Going in Hard

[Yeargdribble]

I pick normal or easy. I care about the experience of the game and for most that means the story. There are too many games to be played for me play a game on controller-throwing mode. I get no sense of superiority out of being able to play a game that has been made arbitrarily more difficult by giving enemies more health or throwing more of them at you. I don't appreciate that type of difficulty at all and that's generally the type you get from games that allow you to choose.

If I want difficulty I want it in an earnest form like Demon's Souls rather than some cheap headshot-from-across-the-map form.

[DMKA]

Normal/Medium because I dunno, I feel like that's the ideal difficulty devs intended for the average person who wants the standard experience.

Most modern games won't even let you play hard mode until you've finished normal. Which is kinda silly.

[kotora]

Normal/Medium because I dunno, I feel like that's the ideal difficulty devs intended for the average person who wants the standard experience.

Most modern games won't even let you play hard mode until you've finished normal. Which is kinda silly.

that's so they can say the crappy tunnel gameplay has a high replay value

[Iceglow]

Depends on the game but generally speaking: Play the game on normal first time, then for the kicks of it go back and play it on the hardest possible setting. If I enjoy it enough then go back and do any super hard settings such as when I did European Extreme for Metal Gear Solid 2 or my Mass Effect files (which I need to finish!) Some games however I go in on the hardest setting and keep at it. I very nearly did so with Halo Reach and in hindsight wish I had done because I think that there was something about fighting so very hard on legendary that made the story better. Bungie always say Halo is designed to be played at the Heroic level of difficulty but I disagree and say that in the case of Reach, legendary was the intended difficulty so that when you get through it you're satisfied it makes the fight feel more real, more painful when you lose.

[Depression Moon]

I think I played KH I on easy on my first playthrough and some other games. with GoW II I jumped from medium to hard and that was frustrating as I had stated in my review. Typically if it's my first time I go for Medium especially if it's with a series I'm new to.

[Mo-Nercy]

Never Hard. For most games, I'm happy to play through several times on Medium without ever going up to Hard. For FPS, I almost always have to play on Easy because I'm awful.

edit: just remembered that fighting games usually have a difficulty setting in their menus. For most fighters, I will pick Hard or Very Hard (whatever the second hardest one is). Soul Calibur 2 has been the only game in recent memory that I've been able to play on it's hardest difficulty.