this thread dissapoints...

I used to play PC shooters at the highest possible skill level as aiming with the mouse is so freakin easy, but these days I pretty much exclusively play console games at the default skill level. I went trough Ninja Gaiden Black on easy though, and they made sure you didn't forget how lame you were.

I often think that there's a lot of room between easy and normal. Some games can be very frustrating on the normal skill level and when you turn that down to easy, it becomes way too easy.

It depends on the game. I normally pick Normal or Easy the first time through regardless. After beating the Bioshock demo 6 times I realized that normal is just right (never died) but I have a feeling Hard might be too much.

I liked the seriously scarce resources availiable on Bioshock's hard mode, but not the extra health the enemies had. It just looks right to down a Splicer in two or three pistol shots rather than six, and it feels right to be pausing in between each pull of the trigger to ensure that every precious bullet delivers all of its potential. I wish you could mix those to aspects of Normal and Hard together.

That pretty much describes my situation, except that I'll usually bump up the difficulty on the console on the second play through. I'm starting to think they can't design a FPS mouse control scheme that would be fun; it's just too easy.

I think there's a difference between difficult and challenging. The end boss in a Capcom fighting game is difficult. Ninja Gaiden (the new one) is challenging.

The difference being that something that is difficult is made artifically hard by giving your enemy unfair advantages (these are the elements that make you say, "that was so goddamn cheap."), in such a way that the game no longer seems internally consistent. A game that is challenging is fair, even if it is very hard. In general, if I'm faced with something challenging I don't mind having to make a go at it a few times before I get it because it's not cheap, and therefore isn't so frustrating (OK, some of the boss fights in Ninja Gaiden are indeed "difficult").

I can do without any frustration. I do not like being frustrated, even if it means I'll feel more satisfaction when I finally succeed. As far as a challenge goes, bring it on. I also like it when a game recognizes that you're having trouble and helps you a little so you can move on. No one enjoys never finishing a game because they're stuck at one part.

3rd-ed. I used to play Q2 competitively and developed a quick, accurate mouse aim, but I'm nowhere near as good with a controller. Not for lack of practice either. Console FPS just irritate me at the higher difficulty settings.

*sees thread title, waits for the "Ramrod Club" to show up...*

I think I'll be playing Bioshock on easy. I played the demo on normal, started to run out of ammo and was just trying to kill things as fast as possible. Then I replayed on easy and took my time to shock/hack turrets, setup the elaborate incinerate/wait for them to jump in the water/zap the water (got three at once that way). The frantic "oh crap, oh crap, oh crap" was replaced with "Holy sh*t, this is f*cking awesome. What's the next neat thing I can do?" The game was more engaging and creative for me that way. Others might like the pressure of the higher difficulties, but I'm digging the varied possibilities. I feel I get more of those at the lower difficulty level. There's less of a penalty for getting creative if the idea doesn't work.

I'd be OK with playing at harder difficulties and being more methodical if I could see more of what was going on before I was in the thick of it. It really ruins it for me to have to run out, die, and reload in order to understand what my option are.

Normal or Easy for me. I like to feel powerful in a game and actually have fun blasting things to smithereens instead of conserving ammo and backtracking as I'm being chased by 12 cacodemons. The latter is just way too resemblant of my real life job.

Oh baby...

I always play games on Normal mode by default. I don't want to breeze through the game but I also don't want to die every three minutes.

What I especially hate is when you can only get special items/endings on Hard mode. I don't normally want to play through a game more than once so I'm stuck playing the hardest difficulty if I care enough about that super special sh*t.

I almost always go for the default setting, but it depends on how much time I plan to invest in the game. If it's a short title, and I know I'll like it, I'll go with a harder difficulty. If I just want to burn through it, I'll go with easy. I think I'll play Bioshock on hard.

The selection of difficulty for me tends to have a lot to do with the quality (or perceived quality) of the game. It seems most games are designed with the "normal" difficulty in mind, so that's what I choose most of the time. Higher quality games (Bioshock will likely be included in this) will have special tweaks specifically for the higher difficulties to make the changes to the gameplay not affect the experience (ie., it's not just psychic enemies or unrealistic hit points).

A lot of it is personal preference, of course. I don't mind reloading a section over and over to get it right (excepting most RPGs), so that's not really a factor for me. Normal difficulties are usually challenging, but I like to be forced to think outside the boundaries of the game and use everything at my disposal.

First play through on normal, if the game is really good, I'll play it again on hard.

I play on Normal until the game pisses me off. Then I turn it down to get it over with.