CVG- Gaming Is Nowhere Near The Challenge It Used To Be

CVG: "This week Adam Cafolla asks if games have become too easy and if so how can developers engage more people without removing the challenge.

During a heated debate recently, the subject came up of games being made less difficult to entice more people to play them. On one hand I can see the arguments for such a change: if a game's too hard the majority of players may never reach the end and experience the whole story.

Another point mentioned was that because of this, games are becoming much more linear as developers can't afford to spend time and money on parts of a game no one will ever see."

[Venox2008]

true...and I think that started in this generation.. :)

[mandf]

challenge isn't there but neither is journalistic integrity or standards.

[damnyouretall]

i think games are easier cause controls and controllers have evolved. remember atari and nintendos funky 2 button controller? talk about some difficult shit. not to mention what the developers had to work with. anyways like older games werent linear? thats a joke. its my opinion, and im sure yall will disagree, you always do

[ATiElite]

Shit! Go play Eve Online or X3 Terran Conflict!

too many developers have Dumb down their games this Gen. I haven't tossed or smashed a Kb/m or controller out of anger and frustration over a game in a long time. Gaiares for the Sega Genesis is still one of the hardest games I can remember playing.

Edit...a gaming friend of mind has just reminded me that I tossed my mouse 2 months ago during our BFBC2 Lan party. Thanks...prick, i still say you were cheating.

[LightofDarkness]

Witcher 2, friends. I have seen the light, and it is glorious...

Seriously, it's difficult as f**k and it has a metric s**t-tonne of content.

Been playing Xenogears and Chrono Cross as well. Man, the creativity of stories has really gone down the drain these days. Nothing has the emotional impact that the RPGs of old have anymore.

[Venox2008]

@damnyouretall .. I don't think it's much about controls.. I think that devs are just appealing to more crowds (don't know casuals or not), but not many people who wants to buy one or another game do play well, so devs make easer games (splinter cell:convinction, enslaved and some others), sure there are exceptions .. so more people can buy them, now lots devs care about business.. because they can bankrupt easily..

[yoge]

This is so true they don't make games as challenging as they use to. Games are more user friendly now.

[PhoenixDevil]

Yes games are easier now a days, though I grew up with the PS1 so dnt remember the proper golden oldies hardcore games but yh games are increasingly easier I attempt every game I get straight onto the hardest difficulty.

Difficulty is confused with cheapness this gen (looks at Call of Duty) where the 'harder' difficulty is just you die easier and your enemies have magnet bullets on you, this doesnt mean games are less enjoyable, uncharted is relatively easy but that series is great and enjoyable

Oh and Demons Souls *yawn* Platinumed ;) seriously though its an amazing and skilful game that takes ages to work you way through, I recommend to anyone :)

[Happythedog]

True, I've been playing MegaMan 1 on my Psp.

[MrBeatdown]

Doesn't bother me. I play games for fun, not necessarily challenge.

And I can think of plenty of challenging games I've completed on harder difficulties for trophies/achievements. There have been plenty of moments this gen where I've wanted to throw the controller at the TV.

[NateCole]

I see where you are coming from but the truth is only dedicated games would go such length to get trophies and complete those challenging difficulties.

I see it differently from having a game make everyone work off the bat like DS this gen.

Games are just like movies this gen where you just go though it to experience it. There is no real challenge other than just more enemies or smaller health bar or stronger enemies.

Gone are the days that when i complete a game i feel like it was a great achievement finishing it and remember for a long time how great it was to clock it. Now its just a matter of playing though it and finish it and forget it immediately that i complete it.

Its just the sign of time really. Everything is about instant gratification nowdays. Its just the majority nowdays and thats fine.

[MrBeatdown]

I guess what I mean to say is, I enjoy a challenge, but I like the "movie" experience as well. I like the challenge to be there should I want it, which I get from trophies, but first and foremost I like to just sit down and enjoy the experience. I don't necessarily want the enemies to just throw themselves in front of my gun, but I don't always want it to be difficult to the point where I'm glad to be past it and relieved when a checkpoint message pops up, as I find that can take away from the immersion or fun. For example, last night I was playing Crysis 2. I got to a point where the difficulty seemed to spike. I had to fight through between 20 and 30 aliens before getting a checkpoint. It took me five or six tries, and I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as I did the areas that only took one or two tries.

I still think there is plenty of challenge out there for the person who wants it, although it may not be there playing through something on "normal" difficulty as often as it used to.

