the difficulty of games

[fractionMan]

I remember talking to a friend of mine who used to programme spectum games. I told him what a nightmare I had had trying to finish airwolf, I just couldn't do the very last bit. He said, 'yeah, I never finished it properly and they just released it, there is an invisible wall'.

lol. Briliant!

 

[Ned Pointsman]

one of them was impossible to complete due to a bug, manic miner I think. I don't think anyone got that far anyway.

Jet Set Willy was, on the spectrum (couldn't enter the last room without doing a POKE,) bbc and I *think* on the atari, iirc each version was impossible for different reasons.

 

[Termite Man]

I've just finished Just Cause on the 360 and there was no real learning curve to the missions , in fact I think I managed to do each mission first time , that one was definatly style over substance , although it was still quite fun to play

 

[revol68]

games are easier than they were, it's all loads of save points and infinite continues, back in the day you'd have to replay 5 levels just to miss the same jump.

Seriously I tried out Ghouls and Ghosts on my PSP megadrive emulator and could barely get to the second level, yet i remember spending a weekend completing it when I was about 9.

 

[Sunray]

ikargua for a few consoles is meant to be one of the hardest games ever.

F-zero GX. I kept coming back to this, because I can't believe this is so fucking hard. The controller lets me down for being too imprecise, I need the stick to be longer and softer to be able to keep to the right line.

 

[Jambooboo]

games are easier than they were, it's all loads of save points and infinite continues, back in the day you'd have to replay 5 levels just to miss the same jump.

Seriously I tried out Ghouls and Ghosts on my PSP megadrive emulator and could barely get to the second level, yet i remember spending a weekend completing it when I was about 9.

Is a notoriously unforgiving game.

 

[Sunray]

All the old arcade games just require you to remember how to get past each level, all the baddies are identical movement every time. I had some time on my hands when travelling and after some time on the PSP MAME emulator, I managed to complete it. Its hard but not impossibly so.

 

[wishface]

It's not just a question of difficulty per se; it's difficulty relative to the fact it'sa fucking video game.

If my life depended on completing things like the missions in guild wars (which are all, imo universally shit), then i'd slug it out. But as it doesn't I just can't be arsed to keep playing something which is meant to be fun.

When I had a 360 i used to play games for a couple of weeks and trade them in for the new stuff. Very much like a spoilt kid, but for me it was a way of not having to spend money i didn't have and to have fun with what are just video games. So i never completed R6, Ghost Recon or Gears of War or Call of Duty 3 or Tony Hawks project 8. And i didn't care. If game designers expect me to to sit wading through the same mission a billion times in order to complete it they can think again. It's just not fun.

 

[BigTom]

i don't play games much anymore but I would have thought they would be easier.. as mentioned jet set willy, manic minor, ghouls and ghosts - I never completed these as a kid or a teenager when I went back to them with speccy/bbc/amiga emulators.. fps and rts games I've never really enjoyed though.

thing is that arcade games would have been designed to be very difficult (apart from the first few levels) - once you've completed it you won't keep putting money in..
whereas computer/console games would be designed to complete it - once it's complete you'll go and buy another game..

or am I just too cynical?

 

[wishface]

What makes them difficult is the lack of save points. That is one thing in games that drives me nuts.

 

[Gromit]

When I started playing games completing a game was a sign of being elite.
1 in 20 kids could manage to finish a game and going to school able to tell people you had was major bragging rights. Sometimes you would be accused of lying.

Now everyone expects to be able to complete a game and using cheats is considered standard

Look at Bioshock. Not only do you have save points but chambers that bring you back to life so you can wear an enemy down before you kill them. Its just takes more ammo than a clean kill.

Still you can't blame game companies. The money is in keeping everyone happy not just the 5% of kids with lightning reflexes.

 

[Kanda]

Play games that don't have endings...

 

[Kid_Eternity]

ikargua for a few consoles is meant to be one of the hardest games ever.

F-zero GX. I kept coming back to this, because I can't believe this is so fucking hard. The controller lets me down for being too imprecise, I need the stick to be longer and softer to be able to keep to the right line.

