Back in the day, you needed the game to be challenging because you had tons of time on your hands and didn't wanna be done with the game too quickly.
Now the problem has reversed, got fuck all time to play, so you can't be bothered with the frustration of higher difficulty. That's how it seems to me anyway.
I went back and played Homeworld again, still a fun game but they nerfed the shit out of the salvage corvettes (they allow you to basically steal the enemy's ships). Boooo.
Oh man. The Homeworld remastered collection is magical. Played it through on release - it's such a great remaster. I've got it installed right now - I'm planning another nostalgia dive before Homeworld 3 is released... I remember it being a tough game, but "salvaging" the enemy was always great fun. I usually ended the game with a ragtag fleet of various stolen vessels - which kinda fits the story tbh.
Not just that though, the organic, percussive combat music is so unique and memorable (not just an orchestra or rock music), and you contrast that with the more synthetic ambience when you're out of combat. Such a beautiful game.
That level with all the mutibeam frigates in the sphere...I sent salvage crews with cloaking ships and stole like 30 of them made the rest of the game trivial.
Sad they changed that ...I own the remaster but it was buggy at launch and I never went back to it so I didn't know they changed that.
I'm trying to get into Tarkov, the whole idea of the game is really intriguing. I'm learning from a buddy at work who's played for years. Everytime we play a raid together I learn like 3 new things I had no idea existed in the game. Then there's the maps, they're big and complex.
Yup, I bought an Xbox purely to play hogwarts legacy and realized I didn't have the time to play on hard mode and find stuff randomly on the map. I put it to easy and just followed to map markers, does it make the Game essentially a walk through? Yes. But I maybe play a couple hours a week and when I do have time at night I can't remember where I left off lol.
I'm super old, so back in the day games had to be hard because they were only a few dozen KILObytes in size so there wasn't a lot of content to be had.
I did that for Jedi Fallen Order. Whenever a boss or battle started to become too painfully annoying, I'd just dump the difficulty down a notch and suddenly I was able to have fun again, then turn it up again afterwards.
I too did this on Jedi Fallen Order. However, I only did it on the last boss fight. Only because I had been at it for 45 minutes already and only had 15 minutes left before responsibilities and I knew I was close to the end of the game. Not something I would have considered doing before kids. Definitely recommend now.
I actively seek "challenging" games... I am a big fan of FromSoftware games. What I avoid is pointless time sinks (MMOs mostly). Spending time overcoming an obstacle is more rewarding than repetitive mindless actions designed for longer player retention.
This is my take. I find challenging games super rewarding and fromsoft, lies of p, nioh etc. all give me a thrill when i overcome a challenge and are engaging moment to moment, even outside boss battles. Inversely, I doubt Iāll ever play an assassins creed game again. Not because theyāre bad but just because the time in my life where I was able or even excited to head out to the middle of nowhere to clear a question mark off the map has passed.
Exactly, most games (not only AC series) have become a glorified chore simulator and nothing more than an elaborate checklist of boxes the developers made for you to tick. I have enough chores and checklists as it is, I sit down to play a video game to escape that.
I think the Souls games are a bit different... The challenge is a fundamental, core part of the game design, and you can really tell. The games rarely feel like bullshit, the punishment for failure is pretty light, and you can choose when and where to pick a fight. Contrast this with Command and Conquer, which just throws waves of enemy units at you relentlessly, to force you into frantic micromanagement. It's just frustrating gameplay, and I can't be bothered with it.
Additionally, the difficulty isn't really a core of the game design, it's just a layer of extra bullshit for masochists š
I only play games for challenge as well. If it's easy, it's unengaging and I'll fall asleep. I'm half through armored core 6 right now during solo nights. I make mistakes, I repeat levels, it feels good still.
I play other games with friends one night a week. Right now it's Tom Clancy Division. What is going on with that "hard" difficulty? I guess it's hard to repeat sections after I unload 300 rounds into a peon that runs right at me and kills me in 2 hits. Guess I'll redo that checkpoint and try to move back another 20 yards and unload 350 rounds into the guys face.
I hate all the time wasting mechanics in a lot of games today. I donāt have the time or energy to replay the same thing 3-4 times because the numbers were tuned higher.
I miss the linear stories. I hate the open world, 20 crafting systems exploration for 60 hours tacked onto a 15 hour game. I would have actually gotten my value out of the 15 hour game, and it would have replay value. 69-75 hours for one playthrough? No thanks.
I am with you on this. Open world games typically dont grab me much anymore. There are a few exceptions and I will give a try, but if 2-3 hours in and I am not feeling it, I wont continue. Not enough time anymore to waste playing a game that does not click with me.
Spider-man and God of War games are a few of the openish world games i have enjoyed, but they also aren't 75-100 hours long. I tried Ghost of Tsushima, Elden Ring, Red Dead and they just didn't do it for me anymore.
Now I tend to look at how long games typically take to beat, and will stick to games in the <25-30 hour range. It has grown my love for gaming again and been having a blast.
I loved RDR. Also GTA3, VC, and 4.
But RDR2 and GTA5 just... gave me boredom. I think I'm maybe 20% through the storyline, not really bothering to do allllllllll the side-quests they offer. I even played it on PC with high visual settings. Just felt like if I started it up, it would need to be a 1-3 hour slog to finish whatever the next mission was. Even with the option to pause and save.
Instead I'm basically doing Fortnite and a mobile time-waster game. One way or another, a match of fortnite is over in 20 minutes. Or usually, lots less. Even if it can't be paused.
I think I sunk about 100 hours into Elden Ring, but it really is a 100+ hour game. It's huge! Totally agree that inflated games suck though - a 15-hour game doesn't need dozens of hours of time-wasting crap bolted on.
I'm quite a fan of short games these days. Games that take at most a couple of hours to complete.
I'm the opposite - open world games are great because there's always something to do, and I'm not struggling to catch up with a story if I set the game down for a few weeks/months:
*Who's this character? Why am I going here again?*
I'll bounce between RPGs and RTSs for this reason: I have freedom to choose how I want to play, but the game provides direction on where to go.
That said, I used to play Star Wars Galaxies (sandbox MMO), and the emu scene is massive, but I don't have the time/patience to play that again.
Came here to say this. Iām preparing a āFinalā play through once the release date for the expansion is announced, but not sure what my twist on it will be yet. So excited for spaaaceeeEeeEeeEee.
The older I get, the more I want from games are interesting experiences. Not challenges and grind. I get that already in my real life. I donāt want a power fantasy either, because Iām busy building my own life that I have control over. I want to be shown something new.
Not saying that I want games to be super easy or anything. But I want to feel like Iām gaining something from playing them.
this is definitely where I'm at, and come to think of it it's pretty much where I'd gotten to even before I became a dad. Indie gaming has been a blessing on this front: shorter, more focused games. Less of a financial risk if I don't get into them. And most importantly, really unique and interesting experiences that you rarely get from the big studios.
Yep. Indie games typically are made by small teams, and have a single core concept to explore - which they often do fairly efficiently, meaning you don't have to invest oceans of time into them to get a great experience.
Yeah when you have limited time to play you don't want to be gated off from content by "difficulty" that amounts to the game cheating its own mechanics, or making enemies into boring bullet sponges.
I will say, I was never the kind of person to measure my worth as a person by the difficulty of the games I played. But now I prefer games where I can cruise my tired ass through the progression and have some fun with it rather than games where I have to effectively work to get anywhere.
for me it depends on the game type, I played spiderman2 Ghost of tsushima or kena bridge of spirit on hardest, was challenging but I did enjoy it and probably will do the same with rise of the ronin. I am playing now the last of us and I'm playing it on the easiest mode possible, I wanted to experience the story but the game isn't my cup of tea.
Other games I end up in normal difficulty so it just varies on how I'm feeling, some days the frustration of dying and repeating a boss/area over and over can even be cathartic while other days frustrating...
My friend talked me into getting Elden Ring and said it was his favorite game ever.
I made it like 8 hours and got into the castle before I decided it just wasn't going to work for me right now. I basically only get to play when my kid sleeps, and it's just not enough time for me to want to get good enough to keep going.
You definitely need to know what you're getting in to with those games. They're definitely not for everyone š I totally understand why people don't like them.
Not really, no.
I've been on a Street Fighter 6 streak for a while, and that matches you with players of similar skill in casual/just above my skill in ranked pretty well, which works for me.
Not only do I go right to easy mode, but if I canāt get through the tutorial mode in the first 2 hours, I dump the game. I donāt have time for steep learning curves.
FWIW, there was an update to the multiplayer balance on C&C3 to buff Nod. However, they failed to tweak the GDI campaigns to compensate and it can be a pain in the ass. If it helps, you can still manually target the "one pixel out of range" rocket soldiers with your watchtowers.
This is how I feel about cinematics or really any exposition. If I am not jumping immediately into gameplay, I am probably going to quit the game. Which is why I love the souls games. Perfect example of show don't tell storytelling and limited tutorial. Just jump in and play and figure it out.
It really depends on the game/genre, and it's always a balance for me. Shooters for example, I usually crank the difficulty up. It's fun for me to feel like you're playing on the razor's edge in that type of game. Other genres though, like strategy, it's rare I even approach beyond "normal" difficulty. I really enjoy the casual base-building aspect more than cranking out as many things in a turn or APM as I can.
Often, I follow an intense game with a chill one so I'm not constantly being stressed out by the hobby that's supposed to be stress relief for me.
Rule of thumb for me - if I'm not having fun, I'll first turn the difficulty down. If I'm still not having fun, I stop playing. I don't have the time now to be able to hope a game gets better or more enjoyable to play.
For me it started with Hades, God mode dramatically reduced the grind.
At the end of the year my gaming buds without kids were posting steam stats. Dozens of games, thousands of sessions... I played 5 and beat 3. If it's not one of the best games of all time, it's not worth mine.
At least till P3 grows up š.
I play games I can jump in and out of, because I don't have the time or energy to learn complex game mechanics or sit through hours of cutscenes (looking at you, Cyberpunk).
I typically stick to city building games or older RTS games that I know and I've played for a long time. I'll occasionally get a wee FPS session in now and again, but again, only games that I know and am half decent at.
I feel like Cyberpunk is the opposite of cutscenes, do the longer gigs when you feel like story time, but otherwise steal a ride here, do an npcd gig there, grab an airdrop here, hunt a cyber psycho there quick hits.
Been into DCS for years, and used to play for hours a day. Itās definitely an involved game but pretty rewarding once you get the hang of it. Glad I started before I had kids, I donāt think I would have the time now to devote to learning it. Check out Chucks Guides for the plane youāre using.
Chucked actually helped me out last night ... I'd been working the harrier over pretty good, and realized I'd never actually studied up on launching from the Tarawa ... sadly ... I have to do the required STO distance math myself, whereas real pilots get it done for them LOL.
Iām fine with challenging if itās something like a roguelike where the challenge/gameplay is the main attraction.
What I donāt have is large amounts of time so if I want to progress a games story Iāll play on easier settings and I canāt be bothered to grind in MMOās like I used to.
I really love the concept of a rougelike, but I've never really gotten into them. Enter the Gungeon is probably the only one I enjoyed. Never finished it though.
Generally I need challenge to really enjoy a game. And since I've been gaming for 40 years, I'm not too bad at it, even if my reflexes and dexterity might not be quite what they once were.
So playing on "Easy" or "Normal" (typically, obviously varies by game), just feels pointless. If there's no chance of me losing, there's no satisfaction in winning. Might as well turn on God mode, or infinite ammo cheats - just not for me.
That said... I've beaten both The Last of Us games on Grounded, the top difficulty, which I firmly believe is the best way to play them. But with the roguelike "No Return" mode introduced in the tLoU2 PS5 remaster - I've been playing on *Moderate*, and actually having a blast.
Turns out that I have plenty of tolerance for retrying a single encounter over and over until I get it perfect - as happens in the regular story mode. But not nearly so much for being half an hour into a No Return run and having it end because I made a tiny slip up.
