Normal setting is too easy, Hard setting is too difficult (on single player)

Anyone else feel this way about many games, I cant find that happy medium to enjoy. Normal setting is too easy to really enjoy, wheras hard setting is just too tedious and well, HARD.

An example is a lot of FPS and racers. On normal , i end up having like 8+ sec gaps ahead of the 2nd place finisher. On Hard, i can barely crack the top 5. Of course this question only applies to sungle player (not MP)

yea especially true for forza 3, medium is rediculously easy, then hard is just too hard

Games like Mount and Blade and Tropico 3 do the right thing, instead of having difficulty settings like hard easy normal you instead customize things the way you see fit. While your total difficulty is determined by a certain percentage. For instance, in Tropico 3 you can determine the following at start. Game Duration, Political Stability, World Economy, Starting Population, Random Event Frequency, Tourism and a bunch of other stuff.

Games like Mount and Blade and Tropico 3 do the right thing, instead of having difficulty settings like hard easy normal you instead customize things the way you see fit. While your total difficulty is determined by a certain percentage. For instance, in Tropico 3 you can determine the following at start. Game Duration, Political Stability, World Economy, Starting Population, Random Event Frequency, Tourism and a bunch of other stuff.

Maroxad

I really like that idea. I also like games that allow you to adjust the difficulty when you get stuck at a certain part. This seems to be a feature in a lot of games these days.

Uncharted : Drake's Fortune posed a similar problem problem.

Normal was kinda easy. Hard was not very hard (to me, since I just finished the game and knew what to expect). I can't get 10-15% into the game on Crushing, it's ridiculous.

I agree, i have got to the point of play it on super easy and just enjoy the story.

I normally start on Normal if it is a genre I am familliar with..Sports and Racing games (should I try one) I usually put it on easy.

My approach to this problem is to stick with the easier option, and then add difficulty "manually".

By this I mean, imagine a FPS where you feel you can gun down anything before they can take a shot at you. Well, then, make a point of killing everyone with melee attacks only, or be the "stupid-hero" type and only shoot after being shot at first, and so on.

Works for me.

I agree about FM3, medium with all assists off is a breeze but set it to hard and its too far of a jump.

Ya , i just dont like the idea of switching back and forth between normal and hard within the same game, something about it feels artifical. Like racing on normal 90% of the races and going out on a limb and doing 10% of the tracks on hard only because that small 10% minority is actually not overly ridiculously hard.

Same thing with sport sliders, adjust the batting, hitting, pitching sliders,...you have no idea what ur doing unless u do trial and error, move the slider a few notches to the right and a game becomes a homerun derby with scores like 35-20, move the pitching slider another way, and you have 4 no-hitters a week with sub 0.50 ERAs

The thing with difficulty is that, especially in a lot of shooters, they just spam more AI at you when you turn the difficulty up. Call of Duty is a great example of that.

i hate it when there is difficulty spike at a point... like when i played infamous, most of the game was fairly easy on hard, but then i get to the final boss. took me WAY too long to beat him.

yea especially true for forza 3, medium is rediculously easy, then hard is just too hard

pl4yer_f0und

That is excactly the game I was thinking of... I would add Red Faction whose normal is too hard while the easy is well you guessed it.

I remember this on Perfect Dark Zero. On normal mode Johanna Dark is like a regenerating terminator able to regenerate hundreds of bullets and charge into every room head on, no need for the cover mechanic. On hard mode it's great for the first few levels, until you get to the arena part where your suppose to fight some boss while these samarai statues come to life and attack you, it's close to virtual impossibility on hard due to the unavoidable damage towards the end.

I'd like the idea of games adjusting their own difficulty depending on the player's skill.ModeDude

I'd hate that idea, because sometimes I want a challenge, sometimes not. I don't want the game to decide what's right for me.

Don't play racers much, but I don't think its a problem with most FPS's since they all tend to have about 4 difficulty settings.

yea especially true for forza 3, medium is rediculously easy, then hard is just too hard

pl4yer_f0und

Talking about just the AI difficulty level? If anything I would say Forza 3 is an amazing example of difficulty levels done right. They give you a whole list of options.

I play with everything maxed to make the driving more realistic and the AI on medium. I find this to be perfect for me.