You just mentioned two games I had for the GC and got rid of due to their sheer insane hardness. Great games both of them but fuck me tough as nails.

 

[adsr]

ikargua for a few consoles is meant to be one of the hardest games ever.

F-zero GX. I kept coming back to this, because I can't believe this is so fucking hard. The controller lets me down for being too imprecise, I need the stick to be longer and softer to be able to keep to the right line.

If you thought Ikaruga was hard, then check out one of the bosses from game. It's from the same 'bullet hell' genre of game.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nscP9QpXoFM

 

[revol68]

When I started playing games completing a game was a sign of being elite.
1 in 20 kids could manage to finish a game and going to school able to tell people you had was major bragging rights. Sometimes you would be accused of lying.

Now everyone expects to be able to complete a game and using cheats is considered standard

Look at Bioshock. Not only do you have save points but chambers that bring you back to life so you can wear an enemy down before you kill them. Its just takes more ammo than a clean kill.

Still you can't blame game companies. The money is in keeping everyone happy not just the 5% of kids with lightning reflexes.

yeah that pissed me off, i used save points rather than the chambers, i couldn't believe when i rejuvenated and the big daddy was half dead, felt quite cheap so restarted from my last save.

 

[Sunray]

If you thought Ikaruga was hard, then check out one of the bosses from game. It's from the same 'bullet hell' genre of game.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nscP9QpXoFM

How the fuck are you supposed to avoid the bullets when every single pixel on the screen is devoted to at least 3 bullets. That's not difficult, its impossible not to die so you just need to build up the ships before you get there.

There are a few of these vids on there, bit blurry but I'd like to see someone actually do this one and not die!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PP-mePr1-ZQ&mode=related&search=

 

[Ned Pointsman]

When I started playing games completing a game was a sign of being elite.
1 in 20 kids could manage to finish a game and going to school able to tell people you had was major bragging rights. Sometimes you would be accused of lying.

Exactly, knowing what happened at the end of certain games was knowledge that was prized above even 'shiny' football stickers/crests of whoever everyone supported at the time, in playgrounds all over the land. Completing strider was on a par with getting a blowjob off the fit student teacher.

Completing arcade games was where the true kudos lied though, particularly if a crowd gathered, good times. Bizarrely the last one I completed in the arcarde was Ikaruga, though not after a lot of practice on the dreamcast.

Now you have to be some sort of idiot not to be able to complete a game, if the guy on the street puts a week into any one of about 90% (major RPG's and stuff like Gran Turismo where the content is rearranged to provide 'new' challenges, comprising the other 10%) of games, he should be able to complete it unless he's missing a thumb.

 

[PacificOcean]

This is why the Wii is so popular.

Easy to play games that any one can pick up and have a go at.

Having said that Super Monkey Ball is insanly hard

 

[revol68]

Exactly, knowing what happened at the end of certain games was knowledge that was prized above even 'shiny' football stickers/crests of whoever everyone supported at the time, in playgrounds all over the land. Completing strider was on a par with getting a blowjob off the fit student teacher.

Completing arcade games was where the true kudos lied though, particularly if a crowd gathered, good times. Bizarrely the last one I completed in the arcarde was Ikaruga, though not after a lot of practice on the dreamcast.

Now you have to be some sort of idiot not to be able to complete a game, if the guy on the street puts a week into any one of about 90% (major RPG's and stuff like Gran Turismo where the content is rearranged to provide 'new' challenges, comprising the other 10%) of games, he should be able to complete it unless he's missing a thumb.

yep, the games are much more narrative centred so progression has to be almost guaranteed. Only a retard couldn't finish a typical game these days.

 

[wtfftw]

I'll ship anyone who completed new zealand story without cheats a tenner.

Games are no harder/easier than before imo.

The recent one on DS was pretty easy.

 

[Cloud]

OMG somebody else feels the same way as me.

Some games are so bogged down in complexity and stupid features they feel more like a chore than a fun experience.

I played World Of Warcraft. Playing that was like doing a degree and working 80 hours a week all at the same time. It really crossed the border between fun and work.