I usually play default. If I really like the game and I'm decent/good at it, maybe I'll knock it up a notch the second time through.

I've noticed an increase in folks around my rank, on the VGTalk crew at MGC.net, playing a lot of shit games for points recently.

Other than the two basketball games I played for the Old Spice Challenge, everything on my gamercard, I played due to interest, not quick nerd points. I've still managed to stay in the top 15.

I usually play games on hard. On any easier difficulty I beat the games to fast. I rather it last longer for 60 bucks.

On the other hand I don't want my sucky gamer ass to get frustrated and not have any fun with the game I just shelled out my hard earned cash for.

Tough to win at $60, part of the reason I haven't picked up a 360 yet. Hopefully some of the games like Oblivion and Gears will start getting price drops in the coming months.

default and medium are usually equivalent.

easy for me, I just suck at video games.

Usually normal or medium unless I'm going for achievements for a game like Call of Duty 2.

Hardest level. But I also only play games where I can use a cheat code to get unlimited health/life/ammo.

I always play through first on default, then whenever I replay I usually play on the hardest setting with one exception: Ninja Gaiden on Xbox. If my life depended on it, I could never defeat the Alma boss on the hardest difficulty (Master Ninja mode). I can beat the game on Very Hard mode, but Master Ninja kicks my ass.

Why do that? IMO, those two actions cancel each other out. Why not just play on medium with no cheat codes?

That's what I thought.

well, not exactly

higher difficulty usually means more people to kill. that's never a bad thing

Medium, and if it's a sports game, I'll play with the sliders to adjust certain aspects to make it feel like a good challenge, but not like I have no chance of winning. Normally I play to relax a little, so the last thing I want is to sit there getting frustrated and raising my blood pressure playing on the hardest level. Especially since some games (especially sports games) seem to simply make it harder through cheap AI tricks

Medium, or "default" I guess

I usually play through once on normal and then play through again on hard or extreme.

Most games today higher difficulty just means "smarter" enemies that take more shots to kill and who kill you with fewer shots, rather than more enemies.

depends on the game

More shit to kill, and I don't have to worry about keeping my health up or hunting down ammunition.

When I play a game, I'd rather just rip through it without having to track down health packs and ammunition cases -- that's one of the aspects of gaming that I find to be frightfully tedious and boring. And I also don't have to worry about getting killed and then having to keep replaying that part until I get past it... again, I just find that aspect of playing games tedious.

To each their own.

I find that stuff tedious too, so I largely just steer clear of such games rather than cheat my way through them.

Recent shooters have gotten better since Halo added the "sit and recharge" element to FPS games. Makes stuff like that and Gears of War much more playable since you can just hide and build your life back up.

Yeah.. The major reason I played FPS on hardest level (PC only) because of online competition. I managed to complete CoD2 on hardest level within 2 days and got killed twice. Then I played online against other people, it was cakewalk.

But on console, I'm terrible with controller (I swear my hands are not designed for controller!) and I couldn't survive CoD 2 on easiest level!

It's just hard to adjust to after being used to the keyboard and mouse controls.

I'm just the opposite. Life long console gamer, so I suck ass on keyboard and mouse controls and have to play most PC FPS games on easy to get anywhere.

I was going start a thread asking this very question but found this old one instead and thought I would bump it.

I used to play games on Hard or Expert but have slowly moved down to Medium or "Normal" and have even considered moving down to easy since I have such a back catalog of games to get to.

I don't really give a shit about achievements since I got so behind on games but I don't think I could play all of them on Easy without feeling guilty somehow.

When I was younger playing on Genesis and Nintendo 64 I would always play on Easy. Since the PS2 I've always played on Medium. I always figured for the majority of games, the storyline and the ending was the same. So, why not play on easy?

Josh H retired?

Easy only. I already have an extremely low tolerance as far as getting annoyed with games so anything more than easy usually ends in broken controllers.

I am having bigger and bigger issues with this as more and more games require higher difficulty levels to unlock content.

I find when I get home from work or whenever I have time to sit down to play I don't want something challenging. I want something fun and relaxing. I am one of those people who enjoys playing with cheats on in single player. I like destroying the competition versus winning in the final second. This only applies to single player though. I like a challenge when I play other people as long as it is close but against the computer AI I want something easy.