Artificial intelligence in games: Less of a priority than last gen?

[bobobologna]

If you guys actually played Operation Flashpoint, you guys would know that it had it's share of AI wackiness and flaws as well (still love the game).

The first time I was wowed by enemy AI was in Halflife 1 because it's probably the first game to actually have AI. The second time was FEAR which was like Halflife 1's AI to the 10th power. Other than that, AI in games have been pretty mediocre. And please, Halo 3 doesn't have good AI. Neither does Killzone 2 in my book.

Halo 3 relies too much on "Oh, I can magically sense that the player's crosshair is over me so I'm going to sidestep to the left." And in many instances, you can snipe at enemies with impunity without fear of the enemy coming even remotely close to where you are sniping from. Sure they run around, and react to being sniped at, but they don't do anything about it. Yes, I played the game on Legendary.

Killzone 2's AI gets too bogged down by the "cover" system. Here's a hint, if I can still shoot you, stop sitting there in your "cover" (Gears of War also suffers from this). I also didn't appreciate the hidden triggers ala COD4. Poorly done. "What, the enemy crossed the hidden trigger line? RETREAT!!"

Both games do a fine job with run away from grenade AI routines though, but that's probably the best complement I'll give them.