VET and decided that I wasn't having much fun. The online part of WaW was good though.

[OrganicMachine]

thanks to the well designed aiming of the guns, the game is playable without the crosshair and hud. and it makes it very immersive.

Playing elite forcefully turns your hud and crosshair off with the exception of certain guns and turrets when you aim down on their sights(like the helgan LMG). The A.I. won't feel cheap like in Call of duty games but they are smarter and realistically faster compared to their downgraded versions on lower difficulties.

[nogolis]

I grew up in the Nes era. Gaming today is too easy, believe me. A couple tries on Ninja Gaiden's last level after the Bloody Moth or some Silver Surfer or some Ghost N' Goblins will send you crying back to your Ps3's and xbox 360's.

[OrganicMachine]

Dante must Die mode on Devil May Cry 3 original retail version. OH man,till this day I haven't beaten the Cerberus yet as the muscles of my thumbs hurt. Too bad now my taste for DMC has been tainted thanks to filth that is DMC4

[gano]

90's and nin/sega. wizards and warriors kicked my ass.
Actraiser FTMFW

[NexGen]

8 bit Castlevania was a pain on the final stage. If you even made it to the end, you were usually almost dead and it was hopeless anyway.

[AstroZombie1]

Maybe, i did find Modern Warfare 2 a piece of piss to complete on veteran and that includes the Campaign and Spec-Ops.

[peeps]

well for a comparison, play mw2 on vet and then cod classic on vet lol

[BattleAxe]

@ peeps

I'm actually doing that right now. The only thing is that CoD: Classic has a way different play style where you can peek and the enemies don't respawn.

[OrganicMachine]

oh man, have you played CODMW1 on vet mode? it's a bunch of cheap crap:

1. Enemy A.I. only focus on YOU.
2. Reaction time is unrealistically fast
3. their range and accuracy far exceeds even the best FPS players.
4. Even-triggered spawn, which means they won't stop unless you reach a checkpoint.
5. you're allies' A.I. is still set on "DUMB" mode. Which is bad because on top of that the enemy A.I. focuses their fire on YOU.

[CBaoth]

COD1 curbstomps MW2 on vet. The dam, lorry escape, and pavlov's apt. building are all WAY better and far more difficult missions. I'm on the final mission and will proudly talk of earning its platinum. Though still auto-aim is by default turned on and must be disabled manually.

And OM, you're wrong about point 4. They don't respawn. Even later in the game (railroads) they didn't. What IW does is create placeholders that spawn 2 replacements for a fallen soldier. From a good vantage point, cherry pick a Nazi and shoot him. Then kill his replacement and and his second. No more will come. Trust me - it was the only way for me to clear that god-forsaken apt. building. We all know what real respawning is from playing MW and WAW, and classic doesn't employ it.

[peeps]

was the kz2 pic used to entice fanboys to the article? lol

anyway i pretty much agree with all points:

- check points arn't too bad tho tbh. i mean if the game itself is really challenging then having checkpoints before challenging sections is fine by me, u still need to be good enough to get past said challengind section.

- regen health certainly. i think this started (or atleast became mainstream) with halo? infact the other day i was playing cod classic and was like wow i forgot this game actually had health packs, and it's a hell of a lot harder than recent cod games for that reason!

- telaporting isn't so bad. e.g. in fallout 3 theres no vehicles and without fast travel it would just be tedious to get from 1 end of the map to the other. i mean u still need to do ur fair share of exploring to find areas before u can travel to them

- auto-aim deffo no. but then actually most games don't use 'auto-aim'. auto-aim suggests the game targets automically, which it doesn't. what u prob mean is aim assist (which i do agree is a problem) but it's only really seen in shooters where u could argue that u can't be as accurate as analogues as with a mouse. I do believe it would be better if u could play games on mw2 for example where it's off for every1. i imagine a lot of ppl would suddenly find they cant get kills lol

bosses - the final boss in gow2 is enough said tbh. absolutely massive boss, already i'm thinking back to how hard raam was in the first game and then discover that the final boss is actually super easy and a bit of an insult

[AstroZombie1]

@peeps

Lol i know, up until MW2 the COD series was tough on Vet then they just got rid of the constant enemy spawning and uber nading and hey presto piss easy to do.

