Author Topic: Forgetting the "older" generation of Gamers?  (Read 11263 times)

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Offline Artimus

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Forgetting the "older" generation of Gamers?
« Reply #25 on: June 22, 2003, 02:14:30 PM »
WW was a bit easier. But that's about it.

Offline mouse_clicker

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Forgetting the "older" generation of Gamers?
« Reply #26 on: June 22, 2003, 05:34:28 PM »
"He said it took him 6 weeks to beat Wind Waker."

Who, Theo? I beat Wind Waker in 6 days- mind you, though, that is without getting nearly every collectible and after playing at least 6 hours a day. I do think Wind Waker isn't as difficult as past Zelda games, though- the puzzles are up to par and everything, but like I said, the damage enemies deal out is too little to really put you in danger of dying. I think I died once, while fighting 3 Knuckle Knights in one of the mini-dungeons with the Hero's Sword. I died quite a few times in other Zelda games, especially in Link to the Past.

Super Monkey Ball is insane on Expert, and I've heard the Master levels are some of the hardest videogame levels ever.
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Offline Ocarina Blue

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RE: Forgetting the "older" generation of Gamers?
« Reply #27 on: June 22, 2003, 07:51:52 PM »
Well, I think Zelda spells alot of things out, like putting hints for puzzles in bright red text etc. It wouldn't be hard to make enimies deal more damage, and make the hints just normal coloured text, and call it a hrad mode. That was what I'm looking for. I felt WW was too easy aswell, and alot of the side quests just take alot time to do, they aren't hard. Like the Gallery, where you have to keep on playing the song of passing. It might just be me getting better as a gamer, but I'm no expert, and don't play often(the only two games I'd say I'm really good at are Lylat Wars and Diddy Kong racing).

       My second point is that Irkaruga seems to be apealing to alot of people because of its difficulty. If it ever comes to Australia (does anyone know if it will?), I'll buy it because I've heard so much about how challenging it is. Maybe more games will be like in the future? It could become a niche-market.  
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Offline Stu

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« Reply #28 on: June 22, 2003, 11:29:50 PM »
Quote

Originally posted by: TheoNeumann
Referring  back to the point that Stu said with his long list of tasks which are very hard,what do u notice about the  those? Thats right, the outstanding majority contain "hard mode" or master mode" etc. Which takes away the subject quite frankly. Why should I pay.... £40, to get a game
which only gets hard with a change of difficulty level?? I expect the raw challenge from the start, i wont to go into a new game excited without even casting an eye on the diff level.


Erm, well that’s how games work.  Easy mode is easy, and Hard mode is hard.  Monkey Ball is a perfect example of this; you start off with the easy levels, which allow you to get used to the basic controls, then you tackle the next mode (Advanced) which starts to test you, and which you wont beat until you have progressed, and then you tackle Expert, which you wont beat until you are very good.  Then it's on to Master, and in Monkey Ball 2, Master Extra, which are the hardest of all.  It works.

What exactly is your point here?  You don't think games should have difficult settings, or you don't like it when you have to use a difficulty setting in order to be challenged?  I disagree if it's the first point, and I can't see the problem with the second.

I really can't see why you'd have more of a problem paying £40 for a game which had difficulty settings, than you would paying £40 for a game without them.  Why would you want a game to be hard from the outset?  I see no reason for that to happen; as long as Monkey Ball is giving me a challenge by the time I get to Advance, then the jobs well done.   Ikaruga, by the way, will more than test you on Easy, it's that sort of game.

Lets have a look at the games I listed:

1) Ikaruga.  Hardcore gamers only, for this one.  Mind numbingly hard to even stay alive... on Easy... on the first level.  By the time you are trying to get 30 million points, or complete the game on 1 credit, its almost impossible to do.  More than enough challenge for anyone, and a brilliant game as well.

2) Monkey Ball 1 & 2. Brilliantly paced, with the early levels only there to allow you to get used to the controls, the middle levels offering just the right level of challenge, and the Expert levels really separating the men from the boys.  This all happens before we get to Master, which, on Monkey Ball 1 at least, I reckon less than 15% of gamers will do.  More than enough challenge, from a cartoony game.

3) Rogue Leader. The Ace medals are awarded for doing very well on a certain mission, the missions are long and involved enough to offer enough challenge just to complete them, but for the real masters, this challenge awaits.  Again, more than enough challenge.

