Out of curiosity what games (or perhaps what are the most recent games) have you played on easy and why? I say it doesn't count if a game has only 1 difficulty available at first, or if the default is the lowest option, you need to have manually picked a lower than default difficulty on a game for some reason.

I used to play games on easy all the time (games like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark) because I sucked at games as a kid. But I moved past that pretty quick during the PS2 XBox GC era, however recently I have chosen to plow through some games on lower difficulty settings just to plow through them faster, mostly for brief rentals.

Uncharted the first was quite fun on easy, It was a rental. I wanted to see the story before playing 2 but had heard the combat dragged a bit because of bullet spongy enemies. Not a problem on easy.

Black Ops was another rental, I was curious about the story but without spec ops there is not enough to justify a purchase for me, as I'm not big on the multiplayer. It was ok, but even on easy I found myself dying surprisingly frequently as I guess I was reckless.

COD4 to get all the intel on easy for the S-rank, because that was all I was missing after I got Mile High Club. That was fun running through places that I remembered being such a bitch the first time on Veteran 4 years ago and Ramboing my way through them. (A lot of me thinking things like "Oh hey I remember you, I'm going to knife you in the stomach. Asshole. You deserve it.")

As an aside I've found that with game difficulty I have a preference for a game to be either hard enough to provoke a feeling of accomplishment (COD4 on Veteran was great for that) or easy enough that there is no frustration at all while playing (I like the Prince of Persia 08 game a lot for that reason) but most games nowadays seem to be designed in some murky middle ground that just is not as fun for me.

Metro 2033. That game was wicked hard. I played through it on Easy and then played it again on Normal and still had a rough time. Great game.

I sometimes play on easy mode after already beating the game on a harder difficulty when going to for achievements or certain in-game challenges. Other than that I typically go for the hardest difficulty available in most cases on the first playthrough. This can sometimes end up being frustrating (i.e. I started with Veteran on every single COD game I've played) but also very rewarding.

I played the last third of Brutal Legend on easy because I got annoyed with the RTS parts.

Dynasty Warrior games cause I don't like it when I have to re-do missions.

Skyrim/Oblivion - If I sneak into a building and put an arrow into an unsuspecting guard's head, he should die. A further 5 arrows into the head and nothing, yet one swipe to me and i'm dead. Garh...

I usually play everything on the hardest difficulty, but when difficulty is only created through bullshit i'll turn it down.

This is why i played Persona 3 and 4 on easy. Those 10 free continues really take the bullshit out.

RPGs. I get totally stressed out and sometimes frustrated by RPGs, since I'm relatively an RPG newb, so I just pull the slider all the way back because the games' combat and AI and weight cap and shit are enough torture 

Dragon Age 1 and 2 because fuck playing those games strategically on consoles.

Most recently, Red Faction: Guerilla.  Playing on easy is something I almost never do, but that game just wasn't any fun on normal.
 
Fucking space assholes.

@EvilTwin said:

Most recently, Red Faction: Guerilla. Playing on easy is something I almost never do, but that game just wasn't any fun on normal. Fucking space assholes.

Oh my god, this. That game is hard as shiiiitttttt!!!

I play through everything on Easy. Even at 24, I feel like I'm too old and far too busy to worry about feeling "challenged". I just want to experience a game all the way through, without feeling totally stressed out.

If the game is from Japan or the Eastern Bloc and has a reputation for difficulty, I have no problems playing it on easy. I know I'll still be personally challenged and will still be able to see all the content.

@Canteu: How's a continue in Persona work?

@spazmaster666: COD4 was my first Call of Duty game, and I played through it on Veteran the first time through, oh man it was a bitch. It was great, but not knowing that if I stood in a spot, enemies would just keep respawning, ugh. Glad I did it though because I never would've gone back and done it had I just played on regular or whatever default is called.

And also I forgot Alpha Protocol, which I think I'm playing on easy.

Dead Space 2 on my second playthrough, because it was really fun just ripping through that game with all my awesome NG+ gear. I'm sure I can think of other games, but yeah...why would you not play a game on easy is the better question? When I was a kid games did not have difficulty settings, they were just all set to "really fucking hard", and it kind of got annoying never being able to beat half the games I rented because of the insane difficulty. I totally get playing on Easy if you're having a tough time with a game...so what? Who's it hurting? So long as you are having fun with a game you are playing it on the right difficulty setting.

Usually everything. Im not opposed to har games, I beat Demon's Souls, but usually I want the experience without frustration. If I really like the game, I'll crank it up and play back through for achievements/trophies

Uncharted 3 was my most recent easy difficulty playthrough because the pirate section was boring me and I wanted to get through it faster. Generally I play games on normal but I tend to play rentals on easy to get them done faster.

I play most things on easy, save for sports games which I ramp up as I get better at them. I don't have a lot of time to play games anymore and dying all the time gets frustrating. Those are my excuses.

@NegativeCero said:

Dragon Age 1 and 2 because fuck playing those games strategically on consoles.

yeah, I can agree here. The fight with the Dwarf woman in the old city...the anvil quest...that fight was BEYOND stupid on normal, stuck it on easy, won in 2 minutes, so in other words just hard for the sake of. I can see the game being easier to manage on PC, on PS3, pain in the ass

I'll play through games on easy when I know I'm going to go back through to play on the hardest difficulty. Can't think of a recent time I did this though.

Dragon Age: Origins after the first two times.

Catherine. I wanted to skip past the block puzzles and just watch/interact with the story.

I had to turn down the difficulty at the last boss fight in Origins and Dead Space 2. I don't regret it, at all.

