Whatever Happened to Easy, Normal, Hard?

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MowTin

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Once upon a time games didn't have difficulty levels. Games like Action Fighter or Space Harrier for the Sega Master System were just unbeatable for all but the elite. Then someone had a brilliant idea. Allow the player to choose Easy, Normal or Hard difficulty!

Casual players were happy because they could finally see the ending credits of games. Mediocre players could play without being frustrated. Hardcore elite players could get the challenge and bragging rights they crave.

Now there are a bunch of games that don't have these simple clear distinct options. Instead they have countless confusing parameters you can tweak.

The end result? No one is happy. Casual gamers think it's too hard. Hardcore gamers think it's too easy and lacking challenge.

You can never please both the casual and hardcore gamer without clearly separating them. I think not separating them is a mistake that GT5 is making.

What do you think?
 
God help us if there was a "Turbo Tunnel" ala Battletoads in GT5. I can only imagine the pain of a current era game featuring a near impossible level 5 minutes into the game.

I don't think a simple "Easy, Normal, Hard" is necessary. Driving is a skill and skill should be rewarded, like real life you move up the ranks from casual racer to a paid professional. There is nothing wrong with a game being too easy but it should always get harder.
 
I don't think anyone needs a lower difficulty to beat the AI.

For challenges and other things, there is a reason for three trophies.
 
Agree fully. Driving may be skill. But this is just a game. A game played by millions with ages ranging from 5-70. So there should be a way for someone not able or willing to master the difficult art of cornering a particular track so that you can eke out a 0.1s advantage.

The elite can have their fun. But, please let mediocre players like me have my fun as well.
 
Most of the events in GT5 allow you to choose your own difficulty level by leaving the choice of car/tuning/settings up to you, if you wanna make it harder chose a less powerful car ect, as has been said before.

I think it would be good if the endurance events could be scaled down with a percentage slider, so you could make a 24 hour race a 2.4 hour race by setting it to 10%. That way people could choose whether they wanted to be hardcore & do the full 24 hours or not, I'm not doing any endurance events myself cos they're too boring & long.

As for arcade mode, there is a Beginner, Intermediate & Professional setting before you enter the race, similar to Easy, Normal & Hard from previous/other games.



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Its just been adjusted into modifying your cars. Its REALLY easy even for a novice to make a car that can shellac almost any event in this game. Ok the Special events excluded but you don't need to GOLD them to pass them, Bronze is perfectly achievable for most especially if you throw on the driving aids (yet another easy, medium, hard selection), just like you don't need to get the highest score to beat a game and see the ending.

Take a non racing game like God Of War, even a novice player can still see the ending and get to about 90% of the game, theres challenges and trophies that only the top players can get to. I just don't see what the problem is of reserving a little reward for the best of the best when the game is more than setup that anyone can eventually access most of it.
 
iNiff
I don't think a simple "Easy, Normal, Hard" is necessary. Driving is a skill and skill should be rewarded, like real life you move up the ranks from casual racer to a paid professional. There is nothing wrong with a game being too easy but it should always get harder.
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I think it would benefit all parties involved. The system wouldn't hurt anyone. I agree with the O.P. F1 2010 is a great underated game. It takes skill to race with the big boys consistently in that game. It has a evel system in which is challenging. With the current A.I. in GT and the ability to overpower the field, it would be a good idea IMO to add the system.

Only challenge in GT 5 seems to be the First two seasonal events and the Special events. Sure we can restrict the cars ourselves but how many of us do that willingly.
 
I'm all for more challenging opponents. I doubt they'll change the AI, but I would like a difficulty setting where if I put it on "hard" all of the AI's cars are highly modified, rather than just stock like they seem to be now. The "hard" difficulty could also include restrictions such as hp/weight/tires as well.
 
iNiff
God help us if there was a "Turbo Tunnel" ala Battletoads in GT5. I can only imagine the pain of a current era game featuring a near impossible level 5 minutes into the game.
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Haha how much I love that you mentioned this game. ONE-OF-THE-HARDEST-GAMES-EVER, and I and my pals back in the 90's beat it. I also truly believe it is one of the best games ever made, have even a walkthrough video of it on my PC haha, there are simply too much pleasent childhood memories conected to this game.

Anyway, now on topic: I would really like to have the option to choose a difficulty level, at least in A-spec mode. I had SO much fun in GT3 on Laguna Seca with the JGTC cars on the hardest setting (which would only show up, when you pressed L1 and R1 together).
 
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I think GT5 is factory pre-set at easy... One of the things that I'd like to see them add is a hard setting so the AI has a chance to beat you. As it is now the only way to have the AI competitive is to use a lesser HP vehicle with lesser tires or something. You have to dumb it down yourself instead of matching their HP.

Whatever you call it: easy, normal, hard; amateur, professional, extreme... I would like to see adjustable AI levels in the game.
 
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VBR
Most of the events in GT5 allow you to choose your own difficulty level by leaving the choice of car/tuning/settings up to you, if you wanna make it harder chose a less powerful car ect, as has been said before.
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That's not how competition works. This has been said before too.
 
Difficulties are not necessary. Just look how amazing games like GT1, 2, 3, and 4 were.
 
Hmm.
Easy = Race tires
Normal = Sport tires
Hard = Comfort
Very hard = Midget with no tuning and comfort hard tires...
 