[peeps]

oh a game to add to the tough list of this gen lol Ninja Gaiden 2! seriously i'm only playing through on easy lmao and i haven't completed the damn game yet. i'm neat the end but it's so frustrating when enemies have constant rocket barrages heading ur way!!!! i dread to think how hard it gets when theres at least 2 difficulties above the 1 i'm playing on!

[bujasem_89]

well honey u might wanna get ur A** raped by demon's soul's then say games are easy xD , how ever i do agree with u cause other games use what you wrote

[Belasco]

I am supremely frustrated with Demons Souls at the moment, but usually games are too easy.

[jeseth]

Games haven't hard since SNES. Every now and then there will be a game that is challenging (Demons Souls) but for the most part, games have turned into a form of story telling and you are walked through the game by the hand.

Its not like the NES days with games like Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, Double Dragon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, BattleToads, etc....driving you almost to the brink of tears!

Games today are pathetic in terms of difficulty compared to games of the past. Its a shame too because kids now are really missing out. Instead of beat games like Demons Souls nowadays, they'll just give up and play a game that has no consequence for dying or wasting ammo.

[GamerSciz]

This article was interesting I guess but also seems very nitpicking as well.

I think check points are useful because nowadays games are MUCH more dynamic then they used to be. I mean AI has improved drastically and games are longer as well.

Regenerating health I can agree that it makes things easier but again Mario was practically a one hit kill from anything if you didn't have a mushroom but it was so static. The enemies were ALWAYS in the exact same place doing the exact same thing. So something needed to be done so you didn't start over from way before you died. Hence check points were invented/needed.

Teleporting? Really, not many games have "teleporting", only a select few but whatever.

Auto-aim I can agree with to an extent. Shooters back in the day were in 2-D meaning you had to point up and down and left and right(Contra). Nowadays in 3-D you have to worry about left, right, up, down, diagonal, and everything in between. This is hard to do, even with Dual Analog sticks. So things had to change.

Bosses I am going to agree and disagree. It totally depends on the game. Some games the bosses are a pain to beat, especially on the hardest difficulty. For example, I still am having trouble beating the end boss on GOW: Chains of Olympus on God Mode. Now I agree that on "normal" difficulty most bosses are pretty easy to beat once you figure out their weakness or let alone how to kill them.

Apologies for wall 'o text, just had a lot to say.

[OrganicMachine]

Resistance 2 had this one, huge boses but seriously, aim at the glowing cylinders and bam, he goes down, not even five minutes..

I remember playing MGS3 snake eater, the boss battle THE END. that took FOREVER, intense as you have to hide, match camos, and use heat vision wisely because he can hear all that !..

Playing Killzone 2, first run through, Hard, HUD and Crosshairs turned off. it was a mess, but worth it, but then Elite mode made Hardmode look like cake walk especially the last boss fight. The A.I.'s reaction time is fast and realistically smooth, they blind fire, the cover fire, the flank and they do it well and believable.

Call of Duty games. It's not even fair when the only thing every difficulty level does is Amp up the A.I.'s accuracy, reaction and damage, and range 10 folds. especially on Elite(or the highest difficulty) and it's unrealistic, it's like trying to piss you off more than challenging you.

--------

he's right about regenrating health though. Damn you Halo!!!! anyways, I see the point is that it doesn't break the play time, like it keeps players in the game. In reality though it does, as the player is still in teh game but hiding behind a wall waiting for the blood splatter to fade away. I like Killzone 2 multiplayer regen health system that only regenerates half of yoru full health which makes you vulnerable to 1 shots with the m9. and I like Resistance 1's segmented health system. Better yeat, Bad company 1's adrenaline shots that you have to remember to use.

[comp_ali]

I agree totally with this article , I miss the old days where the games didn't have any checkpoints , if you failed you had to start the mission from the start , a bit frustrating but got me excited as well

[kraze07]

"I miss the old days where the games didn't have any checkpoints , if you failed you had to start the mission from the start , a bit frustrating but got me excited as well."

