Best game AI

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

I'm gonna jump on the Reach bandwagon and say that the game's AI is incredibly well done. The Covenant in the last Halo game struck a perfect balance between being dangerously wily and readable, which makes them every bit as fun to outplay as a human enemy. Special mention goes to the hunters, who should probably go by a different name altogether from their one-pistol-shot-fall-down-go-boom Halo:CE predecessors. It seems to know exactly what the best move to make is at any given moment, and it won't hesitate to do so. For example:

-Are you at a distance? Eat cannon.
-Are you up in its face? Eat shield.
-Are you too close for the cannon to reliably track you, but too far away to be melee'd? Hope you sat through enough of Stand By Me to get to the part with the railroad bridge, because you're about to star in a very faithful reenactment of that very scene, freight train and everything.
-Are you trying to juke past it to get a shot its vulnerable spine? Eat 180-spin shield attack.
-Are you doing everything perfectly? Well, tough shit, here's a close-range cannon shot to the face, just because you dared to have hope.
-Are you hoping to have a window of opportunity to get your blows in between attacks? Interesting theory, but while you're playing for fun, the hunter's not here to fuck around; when it misses, it immediately follows up with another attack that stands as good a chance of killing you as the last (and if it doesn't miss, you'll die horribly).
-Are you patting yourself on the back because you managed to blast its vulnerable spot with a shotgun? Better psyche yourself up to do it five more times, sucker, because you only made it angrier.
-Are you hoping your buddy on the bottom screen can keep it distracted long enough for you to pulp its orange backside? This mofo here has situational awareness that makes your motion tracker look like you duct-taped a rear-view mirror to your helmet.
-Are your reflexes so finely tuned that you can successfully outmaneuver one of these unstoppable alien juggernauts by the skin of your teeth? I'm impressed and you should be proud! Thing is... there's two. There are always two, and their watches both ran out of batteries at exactly Murder O'Clock.

"Ha! Look, Blargagok! The human believes that explosives can harm us!"
"It is laughable, indeed, brother. Come, his organs may yet be ripe for feasting!"​

Hell, the only thing that makes hunters remotely beatable is the fact that, like all the enemies in the game, they're impressively animated to telegraph each of their next moves before they make it. If it wasn't for that, they'd be the bullshittiest one-hit-kill enemy of all time.

 

[Llil]

I remember playing a chess game on Windows Vista and I swear that computer blatantly cheated, it swapped 2 pieces to each others spaces IN THE SAME TURN, I sat and watched it! If that isn't cheating I don't what is.

Were those pieces king and a rook? If so, then it might have been perfecly legal move. See Castling [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castling].

 

[Smooth Operator]

Bioshock and Half Life 2, the individual enemy might not be perfectly polished but every variation had crafty little tricks up it's sleeve that made them shine.

 

[Richardplex]

Those chess games are literally unbeatable. Not even the pro's can beat them.

I remember playing a chess game on Windows Vista and I swear that computer blatantly cheated, it swapped 2 pieces to each others spaces IN THE SAME TURN, I sat and watched it! If that isn't cheating I don't what is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castling Maybe that solves your issue.

 

[William Fleming]

I remember playing a chess game on Windows Vista and I swear that computer blatantly cheated, it swapped 2 pieces to each others spaces IN THE SAME TURN, I sat and watched it! If that isn't cheating I don't what is.

Were those pieces king and a rook? If so, then it might have been perfecly legal move. See Castling [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castling].

Never knew about that, thanks for clearing that up.

 

[maffro]

I don't think a computer beating you at tic tac toe and checkers counts. They're not intelligent, they've just had the optimal responses to play a perfect game programmed into them. Real intelligence suggests a degree of fallibility.

I'd say the best I've seen would be Halo: Reach and GTA IV. In Halo you feel like you're fighting enemies who actually want to win, regardless of you usually outsmarting them. And GTA IV just has a perfect mix of scripting and contextual responses in the NPCs.

 

[Zipa]

Anything written by Brad Wardell

 

[vivalahelvig]

The most brilliant AI is Half-life 1's AI. At the time, this was the first AI to use grenades to flush you out of cover, use squad tactics, and...stuff. Well the HECU AI did that anyways.

 

[The Heik]

AI in Halo: Reach. The Elites are tricky little buggers.

I totally agree. Compared to the earlier Halo AIs, which were pretty smart of their own accord, Reach AI was downright clever. I can't count the number of times the Covenant were able to effectively mess with me in the game and kill me because they were actually using tactics and strategy.

Kudos to Bungie's programming department!

 

[Blue_vision]

Worms.

No kidding. That AI cheats. And it can toss a granade in the pocket of your pants from twenty miles away while standing a wall twice your size with a fancy shaped object on top of it.

Yeah, I'm going with Worms too. Perfect aim from the other side of the map? With a Bazooka? In high winds? I don't think so.

That's not really good AI though. It's trivially easy to get a computer to calculate projectile trajectories and make shots always hit you. A good AI is able to act with the appearance of logic and strategy, while keeping the game fair for people that know what they're doing.

 

[Darkwhite]

Fear 3, half the time they're pants on head retarded, the other half they're flanking me, using pincer attacks, all sorts, really threw me the first few times they made smart moves.

 

[noble cookie]

snip

You're being way OTT, Hunters weren't hard.

Even on Legendary difficulty they weren't that hard.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

snip

You're being way OTT, Hunters weren't hard.

Even on Legendary difficulty they weren't that hard.

I take it you've never played it on LASO.

 

[Moeez]

After recently played STALKER, I'll add praise to that. Sneaky little buggers, they keep quiet, and if they spot you, they call in reinforcements if there are other bandits in the area.

I always thought the first F.E.A.R. had pretty good A.I. They flank all the time and use the environment to their advantage.

