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[alexandertnt]

Part of the horror in Amnesia comes from feeling helpless. Thats what makes horror games scary for me, the thought that you can't just turn around and punch reduce-to-0-hp whatever comes up to you.

[itisnotlogical]

Almost every "horror" game I've seen recently has been about as horrifying as Count Chocula. They're using bits and pieces of horror like zombies and ghosts, but putting them together in ways that ultimately aren't scary. Hell, you can't even call them zombies anymore, they have to be "infected"; that's how much we've beaten that dead horse.

As much as I malign Slender for being nothing but a jump scare at the end of an extremely tedious "game", it at least got the idea that horror is more than just slapping scary monsters all over an otherwise unrelated game.

[LoSboccacc]

Games where the enemy cheat, breaking the game rules.

I dont mind a bit of cheating or better initial positioning to keep things hard and interesting. I hate when you and the enemy figth on different rules, like I can lose subsistem but the enemy is at 100% until dead

[Neonivek]

Games where the enemy cheat, breaking the game rules.

I dont mind a bit of cheating or better initial positioning to keep things hard and interesting. I hate when you and the enemy figth on different rules, like I can lose subsistem but the enemy is at 100% until dead

That is actually what killed Shogun 2 for me.

I destroyed an enemy until they were only one province left and I brokered peace. Way later they have several stacks and armies, which would be utterly impossible.

It is what is really annoying about the game because you cannot really form proper strategies because the enemy doesn't function on the same rules you do... so instead of facing a real opponent you are fighting a robot.

[itisnotlogical]

I once played around with the AI in Starcraft, seeing how much it can cheat. After using cheats to build a lot of units super fast, I destroyed all of their base and units except for their Command Center and mined all their minerals. They were able to produce SCVs and build single Supply Depots despite supposedly not having any minerals, but they weren't able to do anything beyond that.

One thing that irritates me is when the AI doesn't know how to use abilities that the player is able to. There are a few Final Fantasy games where the AI doesn't know how to bounce spells off of Reflect to go through another Reflect spell. And in Starcraft, the Terran AI never lifts its buildings off.

[alexandertnt]

Games where the enemy cheat, breaking the game rules.

I dont mind a bit of cheating or better initial positioning to keep things hard and interesting. I hate when you and the enemy figth on different rules, like I can lose subsistem but the enemy is at 100% until dead

Good old Civ4, where the AI will *always* keep up to your tech level, even when you are cheating. Whats the point in trying to manage everything as efficiently as possible when it doesnt make any difference?

the Terran AI never lifts its buildings off

Most RTS AI can't garrison units either, as another example.

[Mech#4]

Games where the enemy cheat, breaking the game rules.

I dont mind a bit of cheating or better initial positioning to keep things hard and interesting. I hate when you and the enemy figth on different rules, like I can lose subsistem but the enemy is at 100% until dead

Good old Civ4, where the AI will *always* keep up to your tech level, even when you are cheating. Whats the point in trying to manage everything as efficiently as possible when it doesnt make any difference?

the Terran AI never lifts its buildings off

Most RTS AI can't garrison units either, as another example.

I remember in Age of Empires 1, the A.I could get fouled up in it's build routine if there was water or a tree in the way of the locations it placed buildings. Also in Pokémon Red and Blue, the opponent always uses a move that is type super effective against you even if it doesn't do any damage, like constantly using Light Screen against a fighting type.

Hm, what else. They couldn't use transports in AoE 1 either and would get stuck if their villages kept getting killed by wild animals because they'd run out of food. Not to mention placing their town centre right where they begin in Nomad regardless of available resources.

[Neonivek]

There was the original Command and Conquer where the AI obviously cheats.

Yet at the same time it was the easiest to exploit the AI. Want to stop them from rebuilding? Build your own on that exact spot.

---

Here is another one

Remakes that take beautiful Sprite work and change them into either terrible 3d or TERRIBLE 2d artwork

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I want to puke! Though honestly this isn't even the worst one.

[Squill]

There was the original Command and Conquer where the AI obviously cheats.

Yet at the same time it was the easiest to exploit the AI. Want to stop them from rebuilding? Build your own on that exact spot.

---

Here is another one

Remakes that take beautiful Sprite work and change them into either terrible 3d or TERRIBLE 2d artwork

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I want to puke! Though honestly this isn't even the worst one.

I feel like Fire Emblem sort of does this. The only ones I've played are Sacred Stones and Awakening, as they are both available on 3DS. Sacred Stones had some of the best sprite animations I've ever seen, with most animations and sprites being very cool. Awakening still looks pretty good, but it doesn't have the same flair.

[SealyStar]

Games where the enemy cheat, breaking the game rules.

I dont mind a bit of cheating or better initial positioning to keep things hard and interesting. I hate when you and the enemy figth on different rules, like I can lose subsistem but the enemy is at 100% until dead

Good old Civ4, where the AI will *always* keep up to your tech level, even when you are cheating. Whats the point in trying to manage everything as efficiently as possible when it doesnt make any difference?

the Terran AI never lifts its buildings off

Most RTS AI can't garrison units either, as another example.

I remember in Age of Empires 1, the A.I could get fouled up in it's build routine if there was water or a tree in the way of the locations it placed buildings. Also in Pokémon Red and Blue, the opponent always uses a move that is type super effective against you even if it doesn't do any damage, like constantly using Light Screen against a fighting type.

Hm, what else. They couldn't use transports in AoE 1 either and would get stuck if their villages kept getting killed by wild animals because they'd run out of food. Not to mention placing their town centre right where they begin in Nomad regardless of available resources.

