VIDEO What are you currently playing?

Currently playing Mass Effect Andromeda

 

It's a trend I'm totally fine with, because **** unfair difficulty in video games. I don't have time for that. Give me the easiest setting any day, I don't care if you give BJ Blazkowicz a pacifier, I have no shame. I play games to escape stress, not pile more on.

 

Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast

 

I'm kind of the same way. I don't necessarily put the games on the easiest setting available; but I never would immediately put them on the hardest either. What I find annoying is when some people like to boast about how they beat a game on ultra difficulty; and maybe even show off the video of it. Great. Good for you lol. It's not like you performed open heart surgery or delivered a baby.

 

Yes, that is quite silly. Ultimately, you're playing a game. You're playing. A game. If you find it more fun and engaging when the difficulty is high, good for you. But there's really nothing praiseworthy about that "achievement". Congratulations, you're more skilled at being unproductive!

For me, personally, it depends on the game. Some games give me more enjoyment with a high degree of challenge, while others are not that engaging to begin with that I would want to artificially prolong the experience with a higher difficulty. Or some games, I only play for the story, so I want to get through them as quickly and easily as possible. It depends on what I want from a particular game.

 

Just started RiME, so far it's good and it was free on ps+ this month. It reminds me a bit of Journey and Abzu combined. There is even this creepy Journey character that states at me from a distance, and when I get there, they have moved and staring at me from a different location! Which is a bit creepy.

It is very cute though, with lots of nice animals. I look forward to delving into it some more

 

I like how some of the modern sport games have developed a dynamic setting for their difficulty levels. For instance, I play MLB The Show; where with the dynamic setting on, you start off as a rookie, and it gradually gets more difficult depending on how well you're doing. On difficult setting, it gets mind-numbingly frustrating when your best sluggers can't hit for anything and your best pitchers keep getting hammered; but at the rookie setting it gets very boring when every inning you play ring-around-the-rosie with the bases because the CPU opponent couldn't buy an out if their life depended on it.

 

The Show might seriously have the best difficulty tweaking/customization settings of any game on the market. Obviously it's a little prohibitive to get that adjustable when the scope extends beyond baseball, but I'm surprised more games don't try to take some cues from it.

Edit: That said,

Purely for the record, D:OS is difficult but I wouldn't consider it unfair as it tends to work as predicted (I think they're probably pulling the Fire Emblem trick where percentages are being fudged in the background to your benefit, contrast XCOM where they aren't leading to a lot of people erroneously assuming the game is cheating... probability and human psychology is a hell of a thing). You can save anywhere when you're not in combat, you can use the environment to pre-prep fights to give you an advantage, it's rare that you'll be bumrushed by surprise reinforcements, it's overall very finely tuned. I mention this only because I've definitely played some SRPGs (looking at you, Super Robot Wars) that aren't properly balanced and would very much qualify as unfair, and I think it deserves props for not falling into those pitfalls.

 

I actually have a Madden Football game from a few years ago that has a somewhat similar dynamic difficulty setting; but if I'm not mistaken, you don't really have a choice to opt out of it. It starts right away as soon as you're ready to play the game for the first time.

 

Now, see, maybe this is a remnant of growing up with siblings, but no opt-out would drive me bonkers. Please do not adjust the difficulty to conform to someone calling a bunch of goofball Hail Mary plays while on my account!

 

It's when the CPU always catches those "goofball Hail Marys" that is the most annoying.

 

My own pet peeve is the amount of ridiculous posturing I see when I go online to find help with a game. Oftentimes I'll come across a forum post, most of them on GameFAQs, where someone will be looking for help on a specific part of a game and there will be responses to the tune of "I thought it was pretty easy," or "Beat it on my first try, not sure why you're having trouble." That's particularly blood boiling.

Regarding The Show, I've actually had a tougher time than y'all finding a sweet spot with the difficulty. I almost exclusively play Road to the Show, and whenever my guy goes off one week and hits .400 with 4 HR and 11 RBI, I'll tick the difficulty up a bit, and the next week he'll be 2 for 15 with six K's. So I end up sticking with the first option and just swinging for contact for a while.

