What makes a difficult game difficult

Awesome Read Azi.

The only game I know which is fail and difficult is Demon's Souls. Except for the bosses most enemies are no faster or harder to kill than the player meaning that it is up to a players skill with his chosen instrument of death and armor.
My most hated difficult game is Ninja Gaiden 2 where the AI cheats constantly. Unblockable attacks, explosive shuriken spamming, crap camera.... need i say more.
 
I judge a game's difficulty by how many times it allows you to fail and the punishment(The time it takes to try again).

For instance in Darksiders there were these two "spectral ghost" enemies who kept pwning me because of their imba damage followed by even more enemies, think I got past that part of the game after my 15th try. But it took me +-15 seconds to try again after death. If I had to invest say 10 minutes to get back to that fight, I probably would of gotten extremely frustrated and come back after another day or two instead of keeping trying.
 
Very interesting article. Personally...

I Love:

+ Games that change difficulty depending on how you're doing. Constantly evaluating your skills and adjusting itself to be challenging.

I Hate:

+ Games that blatantly cheat to make it "harder" for you to achieve something. Games to come to mind is Street Fighter 4 with cheap tactics and older Need for Speed games that just blatantly lets the AI cheat.
 
Cool read. Interesting topic.

And the whole difficulty thing about the "harder" it is, the more enemies there are is why I only ever bother playing my games on Normal modes. I don't have the patience to deal with "harder" or sometimes the skill! :p

I don't want to be bogged down in one spot for 30 minutes simply because the harder setting is simply an extra 3000 enemies with godlike aim and that shoot brick houses that kill you instantly. I want to play a game through enjoying the story, whilst still having to fight for it.
 
Cool read. Interesting topic.

And the whole difficulty thing about the "harder" it is, the more enemies there are is why I only ever bother playing my games on Normal modes. I don't have the patience to deal with "harder" or sometimes the skill! :p

I don't want to be bogged down in one spot for 30 minutes simply because the harder setting is simply an extra 3000 enemies with godlike aim and that shoot brick houses that kill you instantly. I want to play a game through enjoying the story, whilst still having to fight for it.

Coz nothing beats getting that little pop up that says:
"Achievements Unlocked: A Testament to All Your Sins - 175G" and you know you just beat the game on its hardest difficulty by yourself.
 
Well now that we've established what makes a game hard, let's chat about what makes YOU hard...

LOL
 
Some great examples of learning curve to extreme difficulty:
Sin and Punishment
Mario Kart (Yes the original SNES one - don't snicker unless you've clocked it at 150cc on ghost mode).
Blast Corps (obscure but awesome)
Halo 1&2
 
I like how they implemented ruses hardest difficulty. The A.I does get better and they do not cheat. Once you cut there supplies they do run out of money.
 
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