Zappykins said:
Aproximately over 80% of what your brain processes comes in through your eyes. So it would seem logical that games place an emphasis on visuals. They don't have to be realistic to be delicious. Just look at Limbo or Braid. They both have stunning visuals. Can you give exampls of good and bad AI. I know some bad ones, but sometimes it looks more like programs thought 'good enough' or did as best they could with the talent and time crunch. What do you see as the best AI? |
While i dont know enough about how the brain processes information to agree or disagree with your first statement, I will say that for myself and gaming in general, gameplay engagement has much higher value than stunning graphics. Braid was awesome because of the gameplay mechanics (and music) to me and while graphics were nice too, I wouldnt care if they werent. Fez, Super meat boy didnt have such a visually pleasing art style and were both awesome in my books.
On the other hand, when graphics take over and game strives for a cinematic approach with no gameplay to fall back on, i tend to hate it. When Kratos goes off on his cinematic tantrums in god of war, and my involvement is reduced to tapping a button every now and then, i become bored out of my mind, no matter how awesome those cinematics are.
As far as AI, any game that involves a gamer in to beating an enemy with an engaging and challenging gameplay, regardless of difficulty, I would say has good AI. I find that most games these days try to do too much and dont have a focused enough gameplay and gameplay flow in order to hide how bad the core gameplay and enemy AI really is. Something like Resident Evil 6...its just a bloody mess gameplay wise. And why is it a mess? Most likely because they spend 80% of the time making sure it looks awesome...
As far as good AI, something like Geometry Wars 2 has awesome AI as do most Mario and Halo games... any game that throws a bunch of pieces on to a blender and pushes the on button and lets the gamer figure out and choose one of many ways to beat the challenge at hand is awesome in my books. On the other hand, The scripted gameplay AI which was invented to provide a more cinematic experience is not cool at all...
Dont get me wrong, Id love to see a game that has both, visual and gameplay engagement, and they do exist...but are becoming a rare breed.