In Dune II the AI only ever attacks your base from whatever direction their base is at. It's probably excusable, given that that game is like a thousand years old.

On that topic, the overarching problem:

Modern RTS where the AI sucks dick even though the rest of the game is awesome
No matter how competitively balanced the multiplayer is, or how creative the campaign is, or how cool it looks, or how intuitive the controls are, modern RTSs are all ridiculously bad at AI.

It's inexcusable for two reasons: a) if most games' developers put the effort into the AI that they do for everything else, the AI would lack most of the problems mentioned, and b) if the effort put into RTS AI resembled the effort put into the AI of many other genres, it would similarly be free of most common problems.

Obviously it's gotten better (see the Dune II example, Starcraft II being a step up from SCI, and so on), but there's still a huge amount of common-sense fixes to be done.

[itisnotlogical]

IIRC, another thing the Starcraft AI can't do is use bunkers correctly. Any bunkers under AI control have to be placed in the map editor with Marines hard-coded to enter them once the game starts.

One thing that I always loved about pre-EA-takeover Command and Conquer games was the amazing AI. The computer in Tiberian Sun will absolutely wreck your balls if you aren't ready for it, but it doesn't cheat as far as I can tell.

[Darkmere]

I'm a bit late for this but, a commentary on "horror" and gorn:

I think the failing of horror is actually showing your hand too early and relying on squick or jumpscares for an instant, visceral effect that can't be repeated. Once you see the animated bunch of people-chunks, that's all there is to it. I'd contrast with something like STALKER. Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat got the horror atmosphere part down, specifically in and around the lab missions, and some of the mutants (this is why I didn't enjoy Clear Sky as much.. it lacked the lab crawls and focused almost entirely on inter-faction conflicts, which were just guys with guns).

Consider SoC's labs. They're mostly empty, but you're placed in a confined space with nothing but a headlamp and the Zone's echoes of the long-dead for company, until furniture is launched at you from... something...while you're trying to avoid that electrical anomaly. I spent a while trying to find a psi-dog or something similar until I caught the barest hint of a humanoid outline and shot the anomaly (poltergeist), which died. However, it planted a seed of doubt in my mind for the rest of the game. Likewise, the

Spoiler: Actual spoilers for the main plot of STALKER (click to show/hide)

Brain Scorcher fading your vision to sickly yellow, with that drone in your ears, and the constant hallucinations really set me on edge. Finding out that the entire complex was a massive, hostile brain that I had to essentially cut its life support while dodging the previous victims was intense and disturbing.

The Wish Granter yelling in your mind for the trip through Chernobyl also helped.

In short, elements of the game that remove a normally-present element of competency help heighten tension. Chimeras come at you in the open with no cover or escape. Burers will disarm you and don't need to see you to kill you.

Special award goes to Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. Even though it's only text, wandering though a powerless lab with the Mi-go parroting the last words of their victims while obviously not knowing what they are saying still unnerves me. Not knowing the backstory forces you to pay attention to every noise coming from... somewhere... that is obviously inimical/indifferent to human life.

Those don't need jump scares or simple gorn to make the player feel helpless or uneasy. It's a psychological setup instead of a visceral manipulation.

[Xantalos]

Games where the enemy cheat, breaking the game rules.

I dont mind a bit of cheating or better initial positioning to keep things hard and interesting. I hate when you and the enemy figth on different rules, like I can lose subsistem but the enemy is at 100% until dead

Good old Civ4, where the AI will *always* keep up to your tech level, even when you are cheating. Whats the point in trying to manage everything as efficiently as possible when it doesnt make any difference?

the Terran AI never lifts its buildings off

Most RTS AI can't garrison units either, as another example.

I remember in Age of Empires 1, the A.I could get fouled up in it's build routine if there was water or a tree in the way of the locations it placed buildings. Also in Pokémon Red and Blue, the opponent always uses a move that is type super effective against you even if it doesn't do any damage, like constantly using Light Screen against a fighting type.

Hm, what else. They couldn't use transports in AoE 1 either and would get stuck if their villages kept getting killed by wild animals because they'd run out of food. Not to mention placing their town centre right where they begin in Nomad regardless of available resources.

In Dune II the AI only ever attacks your base from whatever direction their base is at. It's probably excusable, given that that game is like a thousand years old.

On that topic, the overarching problem:

Modern RTS where the AI sucks dick even though the rest of the game is awesome
No matter how competitively balanced the multiplayer is, or how creative the campaign is, or how cool it looks, or how intuitive the controls are, modern RTSs are all ridiculously bad at AI.

It's inexcusable for two reasons: a) if most games' developers put the effort into the AI that they do for everything else, the AI would lack most of the problems mentioned, and b) if the effort put into RTS AI resembled the effort put into the AI of many other genres, it would similarly be free of most common problems.

Obviously it's gotten better (see the Dune II example, Starcraft II being a step up from SCI, and so on), but there's still a huge amount of common-sense fixes to be done.

See GalCiv 2. It may have been mediocre in many ways, but there are settings where it's acknowledged the AI will get more resources/etc than you, but even ground with the thing at full intelligence? It will outplay you and plan right up your ass. Amazing AI.

[TripJack]

Good old Civ4, where the AI will *always* keep up to your tech level, even when you are cheating.

don't think this is true at all, out-teching the ai is absurdly easy with the bonuses you get on lower difficulty levels

[Grakelin]

I remember Civ4 being all about the AI not cheating anymore. Somebody on Civfanatics caught them irrigating a vast, dry plain one time and there was a big uproar.