I hated that when playing games in an arcade. It felt like they purposely made the game hard so I would keep dieing and spending money on continues.

[kraze07]

Most games these days are easy compared to past gens, but you still have some difficult games out there. Demon's Souls is hard as hell, Dragon Age had to be patched to make it easier, and some games have high difficulty settings that can be frustrating at times.

[Bazookajoe_83]

Im supprised my neighbours didnt call the police when they heard all the screaming coming from my appartment.

[mephixto]

I still don't know why people find so hard Radec, the only thing you need to do is use the flamethrower and a knife.

[crazyturkey]

Anyone here up to the challenge of playing BattleToads? I get irritated just thinking about it.

Anyways this gen the two harder games I've Played are NG2 and killzone 2, but they don't compare too that^^^^^^^. W@W was hard, but no because the A.I. is good, but because of how retarded allied A.I. is and the grenade spamming.

[gano]

I remember. Waitin for classics like that.
nintendo jaggin on another double dragon.

[delicia]

yeah, games are getting too easy, of course there are exceptions, but games are also getting more attention than before, so it would be kind of logical

[Jdoki]

On one hand as the gaming market expands developers have to start targeting the lowest common denominator - the non-hardcore. And unfortunately there are more of these people than there are hardcore gamers. And if the non-hardcore gets frustrated, they'll stop buying the games.

Also, games now have huge production values, and in many ways have moved from being a 'game', to being an 'experience'. And just like watching a movie, the player wants to get to the end. So to an extent games have to be easier. The number of 8-bit games I have that I never finished because they were too hard is huge!!

On the other hand, there will always be developers willing to provide a challenge (like Demons Souls). Overall I do think games, on their default 'normal' setting, have become too easy though.

[Syaz1]

difficulty settings are there? for those who prefer more challenge, just pick the hardest of them. personally, i prefer games that have a moderate difficulty, because i play games to have fun, and working hard on a video game isn't my idea of fun. devs should include customizable difficulty, like the option to turn off checkpoint, health regeneration, and all the other stuff that supposedly makes things easier.

[cpuchess]

I am an old timer and some of the games are to easy but some are hard as hell. I couldn't make hardly any progress with Demon Soul's, that game was very frustrating. On the other hand playing offline against bots on Gears of War 2 is ridiculously easy, even on insane level and they don't allow you play 1 vs 5.

[Whoooop]

I've been playing video games since I was 6 years old (I'm 28 now) and I've been through a lot of "difficult" games in the past. From arcade games to handheld and I've come to a personal conclusion.

Quite frankly I prefer games as they are today. I'm so glad that I don't play games or specific parts just to damage my brain trying to get past a certain part on a level any more....or almost fainting because I couldn't kill a boss.

Nowadays, I love how I can go through a game on a normal difficulty and still have a bit of challenge without taking me away from the immersion and the fun.

I've played my good share of annoyingly difficult games and to be honest, they can stay in the past.
.
.
.

[JL]

I have to agree with you. I'm the same age, been gaming the same amount of time you have and I've had all those frustratingly hard experiences in the past. For the most part now I just want a moderate challenge that isn't just damn near impossible. Couple your answer with Syaz's up above and that pretty much sums up my sentiments on it all. I like being able to have a moderate challenge and actually being able to finish the games I play (plenty from the past that I just wasn't able to beat) without having to invest my life into that single game just to beat it. But then we have difficulty levels (which is much better, you get to choose how hard it is), that way if you really enjoy the game and want to ramp it up even more, you can crank it up to a harder difficulty and try your luck at it again now that you have the hang of the game.

