It really depends for me. However I do have one golden rule.... I don't ever play games one easy. I always choose normal, unless of course it's a game I feel capable of playing on hard or needs to be on hard to be more challenging. While it may sound out-of-date or small-time, at one point, just being able to beat Kingdom Hearts on normal felt a bit hard, because that was really my first initiation into gaming without the added cushions I had become use to. Up until playing that game, Halo was the only thing I had ever played one every difficulty with expert precision, mostly because playing a game over a dozen times does cause your knowledge of the best ways to use the game mechanisms to your advantage to increase. I also played Ninja Gaiden on normal as well, those being my only choices with just an Xbox at the time.

Since then, do much in part to my newbie excitement from just getting a PS2 and having a whole new consoles worth of games to play I've grown into my gamer shoes. So now I prefer the challenge in a game to be level. I don't mind it being hard, but I don't want it to be destructively frustrating. There is no satisfaction in trying to beat a game that is purposely being cruel and cheating through it's teeth. I want my challenge to be an intelligent one, something with meaning to it, that may be frustrating but doesn't go to thelengths of making suicide seem like a logical option.