4) Super Mario Sunshine. Perfect balance of difficulty, in my opinion.  The Shines range from very easy, to the very difficult void levels, and then the even more difficult hidden shines, many of which have you doing a void level, with a time limit, and having to collect 8 red coins.

5) Tiger Woods 2003. Again, a perfect and very challenging difficulty setting.  As you stats get higher, so does the quality of your opponents, so if you don't learn how to improve your score with those stats, you fall behind.  The scenarios, which I mentioned, are again very well balanced, with bronze, silver and gold medals, to challenge novice, good and great players.

6) Wave Race Blue Storm. Another game with those difficulty levels, that you seem to dislike, for some reason.  The controls on this game take no prisoners; you either get used to them, or you lose.  Therefore, having a few simple courses first, followed by harder ones where the AI pulls no punches, makes sense.  It allows the game to flow, being both hard enough to give experienced players a challenge, and easy enough at the start, to allow you time to get used to the game.  

7) Timesplitters 2. Probably the best example, of a well used difficulty setting.  On Easy, you only play a certain amount of the level; enough to get a feel of the game, but still leaving much to be discovered.  When you play on the middle difficulty setting, you get the full level, and when on Hard, you get the full level, without a lot of the health and armour items, and with the AI on full alert.  Again, this allows anyone to play, but still offers a challenge to even the most experienced players.  Siberia, Atom Smasher and Robot Factory, on hard, will test anyone.

As I said, I don't think there is a lack of hard games on the Gamecube, I just think you aren't playing them.  If you brought the Wind Waker expecting some sort of hardcore challenge, then you were obviously going to be disappointed.  The Wind Waker is telling a story, with you in the staring role, it's not trying to be hard (like Ikaruga, Monkey Ball and the other are), because it doesn't need to be, in order to do what it sets out to do.  There are story games, and hardcore games, and by playing both of these, you can get all the enjoyment and all the challenge you want, and all without laving your Gamecube.

I see no problem with that.

Quote

so stop picking fights and just admit im right
Well, people are disagreeing with you, and they are giving their reasons for doing so, as well as providing evidence.  Why, in these circumstances, would anyone just admit you are right?  If you disagree, then do so by offering constructive and well thought out reasons why; making statements like you just did will simply make you appear pig headed and ignorant.  These (moderated) forums are here for the discussion of Gamecube related issues, not for you to shout everyone down with silly statements like 'just admit I'm right'.

Thanks and enjoy your Gamecube,

Stu.

 

Offline Luciferschild

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« Reply #29 on: June 23, 2003, 09:47:51 AM »
I agree with you to a certain extent. I was glad mario sunshine had some difficulty. The increasing ease in zelda games isn't the only problem I have ww, but that's a different discussion.  

Offline TheoNeumann

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« Reply #30 on: June 23, 2003, 10:55:09 AM »
ok i think tis time to lock the forum or jsut stop this debate

i think we have all learned 2 things from this

1. Not all games are easy after all, but the majority without a diff level are

2. Ikargua is a game worth getting

Thanks and GoodNight
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Offline Ian Sane

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Forgetting the "older" generation of Gamers?
« Reply #31 on: June 23, 2003, 02:42:12 PM »
I wouldn't say that Nintendo is making their games too easy, I think they just didn't have a very good balance for both Zelda and Mario and since those are the biggest Nintendo titles people are assuming that Nintendo doesn't know what they're doing.  Many of their other titles like Smash Bros, Pikmin, Wave Race and Metroid Prime had what I would consider pretty good difficultly levels.  They all started off reasonably easy and got more difficult as it went on.

Zelda is too easy.  Not only have I never died but I rarely even use fairies.  With Ocarina of Time I beat most of the bosses in one try but often I went in with four fairies and ended up using all of them in the battle.  With Wind Waker I've been wandering around with four fairies for a long time.  But one title doesn't mean that Nintendo is getting too easy.

Super Mario Sunshine actually wasn't that much more difficult than Super Mario 64.  It's just that Mario Sunshine is more linear which makes it appear harder.  In Mario 64 if you were stuck on a star it wasn't that big of a deal because there were a lot more levels to try and if you were clever you could also get stars out of order.  With Mario Sunshine you have to do almost everything in a certain order so if you're stuck on a specific shine you're F*CKED.

Basically Nintendo screwed up on two of their biggest titles and that's why people are freaking out.  If it was any two different titles we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Offline Ian Sane

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« Reply #32 on: June 23, 2003, 02:44:24 PM »
Double post.  Stupid forum.