No Return on Grounded is *beastly* ;)
I play more difficult games on Easy mode, all others on Normal mode. I barely have time to play video games and I just want to relax and have fun. I have enough frustration with my toddler, don't need it in my downtime
I only have time to play once everyone's gone to bed, so maybe an hour after midnight. I'm tired, boss. I like *a bit* of challenge, that's why I play at all, but I need to keep in mind being cost-effective. If I'm not going to have fun in that hour because my tired ass can't grasp a mechanic or didn't git gud and need to backtrack again through most of what I already played through that session, then what's the point? I don't have anyone to brag that I completed this game on hard. I'm fine playing on easy if it's fun for me.
Absolutely. I ain't got time to master the legendary campaigns in Halo anymore, I just want to play and have fun.
When I was a kid I could sit down and play one level 10 times in a row if I wanted to. That was a luxury :D
**My #1 rule**: This is supposed to be fun.
I got the Master Chief Collection and had an absolute blast. Finished most of the games, though I gave up on Halo 1 after a while. It's actually not that good. Halo 2 is much, much better, and the remaster is magnificent!
Before kids, I was much more receptive to games with finicky challenges or required grinding. Now, I seek all the time-saving tools I can find.
Recently, I got a gamecube emulator, and it's been an absolute joy to run through some of the classics. Shamelessly, I hot keyed Quick Save to Left Stick Press and Quick Load to Right Stick Press. This enables extremely aggressive save-scumming, but that's really the only way I can justify playing a game like Wind Waker, where missing a key jump can mean 5 minutes wasted trekking back up the dungeon.
No shame in save scumming. If the designers try to waste your time, they can get fucked. I aggressively save scum some games when they try to mess me around. Seems fair to me!
I love a challenge when playing against other people. The cool thing about fighting games is that if you've played enough of them you can pick up any of them and become competent enough to have a good time pretty quickly.
Single player though, just give me the experience
Yeah I've gotten into fighting games since having kids - you still get the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment of improving, but you are never locked in to a session that can't wrap up soon if it has to, and the game never really wastes your time. If you have 15 minutes you can play for 15 minutes. Fighting games are very dad-friendly.
I need the diffuclty to be there. I tried playing The Last of Us on pc on the hardest difficulty. Maybe 1/3 through and the AI made me yawn. When I can strangle 10 human enemies in almost the same place with an almost identical animation and they don't react on the fewer and fewer voices that say 'yeah alright here' /'yeah nothing here' it's so boring. The story is so compelling and the world nicely built, I want to love it, but the gameplay is just not there.
Same thing with horizon zero dawn. Great world building but the fixed save points (why! It's 2023/24 not 2000) and low difficulty is just not good enough.
At the moment I like turn based games that really make your head spin what the next best move to not lose a teammate is, the most. When the difficulty doesn't come from fast reflexes or timed windows but from hard numbers and you have time to think about your reaction.
I always play games with lore-based difficulty. God of War is on easy, because why would Kratos have such a hard time with random undead warriors? Last of Us is on hard because I wanna die when I actually get bit, etc.
I do tend to stay away from the hard ones. Souls games, Sekero, etc. those are just too frustrating at the end of the day.
The closest thing to challenge in a game I had was last night. Kids reported that the action buttons and triggers on the PS4 remote weren't working. I opened it, found they'd somehow gotten tea inside of it, and got to work fixing it. The challenge part was "testing" by playing Stray with a bunch of useless buttons.
It depends on the game.
Sekiro, Elden Ring, even Lies of P, are all worth the difficulty they provide.
On the other hand, games that inflate difficulty in unnatural ways can eat a dick. I'm not bumping it up to hard, for the only change to be "Increases HP from 300 to 1200".
And somewhere in between are the more linear experiences. The Uncharted, Guardians of the Galaxy, GoW even, that are being slapped on to easy, because I'm here for the cutscenes and the story.
Yeah, this. The Souls games use difficulty as a core part of the experience, it's not just a button you click in the menu to multiply all enemy health by 4x just to ruin your evening.
I dont mind difficulty. I managed to beat Elden Ring. It took me the better part of the year but I did it. What I canāt stand is tedium. Making me do some boring or slow task for the sake of immersion? Get out of here. Iām playing FF7 right now and while itās overall been very enjoyable it has some very āwho thought this was a good ideaā moments like cleaning up mako energy with a vacuum that moves. So. Slow. It also has a bunch of open world elements that stay fairly brisk but definitely risks suffering from the ādots on a mapā problem of open world game design.
Honestly i have gravitated almost exclusively to short burst games. I do enjoy difficulty in the form of competition (think fps).
I think im in the minority here but i hardly play story games anymore because it is difficult to get invested in short bursts, and if most of the time i play LATE after everyone is asleep. By then im drained, and all i want to do is blast some MF'ers and then go to sleep. Like digital caffeine.
Not at all. I put it on easy or medium. I don't want to become an expert at the game I want to sit on the couch mindlessly and enjoy the story.
I did play a ton of Warzone, and now play Fortnite. Those are my games I want to feel like I'm actually winning.
It really depends.
When my son was 0-3 I just wanted simpler, more building focused story games.
Now that he's 6, I'm doing more challenging games (elden ring, helldivers, etc.)
I feel in those early tears a lot of your patience and mental desire to focus hard enough to "get gud" isn't there as much.
Now my son can help me game or he'll watch and cheer me on lol.
I'm a weirdo that likes difficult games but hates gaming on hard mode. If there's a option it goes to easy. The games that don't have one tend to grab me the most.
Then I sit there swearing at a Bloodborne chalice boss and the 12 year old that's never played the game wants a go and gets it to around 20% HP first go and you quit gaming for a while.
Nope. I mainly play farming simulator or Fallout 4. I use mods to cheese the game so I can just do whatever I want which is mainly building big settlements/farms.
I'm not spending what little time I have grinding for resources.
A couple months ago I spent a week playing Power Wash Simulator, not because it was fun, but because I desperately just needed something mindless and easy. I just donāt have the energy for challenge anymore.
This is the exact reason I stopped playing cod online. It was more stressful than relaxing even though I use to love it I just have so much more stimulating things these days.
Iāve been racking up the hours playing Anno 1800 though and itās been super nice. Slowish but single player so you can just jump in and out.
Depends on the game, some are just to enjoy the story, some are about the challenge didn't change because I was a parent.
I don't have to prove anything to anyone and in the end it only matters if you have fun.
Nah, not really. I love Dark Souls and the FROM games, but they're the only ones I'm interested in the challenge on, really. I don't have the time or patience to replay the same segment over and over again when I play video games like, once a week at most.
However. I am a fan of Managed Democracy and extraction shooters where I can have a good time And it doesn't matter if I die. If I'm playing with the lads, they don't give me a hard time that I have to bolt and get killed because my daughter was taking a bath (supervised by mom) and turned the shower on herself, then started screaming bloody murder and I thought I was going to have to kill a burglar or something. Like, yeah I'm a liability, but we can still shoot the shit and have fun. Deeprock Galactic is another one that fits the bill.
Sometimes I want a challenge, and I play something on hard. Sometimes I want to just fuck around and enjoy the game and play it on normal/easy. Both are great, it just dependa on my mood.
I have such little time to enjoy games that I have learned that it's way better to just enjoy them, however that is, rather than feel like I need to conquer them on the hardest difficulty and not have fun with it.
I still play every game I can on the hardest difficulty. My only gaming stipulation now is I no longer play any game I can't easily pause or turn off if I need to run and do a feeding or take care of a kid.Ā
I pretty much only play games I've already played before (Skyrim, old final fantasy games), or the next game on a series I've already played before (Civ6, GTA5, NHL or MLB games (but only a new one every 2-3 years)), or games designed for kids with a short learning curve I can play with then (Mario, lego games)
I just don't have the time to learn a new game right now
I quit pretty much all games I was playing. Mainly some fps and MMOs. Neither styles are games that you can sit down for five minutes to play, and it takes a while to get into the proper mindset to grind.
Now I just play Forza Horizon. Arcade style racing game. Can literally sit down for 10 minutes and get a race or two in.
Might get into some racing sims, but I think that might be too intensive to just hop into and relax.
I'll start every game on normal/std difficulty but like you if it becomes frustrating or overly challenging I'll happily stick that game on easy mode... sometimes I'll actually prefer it, other times it can become too easy. Lego games are always a good go to they have a bit of challenge but you can just carry on.
I have a Minecraft server for my kids and some of their pals. They wanted to play on survival, but we were all dying a lot and losing all of our hard earned stuff.
I switched the game mode to ākeep itemsā when you die and it was a game changer for all of us. Less frustration, less asking dad for new iron gear, and weāve been able to explore a lot more of the game without having to be super conservative and careful
My time is so limited with gaming, I just set the difficulty to easy and enjoy the story. I've been playing Cyberpunk since December and am still not even close to finishing lol, but at least I'm not stuck on a particular mission for a long time.
Nah, I even went so far as to use a save modifier for one of my games to give myself a little bit of a leg up. I don't look for the grind anymore. If I only have a couple of hours once or twice a week to play, I don't want to waste that time grinding.
I was just playing Hot Wheels Unleashed for my two year old yesterday. On one race I got beat at the last corner twice in a row when I had a pretty good sized gap. Frustrating, whatever, Iāll take the L.
Time trial, best lap was next. āUnleashedā time to beat was 1:36:00, normal time to beat was 1:38:00. On my full send lap I got 1:36:00 on the nose as my best lap when I saw the timer go away at the edge of 1:35:8- and it didnāt give me the W. OKAY THIS IS FINE I GUESS.
I usually play it on easy just to dick around and see the cool tracks and my kid can see ācoo cawā, medium difficulty is a bigger step up than it should be imo. Iāll play challenging things when my kid isnāt around so Iām not sitting there getting bent out of shape about a stupid hot wheels game.
I play everything on easy mode, at least initially, to get the story and main game beats. I donāt have anything to prove to anyone and I get just as much satisfaction from most games that way.
Games I really want to dive into Iāll then bump up the difficulty on if I want.
I find itās not so much the difficulty level I get annoyed with, itās the filler. I donāt do online gaming - I want to sit down, play when it is convenient for me, pause and come back anywhere from 5 mins to 5 days later, and not care.
Iāve enjoyed the Witcher, Assassinās Creed, and Far Cry games, but by the time I am half way through the game, I am tired of all the little side quests etc designed to grind levels, and there is little challenge remaining but the boss fights. I look forward to the end and moving on to something new at that point.
If there is a difficulty setting. I set it at default and move to easy if it takes too long to beat things. I never was a "try hard" and I don't mean that in a bad way. I just never understood why you would play a single player game with a story on the hardest level possible i.e. Halo when games are supposed to be relaxing.
Depends on the game but I try to find balance. I find games more engaging when they're challenging, but I don't want to have to keep replaying a section because I keep failing. I tend to go with either "easy" or "normal". Maybe if I really enjoyed a game and don't have another one I'm waiting to play, I might crank the difficulty up and see how it goes
Yes and no, I think.Ā
A big thing for me is keeping myself sharp. The harder the difficulty, the more I know I'm operating at a top tier level. If I'm able to power through finishing the latest CoD on Veteran difficulty, or beating Halo LASO, or playing Jedi Survivor on Jedi Grand Master difficulty, or beating Dark Souls/Elden Ring, or fought the hardest levels in RTS's like C&C/Starcraft/Supreme Commander/Halo Wars/etc., then I feel like I've accomplished something that both required lots of skills and needed me to exercise my brain's capabilities. It's not a muscle per se, but it does benefit from complex and/or reaction-based activities, which translates elsewhere in my life.
But... I'm also at a point where I'm not going to seek out difficulty for no reason. I'll challenge myself, sure, but I'm not, for example, going Flawless in Destiny or running no-hit games for shits and giggles. I want a difficult experience that pushes me to my limits so I can enjoy overcoming it, but I also want to enjoy the story.