I will say this though, it does seem more and more that games aren't necessarily becoming easier (rather they just have easier difficulty settings to choose from if you so choose), but that there are features that are being implemented and mainstreamed that cater to the "amateur" gamers that take away from games in comparison to how they used to be. Some of those features being listed here. For instance auto-aim, or some checkpoints being every 50feet and to an extent the whole health regen thing. These are features that have been introduced and now being adopted throughout lots of games that just seem wrong or something. You even have them starting to implement features like autoplay over at Nintendo where the game will play itself for you or rewind on forza. It just seems they're trying to cater to the incompetent too much or hold people's hands through the game too much with features like these. And these things can't be gotten rid of just by ramping up the difficulty level.

All in all, I'm perfectly fine with the games I play of this generation as far as difficulty goes, but there is definitely a trend of features being implemented that cater to the novice. Features that ultimately effect the experience to be had from a game for more experienced gamers.

By the way, playing Demon's Souls right now and I'm loving that game. Definitely has an old school difficulty feel to it and sense of satisfaction reminiscent of back in the days when finally making it through a part of a game.

[DwightOwen]

I'm also 28 (have ALSO been gaming since the age of 6 - weird) and I agree wholeheartedly.

[Akagi]

CoD veteran mode is a joke, there isn't improved AI at all. (Unless nade spam counts).

[DopyG]

Castlevania Dracula X Chronicle, which is a remake of an old game is a perfect example of the difficulty of old games and how new gamers whine about it :D

[zornik]

I've been playing video games since I was 6 years old (I'm 28 now) and I've been through a lot of "difficult" games in the past. From arcade games to handheld and I've come to a personal conclusion.

Quite frankly I prefer games as they are today. I'm so glad that I don't play games or specific parts just to damage my brain trying to get past a certain part on a level any more....or almost fainting because I couldn't kill a boss.

Nowadays, I love how I can go through a game on a normal difficulty and still have a bit of challenge without taking me away from the immersion and the fun.

I've played my good share of annoyingly difficult games and to be honest, they can stay in the past.

Amen.
Developers need to make a clear difficulty system for every kind of player and i see no problem.I also like the normal difficulty because there r so many games today and i want to play them all....no time to play a level 20 times to get to the end.Sometimes i like a challenge like Gears of War or Call Of Duty on the hardest difficulty but i like to choose the difficulty!!!!!!I did not like Demon's Soul's because there was no choice.

[edhe]

Why would you want to pay RRP for something you never finish because some anal developer thought it needed to be harder?

You never miss out on the ending of a film or a book because you can't get past a certain scene.

Every game should be completable by everyone, with difficulty modifiers for those who care. Would be nice if that happened for other media, wouldn't it?

[Kos-Mos]

Is it news that games today are too easy? Gears for example can be played through with closed eyes.
I lost confidence in the video-game industry until Demon`s Soul`s were released.

[SSCOOLCHEA]

To many stupid xbox kids

[bujasem_89]

heres a bubble for that

[rayzorn]

difuculty today and in the past are 2 totally difrent things. you really cant even compare them. i have been playing games since the atari 2600 and colleco till the ps3 xbox 360 and me and some of my friends talk about this all the time.

the main difrence in old games is you die in just a few hits and only get a few lives and continues. when you used them up you had to start back at the beginning of the game unless you had a cheat code.

but they had to do that in the past cause if you could just get unlimited lives or continues you would crush most games in like 45 min to an hour they where all short. its what kept you playing a game cause they where so hard. most people could not actually even beat most games. like contra, ghost and goblins, and many others.

games now days feel competitive on the normal modes but when you jack them up higher lvls they def get hard. but even the most hard game if you have save options and unlimited deaths anyone can complete it. might take forever but you could.

i think another thing that makes games easier now days is sites like gamefaq and such. because back in the 8bit era there was no net no gamefaqs. no guides. if you got stuck you had to just look or try over and over. i remember one game that had an illusionary door and there was no way of knowing it was thier unless you pushed forward and found it which i never did and i played it a ton. i found out years later. not saying you needed those sites for most cause most lvl designs where pretty simple but there is always one game here and there they try to screw with you.

i actually like games better today then the past. with the advanced a.i and lvl designs. plus i used to throw my controllers when i was almost done with a game and died my last death and had to start over. the new way def saves alot of controlers. even demon soul which is not easy can be beat by most with some patients. even though i didnt beat it wasnt my type of game i stoped playing after 2 bosses.

