Games Too Easy On Normal Setting & Games With Only One Difficulty Level?

LEE929394

LEE929394

LEE929394

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I tend to never be satisfied playing a game on the normal difficulty setting these days.
I am a very average player with average skills (especially FPS and RPGs) but feel immensely satisfied playing a game on hard even though my skills aren't good enough for a genuine hard difficulty level (played Crysis 2 on hard setting but felt more like normal for a shooter)

My frustration is games that don't let you change the difficulty mid game and the apparently huge variation of the definition of what normal and hard should really be (a lot of the time 'normal' is just too easy)
In short i never know what to expect when playing a game these days.

So i'm after some suggestions on games that are still challenging but don't have difficulty settings and are universal to everyone?

Portal 2 is my choice, nothing to worry about here with settings - you're playing it how it was intended to be, however challenging it might be.... a rare gem!:)
 
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(Console) racing games are frustrating with difficulty. These days most racing games give you 3-5 different AI settings and more often than not even the hardest setting is too easy OR the gap between hardest and second hardest is way too big. Usually the former, though.

Meanwhile some proper PC games like the Simbin games allow you to set the AI speed with 1% modifier, ranging for example from 75% to 130%. 102% just a tiny bit too slow? Try 104%. While it might be too complicated for the average gamer, there's probably a happy medium between this and giving you 3-5 choices (of which none is useful to you).

Forza 3 for example was completely ruined by the lack of AI options. Just recently I tried Shift 2 and it seems to suffer from exactly the same problem. F1 2010 as well; I could beat the fastest AIs with the slowest car by few seconds on some tracks. Dirt 2 on the other hand had something like 7 different settings and that felt just about right.

Then there are the Russian games where even the easiest setting is sometimes too hard, but I can live with that. I can get better in these games but I sure wouldn't like to drive SLOWER to have proper competition.
 
Meh, most games have just rubbish difficulty levels full stop. COD being the worst, rather than "better" AI its normally just, impossibly unrealistic AI and increasing spawn rates and complete stupidity.

I find nothing satisfying about clearing a section that on normal has a 20 guys who can empty a clip at you and will only hit you a few times, while after switching to hard or a higher setting, just has 20 guys who when you stick your head out from behind anywhere, will hit you instantly with their first shot, and will always know where you are, etc.

Theres a fine line between enjoyably difficult, and realism destroying, fun sucking difficulty that becomes work rather than a game.
 
I tend to play all my games on normal because anything higher is beyond my ability. I'm not saying i'm crap, it's just I enjoy having a challenge that normal gives me.:p;)
 
Phinor said:
Forza 3 for example was completely ruined by the lack of AI options. Just recently I tried Shift 2 and it seems to suffer from exactly the same problem. F1 2010 as well...
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. Some games are far too easy, and then too hard. Just don't really have much enjoyment if there isn't a challenge, especially in the racing games!
 
Not a problem for me, I don't play games for their difficulty or challenge per se, more for their storyline. I've played HL2 7 times since it came out, and only the most recent time did I turn the difficulty up from easy to normal.
 
Most games that have a plot i tend to play through on easy first then a harder level when i fancy going through them again.

Racing games i usually turn all the aids bar traction control off (as i use a joystick for steering and the joystick buttons for accelerate/brake etc, so all i got is either full power or no power), as i really like a challenge with them
 
i find with a lot of games normal is too easy and hard is too hard. Never getting the balance right, it's also really annoying when you can't change difficulty mid-campaign.
 
These days difficulty level just mean either "increase number of enemies" or "increase health/damage/accuracy". Better quality AI just doesn't enter in it.

And i agree that the difference between Normal and Hard (or any named difficulty that changes between easy and very hard in 1 jump) tends to suck lately. I always think of L4D, where Normal is 2 damage infected hits, Advanced is 5 damage infected hits and Expert jumps up to 20 damage infected hits, 1 hit incap tanks and maassive damage SI hits. That so badly needs a middle ground.
 
^Thing is it has pretty much always been that way, the "AI" is usually the same just higher difficulty means as you say 'artificial' penalties are given to the player / advantages to the enemy. Very few developers would actually go to the trouble of having scalable AI (botmatch aside).

Personally I'd agree that being unable to change difficulty during the game is very annoying. I typically start a game on normal but sometimes it would be nice to beef things up a bit.

SiN Episodes: Emergence supposedly had some kind of dynamic difficulty setting but I'm never too convinced on how well things like that will work.... lets say you breeze through the early section of the game, so the difficulty ramps up. Then you suddenly get a to 'hard' part, maybe a boss fight. Which ends up being exponentially challenging because:
a) it is supposed to be hard in the first place relative to your difficulty setting
b) the difficulty has ramped itself up due to the preceeding 'ez' sections.
 
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