Yet another article about game difficulty.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3787/difficulty_is_difficult_designing_.php?print=1

Some good points.

This whole paragraph about Resident Evil pissed me off a bit.

"Resource stinginess. The Resident Evil series chose to limit ammo as difficulty levels ramped up. This results in extreme tension, helping to add to the horror, but also greater pressure on the player to be resourceful. Many skillful Professional Mode Resident Evil 4 players rely on sharp-shooting kneecaps to bring the enemy to its knees, then finish it off with the knife to get through the game on a minimal bullet-budget."

Yeah right. Resident Evil 4 was VERY generous with ammo even in higher levels of difficulty. The whole "knifing zombies" thing is a play mechanic that you HAD to do in other Resident Evil games to beat harder difficulty levels. In Resident Evil 4 it just made the action game a bit more interesting.

Besides real players like me just use the knife at close range to cause the enemies to flinch then kicked them. You don't need to expend ANY ammo to do that.

In any case I am glad so many places are talking about difficulty in games.