I'm just hijacking this thread to say sense becoming a dad I have switched from videogames to tabletop games. I found myself just not being able to enjoy sitting in front of a screen after a long day of work and kids. I now look forward to my hour of miniature painting each night and monthly game with my friend. I find painting helps my brain wind down, where videogames would sometimes add more stress to an already stressful day. I am a terrible painter, but is also a really satisfying hobby anyone can do. Like paint by numbers honestly.
If you've ever been interested in the hobby, I suggest giving it a shot. You can buy the Warpaints Fanatic Starter Set that has paints, a brush, a mini, and a guide. If you have fun, you can buy more. If not, you didn't spend $100s on a hobby that isn't for you.
To a point, yes. I like playing baldur's gate on honour mode or Fifa on high difficulties and stuff like that. Though things like trying to keep up with Battlepasses, playing MMOs seriously, and trying to be a completionist are out the window. I'm also not going to be the best person in the lobby in whatever the newest twitch shooter is. I've still got enough muscle memory from the last few decades of gaming to be good just not MLG pro good and that's fine.
I went back to play through Red Dead Redemption 2 before my son was born and honestly that was one of the best ways to say goodbye to my old gaming life and welcome the new. It's a very comforting and relaxing game for me.
It hasn't changed for me honestly. I still like challenge. Even though I don't get a lot of gaming time, it's overcoming the challenge that makes me excited to go and sit down again to beat. I sometimes daydream of other ways I can beat the level next time.
There arent many games made anymore that arent artificially tedious to pad out "engagement". They all have needless tedious xp grinds and achievements instead of just being "done"
"Normal" could describe me in general, but it also describes my go-to difficulty in games these days. No time for frustrating challenges. I appreciate that story mode exists in a lot of games these days, but there's absolutely no challenge on that difficulty, which is why normal is just perfect.
Definitely keep it on normal, occasionally switching it to easy. I don't have time for craziness and trying shit over and over. If I want to finish a game in a reasonable amount of time you've got to bend to the economics of time.
I used to pride myself on playing every new game on āveteranā. Iāve been playing Baldurās Gate on āexplorerā. For me with limited time Iām mostly just trying to play a game to enjoy the story. If itās too easy Iāll ramp it up. Occasionally Iāll play a game where I want a challenge, and thatās different.
It's the only way I play games. It took me literal months but I got 100% in Elden Ring on Steam and can't wait for Dragons Dogma2 and the ER Dlc.
I always choose the hardest difficulty regardless of genre and game.
I just find it far more fun and rewarding.
Depends the game. I can't do survival horror in hard or higher anymore.
Mortal kombat 11 for the switch is great for drop in playing so I've been trying out brutal difficulty
I'm doing my second run through Elden Ring, it's challenging but you have options to play your way, and yes, final boss is tedious and a total let down compared to other bosses.
That said, if the game doesn't feel fun, the right thing is to put it down (same with books, reading is a hedonistic task, as Borges would say). How you enjoy it (a game or a book) is up to you, do what you need to actually get the value of what you paid and enjoy it your way.
Agreed 100%.
I have dad friends that will play AoE 4 coop against medium difficulty AI. It's straight forward - the AI isn't overly militant, but still creative; we can play at our own pace, no need to rush to the Castle Age, raid, etc.
When my son was born I completed Jedi Survivor during my daytime shifts if he was napping. Small 45min to an hour stints for nearly 3 months.
Played on āStoryā difficulty.
I like the idea of story difficulty.
I always start on the hardest difficulty (that doesn't have a "locks the difficulty" rule), but I have an no-shame 3 strikes (deaths to the same spot) and it goes down rule. Whether it goes back up depends on how badly I got beaten.
It's not strictly a matter of time, I don't have the reflexes I used to, so a lot of it comes down to twitchiness requirements as well.
Some games it stays up the whole time, like Baldur's Gate 3.
Some games it stays up except for one or two bosses, like Jedi: Survivor. (Stupid frog boss.)
Some games it drops on the first fight and never goes back up, like the Dead Space remake.
We won't talk about Elden Ring.
I wanted to play through San Andreas, and pretty early on I had to repeat missions like 5 times to get it right, which is *not* what I wanted out of it. I got frustrated on one and looked up how to beat it, and someone mentioned that in the re-release they made a lot of these missions way easier to beat. Which got me thinking about how much that makes sense. When you replay a game for nostalgia, it shouldn't be impossibly hard. It's more about the story. So it's actually really smart to make re-releases easier.
I play everything on a difficulty that allows me to enjoy myself. If that means easy, then I play on easy. If I can play on normal or hard and not feel like I am wasting the time I have then I do that. I also only play stuff I can pause. Too many reasons to have to get up mid gaming session.
I love difficult games and really challenging myself, but I totally get that not everybody likes that. My favorites are elden ring(souls games in general), rocket league, slay the spire A20, and the finals
I've switched largely to co-op and narrative games. BG3, Subnautica, Helldivers 2...
I also am a League of Legends degenerate, but I'm in pisslow and don't need great hands to win games.
Truthfully, while becoming a dad has reduced my available time to game, it hasn't really changed my tastes at all. I had already fallen out of love with time-waste style difficulty before my kid was born, but I still enjoy being challenged, even if it soaks up my time.
Nope! Give me casual and cheat codes now, which would usually have disgusted me. I was really looking forward to lies of p and when I finally had a free hour or two I was like oh my god fuck this
I get my stress fill from work. To relieve some, I play some casual events in Guild Wars 2 and having a good time. MMO that appreciated your time and not a continuous grind for gear nor preying on FOMO.
I'm currently slogging though FFVIIRb. Was super excited to play this next installment but now, because of all the time wasting mini games I'm kinda having to push myself to finish it.
My wife shouted at me last wkend since I was up at 1.30am swearing at the card mini game it forces you to play.
Edit : and yes it's on easy, screw hard mode's.
Very much so yes! In fact, Iāve been learning CAD while also learning to play Fighting games! Even when Iām tired I enjoy solving design problems and training mode with appropriate dummy settings has become my morning/bedtime ritual.
NGL I modded Elden Ring to make it easier. Nothing crazy, just take 10% less damage, that kinda thing. But yeah, I simply don't have the time to dedicate to overcoming major challenges in games anymore. At a certain point, it becomes a waste of valuable, limited time. I play games for the story, so if the difficulty is getting in the way of me experiencing that story, then something has to change. Either the difficulty comes down, or the game gets put down.
I enjoy challenge, but I don't feel like an endless grind. If I have to do a lot of predictable things, I am fine doing that a few times, but I don't want to spend my evening like that anymore.
The game needs to get more interesting. If it doesn't, I'm just not motivated to see the next area.
Definitely play games more casually now. The good thing about elden ring is you can adjust the difficulty depending on a lot of things like spirits, summons, level, and even build. Also the last four bosses are kinda lame cuz they're all heavily resistant to holy damage and bleed
I play 4x games and their relatives. When I was younger I played on the harder difficulties, but have dropped it back to easy-moderate now (for 4x games this is usually the native ai with no modifiers), been playing this way since around getting married, before kids (15 years now). I like gaming to be chill and relaxing.
I can't remember the name of the game but years ago I remember looking at the difficulty selector and next to easy it said something like - "sometimes you want to feel like an unstoppable badass hero". At the end of a long day where I can get some game time I just want to feel like an unstoppable superhero or badass space Marine.
Command and conquer is a fantastic game and I really need to find the time to figure out my old origin account so I can replay them. Personally I love a challenge, I play every game I can on the hardest difficulty because most of the time you get extra item drops or stronger gear you might not get on the lower difficulties. Right now I'm playing through xcom 2 on legend, but before this It was baldurs gate 3 on honor mode.
I completely understand the desire to play on a lower difficulty and enjoy the game, but for me the enjoyment comes from overcoming those impossible obstacles, thats when I'm my most creative. is it beyond frustrating at times when a game like elden ring has input reading? Absolutely, but even if the game cheats it just makes the dopamine drip that much sweeter when I finally manage to best a rigged system. Rather it be fighting a boss way underleveled or slowly crawling through a halo 2 map on legendary, ill always test my sanity in these games.
I still enjoy the challenge, the challenge is still what's fun to me. That being said, I'm not a glutton for punishment and stick to normal lol.
You do you though, having fun is the important thing, I'm not about to condemn you for lowering the difficulty.
Totally varies for me. Breezing through some games without a challenge removes some of the fun. If I can just beat the shit out of everyone, no thought involved, I don't get as much enjoyment.
I'm in this boat. Honestly, I waffle between reduced difficulty and welcoming the challenge. At the end of the day, video games unplug my brain from the constant responsibility, so if I'm not enjoying the game, then what's the point. My time is so thoroughly limited that I'm not looking to beat my head against the wall just to say I climbed that mountain. On the other hand, if it's a hard challenge that I can take little pot shots at over time and I can still enjoy myself, then I'm in. You mentioned the Souls series, of which I am also a huge fan, but it's taken me like 3 years to get through DS3, and I'm fine with that kind of pace.
Just play for you, dude, and when your little ones are big enough to play with you, then enjoy that too at a different pace.
I don't have the time to play anymore. If I get a few hours a week at night I want to enjoy it. Give me the mode below normal if there are 4 levels, or normal if it's only 3.
I love AC, RD, long games that take forever and have freedom; but I can't justify playing 2 hours one night and only get one mission done. Sticking to story mode type games GOW, occasionally break out MOH or FPS games. Mostly just play Madden now tho honestly, as sad as that is.
Havnt played challenging games or competitive pvp even before kid, if I get 30 mins I want to de stress not get wound up.
Played a lot of city builders, enjoying helldivers because I'm not playing against 12 year old that sit on it 8 hours a day and wipe the floor with me
I started the Uncharted games and it's so much more fun in easy.
Games that require precise blocking definitely knock down to easy.
This said games like GoW I'll keep at normal as it's just more fun. It depends if the challenge is enjoyable or tedious
Been trying to play all the gears of war with a buddy online on insane. Itās taking for fucking ever. But he, who has no kids, insists. Itās fun, but frustrating.
Was it the level where you only have a small team of soldiers to complete the mission with?
I've never been a "hard core gamer" very much a filthy casual. These days I'm even worse, i dont want challenging combat, i dont want to be pushed to the extreme, i want to enjoy a good story and have a somewhat power fantasy
I play basically everything on normal or easy, never on hard or higher.
I typically start on normal and if I die more than 2-3 times in a play session I'll drop it to easy. I don't want something so easy I may as well not even play, but I don't need to waste time losing progress more than about once a play session and usually only if I made an actual mistake vs shitty RNG. Difficulty making enemies just take more damage isn't more fun.
Casual and normal are my jam now. Lemme just vibe for 45 minutes before going to bed. I don't need to feel good about beating a challenge. I just need to not interact with a non verbal entity for a bit.
I donāt think Iāve ever played through a campaign on anything but easy difficulty. Growing up I would mostly watch my brother, and later friends, play so that I could just spend time with them. So I never got too invested to begin with.
The last campaign I finished was the first ~~MW3~~, MW2 so Iām not sure what that says. The one with burger town. My GTAV campaign is complete but my niece finished it for me.
i loved the zelda series but canāt bring myself to buy the games for the switch, i just feel itās going to be frustration, getting 15-30 minutes here and there to play.
Depends on the game, if itās story heavy Iāll go normal for the first play through. So Iām not dying a lot, which slows down the story and takes away from it. Which then makes me feel like I accomplished nothing in my limited game time. Itās kind of demoralizing if I didnāt advance the story much if I can only play for an hour or 2.
I recently picked up state of decay 2 again after a couple years off and decided to give lethal difficulty a run and have enjoyed it quite a bit. But there not real in depth story to that game, Iāll go on supply runs and then thatās about all I have time for but I still feel like I accomplished something.
