Destructiod asked in one of their blogs if games are getting harder. I contend quite the opposite and think they're getting too easy. Mostly it's flash over substance in alot of games coughmetalgearanditslongcutscenescough There are still pure games but less and less. I've beaten a great deal of the games I got from 1999-now But 8 and 16 bit era games. I've only really beaten a handfull and of those I only beat 1 with out using cheats or an emulator's save states. So either I suck at games.......or they're just getting alot easier in lew of graphics and presentation.
Are games too easy? Depends on the game. Ninja Gaiden II tried to offer gamers a bit of a challenge, but got panned by the media as a result. There seems to be no happy medium these days.
No, games are not getting easier - it's merely that people who complain tend to have played more games and as such found their experiences getting easier over time. That, and the fact there are more 'pick-up-and-play' games on the market now. Plus, more importantly, some people prefer to have 'experience-based' games rather than games that have an irritating difficulty curve, and so there are more games devoted to depth of story (such as Fable, Halo 3, Mass Effect, etc.) rather than die-over-and-over-again-until-eventually-you-remember-the-sodding-sequence-based games of yore.
Growning older i've noticed two things : a) games getting easier b) women getting easier Apart of the fact that, well, nothing remains the same. But thats another argument. Perhaps the reason why games are becoming so easy is that we have so much experience with "any" of them. "any" can be understood as personally related. As for an example, my best game ever has always been Zelda. And when I bought OoT and played it through in 5 days (played it through, not collected each single thing from the game obviously, that took reasonably much longer), I somehow knew games would had never been the same for me, ever. Ok, I know this sounds a bit exagerated. But compare this with the time it took for me to complete the first Zelda : eight months. Does that make sense?
I needed 6 years for completing Sonic Adventure when I was 7 or around that. Now I can complete a similar game nowdays in a couple of weeks.
as a Kid Playing Donkey Kong Country and Mario and beating them took years of my life...Now I beat the best game on the market and beat it in less than 24 hours most the time. Sometimes its sorta sad because I feel im getting robbed of my money when I pay 60bucks on a game and beat it for 8 hours feeling there should have been more.
I think that games these days are easier due to my experience in the late 80's through the mid '90s constantly playing platformers, constantly dying, and then learning more and more through repetition how to beat, and in some cases *master*, a game. That seemed to be the nature of many games of that period, whereas nowadays this would be coined a "niche-genre" or "retro". As others have noted, story/graphics/production/etc can offer people a more in depth gaming experience in those respects whilst sacrificing the style of gaming many have grown up with and learned with.
I think there fine. I like games I can actually beat but I also like a challenge. Usually when a game is challenging nowadays, it's because of dumb shit like glitches or bad cameras. I think Ninja Gaiden 2 is a good example of a truly challenging newer game, although it did have a few problems that fucking annoyed me, I still liked it.
I think due process "Wimpification" some games in some series are getting easier and easier. Look at Lunar 2: EB and the PS1 port. Lunar 2: EB's Borgan would cram his staff up your ass sideways and the PS1 version is just easy. And I never played Lunar 1 for the Sega CD, but lots of things in it were harder than the port. I think it depends on the game too, though. Fire Emblem 7, for instance, is very unforgiving. Lots of popular games these days are really easy though. Halo 3 wasn't THAT hard, except on maybe Legendary. And even then, you get a refillable health meter. I only found Tsavo Highway to be a pain, right when you go over the broken bridge area.
Cortana was pretty tough on Legendary. I played through it all by my big self. In shooters and some other games, the refilling life meter has kind of killed the days of Doom.
Indeed. They have long since become easier. With the trend (downward spiral?) from Arcade to Console, games have shifted gears to offer longevity through repetition over longevity through challenge and score. Even Cave, the last old-school, non-fighting arcade games maker that traditionally made games as hard as nails seem to not make a "straight up difficult" game anymore. They're most recent games are made to be easy enough to appeal to noobs, but offer a difficulty ramp which will fuck even a pro, if they choose to take it, via some in game gimmick. Ninja Gaiden(s), Shinobi... yeah, these are hard, but with the save point factor, it's not the same thing. These games don't require 40 straight minutes of perfection to get through.