just my 2 cents take it or leave it

[bjornbear]

hence why I now put every game i start on hard instantly.

didn't with U2 because wanted to enjoy the story, but every other game i do =)

only good challange i've had is KZ2 and Red Faction Guerilla (gets really hard at the end)

other than that, games are getting a bit too easy

i need to get myself Demon Souls, one of the few hard core games

[frankymv]

The whole point is to make games so that people keep coming back for more. I have been playing games since the days of intellivision and atari 2600.....and if a game was way too difficult, I would lose interest after a few hundred tries after being stuck in the same spot. Today, I will keep coming back for more b/c checkpoints make them more approachable.

[boribori311]

xexyz for the nes is the most difficult game ive beaten and gun for xbox on the hardest diffculty

[ian72]

I started playing games around early 80's on ZX80/81, spectrum and commodore. The games may be easier now but they are a lot better. The older games from the 80's seemed to get boring very quickly to me. Now though I dont get bored half as much with games from this gen. I dont think games from the NES or Mega drive era are any easier or harder than games now, but games from the 80's on Commodore, spectrum and amiga were harder. The turning point for easier games was around the early 90's IMO.

[divideby0]

DemonSouls....Ninja G..... to hard for me.
and most games have a few diff. levels...

so whatz the big deal

(didnt even check the article since there has been way to many trash blogs and obscure game sites being post here who are just looking for hits of late around here)

[SpinalRemains138]

On NES. That has to be the hardest game I ever played.

[sleepyazn]

Demon's Souls isn't that hard. Seriously half of the boss fights are totally stupid. For world 5, all you have to do for all of the bosses is basically find a good spot near the beginning of the fight and snipe the boss. For almost every boss in Demon's Souls you can also a)render their atks useless by finding a good spot or b)glitch them. I really have no clue what all of you are complaining about Demon's Souls difficulty.

[Jacobite]

I play mostly normal or hard. I like to enjoy a game myself, take U2 played it on normal then hard lost interest in crushing think that was third play through to many lol. Played COD4 on hard (Dam ferris wheel)So what i am saying is these extreme settings like crushing, elite, Veteran are still to easy for you handicap yourself in someway or go back to those retro games.

[JeepGamer]

I look at my nephew trying to play the Bionic Commando remake on the easiest setting and failing and he's near the same age I was when I played the original Bionic Commando on the NES, and it didn't have an "Easy" setting.

I sometimes wonder what kids would do if all the games were as hard now as they were back then.

[sleepyazn]

a d-pad and 2 buttons compared to a a modern day controller-i wonder which one posed more of a challenge. only real reason game were considered "hard" back then was because most of you were 8 year olds and most of the games were considered cheap. THere is a huge difference between a hard game and a cheap game.

[Enigma_2099]

... then READ THE F***ING MANUALS. And so you know, the same kid plays WOW... so apparently he's not THAT bad off... his gaming skills just SUCK.

And name ONE game TODAY that gets hard without being cheap... even increasing enemy life is a kind of d*ck move to pull.

[Darkfiber]

Yes. Just look at all the crybabies from Co-op and Giant Bomb crying about how hard Demon's Souls is and how much it sucks because it doesn't hold your hand and blah blah blah and takes too long to learn. The sad thing is, people actually listen to these losers and end up missing out on one of the best games of this generation.

[tiamat5]

I disagree.°Gaming' isn't easier because there are several games that still provide a decent challenge. What is wrong is the many companies are now catering to the whims of the weak minded people who call themselves gamers. I am not saying that the games should be mind numbingly, controller breaking hard but what is with the hand holding? what is with the arrows pointing out everything?What is with rubber band A.I. to give everyone a chance? What is with the having to explain every controller movement? i.e. move the joystick forward to walk forward and back to move back, what happened to using your brain?

[maestrobrian]

I have to say that I agree with most of the points made in the article. However I tend to think the problem is not industry wide.