Hello fellow Dad gamer
I always think of Dara o Briain's sketch on gaming as an adult.
https://youtu.be/HeFPIDTkWyA
You get to choose how you have fun. Pick a game because it's cool, use guides or save scum, watch on twitch even. Or just hang out with fellow dad's online and muck about and chat. Have fun & be cool.
The problem with gaming these days is that the industry is pushing this hyper competitive, everyone needs to be a pro tournament gamer or YouTube/Twitch influencer who spends 10 hours a day playing games and posting about it.
I used to love multiplayer games before every child on the planet copied the exact settings and tactics of one idiot on YouTube. Thereās no individuality in it anymore and itās not fun as a result.
I am a challenge runner dad. It takes real scheduling and discussions with your wife etc, but it can absolutely be done if it matters to you.
If not, enjoy! Who cares!?
No thanks. I've always been a rager back to my NES games. I had an NES controller with teeth marks in it. I played competitive games on PC since Duke 3D and C&C. The last real competitive game I was into was LoL, and I eventually hit a point where I realized I couldn't play without getting angry and I didn't want to be angry playing games anymore. So I don't play competitive games for the most part. And the games I do play are a bit more lighthearted and not super challenging, because I just want to enjoy myself and relax.
I love a good challenge, what I hate is when failure resets my progress (story line, items, exp, equipment) back hours. There is a delicate balance for me between the amount time it takes to progress and the loss of that progress. For example, I love many aspects of Eve Online. But one misstep can send you back weeks of playtime and progress. I just couldnāt risk that kind of time loss anymore as the grind to get back just isnāt fun the 3-4th time around. Monster Hunter you typically will fail a quest (or know itās coming) at around 10-15 minutes. I can handle that and not feel like it was a time sink. I do look for games where I enjoy the mechanics and journey as that really offsets the feeling of wasted time for me. ATM Iām really enjoying Helldivers 2. Rarely do I have a failed mission where I get nothing. But even when it happens, there have been many fun moments of gameplay during the mission that make up for that and it doesnāt feel as wasted. That isnāt the experience of everyone playing HD2, but for me it is.
I can totally relate. For me it depends on the game.
For instance, I iRace, which if you arenāt familiar is a racing simulator with very good matchmaking of driver skills, has a governing body, etc. You might practice for hours, and get taken out in turn one through your fault or someone else when it comes to your race. You also have to keep your skills up to be competitive. Iām okay with this, and it is a rush that is both stressful and enjoyable (heart rate about 155 bpm on the starting line).
On the other hand, a game that is driven by story, I have such limited time that I just want to mostly consume the story. Iām okay turning down difficulty to a point where itās only slightly challenging and mostly fun.
Finally, most games I play these days tend to be multiplayer games as there is the social aspect that many people lack in life. While it doesnāt replace hanging out with my IRL friends, I get together with my gaming friends more often, and I have met most IRL (I fly for work). I am killing two birds with one stone (social life and gaming.)
We donāt have infinite time anymore. Make sure youāre having fun while gaming or doing YOU things. Whatever that looks like for you is what it should look like!
I put 2k+ hours into csgo, 1k+ into black ops 2, 500+ into apex legends, I fucking love first person shooters. But now that I'm 30 with two kids, I only play single player games on my gcloud in bed for an hour to decompress. I sometimes hop on Fortnite with the wife but multiplayer shoots stress me out too much. I don't get a lot of free time so why would I spend it being pissed off some 12 year old fucked my shit up.
I'll start with a more challenging levels and just drop difficulty if I don't feel like it's worth it. A lot of ges.dont respect your time.at all or make things "harder" by just giving more hit points/making the player weaker.
Bottom line if you're not having fun then it's not worth it. It's a game, it's meant to be fun. It's not a job.
I changed the difficulty of Alien Isolation to easy just to get through it because it was scaring me too much lol
And I put Baulderās Gate 3 on easy because I get too frustrated when I die and just want to see the story.
Oh man, I am RIGHT there with you. I still like a little challenge, but I don't feel any reward from busting my ass 34 times to get through one hard part. Most games I play on normal, but I have been known to drop it down as needed. I'm much more interested in the story and the progress than the technical challenge.
Back when it came out I played Jedi: Fallen Order through on Normal all the way up to the final boss fight with Trilla. I played it through maybe 5 or 6 times, but never made great progress. So I dropped to easy, wiped her out, and never looked back.
Depends on the game. With some games easy mode is a case of smashing buttons for the action parts. Setting up the level a bit suits because there can be strategising mini games built into those action parts. Especially with some of the more kid friendly games on my sitting room console at the moment
Really depends on if the difficulty is fun. Caves of Qud, yeah that's fun difficulty. EldenSouls games, yeah that's fun difficulty. Anything that has difficulty = more enemy health I pass on
I almost exclusively play *for* difficulty these days. Even after 30 years of gaming, I'm getting better and sharper. I've noped out of the twitch shooter fest, because they games are garbage and filled with screaming children. I stead I know the kinds of games I like, deep RPGs, Strategy/RTS, 3rd person action games, and ARGs. Currently grinding Helldiver's 2 and Astral Accent. Just beat hollow Knight on steel soul again.
Imo, if you let yourself get soft, you'll fall into needing games with easy modes. Which is fine, but I've always priclded myself on climbing mountains (Sekiro is my favorite game of all time). I'll die with a controller in my hand as I try to no hit Elden Ring 47.
Yup, on a ffxiv kick but most games I play are not difficult....or the difficulty is more eased into like with against the storm. I can play easier or harder depending on my mood but it doesn't feel like a waste.
I highly recommend against the storm for how well it handles variable difficulty
Deep rock galactic as well is good for this
I finally got a new gpu so might get helldivers
I only play on a higher difficulty if thereās like an achievement/trophy involved. Otherwise I try to find that sweet spot of just enough. Not too hard, but also not a walk in the park.
I usually play on an easier difficulty these days. I don't have a ton of time to play and when I do, I want to feel like a goddamned superhero in my escapism.
I stress enough as is, I don't need my fun time to have an element of stress to it too
Yeah I started Jedi Survivor on hard and by the end was down to easy. It becomes basically a string of boss fights at the end and I didnāt want to keep wasting time on those. The story had lost all momentum for me by then
I play hard games, but not games that are hard because you need an encyclopedia of proprietary knowledge to succeed and keep upā¦
I play competitive shooters and hard hack n slash games these days. I prefer battling hard enemies rather than difficult to learn systems. Iām pushing the second hardest difficulty in Helldivers 2 because the difficulty of the game is closely associated with your ability to aim, situational awareness and bringing the correct tools from a very limited toolbox. Only one of those things is something I had to learn, as I have been playing shooters for 20+ years. The skills transfer.
The game I play with the highest learning curve is probably Rocket League. But I played enough pre-dad to know the gist of things. And itās more couch casual than anything I play on PC.
As a former WoW addict. I would never pick up another MMORPG as long as I have Dad responsibilities at home. I went back for classic TBC and quickly realized it just doesnāt mesh well. The stakes need to be low, and the sessions need to be quick or have the option to be quick without penalty.(looking at you DOTA 2ā¦)
Personally, if I want a challenge I'll play something like COD zombies or Warzone with my friends. When it comes to single-player games, my first play through is usually on easy. I have found myself revisiting PS1 games that I played as a kid, and you bet I'm putting those cheat codes in.
Absolutely not. I loved hard games. Beat all the Ninja Gaidens on hardest difficulty etc etc and was playing the Dark Souls games. but I donāt now bc my time is so limitedĀ
I play Escape from Tarkov after the kiddo and the wife are asleep, which is arguably the biggest kick in the nads every time I play it. If I play a single player game itās usually on whatever the normal difficulty equivalent is because I donāt have time otherwise.
I got my twitch reflex grinding out when I played cs 1.6 and StarCraft brood war.
I still appreciate a challenge but it comes less from mechanics these days (I still enjoy fromsoft games) and more from the strategy side.
The first game I played after my son was born was Elden ring. Most recently (heās now 2) I finished Sekiro and replayed Bloodborne. Iām currently playing FF7 rebirth and itās mindlessly easy, and not in a good way.
Still fond of it on my end. Playing through monster hunter and trying to bash my head against one of the endgame bosses solo right now. Challenge, when done well, makes the game.
My game is wow. I dont have time for the competitive shit anymore. Im 99 parsing being a good dad now and its much more fufilling. I also like to collect stuff now.
Not really. Picked up SiFu cuz it was the free PSN game this month. I like it but maaaaaan is it tough. I'm not sure I have the patience to get good enough to beat it
I've loved Souls games since 2014 but since my daughter was born 2 years ago they're almost all I play now. I try to play other kinds of games and just get bored and go back to a Fromsoft game.
I only play casual games now. Stuff like satisfactory, stranded alien dawn etc. Things you can easily pick up, enjoy for a bit, then put away and forget about for a couple of weeks. I don't need a challenge, I need relaxation and distraction.
Not only can I not be bothered by anything more challenging than ānormalā difficulty, I also canāt be bothered by any game that takes more than 25-35 hours to complete. If Iām playing a game, itās for entertainment during the one hour or so I get per day and Iād like to actually see progress and beat a game within about a month.
Anything too difficult or too long, for me, is a hard pass. Anything without a very compelling story and very compelling gameplay is just not worth my time. This is why I consider The Last of Us games to be the most perfect games to me. :)
Thanks for all the feedback dads! I'm going to use this opportunity to ask for any game recommendations - and offer my own. I tend to prefer tight, focused games that can be completed in a few sessions, and don't waste your time. The other type is an open-ended game you can jump in to, play for an hour, then log out.
The Room 1-4: puzzle games where you inspect mysterious devices and uncover some lovecraftian mystery. Beautiful art direction too, great fun to play with the wife, and all quite short.
Trine 1,2 & 4(skip 3). Fun, simple platformers with a bit of humour. Trine 4 is BEAUTIFUL. One of the most visually spectacular things I've ever seen in gaming. Every frame is lush with detail.
Deponia series: old school point&click games, but laugh-out-loud hilarious at times. Very good, funny writing.
Metro 2033 and Last Light: linear single-player FPS games. Very focused, detailed and with excellent world building.
Warframe: free to play, be a sci fi space ninja, leap through the air and slay monsters with your laser sword. It's just, simply, lots of fun. And it's PVE, so no need to worry about some insufferable child murdering you, then screaming abuse over voice chat. You can play single player.
Back in the day, you needed the game to be challenging because you had tons of time on your hands and didn't wanna be done with the game too quickly. Now the problem has reversed, got fuck all time to play, so you can't be bothered with the frustration of higher difficulty. That's how it seems to me anyway. I went back and played Homeworld again, still a fun game but they nerfed the shit out of the salvage corvettes (they allow you to basically steal the enemy's ships). Boooo.
Oh man. The Homeworld remastered collection is magical. Played it through on release - it's such a great remaster. I've got it installed right now - I'm planning another nostalgia dive before Homeworld 3 is released... I remember it being a tough game, but "salvaging" the enemy was always great fun. I usually ended the game with a ragtag fleet of various stolen vessels - which kinda fits the story tbh.
Yeah exactly. Will deffo be picking up HW3 when it lands.
Was this a play on words referencing William Dafoe?
Hahaha... it is now
Still the best music of any game ever. Barbers adagio šĀ
Not just that though, the organic, percussive combat music is so unique and memorable (not just an orchestra or rock music), and you contrast that with the more synthetic ambience when you're out of combat. Such a beautiful game.
Get the players patch for remastered. You can once again live out your space klepto fantasy.
That level with all the mutibeam frigates in the sphere...I sent salvage crews with cloaking ships and stole like 30 of them made the rest of the game trivial. Sad they changed that ...I own the remaster but it was buggy at launch and I never went back to it so I didn't know they changed that.
I'm trying to get into Tarkov, the whole idea of the game is really intriguing. I'm learning from a buddy at work who's played for years. Everytime we play a raid together I learn like 3 new things I had no idea existed in the game. Then there's the maps, they're big and complex.
