Why are Next-gen Games So Stupid?

GameAlmighty.com's Matt Butrovich criticizes next-gen artificial intelligence using examples from recently released titles, such as Crysis and Assassin's Creed.

[Joey Gladstone]

In all honesty AI in video games has progressed leaps and bounds since the good old days of 2 or 3 scripted enemy actions.......but if you look at a lot of the selection currently out there, none really has a STANDOUT NEXT GEN, KNOCK ME OUT OF MY SEAT WOW AI...............
.......
..."The JOEY has Spoken"

[TheExecutive]

Uncharted has some of the hardest AI I have ever seen. The only flaw that I see is that they dont run away from grenades.

[Bill Gates]

I agree bro, I beat that on Crushing, and it was no walk in the park. Heck it wasn't a walk in the park on Hard either.

[Marceles]

Yeah, I'd consider Uncharted being next-gen AI...I love how they cover too. The first time I saw one of them get on the ground stomach first and shoot at me from behind cover I was blown away. Lol yeah they're pretty bad at dodging nade blasts...from my experience, the grenades blow up pretty fast though.

[kevoncox]

It's not going to happen. No matter what a developer does, we'll find away to break it. We are humans and a game is only that, a game. We will always be able to out think it. 1 game that people never mention the AI in is Halo. The Halo series has some of the best AI ever. My only qualm about the Ai in Halo is

1) Too accurate sometimes
2) Doesn't react to being sniped. Outside of that it's preety damn good.

I think we expect too much from ai. I'm pretty forgiving.

[Charlie2688]

Actually you should specify the enemy AI in Halo is good specially in Heroic or Legendary BUT the ally AI in Halo (specially 3) is brain dead cuz I cant count how many times I was killed cuz of the INCREDIBLY bad driving skills and constat crashes against random walls or getting stuck in tiny rocks or the fact that they never seem to correctly handle rockets or grenades and end up killing other friendly...or you

what i find interesting is how Bungie allowed this since for example on 3 the Brutes effectively take cover deploy bubble shields and hide to ambush and yet the friendly seem to do EVERYTHING wrong and get butchered in seconds

but still I haven't seen (well played) a game match the AI of FEAR cuz I cant remember the last time I played a game were the AI practically flanked me an ENTIRE map just to come up from behind THE worst possible moment -_-

Edit: oh boy look at those disagrees I guess they got the "good" copy of Halo 3 and I got the "bad" copy of Halo 3 or maybe its just the usual reality denial some people seem to experiment thru the site

[timmyp53]

.

[RIPHDDVD]

it's like they don't even try to hit you. most of the time they're just running around like complete idiots

[Hydrollex]

Seriously ?

[llamaman13]

assassins creed had pretty decent ai i thought, they could have done better though.

[The_Firestarter]

Hyper-realistic AI is the last unexplored boundary of complete immersion for gaming, along with flawless interactivity.

We all know video and sound quality in games gets better and better over the years, and always raise the bar for realism and immersion. Hyper-realistic AI would set a new standard of gaming. We'll no longer fight against somewhat brain dead enemies, instead we'll have the fight of our life!

[Armyless]

Start with the broad, obvious questions.
-What drives each character's motivations?
-What resources are available to them to meet those ambitious goals?
-What Geologic, (or static) contexts define the very WILL or HINDRANCE to meet those motivational goals, and with what carrots and sticks?

A) Individual character- has his own levels of internal ambitions, how they come to pass depend on how "motivated" he is to pursue them.
B) External guide arrows, or forbidden walls are observed by the individual character and he examines them weighed against his own motivations.
C) Choices are made, but the act of choosing an action to touch the external world in one allowed way or the other unallowed way, is then LEARNED and refines the ease/withholding of this character's motivations.

AI in it's busiest analyzation, when you've mapped out it's forms and patterned behaviors, reveals a map for high-level programming which virtually mimics the ACTUAL AI struggles of quasi intelligence. Run the AI and find the patterns we can "borrow" and mimic further to show what an AI character in it's place WOULD HAVE DONE with refined scripting.

You go ahead an build your AI, the rest of us will happily build a thought delineating choice matrix.

[JokerSGS]

Uncharted on Hard wasn't hard at all. But it was a good challenge. Where it really got good was the last boss fight. But I think a way to truly play a game is to first play it on hard. Best way to experience the game. Check out Half Life 2 on hard compared to normal or easy. Same goes for many other titles.

[djtek184]

I think resistent fall of man has some of the best A.I.

[aceman7]

One game with great AI was Soldier of Fortune 2.

[KidMakeshift]

My biggest complaint about next-gen games is the real-time shadowing. 95% of all next gen games on the 360 and PS3 have jagged and jittery shadowing. Also tearing, aliasing, framerates, and low-res textures/models are still quite apparent 2 years in.

[smashballs]

if your video games are lame
and you're playing them all the same
come to n4god d-ammit
you won't regret it
because they'll tell you that you suck all the same

yeah i know i rhymed same with same

[bigjclassic]

Devs want a pretty game not a smart one. And also why are most of these games in the same genre or why are most of these mediocre PC games coming out to consoles. (Bio, Call of Juarez etc.) Also why are most of these so called "next gen" games arent unique enough to warrant a purchase. In all actuality are only a handful of next gen games that are worth the money.

SMG
LoZ: TP
Uncharted
Mass Effect
Resistance
Warhawk
Oblivion
Gears of War