F.E.A.R series, damn those motherfuckers are smart.

I'd definitely agree with F.E.A.R, it was ahead of it's time in so many aspects.

I would also say F.E.A.R.

followed by F.E.A.R.

No, F.E.A.R AI isn't advanced at all. The AI is still as weak and basic as every other game and it was in no means ahead of its time. The developers simply found a way to create the illusion that the game had incredible AI by brilliantly integrating the environment and dialogue with the basic programming of their enemy AI. If you're going to praise anything, praise monolith for thinking that up, not falsely praising them for creating an advance AI that still doesn't exist.

Here, I'll copy+paste the articles that explain the F.E.A.R AI:

"the AI sees the player and wants to kill the player. The AI then runs through its possible actions, like take cover, attack, or melee-attack. The player fires on the AI and the AI looks for cover; once behind cover, the AI will take note that the player is aiming his weapon at it, so the AI will try to suppress the player by firing blindly.

Monolith fully integrated this system with the enemy's dialogue and game environments in an effort to create the illusion that the AI was smarter than it actually is. F.E.A.R. was widely lauded for the ability of its soldiers (both singly and in squads) to flank the player. In reality, the AI wasn't flanking at all -- it was moving from one cover area to another cover area. Because of the skill exhibited by the level designers, that next cover area was to the side of the player's location (or where the designers assumed the player would be), so when the AI moved to that location, it created a seamless illusion of the enemy flanking you.

Adding a final layer to the illusion was the notion that the AI called for reinforcements. As the player slugged it out with the game's bad guys, one of them would call out for reinforcements. Then, when the player moved forward, they would come across an enemy squad rushing toward them. The squad was always there, regardless of whether or not reinforcements were actually "summoned," but because of the dialogue, the player creates a connection that really isn't there. "

They fooled the entire world! Good job, Monolith.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Halo Reach: I can't tell if I notice the AI doing these things because of playing on legendary, so you die with ease, but the enemies always seem to be flanking and throwing grenade at my hidey hole, the amount of times I think "fuck it" due to having an elite flank me are numerous.

I did catch myself applauding an enemy in a game for killing me, but I can't remember how or what game It was a while ago and it defiantly wasn't in minecraft.

It's still amazingly easy to assassinate them in close combat if you got a friend to distract.

 

[MikailCaboose]

I would also say F.E.A.R.

Also Starcraft AI seems to kick my ass on harder difficulty too often (tho im not really a pro at Starcraft anyway).

Starcraft difficulty spikes are nothing more than cheats for the computer. An increase in difficulty merely activates a fast-build cheat for the AI.

 

[The Funslinger]

Probably left 4 dead (enemy ai) is solid, not very advanced but it works as it is supposed to and that's exactly what is needed.

For co op AI I don't think I have really seen a truly solid AI that actually helps.

The AI for your teammates in Star Wars: Republic Commando were in the Guinness Book of World Records, I think. Been a while since I played that game, but I never had any gripes with them. Then again, I imagine they have been surpassed.

Of the games I have sufficient recollection of, I'd say the Mass Effect team mates seem to do their job well enough.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

I'm gonna jump on the Reach bandwagon and say that the game's AI is incredibly well done. The Covenant in the last Halo game struck a perfect balance between being dangerously wily and readable, which makes them every bit as fun to outplay as a human enemy. Special mention goes to the hunters, who should probably go by a different name altogether from their one-pistol-shot-fall-down-go-boom Halo:CE predecessors. It seems to know exactly what the best move to make is at any given moment, and it won't hesitate to do so. For example:

-Are you at a distance? Eat cannon.
-Are you up in its face? Eat shield.
-Are you too close for the cannon to reliably track you, but too far away to be melee'd? Hope you sat through enough of Stand By Me to get to the part with the railroad bridge, because you're about to star in a very faithful reenactment of that very scene, freight train and everything.
-Are you trying to juke past it to get a shot its vulnerable spine? Eat 180-spin shield attack.
-Are you doing everything perfectly? Well, tough shit, here's a close-range cannon shot to the face, just because you dared to have hope.
-Are you hoping to have a window of opportunity to get your blows in between attacks? Interesting theory, but while you're playing for fun, the hunter's not here to fuck around; when it misses, it immediately follows up with another attack that stands as good a chance of killing you as the last (and if it doesn't miss, you'll die horribly).
-Are you patting yourself on the back because you managed to blast its vulnerable spot with a shotgun? Better psyche yourself up to do it five more times, sucker, because you only made it angrier.
-Are you hoping your buddy on the bottom screen can keep it distracted long enough for you to pulp its orange backside? This mofo here has situational awareness that makes your motion tracker look like you duct-taped a rear-view mirror to your helmet.
-Are your reflexes so finely tuned that you can successfully outmaneuver one of these unstoppable alien juggernauts by the skin of your teeth? I'm impressed and you should be proud! Thing is... there's two. There are always two, and their watches both ran out of batteries at exactly Murder O'Clock.

"Ha! Look, Blargagok! The human believes that explosives can harm us!"
"It is laughable, indeed, brother. Come, his organs may yet be ripe for feasting!"​

Hell, the only thing that makes hunters remotely beatable is the fact that, like all the enemies in the game, they're impressively animated to telegraph each of their next moves before they make it. If it wasn't for that, they'd be the bullshittiest one-hit-kill enemy of all time.

Is it really that hard for other people? I don't mean to brag, but this is like the fifth time I've heard someone complain about it this week (than again, I read a gaming forum). I can't remember me or my friends ever having any major problems with them. But than again, we all have some hobby that probably improves reflexes.

 

[Harveypot]

Arkham Asylum has really good enemy AI. You can toy with them until you pounce on the last terrified guard (I think Yahtzee said this) and, best of all, they could outsmart a flipflop!