There are still a lot of new games that carry degrees of difficulty much higher than most games of the past! That's the key that I think was sort of missed in this article...I've discussed this in greater detail on a recent blog post http://www.maestrogaming-br...

Agree? Or Disagree?

[Flare149]

I think the biggest reasons for why games have changed are time and availability.

Time: People just don't have the time to sit around all day trying to beat one level, it gets frustrating and adds to the belief that gaming is a waste of time (such as people spending all their time leveling up in WoW). Demon's Souls is one of my favorite games and I thought it was one of the best games this year, but I've also made little to no headway on it without any sort of save or checkpoints at all because I have to dedicate so much time to it and then once I finally get anywhere I'm so fed up with having to restart for making one little mistake that the game flies out of my PS3 and I go to play something else. Plenty of games have still made themselves challenging though by adding very difficult modes where the player knows what they're getting into. By this I mean often the player can play through once on a normal setting to experience the story and get a feel for the game, then pursue it on a higher level to master it.

Availability: If you sit for a few hours trying to beat a single level, completely being taken away from the story and becoming increasingly frustrated with a game, are you truly going to enjoy it? Gaming is about fun and when you solely think it's fun just by being able to say you can master something that's difficult for someone else that's not what it's about. I believe that as a few games started to change from this mold and as gaming got bigger people honestly got tired of having to play one level for a few hours and instead wanted a game that offered a bigger variety that allowed the player to experience actual pacing with the story. Both types of games offer good experiences, but after a few years of dealing with the same terrible pacing it's clear that people want something that allows them to actually PLAY and not GRIND.

Just my two cents. I like both old and new games, but I feel like I hear this argument from people in the gaming industry and it's getting old since they're the ones who are supposed to realize this trend and love gaming for what it is

[MRMagoo123]

I would say games are easier than they used to be i was gaming in the 80s the reason they where harder then was because they had to give games more longevity with so little space to fit the games, the way they did this is by making the games alot harder so you would take a long time to finish them.Im not complaining about them being easier i havent played any games since the mid 90s that i havent finished because the experiance you get from them nowadays is more important than the time it takes to finish although FF7 doesnt go by those rules one of my fav games of all time took ages to finish but wasnt very hard either.

[HurstDarkStar]

FIRE EMBLEM ON ANY DIFICULTY!! if any of you know what fire emblem is you will know what i mean.it's a rpg and if your character dies their gone for ever! There's not 1 person tht can tell me to this day they did not have to start over a level b/c there character had died.EVERYONE and i mean EVERYONE that has played radiant dawn for the will tell you they dont save during a level

[Justin_bristoe]

i'm sure u wont beat it til this time next year unless you've played every game u ever bough on the hardest mode u could.

[DelbertGrady]

Difference is, today they usually let us choose the difficulty. Which is great!

[mellowyellow]

Games nowadays have to let up. A narrative driven game, such as uncharted 2 or Mass Effect, has to be manageable enough so that a player can actually experience the story, which is a major component of most games nowadays. A game only gets away with being insanely difficult by default if the gameplay is the sole lure of playing the game in the first place,like tetris o demon soul's, since you have no real story that a hard level would get in the way of.

[TrenchaunT]

Some games are just ridiculously easy these days, even on the hardest setting, or the difficulty setting just does something cheap like make you more prone to dying and the enemy harder to kill, rather than changing elements in the game or making the AI tougher. The games then require cheaper tactics like exploiting glitches, rather than challenging your skill. Fallout 3, for example, is just sad. Not only is it so easy that it gets boring quickly, but it doesn't have a real boss fight, AND if you increase the difficulty it also gives you more EXP, making the game EASIER.

I for one do think checkpoints are a positive, but not the version in Bioshock where you are revived with everything that you gained since the checkpoint, and the enemies are still weakened. Seriously, what's the point of staying alive? I also like regenerating health, because I hated always backtracking for medkits in old shooters. However, if the health is going to regenerate, then the battles need to be scaled up to account for it... and we need some REAL boss fights, nothing along the lines of Gears 2 or Fable 2. In that respect, Gears 1 was much better.