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HeartsOfFire · 07-16-2010, 10:49 AM

You wake up in an underground concrete bunker. Half of your unit has already been decimated. There are wounded and traumatized soldiers all around you, and deeper in the bunker others are covered up by black tarps. They were the lucky ones.

You hear your squad leader call to you from the bunker entrance. What's left of the unit is Oscar Mike.

You trudge out of the bunker and to the front line where your ranger unit has met up with another near the west wing of the Library of Congress. Enemy is raininig fire down on you from all levels of the Library, but your orders stand: Make your way into the building through the west entrance.

You ready your rifle, take two steps forward... ! You're hit! Where did that come from?! You take cover, wait for the blood to get out of your eyes, then you poke your head out of cover to look around... over 50 friendlies are ahead of you, many out in the open, suppressing fire on the building. Suddenly a headshot. As you're dying, words slowly fade before your eyes: "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country." Nathan Hale.

Suddenly you're back in the fray, about five steps back from where you last died. You take two steps forward... Boom, you're dead. More words flash up in front of you: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." M. Ghandi.

Once again, you're brought back to life! You try to move forward... Nope. dead again. This time you see the words: "Before embarking on a journey of revenge, you must first dig two graves." Confuscious

What I am describing is a typical scene in Modern Warfare 2 on Veteran difficulty, a beautiful game spoiled by rendering player skill inconsequential and instead, forcing the player to reply on patience, blind luck, and a billion respawns. This is "Stupid Hard."

"Stupid Hard" is what I like to refer to a game's highest difficulty level when it renders it virtually unplayable due to the level of unbalanced gameplay. Skill becomes a non-factor. This is not what the hardest difficulty ought to be.
Consider in comparison, Mass Effect 2 on Insanity. The difficulty is scaled up high. Enemies will be able to easily shoot you if you're out of cover, and you won't be able to take much punishment before your shields go down.

Conversely, enemies are much tougher to kill as their shields, armour, and barriers are harder to take down, but at least with the Rock-Paper-Scissors elements of biotics, tech attacks, and weapon varieties, tactics are in place to make confrontations beatable. Mass Effect 2 Insanity level is what I call "Fun Hard."

What about you, Calgarypuck? What do you think of "Stupid Hard?"

07-16-2010, 10:49 AM	#1
HeartsOfFire Lifetime Suspension Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bitter, jaded, cursing the fates. Exp:	"Fun hard" vs "Stupid hard" You wake up in an underground concrete bunker. Half of your unit has already been decimated. There are wounded and traumatized soldiers all around you, and deeper in the bunker others are covered up by black tarps. They were the lucky ones. You hear your squad leader call to you from the bunker entrance. What's left of the unit is Oscar Mike. You trudge out of the bunker and to the front line where your ranger unit has met up with another near the west wing of the Library of Congress. Enemy is raininig fire down on you from all levels of the Library, but your orders stand: Make your way into the building through the west entrance. You ready your rifle, take two steps forward... ! You're hit! Where did that come from?! You take cover, wait for the blood to get out of your eyes, then you poke your head out of cover to look around... over 50 friendlies are ahead of you, many out in the open, suppressing fire on the building. Suddenly a headshot. As you're dying, words slowly fade before your eyes: "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country." Nathan Hale. Suddenly you're back in the fray, about five steps back from where you last died. You take two steps forward... Boom, you're dead. More words flash up in front of you: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." M. Ghandi. Once again, you're brought back to life! You try to move forward... Nope. dead again. This time you see the words: "Before embarking on a journey of revenge, you must first dig two graves." Confuscious What I am describing is a typical scene in Modern Warfare 2 on Veteran difficulty, a beautiful game spoiled by rendering player skill inconsequential and instead, forcing the player to reply on patience, blind luck, and a billion respawns. This is "Stupid Hard." "Stupid Hard" is what I like to refer to a game's highest difficulty level when it renders it virtually unplayable due to the level of unbalanced gameplay. Skill becomes a non-factor. This is not what the hardest difficulty ought to be. Consider in comparison, Mass Effect 2 on Insanity. The difficulty is scaled up high. Enemies will be able to easily shoot you if you're out of cover, and you won't be able to take much punishment before your shields go down. Conversely, enemies are much tougher to kill as their shields, armour, and barriers are harder to take down, but at least with the Rock-Paper-Scissors elements of biotics, tech attacks, and weapon varieties, tactics are in place to make confrontations beatable. Mass Effect 2 Insanity level is what I call "Fun Hard." What about you, Calgarypuck? What do you think of "Stupid Hard?"