Offline Hostile Creation

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Forgetting the "older" generation of Gamers?
« Reply #33 on: June 23, 2003, 07:01:56 PM »
Never had much credibility at all, to me, but now it's all down the drain.  Sorry.

I agree, some of the games can be rather easy.  But I still have tons of fun playing them.
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Offline KDR_11k

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RE: Forgetting the "older" generation of Gamers?
« Reply #34 on: June 23, 2003, 09:37:53 PM »
Well, expecting a challenge on "easy" is wrong. The game specifically asks you, what difficulty you want and it won't serve you hard when you tell it "easy". A select few will expect it to be hard from the start, but most players want to have a choice not between "hard" and "impossible" but "easy" and "hard".

Speaking of hard: Grab Dogma from some freeware site.

Offline Oldskool

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« Reply #35 on: June 24, 2003, 05:04:50 AM »
Contra and it's ripoffs were the freakin hard! I remember a friend not being able to beat a level even with a 99-live cheat code or something!
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Offline Tekkena

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RE: Forgetting the "older" generation of Gamers?
« Reply #36 on: June 24, 2003, 06:41:02 AM »
I don't know why some people are claiming WW is easy when that game throws the Most enemys at you more than any other Zelda gam. Its just that the battle system in that game was so perfect that fighting enemys was a blast to do and you couldn't be hurt that much.  
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Offline mouse_clicker

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« Reply #37 on: June 24, 2003, 06:53:03 AM »
The battle system had nothing to do with it- I hardly *ever* used the parry attacks, really only when I wanted to look cool while fighting. For the most part I fought the same exact way I did in OoT and MM. The deal was the enemies didn't do near enough damage so I was hardly ever close to dying- I don't think anyone can discount that. No boss came close to killing me, and it wasn't because I could fight them better, because they still hit me a bunch (more so than in other Zelda games, actually), but they would do like a quarter heart of damage, so you were never punished for screwing up.
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Offline Hostile Creation

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« Reply #38 on: June 24, 2003, 06:56:12 AM »
Oops, didn't realize my reply was that far down.  Must not have seen that there were two pages.  Oh well.

I never actually had much trouble with linearity or whatever in Sunshine.  Once you beat the first three or four levels of the first stage or two, it's fine.  I was playing every level except that hotel one by the time I got that light beam in the middle of Delfino Plaza (fiftieth shine, or what?), and before that, I was playing three or four levels.  I didn't see that as a problem at all. . .
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Offline almondblight

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Forgetting the "older" generation of Gamers?
« Reply #39 on: June 24, 2003, 08:06:49 AM »
I hear Mega Man is pretty hard.  But yeah, games have been getting easier.


Offline Hostile Creation

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« Reply #40 on: June 24, 2003, 12:52:19 PM »
Mega man is extremely hard.  But still pretty fun.  
HC: Honourary Aussie<BR>Originally posted by: ThePerm<BR>
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Offline HolyPaladin

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« Reply #41 on: June 26, 2003, 07:26:58 AM »
The problem with having a hard game is that many gamers cannot play them.  All gamers can play a less difficult game, but not all players can play a harder game.  Having a game that is really difficult slams the door on many people's faces, turning them away.  My girlfriend was enfuriated by Wind Waker, believe it or not, declaring it to be too difficult.  Challenge can be nice, but there is a fine line between an enjoyable challenge and frustration.  Frustration is never, ever fun, and a game that is not fun is worthless.

I don't think it is that games are getting easier, either.  The games we consider easy today are still more difficult than the games that were once considered challenging fifteen years ago.  It is not so much that the games get easier as much as that the gamers get more skilled.  Not all gamers have those years worth of skills, though, so catering to those experienced expert gamers shuts out newer gamers or those that don't get to play eight hours a day every day and don't get to buy or rent X amount of games each week.
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Offline Ian Sane

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« Reply #42 on: June 26, 2003, 07:46:10 AM »
I think one thing that really plays a part in the perceived lesser difficulty in today's games is that games today are a lot more advanced and thus are less restrictive.  In today's games you don't have to worry about dying because your foot touched an enemy's nose.  You can change direction in mid-air after a jump (the lack of this feature is why I suck at the original Super Mario Bros).  When an enemies shooting at you you can dodge where in a 2D game you have to JUMP the bullets.

We all had those moments in old games where we would die and we would be pissed off because it made no sense why we died.  "All I did was step in a PUDDLE!  What the f*ck?!!"  Modern games are too advanced for idiotic deaths to be accepted so that makes things a bit easier.