 

I tried RTTS for a little while in my '15 version of the game, but I just lost interest in that sort of role playing in a sports game. Going back to the baseball games on the Sega Genesis, I've always liked to play full seasons with one team. And now with live roster updates, you can following along with the actual seasons. What I recently attempted to do was transfer my current season in '15 to rented copies of '16 and '17; with the assumption that I'm going to buy '18 when it gets released in March. I had no problem transferring my franchise to '16, but in '17 it said that I needed to advance to the next year before transferring, so I just gave up. I traded '15 for credit towards the '18 preorder. I'll just start a new franchise with the new game.

 

Isn't it? I've gone looking for info on games from time to time and yep, these attitudes crop up.

The idea of the holders of such ending up in screaming apoplectic rage over games having "explorer modes" is quite satisfying!

 

Bought Monster Hunter World for Xbone

 

As my pile of shame increases and I get older, I find myself putting games on easy from the beginning more and more. Haven't the time, patience or inclination to be dealing with bullet-sponge bosses, difficulty spikes or inadequate healing these days. Playing Wolfenstein 2 on easy was a fantastic power trip and I highly recommend it. Hell I wish the Souls games had an easy mode.

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Did you ever play any of the All-Star Baseball games? '05 was the last one (I still own it on the PS2), and I used to love creating my own franchise and going through the draft and playing a full season with my fantasy team. And whenever I had a friend over we would always play the pick-up game with classic players like Babe Ruth and Yogi Berra. Man I miss that series.

 

Not really feeling Monster Hunter. This is extremely clunky and just a button mash. Horrible voice acting/facial animations.

 

I had the 2K games during the PS2 era. You mentioned playing as classic ballplayers. One of my all time favorite baseball games was "Old Time Baseball" for the PC. In this game, it features a "time machine" where you could select any team going back from the 1880s through 1995. It included statistics for those players on each team and some of the best, most recognizable old time parks from the golden age of baseball.



Ballparks included:

• Ebbets Field
• Old Comiskey Park
• Crosley Field
• Fenway Park
• Polo Grounds
• Shibe Park
• Sportsman's Park
• Wrigley Field
• Yankee Stadium I (the original; complete with the three monuments in Center Field)

What was more about the game is that you could install Tony Larussa '96 and it would transfer the updated rosters from that year as well as all current MLB parks (from 1996).

Oh another thing; the announcers. Nowadays you'll hear the likes of Matt Vasgersian, Harold Reynolds, and Dan Plesac. But in Old Time Baseball, you can select between Mel Allen and Curt Gowdy. It really gives you even more of that classic feel.

 

70 hours into Monster Hunter World and I still haven't faced the Elder Dragons yet. I'm too busy trying to grind out the HR Legiana gear set.

 

Liked the 2nd hunt much better. Took a breather to watch opening ceremony then went back to it. I needed that break cause my opening experience was NOT very good.

 

As a veteran all I can say is, give it time. This Monster Hunter is the most newcomer friendly the franchise has ever been and you'll get to the good stuff quickly.

Also, if you don't like the weapon you are using try a different weapon set. There's literally dozens to choose from, and each have their own gameplay mechanics. You'll quickly get to crafting some cool looking gear with strong status buffs too.

 

I'm feeling a massive case of buyers' regret with this one too. Worst thing is, I knew beforehand I was going to regret it. I'm happy for those that find its grind and gameplay loop satisfying, but it just isn't for me.

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Divinity Original Sin has some really fecked up systems:

• Want to take an ability you've already invested 1 point in up to level 2? You need 2 points, not 1. That makes no sense whatsoever.
• Need to Flee? Well, that'll be fine for the character you use it on but the others that don't have flee ability? Fecked are they. Oh yeah and if you end up over your head, retreat is practically not allowed - your enemies will move faster and hit harder, so nope, you can't flee.

Pretty much cheesed off with the game as these make exploring so high risk only old school super caution really works. Also it keeps screwing with the targeting and terrain, which is dumb - I shouldn't have to have to fight the controller to target some bastard.

 

I can understand that. I was thinking the same on my 1st few hours. It’s growing on me more and more as I go on. I really don’t like the time limit. Started forging armor and weapons and am happy.