Do you get the feeling that games these days are too easy ?

Single player game will always be too easy until they get better AI. I finished most of my games on the hardest setting because there was no challenge for me. 

Not that I don't like the challenge in games, but as far as storytelling goes there is nothing more anti climactic than dying off the start of a boss fight.  For games with great stories I almost want to play on easier modes just so that I can go through without ruining the emotion of it all. 

An examplre of game that goes againsnt this curve is Left 4 Dead . It may be shorter than other games but by no meens is it easy . On the hardest difficulty the game is such a good experiance that i genuinally feel fear and other emotions that i have not expericaned in other games on the xbox 360 . That is why i think Steam is , if not the best , one of the most creative game companies to date . However i do agree that games are getting shorter not easier . But this is becuase games have become more mainstream and therefore people dont want to sit infront of a old tv drawing maps for games such as resident evil 5 . (btw i used to note down stuff on resident evil 1 on the ps1)

I'm sorta glad games are easier. It's gotten to the point that the only games I can really play are JRPGs and rhythm games. I adore the hell out of both, they're my favorite genres, but I really wish I were better at video games :(

 Hausdog said:

"I'm sorta glad games are easier. It's gotten to the point that the only games I can really play are JRPGs and rhythm games. I adore the hell out of both, they're my favorite genres, but I really wish I were better at video games :("

To be honest, easier games, as long as they still let you fall, are perfectly fine.
It's essentially like music, sort of.  What's better about difficult music (for the musician to play).  Nothing, it's just by being able to play difficult music, you're able to allow more complex music, or systems in games. 

PoP is a great example of why a game doesn't need to be hard.  granted, Fable 2 missed this mark.  Then, on the other hand, there's something like Banjo 3 that makes the difficultly non static, really depending on how the user thinks.  Not to say hard games are bad, playing NG2 on the hardest difficulty is really rewarding, but at the same time, that is a skill based game.  You will get better at it similar to an online shooter.  
As far as games getting shorter, I don't understand.  They really aren't.  They're obviously loads longer than the old days, but I think we're forgetting that certian game genres have always been longer than others.   Way back in the 2d games, games were only 2 hours long at most, generally.

I just beat Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty. Hard mode was a joke. Just like every other Ratchet and Clank game, it doesn't get challenging until the last ten minutes of the game. Kind of annoying.

But I meant musical ability.  Look at Nirvana, lots of people like them yet they really weren't very skilled when it came to straight up guitar playing.  I'd say most of their songs are playable within the first month of playing guitar, about.

I kinda pointed to WoW as the example of how Achievements can be used to fill this 'I want hard stuff, but the dev wants stuff 90% of the gamers can do' gap, it does it well and it's the only game I know of right now doing it. Achievements are arbatrary in any other game and even in most areas of WoW itself but the ones I'm refering to actually work very well to bring challenge and variety to the game. For instance any WoW player here will agree Sartharions encounter is a whole new fight when you attempt it for achievements, same goes for the Naxx dungeon. These things are only the start and the content coming soon for WoW itself shows promise of focusing on this sort of scale because the game suffers from the same issue this thread is about. hardcore gamers want hardcore challenge, abd they find that this challenge is vanishing when 90% of any games buyers tend to be the 'casual' crowd in comparision to themselves, thus developers lean their focus to the people that are really buying the game and it shoves the 'real' fans out the window.

Games are more forgiving and thus enjoyable and a entertainment experience and not frustrating one.
Almost every game this gen has a mode for the hardcore that want that frustration and perfecting the set of skills needed for that game.

The last game i played was forza 2 so i say HELL NO

too easy, too short. thats why I'm into team based multiplayer games on PC like TF2 and BF2, and hopefully some time in the future, BF3. If you really want a challenge, drop into some ut2k4 deathmatch, but I'm too slow for that these days, more tactical/slow paced.

I think Half-Life is the best balance of difficulty and fun, without the frustration. No regenerating health, no excessive hand-holding. Freedom to fight how you want.

Maybe not easier but instead more accessible to people who haven't played that kind of game before.

"Remember games like Super Metroid or Castlevenia Those games barley told you where to go . The only way i completed Super Metroid was buying a Strat Guide . But know games seem to be more like interactive movies rather than games sacrificing gameplay for graphics and sales . "

"Maybe not easier but instead more accessible to people who haven't played that kind of game before."

Do people still like to backtrack through a level looking for health packs? Or is it just me who likes the concept of regenerating health?

"Do people still like to backtrack through a level looking for health packs? Or is it just me who likes the concept of regenerating health?"

"I agree! Games these days are hand-holding experiences."

"mracoon said:

"Maybe not easier but instead more accessible to people who haven't played that kind of game before."

Unfortunately, at a certain point games can become too accessible. Look what happened to World of Warcraft with all of the recent updates: The doubled rate of experienced gained, class specialization being discarded in favor of a system that allows you to access multiple talent trees, mounts at level 30, etc. Where's the challenge? Where's the fun?

Listen, I'm no masochist. It's the height of pretentious behavior to preach about the golden days when games could only be completed after months of practice and full heads of hair being torn out. Games are made to be fun, not to be catalysts of heart failure. But at the same time, when you try to access the widest possible audience by making it easy enough for a five year old to complete it, you create a degree of monotony; a direct result of the extreme ease of the gameplay. That's why so many people believe that many games are no longer fun. I'm not suggesting that games should be made difficult to the point where one has to train to beat a boss; I'm voicing my belief that attempting to increase accessibility via eliminating any/all challenge will only be detrimental to the quality of games in the long run."

Agreed.