Red Faction Guerrilla. Because there really is no other fun way to play that game.

Metro 2033. 

Any heavy story based games, I really just want to get to the good story bits and avoid as much poor combat as possible.

Special mention: Oblivion - I personally hate scaling enemies to that extent, made it feel like I made no progress combat wise.

I played Halo ODST on easy. I just wanted to get through it. It wasn't part of the Master Chief story and I wasn't a Spartan, but I was still curious so I slammed though it on easy and had a fairly good time with it. I have no desire to play it over again, so I am satisfied with my decision.

Games that I am curious about but don't want to invest much time in, I'll play on easy just to experience the setting or story itself.

@pyromagnestir: when your main character dies in battle you get a prompt saying "the (item name) is glowing, do you wish to use it?" or something like that. You use it and it revives all of your party memebers back to full HP and SP. Just negates annoying boss fights and fucking bullshit hama/mudo deaths.

@EvilTwin said:

Most recently, Red Faction: Guerilla. Playing on easy is something I almost never do, but that game just wasn't any fun on normal. Fucking space assholes.

word. me too. it's also because i just like going up to everyone and hammering their faces in without worrying about dying too much.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is the only came i can recall playing through on easy during my first playthrough. other times (Ninja Gaiden, any COD game) were after i finished the game, and i just wanted to enjoy the ride once more.

Dead space cause for some reason normal was hard as hell to me, and MW3 just so I could run through it and see the ending.

Modern Warfare 3. Because battlefield was coming out real soon and I just wanted to get over and done with MW3.

I usually stick with the default difficulty and then play through the game again on harder settings if I bother to play through again.

I almost always go with the normal setting, as far as I'm concerned it's how the developer want's everyone to really play it (Except Ratchet ad Clank, love those games, but oh so easy lol). One game I HAD to drop the difficulty for though was DMC 3, fuck that game was stupid hard

Dead Space, because I didn't realize that an hour in there would be plenty of ammo and health. It didn't seem that way from the first half hour on normal.

Devil May Cry 3. That game made me so fucking furious that I had to set it to Easy. I believe even Greg Kasavin(Who was reviewing the game at the time for Gamespot) complained about the difficulty.

Everything Half-Life 2, I absolutely loathe the combat in those games.

Pretty sure Devil May Cry was the last game I played on easy, I think it may have been because I was able to pull the sort of attacks/combos off that my brother could but easier.

I'll throw in another one for Red Faction: Guerrilla. My tank thing kept blowing up on the last mission and I kept dying within seconds of exiting said tank. After about a half hour I just said fuck it and turned it down to easy and got through on the first try. The only other one springing to memory is Dungeon Siege, and that was mainly because I was lazy and didn't feel like managing inventories for that many characters in a dungeon crawler.

I switched to easy on Heavy Rain because I felt like the game wasn't recognizing my six axis motions correctly. Eventually I switched back but I got burned on six axis nonsense at the end, a character died who I didn't want to, and it put a sour note on the whole experience for me. That's the only one I can think of though.

When I play games I generally am doing either mostly for the gameplay or at least equally for gameplay and story. I don't want to be able to half ass my way through with sloppy gameplay and feel like I'm only getting by because the game knows I suck and is going easy on me or giving me a pass. I don't want a brutally punishing experience (at least until I start cranking up the difficulty) but I don't want the game treating me like I'm a moron who doesn't really know what he's doing with the controller either.

I'm playing Dead Space 2 on Easy because fuck necromorphs.

Only time I start with easy is if the game has new game +, and I'm certain I will be playing it again on the hardest difficulty. Seeing the posts here, I should really get on and play Metro 2033. I've had it in my backlog for ages :(

I haven't done that yet. I always play games on the difficulty intended by the developer. 
 
Oh wait, actually I have done so several times in The World Ends With You for rather unique reasons. That game gives different loot depending on the difficulty setting, so I had to change to "Easy" many times during the game to get some stuff I wouldn't have been able to get on normal or hard difficulty.

Dragon Age 1 and 2 because fuck playing those games strategically on consoles.

Depends so much per game!
 
Often war shooters though, I hate those things.
Yet I cannot play Halo below Heroic, or Timesplitters way back then, platinum on all challenges biatch!
 
Most recent must have been Star Wars the Force Unleashed 2 on easy.
What part of I just shocked, stabbed, thrown and murdered you twice over with force powers and my saber and you should be dead now didn't you understand mr bad guy?
 
Silly though, I completed TFU1 on the hardest setting and had a blast doing so.

Most recently, Red Faction: Guerilla.  Playing on easy is something I almost never do, but that game just wasn't any fun on normal. Fucking space assholes.

I rarely play any game on easy, the only somewhat recent one I can remember was Dragon Age 1.

Catherine - I wanted to play it for the story, which was disappointing as it took on the typical ATLUS demon twist.

Dragon Age: Origins - Parts I switched to Easy but not throughout the game. It was very brief moments. I think it was a Tree boss and one of those urns that spawned a mini boss.

Catherine and Red Faction Guerilla. I just wasn't having fun on normal with either game and I kind of just wanted to see the story through with Catherine.

Uncharted 3. I just wanted to know the story and go through it. There was way too many moments of me with a pistol and 10 bullets against 2 rocket guys, 3 shotgun dudes, 2 snipers, and 5 machine gun people. Got annoying very fast.

I recently played Uncharted 2 and Batman:AA on easy because all I wanted to experience was the story. I also play Fire Emblem games on a lower difficulty because they are hard enough even then.