Normally with a game, especially with a story that I want to enjoy with the frustrations of dying because I am not yet adapt at the game mechanics - I start a game on "Normal" setting. But I am highly reconsidering this for Dragon Age: Origins.

The game will have four difficulty settings, "Easy", "Normal", "Hard" and "Nightmare". Nightmare may or may not be unlocked right off. A few notable differences between the settings are...

• Easy: Friendly Fire is at 0%
• Normal: Friendly Fire is at 50%
• Hard: Friendly Fire is at 100%

Hmm, if the continuous level-up system from Mass Effect is in there, I might just start on medium. I'll easily play it twice or more anyway.
Besides, BioWare's difficulty levels are always well-balanced, they're never ridiculous.

" Hmm, if the continuous level-up system from Mass Effect is in there, I might just start on medium. I'll easily play it twice or more anyway. Besides, BioWare's difficulty levels are always well-balanced, they're never ridiculous. "

I usually play games at harder difficulties. This stems from me looking at locked features in 007 GoldenEye for the N64 and going "Well, *sigh*, if it still needs to be done then so be it."

These days though I make sure I have a second runthrough with games cause I just love taking everything that I got out of harder difficulties and just running wild at easier levels. I enjoy the game while making the story that much easier to get without running thoughts about "MAN! THAT BOSS WAS FREAGIN' CHEAP!" while the cutscenes are running, haha.

This is pretty much how games like Baldurs Gate and Neverwinet Nights worked anyway, so it's not going to bother me.  Like they said, it just means mages inparticularly have to be a little more careful with where they fling magic, so it forces you to communicate and use more tactics with your team.  Of course, if you're playing single player it's going to be very annoying if you get taken out during a boss fight by one of your party members, so lets hope the A.I. doesn't suck.