Apparently I'm a casual gamer now

[Shattered Dreamer]

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 This thread to likely to attract abuse from "hardcore gamers" too

[Pete for President]

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?

[Ouch!]

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.

[Jiro]

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 . Subsequent playthroughs are easier now that I have a better understanding of the mechanics.

[TrollHunter]

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 )

[Jiro]

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 and makes a near impossible fight pop up. It hurt me

[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.

[Shattered Dreamer]

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.

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.

[Rantz]

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.

[LunarWeaver]

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!

[Shattered Dreamer]

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.

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

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!

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.

[Jessweeee♪]

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.

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

I HATE THE FADE

[Shauna]

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

[Shattered Dreamer]

I HATE THE FADE

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!!!

[Psychotic]

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!"