What difficulty do you normally start with?

then wat

Oh right. Easy. Easiest.

Always normal, then hard. Where's the fun if the game is too easy?

I play on normal because the way they increase the difficulty tends to be completely uninteresting and even annoying. The normal difficulty seems to be the one they actually developed, and the others are just some variable modifiers.

Also, unlocks are gone, so there is way less incentive to even bother with hard difficulty. The rare game that does offer incentives (so not just score or achievements) I play on more difficulties. Bayonetta 2 I played on all difficulties.

Usually hard for the first playthrough, and the hardest for the second one.

Im surprised so many people dont like a good single player challenge, though! I beat Dragon Age Inquisition recently on hard, and realised that only 1.5% got that trophy.

Game series I enjoy (Highest diffiuculty)

Every other game (Normal mode)

I collect saved files just to unlock crushing difficulties. I can't play games on easy, if I do the game suck like balls.

I usually start on normal then switch to hard if it's too easy. I just did that in Diablo 3 on the PS4, it was ridiculously easy on normal so I started again on hard and that's quite easy too. I don't know if I can be bothered starting again on the next difficulty up, I'm too far through it now.

Same here, i've nothing to prove by playing a difficulty that could frustrate me and get in the way of me enjoying the story so i'll start with easy to see how it is.

Easy.. i dont play games to get frustrated. Plus, The easier the game is - the faster i finish it - so i can move on to the next game.

Normal. Most games aren't fun enough to play on harder difficulties.

Normal by default and change it up if it's too easy.

It depends on the game though, for example some RTS games I'll play on easy (Star Craft) and others I'll play on hard (Total War) off the bat and alter accordingly.

For FPS and third person shooters i choose hard, everything else normal.

If there chics around I'll usually play on hard if I had to choose the setting, or remember one of my easy game if I didn't had to choose the setting.

I almost always start on normal, but in the case with something like the Last of Us, I started with Hard for a better experience.

Depends on the game. I turn it down far enough for me to not die every few minutes. Life's too short to replay the same sections of a video game over and over.

Normal pretty much always.

Also,

ITT: Butthurt over other people starting their games on hard difficulty.

Normal. I want to enjoy the game at moderate settings during my first playthrough. After that, I'll consider turning up the difficulty.

Start on normal, play on hard if I want a replay, then very easy if I just want to have a quick play.

@SolidTy: what he's saying is, usually someone who needs to talk a lot to convey a simple point has problems articulating themselves properly.

In the year 2015, your boss, friends, co-workers, heck even philosophy professors prefer it when you don't o off tangent. Prefer it when you are concise and straight to the point. Brevity is king not verbosity. This stupid thread asked a simple question and so, there was absolutely no need for that. All things consider, it is a another multiple choice question that has three possible answers:

• Easy
• Normal
• Hard

Anything else is excessive BS whether your opinion is written fluently or not. Like stated above, majority will think its bull shit based on the simple context of the question asked. Now if the question was lets say, "What are the cultural effects of video games?" then I could understand due to the complexities that surround that question.

Usually hard. It offers a nice challenge without being too frustrating that it takes away from the experience the first time through.

On newer games the hardest difficulty. The are incomparably easier to older titles.

@notorious1234na:

Isn't that what Grammaton Cleric used to do ? How come when he does it its okay ?

Normal for majority

Hard/Very hard for fighting genre ( Street Fighter / Tekken / Mortal Kombat etc )

It depends if it is a great game like wonderful 101 and bayonetta and so on I will play it on all the modes because I enjoy them. If it is a boring shooter or wrpg that I fell for the hype like fallout and skyrim then I will but it on easy just to rush the game so I can say at least I got my money worth then sell it as soon as possible and if it is a boring fighting game like Doa I just will not waste my time so yeah it depends.

@inb4uall: jibber jabber master ya know.

Depends. If it's a series that I'm a familiar with, then hard, legendary, mania, or what have you. If it's something like a shmup, or a game from a genre that I don't typically play, then probably normal for the first run. The only difficulty settings that I don't touch are easy and below.

If the difficulties are well balanced, I will go for the highest difficulty settings.

But when the highest difficulty setting means nothing more than HP bloat, I go for the second highest difficulty setting. For games with a lot of depth, I will also go beyond the highest difficulty and embrace self imposed challenges. Something that some people appearantly think I am an idiot for doing.

In X-COM, I hacked the save games to terminate all funding from the funding nations and had to rely entirely on looting. In Jagged Alliance 2 I used the weakest mercenaries.

Yep! I've participated in about 30+ "What difficulty to you start on" threads over the years and this thread turned out to be wonderfully special. lmaonade.

Yeah 100% agree... I always start on easiest, then if I play it again I work my way up.

noramal....hard mode doesnt make it more fun for me. I only do hard mode because of a trophy anyway.

The only games that i played on harder difficulty was tekken...then i realized there it wasnt more challenging...it was more cheesy...and you counter it with being cheesy yourself.

Normal, Hard if I hear the game is too easy on Normal.

Depends on the game, but I've been more interested in the hard difficulty lately.

Normal on my first playthrough

I used to play on Hard mode but as I'm getting older I'm not as good at games as I once was so nowadays I play on Normal.

Normal but sometimes after not playing a game for a long time and just kinda want to got through the SP for the story & stuff, I'll play on easy and feel like a hulking badass and don't get in mah way. :P

It depends on how the difficulty scales. Always on a hard difficulty if the added challenge is done in a decent way. For example, imo, Halo is more enjoyable on the step below Legendary(with only one person). I've beat the games on Legendary, but the difficulty seems to simply increase the amount of times needed to hit the enemies--and I think I remember 'rules' of the game even being broken, like headshots and back melees.

I tend to stick with normal unless it is a fighter then with in about a month the game is switched right over to the hardest difficulty there is.

I go with easy difficulty every time at a first playthrough, then if i want to replay it i go with normal difficulty.

With Halo:CE being the sole exception. The game is boring at any other difficulty below Heroic. At Heroic, it's a completely different experience. It's like the game was built to be played in co-op on Heroic. It's an incredibly enjoyable experience.

Everything but your Johnson gets harder with age.

Thats what the wife says.

im surprised so many play games on easy... last time i played on easy i was like 14 and im 27 now lol. What is the point of playing on easy when you can do it blindfolded and still win (especially in games nowdays)?

@silversix_:

The point is people want to see them cutscenes....... besides difficulty is done rather poorly in games these days.....

if that's the case why not just watch some1 play the game on youtube or twitch? No need to spend a penny and is easier than Easy Mode, literally...

@silversix_:

Exactly...... its like it never occured to them.....but nope..... they insist on playing the game.....

I always start on normal and go on hard after finishing the game.