Some new details about the difficulty options for Vanquish have surfaced on the official Platinum Games blog. The upcoming third-person shooter's five difficulty settings will include "Casual Auto," "Casual," "Normal," "Hard," and "God Hard."

According to Vanquish director Shinji Mikami, "Normal" mode is the most generally recommended difficulty. "It takes some time to get used to aiming and firing at enemies on your own," states Mikami, "but we've fine-tuned the aiming controls, so you should be fine." The top tier unlockable difficulty, "God Hard," will only become available for second play-throughs and beyond. "If you are a bit of a masochist, I think you will have a good time," explains Mikami.

Previously, Platinum Games added a "Very Easy, Automated Mode" in the third-person action title Bayonetta. Although Mikami didn't detail whether Vanquish's easiest mode would mimic that of Bayonetta's, he did outline his initial speculation for the concept appearing in the shooter:

Before we started work on it, I can't say that I had high hopes; however, once we got [Casual Automatic Mode] up and running, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was wrong. Once you get your target on the enemy, the rest is easy as pie. I'm sure saying it that way makes it sound totally uninteresting, but when you actually give it a shot, the tempo it gives the game play will make you jump up and say, "Woohoo!"

Vanquish is due out for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 19 in North America, October 21 in Japan, and October 22 in Europe.