Apparently I'm a casual gamer now

Recently I picked up a preowned copy of Dragon Age Origins (I realize I'm a bit behind because the sequel came out a while back) & it is just as awesome as I was expecting. But, about 10 hours into the game I found the game even set on normal difficulty to be a pretty unforgiving experience. The difficulty & abilities of the enemies seemed to take a huge leap forward and the game began kicking my a$$ left, right & center.

So as a result, after ignoring the game for over a week out of utter frustration, I've begrudgingly turned the game down to casual. Casual is a lot easier than normal, maybe even too much so, but the game itself is good enough to make me want to play on for the experience alone.

Anyway, my question is has anyone else turned down the difficulty of a game due to utter frustration :mad2: This thread to likely to attract abuse from "hardcore gamers" too :lol:

Yes I have. In MGS3 I went from hard back to normal difficulty. On hard, all I did was lie flat and crawl. Now where's the fun?

The learning curve on Dragon Age: Origins is pretty unforgiving at first. The game definitely takes some getting used to at certain points. I still haven't completed a nightmare difficulty run of the game. I usually get somewhere around 70% through before I give up and bump it down a level, and that's just because at this point, I've played the game through enough that I don't really want to waste time micromanaging everything to survive some of the more unforgiving encounters.

Yeah I had my ass handed to me several times in Dragon Age. I didn't feel like it was a cop out to turn the difficulty down. I just made sure I turned it back up once that particular encounter was done.

The problem was just I had everything set up :bou::bou::bou::bou:. Subsequent playthroughs are easier now that I have a better understanding of the mechanics.

On one play through of mass effect 2 I did when I got royally pissed on some levels of my insanity sentinel play through. (turning it onto easy made it fun as hell :D)

Oh yeah, ME1 has been a pain in the ass. I finished insanity difficulty last night. The game is easy easy easy and then just randomly loses its :bou::bou::bou::bou: and makes a near impossible fight pop up. It hurt me :(

I never put it above normal because mages are so unfun when you can't just place a fire tornado smack in the middle of the room without your party getting burned.

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Originally Posted by Jessweeee♪

I never put it above normal because mages are so unfun when you can't just place a fire tornado smack in the middle of the room without your party getting burned.

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Yeah its the stupid fire tornado I had most trouble with!! My party could deal with pretty much anything on Normal for a while & then a stupid enemy mage comes out of nowhere casts that stupid fire tornado & then boom entire party dead! And what's worse is all my characters are using items that reduce the amount of fire damage they are suppose to take.I even tried going after the enemy mages straight away when a fight would begin but that would result in paralyze and then fire tornado!!!! Hence the utter frustration that resulted in a difficulty change.

I'm also playing through Dragon Age: Origins just now! I haven't had any major problems with Normal difficulty yet, but then I haven't faced many mages yet either.

I played on Pussy for the first 3 Metal Gear Solid games. I really hated the camera. I did play Metal Gear solid 4: Guns of Crazytalk on harder difficulties. But this is about switching on the fly, right.

I don't like FPS usually, but some grab my interest and I'll play on easy before long because I'm smurfing terrible at them. Except for Bioshock, that thing was a breeze with some magic heroine mixed in.

I switched Mass Effect 1 and Jade Empire to easy, or casual or whatever, at some point.

I got nothin' to prove, suckas! http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i2...f_by_edb23.gif

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Originally Posted by Rantzien

I'm also playing through Dragon Age: Origins just now! I haven't had any major problems with Normal difficulty yet, but then I haven't faced many mages yet either.

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Wait until you complete the Circle Of Magi Tower quest, that seemed to bring them out of the woodwork in a big way!

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Originally Posted by Kyle

I played on Pussy for the first 3 Metal Gear Solid games. I really hated the camera. I did play Metal Gear solid 4: Guns of Crazytalk on harder difficulties. But this is about switching on the fly, right.