Alex p.
Haha how much I love that you mentioned this game. ONE-OF-THE-HARDEST-GAMES-EVER, and I and my pals back in the 90's beat it. I also truly believe it is one of the best games ever made, have even a walkthrough video of it on my PC haha, there are simply too much pleasent childhood memories conected to this game.

Anyway, now on topic: I would really like to have the option to choose a difficulty level, at least in A-spec mode. I had SO much fun in GT3 on Laguna Seca with the JGTC cars on the hardest setting (which would only show up, when you pressed L1 and R1 together).
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Oh no... rolling nuts, giant snakes, bipedal running rats! It's all coming back... :nervous:

I agree, I believe that is the hardest game I have ever plaed.
 
Yohdawg
Hmm.
Easy = Race tires
Normal = Sport tires
Hard = Comfort
Very hard = Midget with no tuning and comfort hard tires...
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While it's not that simple I do agree tires are the real difficulty level in GT5. Soft racing tires almost always (except FGT) give you a super easy win.
What I do if I got an equal HP car that's on the track is check and see what tires the AI is running and run one level lower than the AI. If I want to race a more powerful car I run up to 3 lower than the AI.
 
I agree that GT5 needs more clearly defined difficulty levels.. I mean really I would rather just have the game made so that only the best could ever beat it, but then I just get called eliteist and get told to go back to my yacht club.

Beating a game has just completely lost all meaning though, that really irks me. I yearn for the days when you could say that you beat a game, and your friends would treat you like a god for a few days, while the rest of the kids pelted you with food and called you a nerd. Gaming just isn't the dorky yacht club it used to be.
 
VBR
Most of the events in GT5 allow you to choose your own difficulty level by leaving the choice of car/tuning/settings up to you, if you wanna make it harder chose a less powerful car ect, as has been said before.

I think it would be good if the endurance events could be scaled down with a percentage slider, so you could make a 24 hour race a 2.4 hour race by setting it to 10%. That way people could choose whether they wanted to be hardcore & do the full 24 hours or not, I'm not doing any endurance events myself cos they're too boring & long.

As for arcade mode, there is a Beginner, Intermediate & Professional setting before you enter the race, similar to Easy, Normal & Hard from previous/other games.



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I think the point made is that level of AI present in the game. Just look at the Ferrari F1 seasonals or the FGT championship, the AI is simply cruising with a fixed rhythm on all tracks.

Still, I would say that the fun from the game is not derived from the A spec events but from the simple pleasure of driving exotic sports cars in beautifully rendered HD environment or racing against other human opponents online.
 
No I think its just casual gamers who would be frustrated because they didn't read the description of "skid recovery" and "driving line" which basically solves all their problems. Coincidentally, I think they are both on by default, if I recall correctly.

It's infinitely better to design a game to be difficult via more authentic ways than rubber band AI, like GT5 and its more realistic take, than to design an easy game and try to tack on a hard mode, like giving ai more health/more power in action games. How would you add a "realistic mode" to need for speed hot pursuit? It would not work. It takes too much time to develop, whereas easy modes do not. For games designed to be easy: "as long is it looks cool" seems to be the mantra.

If the easy modes aren't enough for people I say bring back cheat codes. At least people won't be kidding themselves anymore, and they won't drive good game companies to sacrifice a good game for the sake of Mr. Whipped who only has 5 minutes to play games when his wife lets him and wants to beat it instantly.
 
VBR
Most of the events in GT5 allow you to choose your own difficulty level by leaving the choice of car/tuning/settings up to you, if you wanna make it harder chose a less powerful car ect, as has been said before.
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But there are two problems with that. The first being how hard it is to choose a level besides cake easy (X1 at Sunday cup) and impossible (Mini at X1 cup). Finding the car that makes the race just right is a bit of a chore. The second thing is that it "spoils" some races because you might have to choose a car that doesn't belong since you're not good enough to compete. If you want to race Super GT in a Super GT, but the AI is set too high or too low, you'll either need to pick a GT1 car or a Touring car, which you didn't want to drive.

Tommy_861
I just don't see what the problem is of reserving a little reward for the best of the best when the game is more than setup that anyone can eventually access most of it.
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I don't really think anything should be exclusive except the achievement. If you beat the secret level's impossible boss, that's something to take pride it. I don't see why you should need a reward. I think everyone should be able to experience everything in a game.
 
Set difficulty levels in racing games is a little harder to program as opposed to non-racing games. In those other games, (like God of War mentioned earlier) there's simple tweaks in the programming that control the rate of damage per hit and stamina lost per action. In racing, there are too many factors needing adjustment to make a difficulty system.

In GT5, PD did an alright job with that aspect. The majority of the races have very little restrictions to them so even the casual gamer can find enjoyment out of the game. A player could be lacking in the skill needed for a racing game but GT5 allows a player to make up for their deficiencies by using a higher HP car or if someone just wants to get in a few races to earn some credits for the next level, that higher HP car is available. And for the more skilled players, the option is there to impose their own restrictions to make the game suit their tastes. Plus PD included driver aids to lessen or increase the difficulty of controlling one's own car.

All that said, I do agree in theory to what you say. I do believe this game would be better off with some form of difficulty control, or at least an AI that wasn't so rigidly tied to the racing line. Perhaps if the AI didn't "drive on rails" as I've seen it described here, there could be something more to a variable difficulty as the AI could attempt to block a passing attempt or use a different line to make a pass.
 
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