[mastiffchild]

Yeah, for me two things are important and you're hitting on one of them-the meaning of "normal" difficulty HAS gone down or become easier this generation and no mistaking that fact. The other big thing is that, these days, our games are usually games that work and n the past a lot of games got through QA on the verge of being what we might call broken. Christ, Jet Set Willy COULDN'T be finished because it didn't work! These days they'd patch it even if it did ship with a problem but in the old days we'd put it down to the game being stupid hard but sometimes i think it was a glitch or mistake in the code.

So, the arguments come because,even now, devs don't all see "normal" difficulty the same way. Maybe some think normal gamer ability and some just normal person difficulty-if you see what I mean. The big influx of new, casual gamers is leading to this scenario and it might take some time for it to level out imho-but I think the test is there if you want it even if it IS just cheapening things in some genres by making you a bullet magnet or making more enemies spawn forever!Maybe devs have to find more ways(esp in FPS games) to make the difficulty levels cater for everyone-even now a couple of people I kow who used to give me grief for gaming at all and have recently started to get more into it have complained that getting full gamerscores or platinum on games is "too hard" and "unfair" and that not being able to get them makes them feel rubbish. So expect a slew of easier trophies if this is widespread!!

Seriously, they couldn't believe you have to go through most games on the hardest difficulty to get most platinums and that's without even starting on some collectibles! They do NOT understand those at all-mainly because they never had to buy a game that had nothing for you to do(if it didn't have a few things to look for)after you finished it's short campaign which, back in the day, was common. So, whatever happens I imagine "normal" , like small fries at McDonalds being called "regular", will really mean "easy" and "easy" mean "braindead"!

If the new gamers can't platinum even pretty easy games then they certainly won';t, also, being told they only played the game on easy, will they? People have to feel good about themselves when starting a hobby or they will go elsewhere but gaming must ensure it doesn't lose us challenge seekers who kept it alive up til this point either. The difficulties have to be sorted. Simple as that.

BTW, was playing the old Sonic games the other weekend and if I ran into a spike that you couldn't see at a million miles an hour a milliseond after it appeared on screen once I must have done it a thousand times. Is that great game design? No, but if I'd been able to get through first time the game would be,like, a an hour long!! So,most of those things you have to learn by trial and error that meant nobody EVER went clear through a stage of Sonic2 the first time round were needed even if, as I suspect, a few of them weren't placed on purpose to start with.Ijust don;'t think playtesting was anything like it is tosay back then either.

All of this plays into today's situation with difficulty and there's no lack of challenge both on and offline if you want to look for it though we could do with hard meaning hard, easy meaning easy and so on.We'd know where we stood even if we end up with normal meaning easy anyway!!

[CobraKai]

I'm old school, but I more than welcome "the ease". I just don't have the time nor patience to grind through the same level over and over and over. Besides, I recall never finishing some games back in the day cuz of the difficulty. I always felt it was a waste.

[Fulensenca]

True, and I' m happy enough to be honest. The old games were often too hard to me, I could not beat many of them.

I understand that a lot of people is not happy with the average difficulty level of this generation ( the average is a little bit too easy for me too but the most of the time I think it' s ok ), a lot of gamers are very skilled, but I am not. Fact is that both skilled gamers and a non-skilled gamers deserves to be in condition to beat the game. They all have paid it!

A lot of games have like 5 difficulty levels in this generation, and I think is the right choice.

For example I think that Uncharted 1-2 normal difficulty is a little bit too easy ( but you can change it ), but the demon' s souls difficulty level it' s the max I can afford ( this is why I' m not happy with how hard is going to be Dark Souls ).

So, this generation, under this aspect, to me it' s good enough; I can' t complain much.

PS: to who like challenges there are a TON of competitive online games, no real need to make games more difficult IMHO.

[gamingisnotacrime]

and they game for entertainment, not to be challenge with lame unfair tasks.

Most games can be set to different difficulties and to each his own.

Some games i like to just play through, others i enjoy the grinding.
Is all a matter of preference

[DanSolo]

Yeh a decent difficulty scaling makes sense.... like people who are crap at gaming or just want to have some light entertainment can have it on easy... while the masochists can put it on Extreme/Hardcore mode!

The rest of us can just put it somewhere in between!

It has to be a decent difficulty scaling system though... all too often difficulty level just means making the game harder in an annoying way rather than ramping up the challenge!

[gamingisnotacrime]

yep
i hate when a game is harder by cheap techniques. and that used to happened way too often

[Rybakov]

got that right

its so stupid making a 5 hour long game that isn't finished and has parts left out to be sold later as "dlc".....not to mention the fact they hold your hand thru games including the "difficult" settings.....devs are lazy this gen

and journalism isn't helping either by crying cause something is trying something new or changing the way a game plays

thats why i loved demon souls....all the deaths were my fault and there was no help except from other people playing the game

[NateCole]

As an old time gamer from the Atari days. I have seen two main developments that significantly made games easy.

