I remember changing the difficulty on 1 of the Tiger Woods games (2006 on PC maybe) as I was winning all the tournaments. The ball started going all over the show and it stayed like that when I went back to the easy setting. Annoyed the hell out of me as I'd put a good number of hours into it and it now wasn’t fun at all. I don’t think I played it again.

I don’t tend to change the settings mid game anymore.

I usually play on normal, but do get peeved when the game difficulty suddenly ramps up... Mirrors edge is a good example, and Assassins Creed 1, they randomly chuck in a mission or a section that is frustratingly harder than the rest of the game play,,,, I have no problem being challenged, but sometimes the difficulty seems to go from 10 to 100

I've played a few games on 'hard' mode in the past on the rationale that you get more gaming for your dollar (I typically only play through games once unless I particularly enjoyed the game or felt I missed something). However, I have found that often the 'hard' mode has been so hard (especially when boss monsters are involved) as to actually put me off playing the game - Ironic?

Needless to say - I'm setting my sights a little lower at 'normal' now

Dude, I usually play COD games first on hardened and then replay on veteren. I never get through the veteren though and give up because it seems as if the game wants to punish me endlessly and then eventually relents and lets me through. I like difficulty levels to ramp up the challenge you face in the game but it should always come down to your skills, reflexes etc that gets you through not whether or not the game seems to decide your worthy finally. Modern warfare 2 seems to have a veteren level thats less punishing then previous titles which is nice and still challenging. Modern warfare 1 when you are trying to get to helicopter as the sniper duo and you have to hold off waves of guys as the chopper is taking 6 or so minutes to arrive, the veteren level forced me to not play the game. I would wait in a little shack whilst throwing grenades back until 6 minutes were over and then would run to helicopter only to be shot instantly and to start again until I got it. Fighting normally did no good as you died well before the time would reach the 6 mins. Im not amazing at fps but Im no slouch either and I just thought that it seemed a tad impossible as a difficulty level. Whaddya think?

I tend to play a few games a lot rather than many games a little bit.

I tend to start on normal and then go through them again on the harder difficulties. I don't worry about a game being too easy. I enjoy the story the first time through and then get more of a challenge the next time round.

My only difficulty peeve is when games will let you get yourself worked into an inescapable situation where you have to go quite a way back to get out (e.g. no ammo or pickups available). The worst incident like this I ever had was playing Halo 1 where I got given a checkpoint after some particularly difficult enemies just as my warthog was falling off a cliff.

I have played through Modern Warfare 2 on each level and found that on Veteran I had to take my time. I did the same with COD4 and as hard as I try I just cant complete the last level where I have to run down a hill to meet the helicopter. I found that it just annoyed me as it was just too difficult, so I gave up (that's what I tend to do when games get to hard haha just like life.)

I used to always play games on 'Normal', but think I may move away from that due to my experiences with Uncharted 2.

I thought I'd try to get my first platinum trophy, and one of the requirements for this is finishing the game on the hardest difficulty level (Crushing). But you cannot play Crushing until you've beaten it on Hard. And because I played it through on Normal initially, this means I had to complete at least 3 full playthroughs before I could come close to qualifying for the platinum trophy (finished my Crushing playthrough last night... yay me!). Thankfully this is one game that holds up well to multiple playthroughs.

As I didn't find the step up from Normal to Hard to be too steep (the initial step up to Crushing was another story though), I think I may revise this strategy and play future games on Hard first... the Guitar Hero/Rock Band franchises being the exception there; I still really suck on anything above Medium on those :-(

I tend to play on normal, after I have finished the game I will play online which is a good test of skill.

For the most part I play on normal, it tends to generally be the right balance between difficulty and still allowing the game to progress at a reasonable pace without getting bogged down. If I then feel like I need an extra challenge (and can be bothered) I'll play through on hard.

It's not always consistent though, some games can be a tad too easy on normal (Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2) and then you get other games where the difficulty spikes big-time in certain places (I've found this a bit with Dragon Age: Origins).

@Matt I hate checkpoint style saving. I much prefer the save anytime model of the halflife series.

When I first get a game I'll often play it just a bit harder than normal and try and stick with it as long as possible. If it gets too hard I restart on normal and it seems like a cake walk.