Yeah the dual difficulty path mentioned above by GP seems to be the way that most accomplished games are going. Good example would be something like FFXII - No grinding levels needed, you can just trot through the whole game and maybe have to work out a strategy for the last couple of bosses. However if you get into the hunts and secret enemies, espers etc you are looking at a serious challenge that shows how damn deep that game system can go. Likewise Dodonpachi Daifukatsu can be cleared on bomb mode by a distinctly average shmup player rather easily. Given how easy the stage 3 1up is to get it would be hard to die before stage 5, especially if you never tap the hyper button. On the other hand you have power mode to make you sweat. Problem is that most games Hard Path is usually limited to one dungeon, one secret boss or an innane subquest that is a labor of time not skill. Not a solid 30 odd hours like FFXII. It is really good to see games like Gundam Vs Gundam (amazing game) in Japanese arcades doing such good buisness. Lots of people complained that the game was too hard so Capcom gave them an even harder difficulty, then recently an Ultimate difficulty to show players that the normal level was not so bad after all! You see GvG represents old school difficulty, you can make about 3 mistakes before you die against a human opponent, a good player is not one who can milk every combo but one who can play without error. Modern games reward being able to attack like a pro, even when they take damage in the process, I prefer games that punish you everytime you leave yourself open. EDIT - http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3955062 try that link for a glimpse at GvG, the guy in that vid is pretty good, the fact it that he mostly gets hit because the enemy team is great at targetting him at the same time so getting scraped by bullets is inevitable. (Niconico users only - and why wouldn't you be?)
I've never heard of a versus game being critiqued as "too hard". :? My main problem w/ the FFXII analogy is that even the "hard" parts can generally be overcome by even a noob with hours of grinding. I've put in more time on Ketsui than most people have the average Final Fantasy and can still only clear the first loop.
The Gundam Vs is a bit different from other Vs games, as it is just as fun to play the cpu with a partner than fight PvP. The various levels of CPU mean that you can have a tougher fight than fighting a human. Unlike fighters where the CPU is just a training mode really! I mean apart from the last boss fighters rarely kick you off the cab before the credits. So yeah people complained a lot when Gundam Vs Gundam came out, compared to the previous games it is quite a bit harder, especially in two player mode. In fact I have only beaten the last boss a handful of times in two player mode. You also have to face a three on two situtation on stage 4 regardless of your chosen route. + On certain levels CPU has some killer advantages. There is an Amuro on a stage 4 who can do over 350 damage with a basic combo! Add to that on stage 7 you face 3 3000 units with increased firepower and it is a big step up from the previous entries. Previously they always toned down the damage when you were outnumbered. When it came out PvP was actually significantly easier than the CPU routes. But now everyone has got used to it. Still playing as certain gundams makes some levels almost impossible. Now all people complain about is the lack of balance. Seriously about 5 gundam are banned each tourny! Still I love it, as when you face the computer the odds are truly against you. As for the RPG analogy, there are a handful that fall outside being able to grind to win. The secret bosses in the Megaten series tend to need a bit of brains to beat. Having a couple more levels is rather irrelevant. But yeah on the whole RPGs cannot provide truly Hard difficulty unless they included a time limit like Breath of Fire 5. BTW FFXII does include a mode where you cannot level up beyond your starting stats as a hard mode, but that is just a bit silly. I think overall without taking away save features and the possibility of continuing without punishment, you can never have a truly difficult game.
I m too old and can't afford the time to spend mastering a game in order to complete it. Some games are ok in the above way, but I prefer most of my games to be "digestable" to a certain degree, because I play games to chill out and unwind from a busy life - not after the thrill of frustration etc.
I must admit, playing on the SNES again reminds me on how unbelievably irritating some old games were in regard to it's play-die-repeat-continue until you've learnt the level. I honestly don't miss the days when you say 'Yes! I've finally mastered jumping onto that pipe, jumping back underneath the block, missing the fireballs, jumping back up on top of the block, onto the pipe, missing the bullets, over the second pipe, over the large empty space and onto the ground' only to be killed by a flying pointy rock/perilous drop. So, I'll correct myself - games are getting easier in the sense that they don't create longevity by killing you through being unpredictable anymore.
Exit? As in the PSP puzzle game? Even then, it doesn't take you right back to the beginning of the game every time you fail - making you play the same levels over and over just to get you back to the point you failed at *cough*Super Mario Bros.*cough* !
