[Editor's note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]

Can I ask you a personal question? Are you tired of games treating you like you're still twelve years old? By that I mean playing games with little to no apparent challenge. I only ask because for the most part, just about every game lately has a certain lack of it. Now before you start throwing out that I am one of those game masochists that enjoy the difficulties only reserved to the gaming elites, allow me to enlighten you with this tidbit about myself: I hate hard games. I loathe them actually. There is nothing more off putting to me then a game that is hard just to be so. Yet just because I don't care for a brutal game doesn't mean that I don't want to be challenged.

After all I don't want the game to beat itself, do I? I'd like to know that I had a huge hand in the final outcome of the game and that I justly deserved the rolling of the end credits. In my opinion a harder difficulty and a good if not great challenge, don't necessarily go hand in hand. One would think so and it should work that way but like most relationships in life, they aren't exclusive. A lot of times game developers ideas of a harder difficulty is increasing the sheer amount of enemies to vanquish, or their reaction and speed. Other times its making them have a larger "life", making them all the harder to kill and yet others try to instill in them smarter A.I. routines. 

[Editor's note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]  

[Y0j1mb0's note: I wrote this a year ago but thought it appropriate to share with you once again due to megaStryke's latest blog. This isn't so much a response blog as it is what immersion in videogames ultimately means to me. ]

What is immersion

the act of immersing or the state of being immersed: as a : baptism by complete submersion of the person in water b : absorbing involvement

What is a game?

A 'game' is a structured or semi-structured activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes also used as an educational tool.

Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interactivity. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both.

Known to have been played as far back as the 30th century BC, games are a universal part of human experience and present in all cultures. The Royal Game of Ur, Senet and Mancala are some of the oldest known games.

-- via Wikipedia

So what is a great game? Find out after the jump.

[Editor's note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.] 

In my mind, I try not to over think or justify why certain overused mechanics in videogames are adhered to like a good recipe passed down from some popular chef. I just accept it. I go with the flow because after all, this is videogames we are talking about here. For all intents and purposes this is for fun. We can make parallels to our everyday lives and can even try to find a deeper meaning beyond the surface of games but its almost silly to take videogames seriously when the majority of them, before they even begin to tell a story to you, outfit the protagonist with a lethal weapon of some sort. Whatever narrative that may follow next, however intriguing or touching, immediately loses validity because of what you are carrying in your hand.

You are carrying a sword, an explosive, or a gun that would make Richard Marcinko green with envy. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude that yes, you're going to kill people shortly and most likely with extreme prejudice. It may or may not be gratuitous, perhaps there wont even be that much blood to contend with, but lives will be taken and they will be snuffed out by you.

[Editor's note: Y0j1mb0 wrote up this timely piece about videogame reviews. -- CTZ]

There has been a whole lot of hoopla about game reviews lately. To the point that if you were to actually internalize how unbelievably obsessed some people are pertaining to reviews, you would think the topic would be just as an important factor in their lives as breathing air or the well being of a loved family member. People tend to forget what reviews really are half the time: the opinions of a set person who's job it is to play a game before you do, run it through it's course, and offer you a personal overview of their experiences through the pros and cons structure to better inform you whether it's worthy of your attention and money.

As a gamer and a consumer, I read reviews to be better informed before I lay my money down and purchase a game I would regret. The review should be a good look at the entire game so people won’t regret getting the game should they believe in the review. Yet there's an inherent problem with that. You have to take a leap of faith whether to trust the game reviewer's final sentence. It's an unspoken agreement that you subconsciously sign with said reviewer before or during the reading of his review and must take place in order for it to work the way it's intended to.

[E3 community blogging contest winner: For the final E3 C Blog, y0j1mb0 talks about Nintendo's major focus on the casual market.]

If you were to take a look around the World Wide Web, one of the most talked about highlights now isn't the coup that Microsoft sucker punched Sony regarding Final Fantasy XIII, instead it's this topic: Nintendo and Miyamoto have left us hardcore gamers down. They only had Animal Crossing and some fruity music game that the Man-Child genius Miyamoto unleashed on a stunned lethargic video press. Let's ridicule them. Offer our unique insight at what we think of a music game clearly not catered to your demographic.

It boggles my mind that people are shocked, surprised and shell shocked that Nintendo, the company that built Mario, Zelda, and Metroid, are stunned that they didn't have titles geared to the hardcore gamer out there. I mean c'mon, these hardcore gamers are the same ones that buy games like Zach & Wiki, Bloom Box, No More Heroes, Beyond Good & Evil and Psychonauts by the truckloads, right? The same ones that still say Wii is a fad. The ones that ridiculed the Nintendo's DS when it first came out, right? Are you kidding me? Seriously, are you?

[Dtoider Y0j1mb0 adds to the Destructoid Monthly Musings theme. This Good Idea, Bad Idea focuses on brutal difficulty in games. Also, Battletoads made me break a controller.-- CTZ]

Game development is serious business. Not only do you have to try to create something unique or continue with an ongoing theme, but you have to make sure all of it comes together right. Be it concept, design, mood or playability. In my opinion, one of the core pieces in every game has got to be the fine-tuning of the game's difficulty. Its got to be like a tightrope balancing act that if it's game developers get right, will make the player feel challenged yet not frustrated. But done wrong, can cripple the experience for the gamer where he will feel overwhelmed and put the controller down.

Considering that most games nowadays are far too easy, I'll attempt to examine games that are an endangered bunch. Games tailored with an uncompromising brutal difficulty. These games look down on weakling gamers, fat off the grease filled easy games on the market today.