Hmm I get your point but even the Soviet Commander respone to the obstacle in Operation Flashpoint but wasn't that impressive , probably better thought out but it's still very simple .

I think the popularlity of online gaming has kinda killed the need to have intelligent enemies , why spend X number of hours making excellent A.I for an offlien campaign when one of the biggest selling points for most games nowdays is the online component.

Anyway what i'd like to see from enenmy A.I is that they adapt and change dependant on the situation , sometimes making smart decisions , other times making stupid ones. but this kind of A.I would only be financialy viable for a very small number of high budget, high production value franchises like the Metal Gear Series , Splinter Cell maybe.

To everyone who said Halo 3 and KZ2: From what I remembered of Halo 3, the AI was pretty good, yeah.  Didn't really get far enough to see it wow me, but the characters did have half a brain when it came to tactics.  Can't speak on KZ2, though, since I never played it.

Think about it, though: If the Soviet commander's response wasn't terribly impressive, then the jeep driver's response was just facepalm inducing.  On a game made with seven years later with a budget a gazillion times bigger, no less.

As for multiplayer replacing AI, I can see why it's happening, but it doesn't mean I want it to.  I mean, what about the possibilities of running intelligent bot squads in lieu of all human ones in multiplayer?

I still think that MGS 3 is has one of the best AI I've seen

although I didn't finish it (just played the first few levels, skipped throw every cutscene and phone call) but I though the enemy AI was really great

but I agree this gen is lacking in AI. Assassins Creed comes to mind with one of the most retarded enemy soldiers

Everybody deals with their AI differently.  Operation Flashpoint deals with dynamic obstacle avoidance and Crysis apparently doesn't.

Also, I don't think its so much about AI as it is about good game design. Certainly some game design goals require more sophisticated AI than others, but with good game design, it really reduces the requirement.  Your AI could be just moving back and forth and as long as it has good game design it could be a great game. Actually, that just gave me another idea for a game.....*goes to write it down*

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.

I get the impression that the quality of game AI generally just boils down to how much time the developers spend adding special cases.

The sad thing is that the quality of AI can't be shown with screenshots or short clips. If it could, every big budget game would have top notch AI.

Yeah I pretty much agree , after some thought I also realised it wasn't really a matter of the developers skill or intellect , it's really programming the A.I to react to various scenarios , that takes time , effort and resources .

I think AI has become less of a focus due to the rise in MP vs SP for FPS games and the fact that it become standard not to have bots (bots in MP also drove quite a bit of focus on AI for PC MP titles).

It's a shame as great AI is vital to a title I think, and while most AI suffices I'm disappointed we haven't seen it pushed further. At least some titles, FEAR, Killzone, Halo, Gears, MGS, etc. seem to deliver good AI - although I agree the jumps in AI haven't kept pace overly with graphics, etc.

All games have quirks in AI, but I think Half Life and FEAR remain the best titles I've played in terms of AI.

I think Crysis AI is okay for the most part, and indeed the thing is so open ended (like Far Cry before it) that some silly stuff is always going to happen. For some reason Crytek always seem to focus on AI for on-foot and only ever seem to implement basic driving AI. Far Cry and Crysis contain some of the most amusing bad driving I've ever seen.