It depends on the game and on what is it that is "difficult". "Difficulty" usually means the number of enemies you fight and how many blows it takes to kill them. In a game like Witcher, fighting gets in the way of my enjoyment of the story, the setting, the attention to detail in the environment... Now, there are some games which bring some other elements to the story not seeing at lower difficulty levels. Depending on what those elements are, I may choose to "crank it up". My enjoyment of a game like Witcher is following the story and seeing how the decisions I make affect the story: first playthrough I decide as I would normally do, then on subsequent playthroughs, I make decisions one way, then the other way... frankly, all the fighting sometimes gets in the way of how I enjoy the game.
I totally get that. I'm usually not above to turn down the difficulty, if combat leads to frustration. But that mostly happens with bad combat systems, I think. A difficulty slider a la Oblivion is nice, because with some balancing mods, a mudcrab can destroy you in the beginning. So you start out very easy and if you get bored, you can crank it up. Or just enjoy getting enemies out of the way by blowing them in the face.Dying ten times in a row because fighting is just not your thing? No fun. I do enjoy a combat that just looks good and totally fits with the story. But other things are much more important. So I am more the take it easy type. Except in The Witcher.The first game where I had the more fun the more difficult it was. FCR difficult. Because it is so much more satisfying to finally get them, because you are smarter than them, because you are prepared and you didn't storm in screaming, but employed your brain before your sword. Like a witcher, who has to do it that way to keep his skin. But that logic really only works in TW for me and I'm curious, if this carries over to TW2, because I totally blame the REDs to make combat so important, roleplaywise, for a pacifist like me. 
I just got through a tough fight with a house full of bandits, about 12 or 13 of them, on hard. And yeah, I had to reload 3 times, each time narrowing the tactics, discovering the right potions, oils, and signs. And my timing had to be spot on to win this particular battle. It's scenarios like this that make TW1 shine, when you combine alchemy, signs, and your sword to win a tough battle. Looking forward to seeing what we can do in TW2.
i will start on HARD. why? cuz i, as well, love a challenge. i love it when a game forces me to be a good fighter in order to win. this way i really feel the joy of having a good streak of blocking\countering and i love it when i avoid being hit for a long time and perform well. i feel like a badass. if the game is easy i feel like a 30 year old guy beating a bunch of kids. no glory i THAT and anyone can do it. i plan on playing on hard and if it's too hard than i will switch to normal.... though i doubt that will happen. i feel like im cheating if i pass a segment by changing the game to get through it. i do it only in games where i feel the mechanics and game design are bad. in Batman:AA there were battles i literallly tried for two hours again and again, but the amazing thing is that i never changed to an easier difficulty and didnt get frustrated cuz the game was so well designed that when i failed i just felt i wasnt at the top of my game. not cuz the game wasnt fair. Batman:AA was amazing in that way.i dont like the idea of the INSANE difficulty either. i love the idea of fearing for your life, but having such a huge penalty will cause me to just drop the game and not come back to it afterward. the INSANE's penalty is not a change of challenge. it's a change in punishment. not what i think difficulty settings should do. this is why i think Operation flashpoint is getting it wrong over and over again in DR and in RR.usually when i play a game i start with a difficulty level one before the hardest so a second playthrough will be challenging more than the 1st BUT if the game looks a lil easy on normal and HARD fits me well and i dont like INSTANE than after the 1st playthrough, if i ever want to do a 2nd playthrough, than i will look for a mod that gives me a challenge. so to sum things up:1) i will play on hard.2) i dont like the INSTANE twist on difficulty. 3)
Probably just gonna do casual/easy mode. Don't get me wrong I like a challenge, but I don't like when my character dies lol.
I reckon i'll use the coin for a toss up between medium and hard, i want to see the story but i also like it when it takes time, i also realy liked using the oils/potions/bombs in a combination to what monsters i would be going to fight against,It shall be interesting, gives a nice challenge.
It depends on how they've handled difficulty. I'm not a huge fan of devs just upping health and damage of enemies (or lowering your health/damage), but I really enjoy systems such as NWN2 and Hitman: Blood Money. In those games, raising difficulty gives you more things to think about. In NWN2 you're susceptable to crits and friendly fire in Hard, whereas in Normal you're not, which forces you to think more tactically about what, exactly, you are doing. Hitman forces you to think a fair bit more about the evidence you're leaving behind if you want a 'silent' kill. Depending on how Witcher 2's difficulty is handled, I'll probably play Hard, but it's more likely to be Medium.
I usually go for medium when firing up a new game,. hopefully they give us the option to change it on the fly (rather than starting a new game) if i should find it too easy or too hard... though I am mostly in it for the story, not the combat, I also don't want the fights to be boring.
I'm going to make an exception, and start with hard (usually I play with medium). Going to develop mainly sword skills, some alchemy, and only little magic (aard only, if I can). I leave sorcering to Triss. Witchers are not mages.Their two weapons are steel sword and and silver sword...and vast knowledge of herbs and monsters.... Their *three* weapons are steel sword, silver sword, and vast knowledge of herbs and monsters...and an almost fanatical devotion to the witcher's code
What's funny about that fanatical devotion to the Witcher's code is... Geralt says there is no such thing as a Witcher's code. He says he lives by his own code and only uses the excuse of a Witcher's code when he doesn't want to do somethingTohveli said:
The only way to play The Witcher in general is on hard.Why? Because of alchemy. You need to have incentive to manage your resources efficiently and a difficulty that is too hard might make some parts frustrating, but a difficulty that is too easy can ruin an entire game.
Actually, first it said almos fanatical devotion to stay neutral, but that sounded silly. I was in a hurry and changed that. Yeah, indeed neither makes no sense.freakie1one said:What's funny about that fanatical devotion to the Witcher's code is... Geralt says there is no such thing as a Witcher's code. He says he lives by his own code and only uses the excuse of a Witcher's code when he doesn't want to do somethingfreakie1one said: