Has AI in games improved this gen? What are some notable examples?

[Folie]

As we approach the next gen, SSDs are a big talking point and how they'll enable superior open world design.

It got me thinking about how, for the past two gens at least, when console specs were being discussed one of the things that always got brought up was new processors enabling more complex and dynamic AI in games.

So as we approach the end of this gen, do you feel like the overall standard of AI in games has improved compared to the 360/PS3 era? And even if not, have their been any standout examples of good or great AI this gen?

 

[harz-marz]

AI this gen has been a major let down after games last gen such as F.E.A.R and Halo 3 were really impressive.

 

[Hace]

If anything it feels like we're moving backwards

 

[Einchy]

Definitely didn't feel any different than last gen.

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

You know who I want to hear from? People who play sports games. Cause those are the only games with decent AI these days.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

Not that I am aware of anything.

 

[Maple]

No. If anything, it's gotten worse over the last 10 years.

Hopefully Zen 2 and new Machine Learning techniques will lead to a significant improvement in enemy AI. I want to see enemies learn my style and adapt to what I'm doing.

Legendary AI in Halo:CE along with FEAR are some of the best AI enemies I've encountered, and those games are 15+ years old.

 

[ILikeFeet]

I can't name any examples off hand, but hardware was never the problem with AI and better CPUs ain't gonna fix anything

 

[pswii60]

Feel like AI has actually regressed since Bungie's Halo games.

The enemy AI in Doom Eternal has really surprised me though, best I've encountered in a while and it really makes for a more interesting experience and challenge.

Don't forget we've been stuck with a console generation using Jaguar CPUs with little room for advanced AI.

 

[elenarie]

It is being worked on, but it is going to take many more years of research. :) If you're talking about actual AI, that is. :p

 

[Deleted member 48897]

I liked the way that enemies in BOTW reacted to their surroundings and stuff you did. Sure, compared to a lot of other games the bestiary is pretty tiny, but the depth available in encounters definitely more than made up for that. And Bokoblins are charmingly dumb with the way they'll crowd around to invest explosives ;)

 

[Lowrys]

Similar recent thread asking a slightly different question, for further reading: https://www.resetera.com/threads/great-games-with-terrible-ai.175771/

 

[Pyro]

No but the Dishonored games were always really great about their AI

 

[HMS_Pinafore]

I remember being impressed by the xenomorph AI in Alien Isolation, although I haven't played it in years.

Breath of the Wild had some cool enemy behaviour

But overall I don't think AI has improved noticeably this gen

 

[jelly]

Probably about the same verging on backwards as there is more pure fodder games that don't go very deep on scripts so it's just really obvious and repetitive but I've felt that way for years, not a recent thing.

Hardly anyone makes interesting encounters that make scripts shine on repeated plays, it must be really hard and time consuming.

 

[Tagyhag]

In general it's just been the same old same old.

FEAR and Halo CE/3 are still damn good showings of good AI.

But I know that the improvements will come with AI deep learning, so hopefully this gen or the next we'll have human-like AI.

People should check out the Starcraft 2/DOTA 2 experimental AI to see a glimpse into the future.

By that point though, that AI is going to have to be balanced somehow, you can't exactly beat a Call of Duty campaign if all your enemies would be human players.

 

[ranjaboy]

Division 2 has some pretty decent a.i.

 

[Rotobit]

everyone knows it peaked with the fish in Call of Duty: Ghosts

 

[Gush]

Sure doesn't seem like it.

There are fringe cases like the OpenAI DOTA2 stuff but generally speaking game AI has been treading water for a long ass time

 

[Gravity Insanity]

Some of the AI I've experienced in MGS5 and Breath of the Wild were pretty good this gen. The Last of Us Part II got unanimous praise for its AI during the preview event. Very curious to see what ND is doing with that.

 

[elenarie]

Also DeepMind is doing work with Starcraft 2.

Level up: DeepMind’s AlphaStar achieves Grandmaster level in StarCraft II

Forget chess and Go: The new AI frontier is multiplayer video games.

arstechnica.com

 

[TheAuldTriangle]

As someone who plays FIFA. No. AI is as awful as ever.

 

[EvilBoris]

It is being worked on, but it is going to take many more years of research. :) If you're talking about actual AI, that is. :p

Click to shrink...

That's so cool

 

[Einchy]

It really is kinda fucked that Halo 3 is still one of the best examples of good AI. A 13 year old ass game.

 

[KORNdog]

Uncharted 4 impressed me quite a bit mostly due to its pathfinding.