1. Game saves.
2. Regenerative health.

Its not possible to go back but what i want are games that really respect me as a gamer and that you must respect as a gamer. This is why DS this gen has been a god send.

[crapfreakdad]

Was discussing LA Noire with an old friend the other day, discussing if the current generation of games are reviewed too highly and are games lacking innovation/difficulty.
We're old gamers 40+, so we've played probably every genre and its variations. So, are games too easy...without a doubt. Graphically amazing, yet way too easy. Anyone whos played Defender, must agree it takes an almost zen-like skill to get to the higher levels.

[NateCole]

Dude. I am the defender king. I played that game until it restart from level 1.

[Two-Face]

We have seen this generation that developers are starting to kill the gaming industry. With introducing games like Heavy Rain, Motorstorm, Metal Gear Solid 4. And don't take this the wrong way PS3 fanboys. Thinking that Im a xbot. I have only PS3, therefore I know what i'm talking about, and i'm not afraid to say my opinion of what I believe.

Motorstorm = Catch-up. Skills in this game HAVE absolutely NOTHING to say... Even if you drive good the whole race, the opponents still catch up with you at the end, like some fucktards. Pathetic... i never got annoyed at a racing game so bad.

Heavy Rain = This is not a game... this is a half-assed movie.

Metal Gear Solid 4 = Is this a joke? Who thought it was a good idea to have like 8 hours cutscenes in a game? With some gameplay sequences in between. Fucking shit...

[DanSolo]

I agree totally that catch-up is retarded.... it is probably worse than auto-aim in a FPS!

Heavy Rain is more of an interactive movie than a game... but that is what it was meant to be... if all games became like that I'd be pissed off... but the odd game or two like that is a nice change of pace and I enjoyed it. Still I would have preferred slightly more gaming elements in it!

Didn't get around to playing MGS4, but 8 hours cutscenes does sound very excessive. But then it is not the norm thankfully... and games like that are there for people who like games like that. We can pass on them and play the ones we like!

I do generally agree with you though, there is too much dumbing down of games. There needs to be a happy medium of ensuring fun, without taking the challenge out of it. I think some COD fans would start pulling their hair out and tugging on their testicles in tantrums if they ever took auto-aim out of COD and they found out that in fact they are not as good at the game as they thought.... although I imagine they'd just complain about the game being "Broken" lol

[DanSolo]

I first started gaming on the Vic 20, then Spectrum 128k, and then on to the Amiga... and games then were definately ALOT harder!

And the difficulty has kept going down... but gaming is a lot more fun these days and has evolved into something a lot better (mostly) so it has been a good trade off.

I do think though it would be good to have more real old school difficulty games to be able to play as well... maybe some of the reallllly old ones from them systems remade as PSN quality cheap games.

The things I do dislike are when games are made too easy with things like Auto-aim.... that shit is just plain annoying!
But things like save points and regenerative health are good as they stop the games becoming frustrating... but maybe a hardcore mode that switches those things off for the people who take their gaming a little too seriously would be good! ;)

[Kraxe]

Its sad really. Games are just too easy now a days. I mean me spending $60 dollars on a game just so I can finish it within 5hrs to a week, thats complete bull! Why back in my day (I'm 20yrs old) when you died in a game you don't go back to last save point, you go back to square one. Granted I liked the save point thing, saves soo much back tracking. but now everything is like handed over to you now. that being said I think game developers should start focusing on making games more challenging in a slow pace. Hopefully we might get great games that are just as challenging as the games in the past (maybe even more).

[Shok]

Thank God for games like Demon Souls and Monster Hunter.

[L6RD7BLU3]

I say it's 50/50 cause some of the older games were just unfair I/E Ninja Gaiden even the new one was sort of unfair so I say it just really depends on the game your playing.

[NateCole]

Haha. I played the new NG on xbox and i was wondering why people were complaining about the difficulty. Compare to the NES ones the NES ones were a heck a lot harder.

I still have nightmares in playing the last level of NG2 on NES.

[L6RD7BLU3]

I agree 100%

[maxmill]

you must remember these games are easy because we got used to technical difficulties of the past

look at megaman, glitchin through platforms, constantly respawning enemies and etc...

so its 50/50

[dorron]

I play games for fun and entertainment. I have enough challenges at work and no time to spend on finishing a game that lasts hundreds of hours.

To me, 15 to 20 hours is perfect. No need for unachievable goals...

But then again, that's just my case...

[sonicsidewinder]

Casuals.