Easier games

[WhiteX]

I´m with this whole thing for 13 years now and the great games of old were really way more difficult to play, i mean, the last game i played on my GBA was Riviera, very beautiful and with a lot of production value but if you die then continue, the game get a little easier and so on till the enemies get half their energy, no ninja gaiden can be defeated by a guy who can only play riviera. i saw an article on that sort of thing that made think, what you guys think of that.

http://www.tomshardware.com/game/20050902/index.html

 

[Toasty]

I've definitely seen examples of this when playing old games. To this day I've still never beaten Zelda 2 (NES) despite many hours of agonizing gameplay. I can beat Zelda OOT (N64) in my sleep though.

 

[xneoangel]

Well yes games are getting easier with time and i dont like that but i also dont agree to make games with the same difficulty as games from a decade ago i mean games are meant to be fun not frustrating.

I.E. the first Castlevania for NES, man that game was frustrating i played it like 50 times to be able to reach dracula then dracula kicked my a$$ then i got 20 more times to dracula and he still kicked my a$$ and i got bored of the game cuz it was frustrating after playing it 50 times over and over the fun is not fun but frustration.

Well i actually finished Castlevania but when emulators and save states appeared. :evil:

Now the recent castlevania games like Aria of Sorrow or SOTN are way too easy they should be harder but in a way that doesnt makes em frustrating.

You see i really like DMC1 and DMC3 because they are cool games with cool battles and a cool story and they were hard games i had to use a lot of continues in those games but they were hard but in a way that its not frustrating because you just practice and you can beat em.

Instead older games you didnt need only practice but also luck and you also had to memorize the location of the enemies, how do they react and everything.

I.E. to be able to finish Contra for the NES you had to memorize the location of all the enemies where do they go what do they do and man that was frustrating.

In conclusion games should be harder but not like games from a decade ago.

 

[WhiteX]

You think that a big setback on character stats would be a new sort of "game over" or games should you allow to save your game only at non stress points (not save points but never saving at the heat of battle) what you guys think that could be done to improve that?
Do you still feel challenged by today´s games?
If so, it bore you or give you the urge to go further?

 

[tye stik]

I really think to beat a game some hardship must be achieved. It really ruins the mood a bit in games like the Final Fantasy series when i can save every few areas. I mean, it is frustrating sometimes when you die and have to start over... but thats what seperates the men from the boys, so-to-speak. Its not really a very difficult acomplishment beating many of todays or yesterdays games. With the exception of a few.

Most people who actually need a challenge, because of their almighty video gaming skills, have already gone massively multiplayer. w00t.:term:

 

[Toasty]

That's the one thing I don't like about playing games on emulators - it's far too easy (and tempting) to create a save state anywhere you please, not that I would ever do that to make the game easier. :saint:

 

[xneoangel]

Hahaha try playing a game like shadow of the beast for sega genesis and if you finish it without save states you are a friggin' video game master.

Anyway a good way to make FPS games harder is using a checkpoint system a la Far Cry cuz nowadays with the quicksave feature everything its too easy for RTS id say limited number of saves per mission for RPG's make the friggin' monsters harder for platformers id say remove any checkpoints and continues just leave the save at save points and the lives you have and collect.

Anyway there are many ways to make nowaday games harder but still fun and not frustrating.

 

[WhiteX]

I think it is the point of difficult levels however the execution is poor, i mean, at "hard" most of the times the enemies get a bigger energy bar or you get less energy or protection, it would be nice to see the savings reduced and a better AI on enemies and even other puzzles appear on "hard" mode, making it appealing to all gamers.

 

[smegforbrain]

Any more, there are so many games on my "wish list" of things to play, that I'll never have time to get through them all.

This is where my Gameshark for PS2 comes into play.

 

[Miretank]

simply, they are making beauty games and forgetting the difficult/playability of them, but of course, we cannot apply this for all. I personally prefer the old games, even with medium-level graphics, at least you may get a bit stress headache after all.
yeah, a lot of people prefer Zelda 2/3 than OoT just because this.

 

[dukenukem]

hell i tryed playing was it breath of fire or whatever on either the nes or snes don't remeber which one but my god i got my ass beat down with the first friggin enemy i ran into.

 

[WhiteX]

of course there are too difficult games but most of the time your progress goes unchallenged it is nice to be stopped enhance your capabilities and then move forward.

 

[Kalidascorp]

It all depends on what the person likes. There are several types of ways a game can be made harder. Here are some:

1) Tricky situations. For example, in Mario (2D) enemies are pretty basic: Goomba, paratroopa, etc. But you need to figure out what the best thing to do is. EX: "A large number or Goombas are in front of you. There's a bridge above them. What do you do?" It's up to the player to figure out what is best. Would he kill all the goombas to get points and risk death, or pass them by and garuntee survival?

2) Harder enemies. An enemy could get an upgrade, like an imbreakable sheild that you need to go around, or more stat points, like HP or attack power.

3) More enemies. Just lots of enemies to destroy, compared to 1 or 2 at a time early in the game.

4) Mind games. The Zelda has a lot of this. Press this or that button, move the mirror correctly, find your way through the maze, etc. They are just more complcated as you move through the game.

There are more ways, these are just some. These can be combined to make awsome games, or impossible ones (More enemies + Harder enemies)

 

[WhiteX]

good points, however most of the times they make dumbass mid games, you have power enough to undo an entire army, i guess that RPG elements like character stats and level up can be a solution to tough it up a little bit.

 

[revl8er]

I am also frustrated with how easy games are these days. There are rarely any games that give a true gamer any kind of trouble. Now back in the days of the nintendo there were numerous games that gave even the best gamers trouble such as the ninja gaiden series. Don't get me wrong though, there are some games now that give some challenge such as the Metal Gear Solid series excluding 2 because of how easy it was but the remake of the first one was pretty tough and the 3rd one is probably one of the hardest games I have ever played. Game developers just need to learn how to make the difficulty of the enemies harder and not just worry about giving them more energy.

 

[WhiteX]

exactly, make them harder to hit, not easily taken out by "stored" attacks.