 

[Brinbe]

doesn't feel like it at all. hopefully that's one of those areas given more attention next gen with all that extra power.

 

[WellbornWarrior]

What I'm always wondering about these kind of threads is how a good AI is supposed to look like. Because I'm sure we could easily program stuff that works on the same terms like the player but shreds them because they're more efficient but that's not the point of the whole thing.

 

[Chuck the Bean]

You know who I want to hear from? People who play sports games. Cause those are the only games with decent AI these days.

Click to shrink...

I'm wondering how next gen soorts game AI and physics are going to be like. Should be a good step up.

 

[zswordsman]

I feel like AI didn't improve at all from the previous gen. If anything it went back in quality, popular games like Destiny and Cod mostly had characters that would stay in one place or just blindly rush you because they were programmed to be bullet sponges.

Last gen we had some cool AI like in KZ2, where they would flank you and such but even then they were downgraded in the sequel.
Hopefully the way better CPUs in next gen improve this.

 

[Nigel Tufnel]

You know who I want to hear from? People who play sports games. Cause those are the only games with decent AI these days.

Click to shrink...

I play 2k, The Show and a little Madden.

2k has decent basketball AI, but like almost any sports game ever you can learn tells and manipulate or break the game logic.

The Show feels a little stats based deterministic, but maybe the best of the 3? Game AI definitely benefits from advanced stats. It feels the most like the real thing of the sports games I play, IMO.

Madden fucking sucks.


That's my appraisal.

 

[Rob2K19]

Kingdom Hearts 3. Donald healed me.

 

[Brinbe]

I play 2k, The Show and a little Madden.

2k has decent basketball AI, but like almost any sports game ever you can learn tells and manipulate or break the game logic.

The Show feels a little stats based deterministic, but maybe the best of the 3? Game AI definitely benefits from advanced stats. It feels the most like the real thing of the sports games I play, IMO.

Madden fucking sucks.


That's my appraisal.

Click to shrink...

pretty much. if you're looking to current-gen sports games for examples of good ai, you're gonna be very disappointed. if anything, it's completely stagnated and gone backwards over the course of the generation. FIFA is genuinely as terrible as ever, which is embarrassing.

 

[Einchy]

What if in Halo Infinite you could have the AI drive the Warthog and it'd actually not be a total disaster? That's when you'd know AI had gone too far and we'd need to stop it before Skynet comes online.

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

I'm wondering how next gen soorts game AI and physics are going to be like. Should be a good step up.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I feel like every generation I'm blown away by the Madden trailers but then the game never looks that much better.

2K and The Show should be fucking nuts tho.

I play 2k, The Show and a little Madden.

2k has decent basketball AI, but like almost any sports game ever you can learn tells and manipulate or break the game logic.

The Show feels a little stats based deterministic, but maybe the best of the 3? Game AI definitely benefits from advanced stats. It feels the most like the real thing of the sports games I play, IMO.

Madden fucking sucks.


That's my appraisal.

Click to shrink...

Haha, so even as someone who doesn't keep up with each release, my inclinations were pretty much exactly the same. 2K can be fucking BRUTAL at times. Even most online matches are easier than single player.

 

[Dead Man Typing]

Hitman and Hitman 2 deserve a mention.

The sheer number of characters all following scripts and reacting to fairly simple rules makes for a fun and engaging playground.

 

[elenarie]

Somewhat related, the AlphaGo documentary went out 2 weeks ago.

 

[Avinash117]

I remember reading an article about that while combat AI hasn't changed that much, NPC animations and interactions with the world is vastly improved over the previous gen. AI in terms of combat has much more options today because of more games being open world, but it seems like it is really diffcult more the AI to utilize the open world design. Since they have a lot more options, that means more systems are added, which will lead to a lot of bugs and mistakes from the AI.

 

[Nigel Tufnel]

I was amazed by the wildlife in RDR 2.

That's probably the best I can think of.

 

[Blue Skies]

I feel like enemies just stand and trade shots at me in most games
Feels the same as any game I've ever played.
I think it's by design honestly

 

[Miniature Kaiju]

HZD AI routines for the bots was pretty good. Nothing flashy, but it did do stuff like corner you, trap you, push you into attacks, etc. Pack bots could get pretty annoying, at times.

AI in terms of combat has much more options today because of more games being open world, but it seems like it is really diffcult more the AI to utilize the open world design. Since they have a lot more options, that means more systems are added, which will lead to a lot of bugs and mistakes from the AI.

Click to shrink...

That's one of the beauties and nightmares of emergent gameplay: the more interactive systems you add and the AI has access to, up the exponential complexity ladder you go. You get more varied behaviors, both good and bad. Makes games much, much harder to fix and balance.

