What's in a name?

I recently finished Bioshock. I had rented the game from Gamefly wanting to see what all the hype was about. Knowing that I didn’t really want to keep the game I decided to just play through it on “easy” mode. I tend to do that with games I’d like to see or try but don’t have any great interest in. Why suffer through a “super extreme you must be out of you mind to try this difficulty” setting for a game that I don’t intend to keep for very long. It got me thinking though. Why can’t more games name their difficulty settings the way Gears of War did?

I’d much rather run through a game on “casual” then “easy”. After all, “casual” is a better reflection of my attitude toward the game. “Easy” gives the false impression that that’s the only mode I could possibly be successful at. I played through Gears on casual the first time through not thinking it would be a game I’d care to spend extra effort on. Once I did though I enjoyed it enough that I went back and conquered it on “insane” as well. I like Bioshock enough to go back and try it on “hard” but since it’s just a rental I probably won’t.

With Halo 3 due out in 2 short weeks I’m faced once again with the dilemma of what difficulty to start at. I’d prefer to probably just run through it quickly on the easy mode just to see the story and “finish the fight”. I know that 90% of my time on that game is going to be spent in MP anyway, so why waste an extra 40 hours of time on a “legendary” difficulty? Of course H3 is going to offer co-op play, but I think I’d rather run through it alone the first time so that I can really take in the experience the way I did in H1 and H2. I enjoyed co-op for GoW and RB6:V but it’s not the same as fighting on your own and discovering the games secrets for the first time. I guess I’ll probably just play “easy” the first time through and then maybe tackle the “legendary” in co-op. It’s too bad they couldn’t call “easy” mode something like “casual” though. I may not be the greatest gamer out there but I’m better then “easy”.