I'm blaming the sheer number of games out at the moment but I very nearly did something I haven't done for ages this weekend. And no, not celebrate a Southampton win. As if. No, I very nearly chose the "easy" difficulty level when playing Call of Duty: World at War. I wasn't reviewing it, I knew pretty much what to expect and I didn't have time to spend hours restarting sections. It was very tempting. In the end, of course, I chose "normal" as I do in every game. But it was close. And speaking to friends it seems I'm not alone, with many confessing to playing the likes of Dead Space on the easier setting.
Maybe it's an age thing – all of those who told me they playing "easy" were in their 30s with kids/lack of time – but I think there is something to it. Are games getting too hard? I don't think so. But clearly the audience for games is much wider than it used to be, making it tricky for developers to define what sort of player would chose the "normal" difficulty setting. Go on then – fess up. Do you ever play on "easy" or is it normal or harder only for you?
