If you are an AI programmer, here’s your motivation for doing better. Whether people mention one of your games or not, these sorts of gripes certainly give you something to think about. (And me, too.)
Here’s a couple of samples:
I was recently playing through Rainbow Six 3 (PC version), and i’ve been noticing just how fucking retarded the AI is in that game. First off, these are the same AI who sometimes don’t even know that their buddy just got shot in the head with a goddamn un-silenced M4, yet when they see you, they can magically shoot through fucking railings (despite seeing as how you can’t*), and can instantly nail you the moment you peek out of a corner.
Whoever designed the pathfinding and collision detection in Morrowind needs a severe beatdown- NPCs will get stuck on anything and everything they can. And sometime’s they’ll stand right in a doorway or hallway while you’re trying to navigate through it (Though that’s more a program limitation.)
I’d like to go on record as saying that I hate games where enemies run away from you.
In the original, unmodded version of Silent Hunter II, allied destroyers could hit your U-boat with gunfire on a pitch-black foggy night without using radar, could detect you on the surface using active sonar, spot your periscope from 5,000 yards away, and could drop depth charges with Laser Guided Bomb-like precision on your exact position.
At the same time, they would constantly run aground, ram each other at Flank speed while trying to attack you, and constantly blundered into your steam-powered torpedoes, which left obvious wakes on the surface.
Mafia: The City Lost Haven was an innovative GTA clone, but the AI had some amusing quirks. When you were in a car chase, the pursuing cars could always catch up with you, no matter how fast you were going. But they would always try to overtake you on the left. All you had to do was drive close to a lamppost or an oncoming car and they would crash into it. Always. It made being chased pretty easy.
I think this comment is the most poigniant reminder, however:
Okay, game programmers, you’ve made your point. We all know that it is in fact possible for you to make an unwinnable game. Now that the experiments in asshattery are over, would you like to get back to making real games?
Sarcasm aside, let me just make it real clear because this can not be emphasized enough. GAMES ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE PLAYER VS. PROGRAMMER.
Tags: reviews