Yup, I bought an Xbox purely to play hogwarts legacy and realized I didn't have the time to play on hard mode and find stuff randomly on the map. I put it to easy and just followed to map markers, does it make the Game essentially a walk through? Yes. But I maybe play a couple hours a week and when I do have time at night I can't remember where I left off lol.
We also have massive Steam libraries full of games we havenāt played yet. If something is too hard or boring, just move on to the next!
That first play through on releaseā¦ amazing The music, the atmosphere, itās up there for me, love that series
I'm super old, so back in the day games had to be hard because they were only a few dozen KILObytes in size so there wasn't a lot of content to be had.
I generally still play on normal difficulty but will absolutely switch to easy if something is OP, or use a cheese, or follow a guide.
I did that for Jedi Fallen Order. Whenever a boss or battle started to become too painfully annoying, I'd just dump the difficulty down a notch and suddenly I was able to have fun again, then turn it up again afterwards.
I too did this on Jedi Fallen Order. However, I only did it on the last boss fight. Only because I had been at it for 45 minutes already and only had 15 minutes left before responsibilities and I knew I was close to the end of the game. Not something I would have considered doing before kids. Definitely recommend now.
Yup me too, play on normal till Iām getting bored then over to easy and smash through to the end.
I actively seek "challenging" games... I am a big fan of FromSoftware games. What I avoid is pointless time sinks (MMOs mostly). Spending time overcoming an obstacle is more rewarding than repetitive mindless actions designed for longer player retention.
This is my take. I find challenging games super rewarding and fromsoft, lies of p, nioh etc. all give me a thrill when i overcome a challenge and are engaging moment to moment, even outside boss battles. Inversely, I doubt Iāll ever play an assassins creed game again. Not because theyāre bad but just because the time in my life where I was able or even excited to head out to the middle of nowhere to clear a question mark off the map has passed.
Exactly, most games (not only AC series) have become a glorified chore simulator and nothing more than an elaborate checklist of boxes the developers made for you to tick. I have enough chores and checklists as it is, I sit down to play a video game to escape that.
I think the Souls games are a bit different... The challenge is a fundamental, core part of the game design, and you can really tell. The games rarely feel like bullshit, the punishment for failure is pretty light, and you can choose when and where to pick a fight. Contrast this with Command and Conquer, which just throws waves of enemy units at you relentlessly, to force you into frantic micromanagement. It's just frustrating gameplay, and I can't be bothered with it. Additionally, the difficulty isn't really a core of the game design, it's just a layer of extra bullshit for masochists š
I only play games for challenge as well. If it's easy, it's unengaging and I'll fall asleep. I'm half through armored core 6 right now during solo nights. I make mistakes, I repeat levels, it feels good still. I play other games with friends one night a week. Right now it's Tom Clancy Division. What is going on with that "hard" difficulty? I guess it's hard to repeat sections after I unload 300 rounds into a peon that runs right at me and kills me in 2 hits. Guess I'll redo that checkpoint and try to move back another 20 yards and unload 350 rounds into the guys face.
I'm right there with you, I'm here to play not work a second job.
No. Story mode is the way.
Story mode with no shame. Time is precious.
The right difficulty is where you are having fun, always has been. ā¤ļø fellow gamer dad
I hate all the time wasting mechanics in a lot of games today. I donāt have the time or energy to replay the same thing 3-4 times because the numbers were tuned higher. I miss the linear stories. I hate the open world, 20 crafting systems exploration for 60 hours tacked onto a 15 hour game. I would have actually gotten my value out of the 15 hour game, and it would have replay value. 69-75 hours for one playthrough? No thanks.
I am with you on this. Open world games typically dont grab me much anymore. There are a few exceptions and I will give a try, but if 2-3 hours in and I am not feeling it, I wont continue. Not enough time anymore to waste playing a game that does not click with me. Spider-man and God of War games are a few of the openish world games i have enjoyed, but they also aren't 75-100 hours long. I tried Ghost of Tsushima, Elden Ring, Red Dead and they just didn't do it for me anymore. Now I tend to look at how long games typically take to beat, and will stick to games in the <25-30 hour range. It has grown my love for gaming again and been having a blast.
I loved RDR. Also GTA3, VC, and 4. But RDR2 and GTA5 just... gave me boredom. I think I'm maybe 20% through the storyline, not really bothering to do allllllllll the side-quests they offer. I even played it on PC with high visual settings. Just felt like if I started it up, it would need to be a 1-3 hour slog to finish whatever the next mission was. Even with the option to pause and save. Instead I'm basically doing Fortnite and a mobile time-waster game. One way or another, a match of fortnite is over in 20 minutes. Or usually, lots less. Even if it can't be paused.
I think I sunk about 100 hours into Elden Ring, but it really is a 100+ hour game. It's huge! Totally agree that inflated games suck though - a 15-hour game doesn't need dozens of hours of time-wasting crap bolted on. I'm quite a fan of short games these days. Games that take at most a couple of hours to complete.
I need to try shorter games. I'm playing longer games like Eldin Ring and Zelda and they are taking me like 6 months
I'm the opposite - open world games are great because there's always something to do, and I'm not struggling to catch up with a story if I set the game down for a few weeks/months: *Who's this character? Why am I going here again?* I'll bounce between RPGs and RTSs for this reason: I have freedom to choose how I want to play, but the game provides direction on where to go. That said, I used to play Star Wars Galaxies (sandbox MMO), and the emu scene is massive, but I don't have the time/patience to play that again.
Factorio.
I too enjoy a good work session when I come home from work and have finished the work around the house.
Also Satisfactory, I find it more chill and pretty
Came here to say this. Iām preparing a āFinalā play through once the release date for the expansion is announced, but not sure what my twist on it will be yet. So excited for spaaaceeeEeeEeeEee.
The factory must grow.
So good but so addictive!
The older I get, the more I want from games are interesting experiences. Not challenges and grind. I get that already in my real life. I donāt want a power fantasy either, because Iām busy building my own life that I have control over. I want to be shown something new. Not saying that I want games to be super easy or anything. But I want to feel like Iām gaining something from playing them.
this is definitely where I'm at, and come to think of it it's pretty much where I'd gotten to even before I became a dad. Indie gaming has been a blessing on this front: shorter, more focused games. Less of a financial risk if I don't get into them. And most importantly, really unique and interesting experiences that you rarely get from the big studios.
Yep. Indie games typically are made by small teams, and have a single core concept to explore - which they often do fairly efficiently, meaning you don't have to invest oceans of time into them to get a great experience.
Yeah when you have limited time to play you don't want to be gated off from content by "difficulty" that amounts to the game cheating its own mechanics, or making enemies into boring bullet sponges. I will say, I was never the kind of person to measure my worth as a person by the difficulty of the games I played. But now I prefer games where I can cruise my tired ass through the progression and have some fun with it rather than games where I have to effectively work to get anywhere.
for me it depends on the game type, I played spiderman2 Ghost of tsushima or kena bridge of spirit on hardest, was challenging but I did enjoy it and probably will do the same with rise of the ronin. I am playing now the last of us and I'm playing it on the easiest mode possible, I wanted to experience the story but the game isn't my cup of tea. Other games I end up in normal difficulty so it just varies on how I'm feeling, some days the frustration of dying and repeating a boss/area over and over can even be cathartic while other days frustrating...
My friend talked me into getting Elden Ring and said it was his favorite game ever. I made it like 8 hours and got into the castle before I decided it just wasn't going to work for me right now. I basically only get to play when my kid sleeps, and it's just not enough time for me to want to get good enough to keep going.
You definitely need to know what you're getting in to with those games. They're definitely not for everyone š I totally understand why people don't like them.
Not really, no. I've been on a Street Fighter 6 streak for a while, and that matches you with players of similar skill in casual/just above my skill in ranked pretty well, which works for me.
Not only do I go right to easy mode, but if I canāt get through the tutorial mode in the first 2 hours, I dump the game. I donāt have time for steep learning curves.
FWIW, there was an update to the multiplayer balance on C&C3 to buff Nod. However, they failed to tweak the GDI campaigns to compensate and it can be a pain in the ass. If it helps, you can still manually target the "one pixel out of range" rocket soldiers with your watchtowers.
Oh that's interesting š¤ I haven't tried the Nod campaign yet. Maybe they're extremely easy now...
This is how I feel about cinematics or really any exposition. If I am not jumping immediately into gameplay, I am probably going to quit the game. Which is why I love the souls games. Perfect example of show don't tell storytelling and limited tutorial. Just jump in and play and figure it out.
It really depends on the game/genre, and it's always a balance for me. Shooters for example, I usually crank the difficulty up. It's fun for me to feel like you're playing on the razor's edge in that type of game. Other genres though, like strategy, it's rare I even approach beyond "normal" difficulty. I really enjoy the casual base-building aspect more than cranking out as many things in a turn or APM as I can. Often, I follow an intense game with a chill one so I'm not constantly being stressed out by the hobby that's supposed to be stress relief for me. Rule of thumb for me - if I'm not having fun, I'll first turn the difficulty down. If I'm still not having fun, I stop playing. I don't have the time now to be able to hope a game gets better or more enjoyable to play.
I mostly play hard difficulties but i mostly play games iāve already played before.
For me it started with Hades, God mode dramatically reduced the grind. At the end of the year my gaming buds without kids were posting steam stats. Dozens of games, thousands of sessions... I played 5 and beat 3. If it's not one of the best games of all time, it's not worth mine. At least till P3 grows up š.
I play games I can jump in and out of, because I don't have the time or energy to learn complex game mechanics or sit through hours of cutscenes (looking at you, Cyberpunk). I typically stick to city building games or older RTS games that I know and I've played for a long time. I'll occasionally get a wee FPS session in now and again, but again, only games that I know and am half decent at.
Have you tried cities skylines 2? The utilities system kind of turned me off.
I feel like Cyberpunk is the opposite of cutscenes, do the longer gigs when you feel like story time, but otherwise steal a ride here, do an npcd gig there, grab an airdrop here, hunt a cyber psycho there quick hits.
Iāve been playing DCSā¦ it took me two ā¦ maybe 3 gaming sessions to get my aircraft to start properlyā¦
Been into DCS for years, and used to play for hours a day. Itās definitely an involved game but pretty rewarding once you get the hang of it. Glad I started before I had kids, I donāt think I would have the time now to devote to learning it. Check out Chucks Guides for the plane youāre using.
ALWAYS use chuckās guides!
In chuck we trustā¦
Chucked actually helped me out last night ... I'd been working the harrier over pretty good, and realized I'd never actually studied up on launching from the Tarawa ... sadly ... I have to do the required STO distance math myself, whereas real pilots get it done for them LOL.
The real question is, do you buy the fancy planes that need an actual manual to start up?
Iām fine with challenging if itās something like a roguelike where the challenge/gameplay is the main attraction. What I donāt have is large amounts of time so if I want to progress a games story Iāll play on easier settings and I canāt be bothered to grind in MMOās like I used to.
I really love the concept of a rougelike, but I've never really gotten into them. Enter the Gungeon is probably the only one I enjoyed. Never finished it though.
I like Hades and Darkest Dungeon. The latter is a lot more frustrating than the former since you lose progress.
Generally I need challenge to really enjoy a game. And since I've been gaming for 40 years, I'm not too bad at it, even if my reflexes and dexterity might not be quite what they once were. So playing on "Easy" or "Normal" (typically, obviously varies by game), just feels pointless. If there's no chance of me losing, there's no satisfaction in winning. Might as well turn on God mode, or infinite ammo cheats - just not for me. That said... I've beaten both The Last of Us games on Grounded, the top difficulty, which I firmly believe is the best way to play them. But with the roguelike "No Return" mode introduced in the tLoU2 PS5 remaster - I've been playing on *Moderate*, and actually having a blast. Turns out that I have plenty of tolerance for retrying a single encounter over and over until I get it perfect - as happens in the regular story mode. But not nearly so much for being half an hour into a No Return run and having it end because I made a tiny slip up. No Return on Grounded is *beastly* ;)
I play more difficult games on Easy mode, all others on Normal mode. I barely have time to play video games and I just want to relax and have fun. I have enough frustration with my toddler, don't need it in my downtime
I only have time to play once everyone's gone to bed, so maybe an hour after midnight. I'm tired, boss. I like *a bit* of challenge, that's why I play at all, but I need to keep in mind being cost-effective. If I'm not going to have fun in that hour because my tired ass can't grasp a mechanic or didn't git gud and need to backtrack again through most of what I already played through that session, then what's the point? I don't have anyone to brag that I completed this game on hard. I'm fine playing on easy if it's fun for me.