I don't like FPS usually, but some grab my interest and I'll play on easy before long because I'm smurfing terrible at them. Except for Bioshock, that thing was a breeze with some magic heroine mixed in.

I switched Mass Effect 1 and Jade Empire to easy, or casual or whatever, at some point.

I got nothin' to prove, suckas! http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i2...f_by_edb23.gif

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I always turn FPS games up to the harder difficulties on my second play through. I got through Killzone 2 on Veteran eventually & got a great sense of gaming achievement from that because Killzone 2 punished you brutally for trying to pull a John Rambo, which is the way I love to play FPS games :P

I played through MGS 4 on Big Boss hard as far as the fight with Vamp & gave up because of the ridiculous ability on that difficulty to avoid being stabbed with the needle.

Glad to see I'm not the only person who has some trouble with non FF rpg's though if I'm honest.

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Originally Posted by Shattered Dreamer

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Originally Posted by Rantzien

I'm also playing through Dragon Age: Origins just now! I haven't had any major problems with Normal difficulty yet, but then I haven't faced many mages yet either.

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Wait until you complete the Circle Of Magi Tower quest, that seemed to bring them out of the woodwork in a big way!

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I HATE THE FADE

Nothing compares to the game telling you that maybe you should think of lowering the difficulty, since you suck. Dammit DMC3. :(

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Originally Posted by Jessweeee♪

I HATE THE FADE

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I spent an hour trying to figure out part of the Circle Of Magi there! Worst of all was when I stupidly picked Jowan the blood mage to chase after the demon in Arl Eamon's son Connor. FRUSTRATING AS HELL!!!

Chiming in to agree with the "smurf the Fade" sentiment. God damn was that crap ever annoying.

Also, I play on whatever difficulty is fun to me. Sometimes I like a challenge, sometimes I don't. If a game increases the difficulty by making AI better or whatever, then I'm more likely to want to bump up the difficulty, as opposed to "congratulations, it now takes 50 shots to the head to kill someone!"

I did the same thing when playing DA:O.

I don't regret it.

I thought the fade was pretty cool when doing the mage origin, and I thought it was pretty cool when dealing with Connor, but goddamn that Circle of the Magi quest :nonono:


Though it is pretty fun telling a dwarf to use the lyrium veins just to hear them randomly shout NO I CAN'T NO I'VE LOST THE SPELL

I am still curious as to wtf happens if you're a dwarf MC. HOW DO YOU ENTER THE FADE

I became awesome at Soul Calibur 2 after spending heaps playing it at the arcades. I bought it the PS2 version so I could fine tune my madskillz at home and I played it to the point of thoroughly knowing the ins and outs of every character. My difficulty setting was on the highest which was called Extreme or Expert or something to that effect, and it was still pretty easy.

After SC3 was announced as a console-only game, I lost a lot of interest the series. They're still good games, but for me, the real fun came from playing it in the arcade environment. I still bought SC3, but was disappointed with a lot of the characters' changes (particularly Ivy) and only ended up refamiliarising myself with my two favourites (Cass and Siegfreid). The difficulty setting had to go down to Very Hard. It's stayed there for SC4 as well.

For the most part, I play games for the fun of it and the storylines / scripting. There should be some challenge (which is why I go for normal rather than easy difficulties where possible), yes, but when it gets to a point that I'm getting killed over and over and over then I am more than happy to turn it down or check a guide/walkthrough. I hardly ever play at a higher difficulty level than normal, really. There are some exceptions, though. I finished Uncharted 2 on every difficulty (easy only for the sake of treasure hunting etc), for example. But yeah, those are rarities.

The gap between casual and normal is immense on dragon age. My first playthrough I started and stayed casual. 2nd playthrough I got absolutely maimed by the first opponent (a guard and his dog) on the city elf origin whils on normal.

I'm finding DA2 a struggle on casual at the moment. The thought of Nightmare mode just seems impossible to me.

