Spam- Du Ken And The A.I. Of Cheese
By delmariachi 4 Comments
Is it me? or is Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) starting to get aggravating!
The reason I ask is, having played the latest revamps of four old 2-D Fighters, Every one is featuring a boss that is quite frankly taking the biscuit.
Super Streefighter 4 - A Boss that spams and has rediculous power
Mortal Kombat - See above
Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 - Just as bad, but gets away with it as Galactus is massive!
King Of Fighters XIII - Again read above..
ken.. Hadoken.. Hadoken.. Hadoken.. Hadoken.. Hado.... |
Back when I had no signs of grey, these genre defining series were tough but fair. The days of me playing Streetfighter Alpha 2 or the Mortal Kombat series on hardest difficulty are long ago, but surely my skills have not deteriorated THAT much!
I even wondered if its the frankly horrific 360 pad, which for 2-D games is a useful as a square football. The reality is, the cheap tactics or "cheese" have replaced decent A.I. programming for CPU players. This isn't even limited to fighting games: Battlefield 3 is the latest defining moment in gaming, but play the A.I. on hard or above, and they'll hit the eyelids off your face in the dark, behind a wall with a massive inferno blazing away between you!
Galactus: My Pointy Finger Of Doooom! |
I don't have an issue with A.I. being difficult, as here on the Lonesome Gamer's comfy armchair, without A.I. I may as well sell my console, but when, yet again Seth (SSF4) is royally bending you over and offering to insert a pineapple (or should that be cheese) where the sun doesn't shine for the 12th time in a row, when is enough, enough?
Seth: He'll Chew You Up & Spit You Out, Ad Infinitum |
I could blame my rubbish abilities, the pad, my chosen character or my tactics, however the reality is, its that lazy sod of a programmer and his colleagues who decided that rather than spend time creating a set of A.I. processes and routines that give you a fair fight, they'll save time and just spam or over power the featured opponent so they can rush the game out and dupe those poor sods into buying another updated version nine months later with a couple of token characters tacking on.
I'll tip my hat to King Of Fighters XIII as the game gives you a choice of options (read as cheats) after your first hammering by Ash, but overall it shouldn't take this to (un)fairly beat your opponent.
Too Bloody True! |
The worst thing about it, is that the A.I. routines back in the days of the cartridge were arguably better than they are now with the exception of Streetfighter's Zangief, he was always duff! And considering the size of dual layer dvds and the amount of space they provide, (I could put the entire Megadrive back catalogue on a DVD) the lack of "intelligent" CPU opponents is even more criminal.
Help Me Namco, You're My Only Hope... |
I don't imagine this will change either, unless Soul Calibur's next release somehow re-tips the balance. But until It's February release, I won't hold my breath.
Yes, I'll become more frustrated, yes, my skills will slowly worsen and yes, the spam and cheese will get more annoying on every play, and yes, eventually, I'll give up on a genre I've had a lot of love and enjoyment from over the years.
And that in itself is a bit disappointing really...
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