 

[eso76]

I can't name examples but I've definitely seen more enemies using dynamic (as in non scripted) covers.
We haven't really surpassed H3 or FEAR in meaningful ways I think, but I've seen general, small improvements for smaller or non gunplay-focused productions.
TLOU2 seems to be doing a bunch of stuff no one has tried before, so I guess we'll see.

I still hope someone does for AI what DF does for graphics, kind of, with insight from Devs explaining how their characters "think" and whatnot. I believe drawing attention and sharing techniques might be needed to drive the industry forward more than new CPUs

 

[GymWolf86]

nah it's pretty stagnant.
last current gen game i tried with an aggressive and kinda organized ia was the division 2, i was surprised myself.

 

[m29a]

I play a lot of NBA 2K each year (mostly offline) and in that series the AI has gotten better over time, especially with plays and taking advantages of potential mismatches on the floor, as well as the defensive logic/schemes which can change dynamically. I follow one of the developers (Da_Czar) on youtube where he streams (usually more active when each game first drops) with tips and talks about what he works on with the AI each year.

It's definitely not perfect and I think the player tendencies in the rosters need to be better so all players are able to play more like themselves instead of only some (usually the stars). I tend to have to go into the rosters and do some tweaking on that end which I feel I shouldn't have to do, but it's whatever.

 

[Miniature Kaiju]

I still hope someone does for AI what DF does for graphics, kind of, with insight from Devs explaining how their characters "think" and whatnot. I believe drawing attention and sharing techniques might be needed to drive the industry forward more than new CPUs

Click to shrink...

Not quite Digital Foundry for AI, but some pretty good deep dives and analyses of AI in games.

 

[Snake Eater]

Haven't noticed AI being anything notable since FEAR, it's been stagnant for two generations

 

[ty_hot]

I like MGS5 AI but I wouldn't say it is a huge improvement. I don't remember any other game that has great AI... maybe even good AI.

Devs are making games easier / more predictable because that is now you retain players (unfortunately)... I dont expect next gen to change that, it is not a matter of CPU power but of game design.

 

[Lady Gaia]

AI didn't stand much of a chance this generation since CPUs weren't a substantial leap from what we had in the prior generation. Worse yet, since graphics were one area that did take a significant jump, the CPUs have had to deal with a heavier load than ever before. I'm not surprised relatively little has changed as a result.

The next generation stands a real chance of making serious strides here. I can only hope it's enough of a priority for developers to push forward to deliver something novel.

 

[Thera]

Depends of what we are talking about exactly.
If we are talking about "there is a new situation, what should I do", I think it did not. I am amazed by some stupid situation there still is in sports game, for exemple. I know this is difficult because it is iteration, but when you see how others parts improved...
After that, you have the problem of good AI ruining the experience. People prefer to fight hundreds of dumb ennemies rather small number of very intelligent ennemies.
Even boss rush or games known for 1vs1. You have to learn how the ennemy behave, but the opposite isn't true.
I didn't played enough to see it, but MGSV ennemies didn't have the same accessories depending of your gameplay (like helmet if you used too many tranquilizer). That's not exactly what I ask for but that's a start.

If we are talking about scripting, it improved a lot. From RDR 2 to the new Animal Crossing, this is really great and believable. Naughty Dogs have good AI and I can't wait to see how it end up on Part II (but the dogs :( ).

Feel like AI has actually regressed since Bungie's Halo games.

The enemy AI in Doom Eternal has really surprised me though, best I've encountered in a while and it really makes for a more interesting experience and challenge.

Don't forget we've been stuck with a console generation using Jaguar CPUs with little room for advanced AI.

Click to shrink...

You kindda contradicted yourself here. If Xbox managed to do Halo AI, Jaguar can do it.
And I agree Halo AI was really awesome to lived at launch.

 

[AwakenedCloud]

I might be misrembering, but haven't a decent number of devs come out and said they tried implementing smarter AI but people found the game less fun? This, of course, would only apply to enemy AI. There's still a lot of potential growth with NPCs.

 

[Miniature Kaiju]

I might be misrembering, but haven't a decent number of devs come out and said they tried implementing smarter AI but people found the game less fun? This, of course, would only apply to enemy AI. There's still a lot of potential growth with NPCs.

Click to shrink...

Yup, AI is more of a design problem than a tech problem. Good AI isn't necessarily smart AI, but AI that displays fun behaviors that seem intentional. Hence why what most people consider "good AI" (like F.E.A.R. and Halo) is actually pretty scripted.