I've been playing lately a handful of different games, and in some I am more advanced in some others I am a noob, so I thought to make a blog post about the different difficulty settings and what I think about them.

For Casual Gamers

Very Easy: in some action and adventure games, there is this option to make the game too soft for a common gamer, but it makes the perfect choice for someone to run by the game and watch the full story, to be honest in my early days I used to do my first run on this setting, it is also used as the lowest setting in some Fighting games like the Mortal Kombat series

Easy/Casual: this setting is for gamers new to a genre, or people who wants to practice and not stress on the game a bit, it is somewhat fast to go through a game in this setting, most games have this option, and they are somewhat in the same line, common on all game types

Rookie: this is used in many sports games and means that the CPU will only use the most basic moves, and will miss a lot, they will move slowly and in two or three games you will bet the crap out of it, FIFA series is a good example of this in rookie you can do whatever you want to the cpu.

For Common Gamers

Normal: its just the standard definition for how a game should be played, but most of the time it doesnt have a standard line you can play some comfortable playthrouhg with some death along the way, or you can feel like "did I by mistake selected hard" this happened to me in Fracture I was getting killed a lot, also ninja gaiden is worth a mention here

Pro: this option is for people who have an idea of the sport thats being played, i. e. if I play a new game of basquetball I would play it on this setting to get hang on the basics and have some competition on me

Hard: this is the challenge of most gamers, and where I tend to begin my gameplays these days, this setting might be well known because it forces you to use all the game mechanics, take cover, find the sweet spots, and where does the weapons work better, finishing a game in this setting gives you an acomplishment feel, this setting has many games as hardcore, heroic, gold, professional or even 150 cc on mario kart

For Hardcore Gamers

Very Hard: this setting makes you do the impossible in order to survive, go back for medpacks, pick up weapons you threw a long way back, try to pick every enemy in the safest way possible, even save after every big battle, this is what prepares you the most for multiplayer games, as it gives you best reflexes and accuracy, this is only for those who commit to a game

All-Star: for sports game all-star is like playing against a huamn opponent as it uses most of the moves, and works its way to the ...whatever the scoring method is

if very hard is high some games have something far superior and in some cases unplayable such as:

Nightmare: the standard definition for hard as hell, you need lightspeed reflexes, double side step, know every bit and corner of all the levels, save ammo for later, pick up even the smallest shield shard thats on your way. Games that have this setting are Doom and Quake

Legendary: the highest setting for halo, is not unplayable but it demands presition and some ridicule forms of cover, also in some areas it becomes a trial and error essay, try over and over until you dont miss that sniper

Insane/realistic: one of the more entertaining of this list as it demands game mechanics to be perfected without making you to lose your mind, yo need to learn enemies position or distribution in order to know where to strike first, Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas and Mass Effect have this setting

Veteran: luck is all you need here, it is insanely hard, and sometimes it will make you slam your controller is not a matter of skill its a matter to run and pray to god that the enemies miss their shot. Call of Duty series is well known for this setting

Impossible: Far Cry makes you feel like a real mercenary with this setting as you have to play like it is your life, the one that is in danger, cheap tactics are required in order to be able to step up in the challenge

Hall of Fame: for some sports games this is the top, you have to dominate every sigle move, learn how to be a playmaker, exploit your teams strenghts, CPU won't miss a single pass, and will play defense like the championship game, you also have to use tactics and tempo to be able to beat this setting.