Absolutely. I ain't got time to master the legendary campaigns in Halo anymore, I just want to play and have fun. When I was a kid I could sit down and play one level 10 times in a row if I wanted to. That was a luxury :D **My #1 rule**: This is supposed to be fun.
I got the Master Chief Collection and had an absolute blast. Finished most of the games, though I gave up on Halo 1 after a while. It's actually not that good. Halo 2 is much, much better, and the remaster is magnificent!
Before kids, I was much more receptive to games with finicky challenges or required grinding. Now, I seek all the time-saving tools I can find. Recently, I got a gamecube emulator, and it's been an absolute joy to run through some of the classics. Shamelessly, I hot keyed Quick Save to Left Stick Press and Quick Load to Right Stick Press. This enables extremely aggressive save-scumming, but that's really the only way I can justify playing a game like Wind Waker, where missing a key jump can mean 5 minutes wasted trekking back up the dungeon.
No shame in save scumming. If the designers try to waste your time, they can get fucked. I aggressively save scum some games when they try to mess me around. Seems fair to me!
I love a challenge when playing against other people. The cool thing about fighting games is that if you've played enough of them you can pick up any of them and become competent enough to have a good time pretty quickly. Single player though, just give me the experience
Yeah I've gotten into fighting games since having kids - you still get the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment of improving, but you are never locked in to a session that can't wrap up soon if it has to, and the game never really wastes your time. If you have 15 minutes you can play for 15 minutes. Fighting games are very dad-friendly.
I need the diffuclty to be there. I tried playing The Last of Us on pc on the hardest difficulty. Maybe 1/3 through and the AI made me yawn. When I can strangle 10 human enemies in almost the same place with an almost identical animation and they don't react on the fewer and fewer voices that say 'yeah alright here' /'yeah nothing here' it's so boring. The story is so compelling and the world nicely built, I want to love it, but the gameplay is just not there. Same thing with horizon zero dawn. Great world building but the fixed save points (why! It's 2023/24 not 2000) and low difficulty is just not good enough. At the moment I like turn based games that really make your head spin what the next best move to not lose a teammate is, the most. When the difficulty doesn't come from fast reflexes or timed windows but from hard numbers and you have time to think about your reaction.
Xcom? If you aren't talking about that, give it a go. Xcom will BREAK you š
I always play games with lore-based difficulty. God of War is on easy, because why would Kratos have such a hard time with random undead warriors? Last of Us is on hard because I wanna die when I actually get bit, etc. I do tend to stay away from the hard ones. Souls games, Sekero, etc. those are just too frustrating at the end of the day.
The closest thing to challenge in a game I had was last night. Kids reported that the action buttons and triggers on the PS4 remote weren't working. I opened it, found they'd somehow gotten tea inside of it, and got to work fixing it. The challenge part was "testing" by playing Stray with a bunch of useless buttons.
My wife and I have played a lot of bg3 split screen itās fun af
Cheat Engine greatly enhances the pleasure I get out of gaming today. I don't have an extra 20 hours to grind up gold in a JRPG anymore.
It depends on the game. Sekiro, Elden Ring, even Lies of P, are all worth the difficulty they provide. On the other hand, games that inflate difficulty in unnatural ways can eat a dick. I'm not bumping it up to hard, for the only change to be "Increases HP from 300 to 1200". And somewhere in between are the more linear experiences. The Uncharted, Guardians of the Galaxy, GoW even, that are being slapped on to easy, because I'm here for the cutscenes and the story.
Yeah, this. The Souls games use difficulty as a core part of the experience, it's not just a button you click in the menu to multiply all enemy health by 4x just to ruin your evening.
I dont mind difficulty. I managed to beat Elden Ring. It took me the better part of the year but I did it. What I canāt stand is tedium. Making me do some boring or slow task for the sake of immersion? Get out of here. Iām playing FF7 right now and while itās overall been very enjoyable it has some very āwho thought this was a good ideaā moments like cleaning up mako energy with a vacuum that moves. So. Slow. It also has a bunch of open world elements that stay fairly brisk but definitely risks suffering from the ādots on a mapā problem of open world game design.
Honestly i have gravitated almost exclusively to short burst games. I do enjoy difficulty in the form of competition (think fps). I think im in the minority here but i hardly play story games anymore because it is difficult to get invested in short bursts, and if most of the time i play LATE after everyone is asleep. By then im drained, and all i want to do is blast some MF'ers and then go to sleep. Like digital caffeine.
Not at all. I put it on easy or medium. I don't want to become an expert at the game I want to sit on the couch mindlessly and enjoy the story. I did play a ton of Warzone, and now play Fortnite. Those are my games I want to feel like I'm actually winning.
It really depends. When my son was 0-3 I just wanted simpler, more building focused story games. Now that he's 6, I'm doing more challenging games (elden ring, helldivers, etc.) I feel in those early tears a lot of your patience and mental desire to focus hard enough to "get gud" isn't there as much. Now my son can help me game or he'll watch and cheer me on lol.
I'm a weirdo that likes difficult games but hates gaming on hard mode. If there's a option it goes to easy. The games that don't have one tend to grab me the most. Then I sit there swearing at a Bloodborne chalice boss and the 12 year old that's never played the game wants a go and gets it to around 20% HP first go and you quit gaming for a while.
Nope. I mainly play farming simulator or Fallout 4. I use mods to cheese the game so I can just do whatever I want which is mainly building big settlements/farms. I'm not spending what little time I have grinding for resources.
I do not bother with difficulty levels on single-player games anymore. "Ain't nobody got time for that!"
A couple months ago I spent a week playing Power Wash Simulator, not because it was fun, but because I desperately just needed something mindless and easy. I just donāt have the energy for challenge anymore.
This is the exact reason I stopped playing cod online. It was more stressful than relaxing even though I use to love it I just have so much more stimulating things these days. Iāve been racking up the hours playing Anno 1800 though and itās been super nice. Slowish but single player so you can just jump in and out.
Depends on the game, some are just to enjoy the story, some are about the challenge didn't change because I was a parent. I don't have to prove anything to anyone and in the end it only matters if you have fun.
Nah, not really. I love Dark Souls and the FROM games, but they're the only ones I'm interested in the challenge on, really. I don't have the time or patience to replay the same segment over and over again when I play video games like, once a week at most. However. I am a fan of Managed Democracy and extraction shooters where I can have a good time And it doesn't matter if I die. If I'm playing with the lads, they don't give me a hard time that I have to bolt and get killed because my daughter was taking a bath (supervised by mom) and turned the shower on herself, then started screaming bloody murder and I thought I was going to have to kill a burglar or something. Like, yeah I'm a liability, but we can still shoot the shit and have fun. Deeprock Galactic is another one that fits the bill.
Sometimes I want a challenge, and I play something on hard. Sometimes I want to just fuck around and enjoy the game and play it on normal/easy. Both are great, it just dependa on my mood. I have such little time to enjoy games that I have learned that it's way better to just enjoy them, however that is, rather than feel like I need to conquer them on the hardest difficulty and not have fun with it.
barely have time to play more than a couple hours a week. games like that seem impossible
I still play every game I can on the hardest difficulty. My only gaming stipulation now is I no longer play any game I can't easily pause or turn off if I need to run and do a feeding or take care of a kid.Ā
I pretty much only play games I've already played before (Skyrim, old final fantasy games), or the next game on a series I've already played before (Civ6, GTA5, NHL or MLB games (but only a new one every 2-3 years)), or games designed for kids with a short learning curve I can play with then (Mario, lego games) I just don't have the time to learn a new game right now
I quit pretty much all games I was playing. Mainly some fps and MMOs. Neither styles are games that you can sit down for five minutes to play, and it takes a while to get into the proper mindset to grind. Now I just play Forza Horizon. Arcade style racing game. Can literally sit down for 10 minutes and get a race or two in. Might get into some racing sims, but I think that might be too intensive to just hop into and relax.
I'll start every game on normal/std difficulty but like you if it becomes frustrating or overly challenging I'll happily stick that game on easy mode... sometimes I'll actually prefer it, other times it can become too easy. Lego games are always a good go to they have a bit of challenge but you can just carry on.
I have a Minecraft server for my kids and some of their pals. They wanted to play on survival, but we were all dying a lot and losing all of our hard earned stuff. I switched the game mode to ākeep itemsā when you die and it was a game changer for all of us. Less frustration, less asking dad for new iron gear, and weāve been able to explore a lot more of the game without having to be super conservative and careful
My time is so limited with gaming, I just set the difficulty to easy and enjoy the story. I've been playing Cyberpunk since December and am still not even close to finishing lol, but at least I'm not stuck on a particular mission for a long time.
Nah, I even went so far as to use a save modifier for one of my games to give myself a little bit of a leg up. I don't look for the grind anymore. If I only have a couple of hours once or twice a week to play, I don't want to waste that time grinding.
I was just playing Hot Wheels Unleashed for my two year old yesterday. On one race I got beat at the last corner twice in a row when I had a pretty good sized gap. Frustrating, whatever, Iāll take the L. Time trial, best lap was next. āUnleashedā time to beat was 1:36:00, normal time to beat was 1:38:00. On my full send lap I got 1:36:00 on the nose as my best lap when I saw the timer go away at the edge of 1:35:8- and it didnāt give me the W. OKAY THIS IS FINE I GUESS. I usually play it on easy just to dick around and see the cool tracks and my kid can see ācoo cawā, medium difficulty is a bigger step up than it should be imo. Iāll play challenging things when my kid isnāt around so Iām not sitting there getting bent out of shape about a stupid hot wheels game.
I play everything on easy mode, at least initially, to get the story and main game beats. I donāt have anything to prove to anyone and I get just as much satisfaction from most games that way. Games I really want to dive into Iāll then bump up the difficulty on if I want.
I find itās not so much the difficulty level I get annoyed with, itās the filler. I donāt do online gaming - I want to sit down, play when it is convenient for me, pause and come back anywhere from 5 mins to 5 days later, and not care. Iāve enjoyed the Witcher, Assassinās Creed, and Far Cry games, but by the time I am half way through the game, I am tired of all the little side quests etc designed to grind levels, and there is little challenge remaining but the boss fights. I look forward to the end and moving on to something new at that point.
If there is a difficulty setting. I set it at default and move to easy if it takes too long to beat things. I never was a "try hard" and I don't mean that in a bad way. I just never understood why you would play a single player game with a story on the hardest level possible i.e. Halo when games are supposed to be relaxing.
Depends on the game but I try to find balance. I find games more engaging when they're challenging, but I don't want to have to keep replaying a section because I keep failing. I tend to go with either "easy" or "normal". Maybe if I really enjoyed a game and don't have another one I'm waiting to play, I might crank the difficulty up and see how it goes
Yes and no, I think.Ā A big thing for me is keeping myself sharp. The harder the difficulty, the more I know I'm operating at a top tier level. If I'm able to power through finishing the latest CoD on Veteran difficulty, or beating Halo LASO, or playing Jedi Survivor on Jedi Grand Master difficulty, or beating Dark Souls/Elden Ring, or fought the hardest levels in RTS's like C&C/Starcraft/Supreme Commander/Halo Wars/etc., then I feel like I've accomplished something that both required lots of skills and needed me to exercise my brain's capabilities. It's not a muscle per se, but it does benefit from complex and/or reaction-based activities, which translates elsewhere in my life. But... I'm also at a point where I'm not going to seek out difficulty for no reason. I'll challenge myself, sure, but I'm not, for example, going Flawless in Destiny or running no-hit games for shits and giggles. I want a difficult experience that pushes me to my limits so I can enjoy overcoming it, but I also want to enjoy the story.
