Video Games
Nov. 14th, 2004 11:44 amHalo 2 seems designed to show off the AI even more than Halo 1 was -- there're a lot of set battles in the part I just went through where more or less evenly matched Covenant forces duke it out with each other... and you can tell it isn't scripted because you can interfere, and change the outcome in surprising and chaotic ways.
Mostly you want to sit back and only kill the ones that notice you, of course, if you're interested in actually getting past. If you leave them alone they'll actually kill each other, which is probably only surprising to me because I'm used to the AI in Wing Commander and its ilk that couldn't hit the broadside of a barn unless it was you or whatever ship you were supposed to be protecting.
They also got rid of the health meter -- once your shields are down, you can take a few hits, just like before, but now it looks like they automatically medpack you once you get your shields back. So there's even less state to worry about between fights, and less chance to hose yourself by (auto)saving at the wrong time.
Although the time when the only weapons I had were an empty covenant grenade launcher and a plasma pistol hitting a checkpoint came awful close.
Of course, at the same time (just now) Jak 3 and Ratchet and Clank UYA came out, so I'll probably be playing console shooters for a while. Or do those others count as platformers? I just hope they got on the infinite lives bandwagon. I tend to die a lot.
Mostly you want to sit back and only kill the ones that notice you, of course, if you're interested in actually getting past. If you leave them alone they'll actually kill each other, which is probably only surprising to me because I'm used to the AI in Wing Commander and its ilk that couldn't hit the broadside of a barn unless it was you or whatever ship you were supposed to be protecting.
They also got rid of the health meter -- once your shields are down, you can take a few hits, just like before, but now it looks like they automatically medpack you once you get your shields back. So there's even less state to worry about between fights, and less chance to hose yourself by (auto)saving at the wrong time.
Although the time when the only weapons I had were an empty covenant grenade launcher and a plasma pistol hitting a checkpoint came awful close.
Of course, at the same time (just now) Jak 3 and Ratchet and Clank UYA came out, so I'll probably be playing console shooters for a while. Or do those others count as platformers? I just hope they got on the infinite lives bandwagon. I tend to die a lot.