I thought I was really good at RPG's so I started Nocturne on hard for my first playthough. Then I met Matador. :(

I tried to do gears 2 on insanity solo.....yeah smurf that.

I did do MGS2 on European Extreme mode, I still to this very day do not understand just how the smurf I managed to do that. It was perhaps the most annoying experience of my entire gaming life and yet I persevered. Pity PS2 didn't have gamerscore/achievements I'd have liked that.

I did do Mass Effect on the setting unlocked after completing the game, but only with my soldier who by that point had SPECTRE gear and was pretty bitching, my first run through with that character was on casual.

I've completed CoD 4: MW and CoD MW2 on veteran difficulty. The only level I skipped was the level Mile High Club in MW1 because frankly whilst I could do it after some tries, I don't believe it will ever be worth putting myself through that level of punishment for a mere 20 gamerscore. I don't enjoy the Black Ops mechanics enough to go for the veteran run on it. I prefer the mechanics of MW2 to be honest. Here's hoping MW3 is a return to these but improved.

DA:O is an unforgiving game for PC gamers and downright clunky on consoles.

You're fine.

I pre-ordered DSIII (because of childhood nostalgia wanting DSI and II), didn't go so well. I can play DSII quite fine, but the slow pace of DSI is really ... boring. I'm just not as attentive as I was years ago.

I can't believe you guys think Dragon Age: Origins is hard. Master the R2 co-ordinate attacks thing and you'll fly by the game trust me. If you play it like an action game then you don't get the full tactical RPG experience. Lining up attacks and spells is the only way to go for me, because i killed both rogues (let leliana die and slit Zevran throat while he was down!) and had to go through the entire game without one! Bosses were a b**ch!

Hardest non-FF RPGs I've played Recently are: Demon Souls and The Last Remnant. Those games are brutally hard...this coming from an RPG vet.

lol I thought The Last Remnant was a piece of cake 90% of the time :p The R2 co-ordinated attack bit is fine but I just found at times the enemies had ridiculous strength & attack advantages. To each his own I suppose. Never played Demon Soul I must look that up unless it's 360 only then I'm out of luck.

Any RPG that Atlus releases is hard, they practically have their own tier within Atlus in terms of difficulty with Persona being the lightweight titles and Demon's Souls being so hard "it will reach out and grab you, smack you around, smurf you up, and make you start doing "tricks" for money in the Red Light District". Only game I know that gets harder with New Game + mode, and holiday events involve changing the World Tendency events to murder the fan base.

The only game I've ever lowered the difficulty on was Mega Man 2 back in the day when I lacked skills (though I've lost said skills and still play it on Normal to this day) and TWEWY. The first boss fight I was underleveled or apparently not as skilled with the split screen fighting as the game wanted me to be, and I kept dying cause Shiki loves to block things with her face. :roll2

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

The only game I've ever lowered the difficulty on was Mega Man 2 back in the day when I lacked skills (though I've lost said skills and still play it on Normal to this day) and TWEWY. The first boss fight I was underleveled or apparently not as skilled with the split screen fighting as the game wanted me to be, and I kept dying cause Shiki loves to block things with her face. :roll2

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That bonus boss is the worst. It takes not two shouts of OPEN UP YOUR WOOOOOORLD for me to die :(

I've done the whole Circle of Magi thing now and I found the whole Fade thing pretty fun! :D Having to change your tactics to only play as one person in different forms was a refreshing change from the standard gameplay. I just think it could've been a bit shorter.

I once accidentally switched the difficulty down in God of War I because i kept hitting x or down and x or something after the screen, anywa, i accidentally lowered it! Kinda upset, but not too much b/c the difficulty wasn't obscenely easy.

Sucks to hear that about Dragon Age, I'm really looking forward to getting into it, but I know that's going to be a blow to my self esteem if I have to lower it to casual. What an abusive title to boot!

I think if your self-esteem is lowered by setting the difficulty to "casual" then you have bigger problems :p