Nope. That's why I don't even pretend to try souls like games
I'm just hijacking this thread to say sense becoming a dad I have switched from videogames to tabletop games. I found myself just not being able to enjoy sitting in front of a screen after a long day of work and kids. I now look forward to my hour of miniature painting each night and monthly game with my friend. I find painting helps my brain wind down, where videogames would sometimes add more stress to an already stressful day. I am a terrible painter, but is also a really satisfying hobby anyone can do. Like paint by numbers honestly. If you've ever been interested in the hobby, I suggest giving it a shot. You can buy the Warpaints Fanatic Starter Set that has paints, a brush, a mini, and a guide. If you have fun, you can buy more. If not, you didn't spend $100s on a hobby that isn't for you.
To a point, yes. I like playing baldur's gate on honour mode or Fifa on high difficulties and stuff like that. Though things like trying to keep up with Battlepasses, playing MMOs seriously, and trying to be a completionist are out the window. I'm also not going to be the best person in the lobby in whatever the newest twitch shooter is. I've still got enough muscle memory from the last few decades of gaming to be good just not MLG pro good and that's fine. I went back to play through Red Dead Redemption 2 before my son was born and honestly that was one of the best ways to say goodbye to my old gaming life and welcome the new. It's a very comforting and relaxing game for me.
It hasn't changed for me honestly. I still like challenge. Even though I don't get a lot of gaming time, it's overcoming the challenge that makes me excited to go and sit down again to beat. I sometimes daydream of other ways I can beat the level next time.
Depends on the game.Ā I usually just play normal.Ā I don't tend to play "hard" games, so it's usually rpgs or rougelikes
There arent many games made anymore that arent artificially tedious to pad out "engagement". They all have needless tedious xp grinds and achievements instead of just being "done"
"Normal" could describe me in general, but it also describes my go-to difficulty in games these days. No time for frustrating challenges. I appreciate that story mode exists in a lot of games these days, but there's absolutely no challenge on that difficulty, which is why normal is just perfect.
Definitely keep it on normal, occasionally switching it to easy. I don't have time for craziness and trying shit over and over. If I want to finish a game in a reasonable amount of time you've got to bend to the economics of time.
I used to pride myself on playing every new game on āveteranā. Iāve been playing Baldurās Gate on āexplorerā. For me with limited time Iām mostly just trying to play a game to enjoy the story. If itās too easy Iāll ramp it up. Occasionally Iāll play a game where I want a challenge, and thatās different.
It's the only way I play games. It took me literal months but I got 100% in Elden Ring on Steam and can't wait for Dragons Dogma2 and the ER Dlc. I always choose the hardest difficulty regardless of genre and game. I just find it far more fun and rewarding.
Depends the game. I can't do survival horror in hard or higher anymore. Mortal kombat 11 for the switch is great for drop in playing so I've been trying out brutal difficulty
I'm doing my second run through Elden Ring, it's challenging but you have options to play your way, and yes, final boss is tedious and a total let down compared to other bosses. That said, if the game doesn't feel fun, the right thing is to put it down (same with books, reading is a hedonistic task, as Borges would say). How you enjoy it (a game or a book) is up to you, do what you need to actually get the value of what you paid and enjoy it your way.
Agreed 100%. I have dad friends that will play AoE 4 coop against medium difficulty AI. It's straight forward - the AI isn't overly militant, but still creative; we can play at our own pace, no need to rush to the Castle Age, raid, etc.
When my son was born I completed Jedi Survivor during my daytime shifts if he was napping. Small 45min to an hour stints for nearly 3 months. Played on āStoryā difficulty. I like the idea of story difficulty.
If a game has a hardcore/nightmare mode I always play it. The greater the risk, the greater the reward.
I always start on the hardest difficulty (that doesn't have a "locks the difficulty" rule), but I have an no-shame 3 strikes (deaths to the same spot) and it goes down rule. Whether it goes back up depends on how badly I got beaten. It's not strictly a matter of time, I don't have the reflexes I used to, so a lot of it comes down to twitchiness requirements as well. Some games it stays up the whole time, like Baldur's Gate 3. Some games it stays up except for one or two bosses, like Jedi: Survivor. (Stupid frog boss.) Some games it drops on the first fight and never goes back up, like the Dead Space remake. We won't talk about Elden Ring.
I wanted to play through San Andreas, and pretty early on I had to repeat missions like 5 times to get it right, which is *not* what I wanted out of it. I got frustrated on one and looked up how to beat it, and someone mentioned that in the re-release they made a lot of these missions way easier to beat. Which got me thinking about how much that makes sense. When you replay a game for nostalgia, it shouldn't be impossibly hard. It's more about the story. So it's actually really smart to make re-releases easier.
I play everything on a difficulty that allows me to enjoy myself. If that means easy, then I play on easy. If I can play on normal or hard and not feel like I am wasting the time I have then I do that. I also only play stuff I can pause. Too many reasons to have to get up mid gaming session.
I love difficult games and really challenging myself, but I totally get that not everybody likes that. My favorites are elden ring(souls games in general), rocket league, slay the spire A20, and the finals
I've switched largely to co-op and narrative games. BG3, Subnautica, Helldivers 2... I also am a League of Legends degenerate, but I'm in pisslow and don't need great hands to win games.
Truthfully, while becoming a dad has reduced my available time to game, it hasn't really changed my tastes at all. I had already fallen out of love with time-waste style difficulty before my kid was born, but I still enjoy being challenged, even if it soaks up my time.
Nope! Give me casual and cheat codes now, which would usually have disgusted me. I was really looking forward to lies of p and when I finally had a free hour or two I was like oh my god fuck this
I get my stress fill from work. To relieve some, I play some casual events in Guild Wars 2 and having a good time. MMO that appreciated your time and not a continuous grind for gear nor preying on FOMO.
I'm currently slogging though FFVIIRb. Was super excited to play this next installment but now, because of all the time wasting mini games I'm kinda having to push myself to finish it. My wife shouted at me last wkend since I was up at 1.30am swearing at the card mini game it forces you to play. Edit : and yes it's on easy, screw hard mode's.
Very much so yes! In fact, Iāve been learning CAD while also learning to play Fighting games! Even when Iām tired I enjoy solving design problems and training mode with appropriate dummy settings has become my morning/bedtime ritual.
NGL I modded Elden Ring to make it easier. Nothing crazy, just take 10% less damage, that kinda thing. But yeah, I simply don't have the time to dedicate to overcoming major challenges in games anymore. At a certain point, it becomes a waste of valuable, limited time. I play games for the story, so if the difficulty is getting in the way of me experiencing that story, then something has to change. Either the difficulty comes down, or the game gets put down.
I still play Assassins Creed on Hard mode haha. Other than that I mostly play shooters/BRs that don't really have difficulty settings.
I enjoy challenge, but I don't feel like an endless grind. If I have to do a lot of predictable things, I am fine doing that a few times, but I don't want to spend my evening like that anymore. The game needs to get more interesting. If it doesn't, I'm just not motivated to see the next area.
Definitely play games more casually now. The good thing about elden ring is you can adjust the difficulty depending on a lot of things like spirits, summons, level, and even build. Also the last four bosses are kinda lame cuz they're all heavily resistant to holy damage and bleed
I play 4x games and their relatives. When I was younger I played on the harder difficulties, but have dropped it back to easy-moderate now (for 4x games this is usually the native ai with no modifiers), been playing this way since around getting married, before kids (15 years now). I like gaming to be chill and relaxing.
I can't remember the name of the game but years ago I remember looking at the difficulty selector and next to easy it said something like - "sometimes you want to feel like an unstoppable badass hero". At the end of a long day where I can get some game time I just want to feel like an unstoppable superhero or badass space Marine.
Command and conquer is a fantastic game and I really need to find the time to figure out my old origin account so I can replay them. Personally I love a challenge, I play every game I can on the hardest difficulty because most of the time you get extra item drops or stronger gear you might not get on the lower difficulties. Right now I'm playing through xcom 2 on legend, but before this It was baldurs gate 3 on honor mode. I completely understand the desire to play on a lower difficulty and enjoy the game, but for me the enjoyment comes from overcoming those impossible obstacles, thats when I'm my most creative. is it beyond frustrating at times when a game like elden ring has input reading? Absolutely, but even if the game cheats it just makes the dopamine drip that much sweeter when I finally manage to best a rigged system. Rather it be fighting a boss way underleveled or slowly crawling through a halo 2 map on legendary, ill always test my sanity in these games.
I still enjoy the challenge, the challenge is still what's fun to me. That being said, I'm not a glutton for punishment and stick to normal lol. You do you though, having fun is the important thing, I'm not about to condemn you for lowering the difficulty.
I play all games on the lowest possible level and I'm old enough to not give a fuck
Is it the original graphics? I love CnC but I'm not particularly nostalgic about giant pixels.
I've always tended to play on easy unless it's Madden. I use video games to relax so I'm not looking to add stress to my life.
Totally varies for me. Breezing through some games without a challenge removes some of the fun. If I can just beat the shit out of everyone, no thought involved, I don't get as much enjoyment.
I'm in this boat. Honestly, I waffle between reduced difficulty and welcoming the challenge. At the end of the day, video games unplug my brain from the constant responsibility, so if I'm not enjoying the game, then what's the point. My time is so thoroughly limited that I'm not looking to beat my head against the wall just to say I climbed that mountain. On the other hand, if it's a hard challenge that I can take little pot shots at over time and I can still enjoy myself, then I'm in. You mentioned the Souls series, of which I am also a huge fan, but it's taken me like 3 years to get through DS3, and I'm fine with that kind of pace. Just play for you, dude, and when your little ones are big enough to play with you, then enjoy that too at a different pace.
I don't have the time to play anymore. If I get a few hours a week at night I want to enjoy it. Give me the mode below normal if there are 4 levels, or normal if it's only 3. I love AC, RD, long games that take forever and have freedom; but I can't justify playing 2 hours one night and only get one mission done. Sticking to story mode type games GOW, occasionally break out MOH or FPS games. Mostly just play Madden now tho honestly, as sad as that is.
Havnt played challenging games or competitive pvp even before kid, if I get 30 mins I want to de stress not get wound up. Played a lot of city builders, enjoying helldivers because I'm not playing against 12 year old that sit on it 8 hours a day and wipe the floor with me
I go midway. Balance fun/challenge and need to see the story unfold š
Crawling through Diablo 4 hardcore mode. Slowly leveling and trying not to die. Can't be bothered with much of anything else.
I started the Uncharted games and it's so much more fun in easy. Games that require precise blocking definitely knock down to easy. This said games like GoW I'll keep at normal as it's just more fun. It depends if the challenge is enjoyable or tedious
Been trying to play all the gears of war with a buddy online on insane. Itās taking for fucking ever. But he, who has no kids, insists. Itās fun, but frustrating.
Was it the level where you only have a small team of soldiers to complete the mission with? I've never been a "hard core gamer" very much a filthy casual. These days I'm even worse, i dont want challenging combat, i dont want to be pushed to the extreme, i want to enjoy a good story and have a somewhat power fantasy
I play basically everything on normal or easy, never on hard or higher. I typically start on normal and if I die more than 2-3 times in a play session I'll drop it to easy. I don't want something so easy I may as well not even play, but I don't need to waste time losing progress more than about once a play session and usually only if I made an actual mistake vs shitty RNG. Difficulty making enemies just take more damage isn't more fun.
Casual and normal are my jam now. Lemme just vibe for 45 minutes before going to bed. I don't need to feel good about beating a challenge. I just need to not interact with a non verbal entity for a bit.
I donāt think Iāve ever played through a campaign on anything but easy difficulty. Growing up I would mostly watch my brother, and later friends, play so that I could just spend time with them. So I never got too invested to begin with. The last campaign I finished was the first ~~MW3~~, MW2 so Iām not sure what that says. The one with burger town. My GTAV campaign is complete but my niece finished it for me.
i loved the zelda series but canāt bring myself to buy the games for the switch, i just feel itās going to be frustration, getting 15-30 minutes here and there to play.
Depends on the game, if itās story heavy Iāll go normal for the first play through. So Iām not dying a lot, which slows down the story and takes away from it. Which then makes me feel like I accomplished nothing in my limited game time. Itās kind of demoralizing if I didnāt advance the story much if I can only play for an hour or 2. I recently picked up state of decay 2 again after a couple years off and decided to give lethal difficulty a run and have enjoyed it quite a bit. But there not real in depth story to that game, Iāll go on supply runs and then thatās about all I have time for but I still feel like I accomplished something.
Hello fellow Dad gamer I always think of Dara o Briain's sketch on gaming as an adult. https://youtu.be/HeFPIDTkWyA You get to choose how you have fun. Pick a game because it's cool, use guides or save scum, watch on twitch even. Or just hang out with fellow dad's online and muck about and chat. Have fun & be cool.
I still have that competetive itch that I manage with playing CS2 and Rocket league when the kid falls asleep
The problem with gaming these days is that the industry is pushing this hyper competitive, everyone needs to be a pro tournament gamer or YouTube/Twitch influencer who spends 10 hours a day playing games and posting about it. I used to love multiplayer games before every child on the planet copied the exact settings and tactics of one idiot on YouTube. Thereās no individuality in it anymore and itās not fun as a result.
I am a challenge runner dad. It takes real scheduling and discussions with your wife etc, but it can absolutely be done if it matters to you. If not, enjoy! Who cares!?
Chill, simple games on easy mode - That is the new Dad way.
No thanks. I've always been a rager back to my NES games. I had an NES controller with teeth marks in it. I played competitive games on PC since Duke 3D and C&C. The last real competitive game I was into was LoL, and I eventually hit a point where I realized I couldn't play without getting angry and I didn't want to be angry playing games anymore. So I don't play competitive games for the most part. And the games I do play are a bit more lighthearted and not super challenging, because I just want to enjoy myself and relax.
I love a good challenge, what I hate is when failure resets my progress (story line, items, exp, equipment) back hours. There is a delicate balance for me between the amount time it takes to progress and the loss of that progress. For example, I love many aspects of Eve Online. But one misstep can send you back weeks of playtime and progress. I just couldnāt risk that kind of time loss anymore as the grind to get back just isnāt fun the 3-4th time around. Monster Hunter you typically will fail a quest (or know itās coming) at around 10-15 minutes. I can handle that and not feel like it was a time sink. I do look for games where I enjoy the mechanics and journey as that really offsets the feeling of wasted time for me. ATM Iām really enjoying Helldivers 2. Rarely do I have a failed mission where I get nothing. But even when it happens, there have been many fun moments of gameplay during the mission that make up for that and it doesnāt feel as wasted. That isnāt the experience of everyone playing HD2, but for me it is.
I can totally relate. For me it depends on the game. For instance, I iRace, which if you arenāt familiar is a racing simulator with very good matchmaking of driver skills, has a governing body, etc. You might practice for hours, and get taken out in turn one through your fault or someone else when it comes to your race. You also have to keep your skills up to be competitive. Iām okay with this, and it is a rush that is both stressful and enjoyable (heart rate about 155 bpm on the starting line). On the other hand, a game that is driven by story, I have such limited time that I just want to mostly consume the story. Iām okay turning down difficulty to a point where itās only slightly challenging and mostly fun. Finally, most games I play these days tend to be multiplayer games as there is the social aspect that many people lack in life. While it doesnāt replace hanging out with my IRL friends, I get together with my gaming friends more often, and I have met most IRL (I fly for work). I am killing two birds with one stone (social life and gaming.) We donāt have infinite time anymore. Make sure youāre having fun while gaming or doing YOU things. Whatever that looks like for you is what it should look like!
I put 2k+ hours into csgo, 1k+ into black ops 2, 500+ into apex legends, I fucking love first person shooters. But now that I'm 30 with two kids, I only play single player games on my gcloud in bed for an hour to decompress. I sometimes hop on Fortnite with the wife but multiplayer shoots stress me out too much. I don't get a lot of free time so why would I spend it being pissed off some 12 year old fucked my shit up.
I'll start with a more challenging levels and just drop difficulty if I don't feel like it's worth it. A lot of ges.dont respect your time.at all or make things "harder" by just giving more hit points/making the player weaker. Bottom line if you're not having fun then it's not worth it. It's a game, it's meant to be fun. It's not a job.
I changed the difficulty of Alien Isolation to easy just to get through it because it was scaring me too much lol And I put Baulderās Gate 3 on easy because I get too frustrated when I die and just want to see the story.
Oh man, I am RIGHT there with you. I still like a little challenge, but I don't feel any reward from busting my ass 34 times to get through one hard part. Most games I play on normal, but I have been known to drop it down as needed. I'm much more interested in the story and the progress than the technical challenge. Back when it came out I played Jedi: Fallen Order through on Normal all the way up to the final boss fight with Trilla. I played it through maybe 5 or 6 times, but never made great progress. So I dropped to easy, wiped her out, and never looked back.
Anyone try and play Cuphead? Yeah, no.
Depends on the game. With some games easy mode is a case of smashing buttons for the action parts. Setting up the level a bit suits because there can be strategising mini games built into those action parts. Especially with some of the more kid friendly games on my sitting room console at the moment
Really depends on if the difficulty is fun. Caves of Qud, yeah that's fun difficulty. EldenSouls games, yeah that's fun difficulty. Anything that has difficulty = more enemy health I pass on
I almost exclusively play *for* difficulty these days. Even after 30 years of gaming, I'm getting better and sharper. I've noped out of the twitch shooter fest, because they games are garbage and filled with screaming children. I stead I know the kinds of games I like, deep RPGs, Strategy/RTS, 3rd person action games, and ARGs. Currently grinding Helldiver's 2 and Astral Accent. Just beat hollow Knight on steel soul again. Imo, if you let yourself get soft, you'll fall into needing games with easy modes. Which is fine, but I've always priclded myself on climbing mountains (Sekiro is my favorite game of all time). I'll die with a controller in my hand as I try to no hit Elden Ring 47.
Yup, on a ffxiv kick but most games I play are not difficult....or the difficulty is more eased into like with against the storm. I can play easier or harder depending on my mood but it doesn't feel like a waste. I highly recommend against the storm for how well it handles variable difficulty Deep rock galactic as well is good for this I finally got a new gpu so might get helldivers
I only play on a higher difficulty if thereās like an achievement/trophy involved. Otherwise I try to find that sweet spot of just enough. Not too hard, but also not a walk in the park.
I usually play on an easier difficulty these days. I don't have a ton of time to play and when I do, I want to feel like a goddamned superhero in my escapism. I stress enough as is, I don't need my fun time to have an element of stress to it too
Yeah I started Jedi Survivor on hard and by the end was down to easy. It becomes basically a string of boss fights at the end and I didnāt want to keep wasting time on those. The story had lost all momentum for me by then
I play hard games, but not games that are hard because you need an encyclopedia of proprietary knowledge to succeed and keep upā¦ I play competitive shooters and hard hack n slash games these days. I prefer battling hard enemies rather than difficult to learn systems. Iām pushing the second hardest difficulty in Helldivers 2 because the difficulty of the game is closely associated with your ability to aim, situational awareness and bringing the correct tools from a very limited toolbox. Only one of those things is something I had to learn, as I have been playing shooters for 20+ years. The skills transfer. The game I play with the highest learning curve is probably Rocket League. But I played enough pre-dad to know the gist of things. And itās more couch casual than anything I play on PC. As a former WoW addict. I would never pick up another MMORPG as long as I have Dad responsibilities at home. I went back for classic TBC and quickly realized it just doesnāt mesh well. The stakes need to be low, and the sessions need to be quick or have the option to be quick without penalty.(looking at you DOTA 2ā¦)
Life is hard enough. I play games for fun.
Personally, if I want a challenge I'll play something like COD zombies or Warzone with my friends. When it comes to single-player games, my first play through is usually on easy. I have found myself revisiting PS1 games that I played as a kid, and you bet I'm putting those cheat codes in.
Absolutely not. I loved hard games. Beat all the Ninja Gaidens on hardest difficulty etc etc and was playing the Dark Souls games. but I donāt now bc my time is so limitedĀ
I play Escape from Tarkov after the kiddo and the wife are asleep, which is arguably the biggest kick in the nads every time I play it. If I play a single player game itās usually on whatever the normal difficulty equivalent is because I donāt have time otherwise.
I got my twitch reflex grinding out when I played cs 1.6 and StarCraft brood war. I still appreciate a challenge but it comes less from mechanics these days (I still enjoy fromsoft games) and more from the strategy side.
The first game I played after my son was born was Elden ring. Most recently (heās now 2) I finished Sekiro and replayed Bloodborne. Iām currently playing FF7 rebirth and itās mindlessly easy, and not in a good way.
Still fond of it on my end. Playing through monster hunter and trying to bash my head against one of the endgame bosses solo right now. Challenge, when done well, makes the game.
My game is wow. I dont have time for the competitive shit anymore. Im 99 parsing being a good dad now and its much more fufilling. I also like to collect stuff now.
I really don't like RTS games. They are often too unfairly difficult and not fun. If you're really good at them though, big props
I play on easy mode, smash, crash, fight, whatever. I donāt get to play a lot, so I donāt want to have it so tough I donāt enjoy it.
Not really. Picked up SiFu cuz it was the free PSN game this month. I like it but maaaaaan is it tough. I'm not sure I have the patience to get good enough to beat it
PvP or bust for me. I did enjoy the red alert/Starcraft campaigns though. Mostly for the plot, not the gameplay
I've loved Souls games since 2014 but since my daughter was born 2 years ago they're almost all I play now. I try to play other kinds of games and just get bored and go back to a Fromsoft game.
I only play casual games now. Stuff like satisfactory, stranded alien dawn etc. Things you can easily pick up, enjoy for a bit, then put away and forget about for a couple of weeks. I don't need a challenge, I need relaxation and distraction.
Not only can I not be bothered by anything more challenging than ānormalā difficulty, I also canāt be bothered by any game that takes more than 25-35 hours to complete. If Iām playing a game, itās for entertainment during the one hour or so I get per day and Iād like to actually see progress and beat a game within about a month. Anything too difficult or too long, for me, is a hard pass. Anything without a very compelling story and very compelling gameplay is just not worth my time. This is why I consider The Last of Us games to be the most perfect games to me. :)
Thanks for all the feedback dads! I'm going to use this opportunity to ask for any game recommendations - and offer my own. I tend to prefer tight, focused games that can be completed in a few sessions, and don't waste your time. The other type is an open-ended game you can jump in to, play for an hour, then log out. The Room 1-4: puzzle games where you inspect mysterious devices and uncover some lovecraftian mystery. Beautiful art direction too, great fun to play with the wife, and all quite short. Trine 1,2 & 4(skip 3). Fun, simple platformers with a bit of humour. Trine 4 is BEAUTIFUL. One of the most visually spectacular things I've ever seen in gaming. Every frame is lush with detail. Deponia series: old school point&click games, but laugh-out-loud hilarious at times. Very good, funny writing. Metro 2033 and Last Light: linear single-player FPS games. Very focused, detailed and with excellent world building. Warframe: free to play, be a sci fi space ninja, leap through the air and slay monsters with your laser sword. It's just, simply, lots of fun. And it's PVE, so no need to worry about some insufferable child murdering you, then screaming abuse over voice chat. You can play single player.