#cheating ai

[iwgiowhgipoehw]

So I was playing Dragon Age Origins

And an enemy mage used a rogue-only talent to stun me. How? Oh, wait. This game cheats. People actually like this game?

[hiroshimishima]

What difficulty am I on?!

I've played both previous Bioshock games, and I'm pretty decent at them insofar as combat goes. However, it has become quite clear to me by Chapter 3 of Bioshock Infinite that this game does not play by the same standards.

In all honesty, it appears to be governed by something it made simply to unbalance itself as much as possible. The fact you have regenerating shields.. is probably the weakest, most unoffensive thing there is about the game. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that most of the game's problems may stem from its inclusion.

Almost everyone has a firearm, and the automated turrets are capable of hitting you with extreme accuracy sometimes regardless of where you are. I've hidden behind walls and still gotten tagged by them. I've had my shield broken and my health mowed down in a matter of seconds..

There is so much wrong with this game, and I'm not even talking about the ridiculous plot or extensive racism..  It may be a beautiful game, but I've had it up to here already. This shit with the difficulty is just one more thing screwing with my potential enjoyment.

How many times do I need to be swarmed by a billion guards, all lightning fast and capable of hitting me before I even know they're there? Suddenly, all the health and salt consumables have vanished whereas earlier they were freaking everywhere.

I miss the day when hacked turrets stayed hacked. More than that, however, I miss the day when I wasn't finding myself killed by the gods-damned equivalent of goombas. I've died like 4 times in Chapter 3 alone, and I'm not even halfway through it! (I checked)

I've read that this game took years to make. Apparently that was all spent on the visuals or the voice acting, because the gameplay is unpolished, unbalanced, and unenjoyable. No, I don't simply "suck", so please don't dredge up that sorry excuse for a defence.

EDIT: The good news is that I found a difficulty slider in the options, like Saints Row the Third did. That makes me a little happier cause I won't lose all this progress.. but I am still upset about all the potential upgrade money I lost to those repeated deaths.

[hiroshimishima]

A Winner is Luck!

People say that Gambling is often down to Skill and Luck, although I tend to lean far more towards luck on anything not dealing with cards, largely because there's no way to bluff a Slot Machine or Roulette Wheel. I don't gamble, unless it's in a video game as a way to earn money, and I usually Save first.

When the outcome of a given situation comes down to Luck, rather than actual Skill - Dumb Luck is debatable - it tends to feel like you're always in the hands of the Random Number God, which takes a lot of fun out of it. I may be willing to cheat sometimes, but even I don't like leaving things up to "Fate".

The reason I'm going on about this is because Luck is pretty much the only way you're going to win at most of the Mario spin-off party games. Mario Party & Mario Kart in particular, and the developers love to stack the odds against you. In the former, expect to lose all your stars to the AI because you're winning and the person with the least amount of stars is going to likely get most of them. I've never been keen on the series because the AI is such a cheating bastard that often the only way to win is to cheat right back. Then again, why the hell are you playing Mario Party if you're by yourself? I still wonder what made me play the original, sometimes.

I may have mentioned that when I got my Blue 3DS XL, it came with Mario Kart 7 pre-installed. Having a free game is great and all, I certainly wasn't about to balk at it, but it definitely reminded me why I avoid racing games like the plague. Even though the AI really had no chance of beating me in the Mushroom Cup cause I have it set on Easy (and that's all I'll ever touch), it was nonetheless nerve wracking as all hell. Because the AI doesn't require Skill.. only Luck, which is severely stacked in its favour. Every course I must've been hit by that Blue Shell at least once, and the AI loves to use Rocket Boosts at the start, which I'm still not having much luck pulling off.

So yeah, if you're playing these things with a full contingent of other players, it's probably a lot less infuriating, but playing them by yourself is a surefire way to induce some serious stress and tension. Artificial difficulty is never fun.

I will say, however, that the courses look really nice, the music is pretty good, and the actual controls seem rather solid. If I could only turn off items, or certain items, I think it'd be a much nicer experience, though.

[hiroshimishima]

So, I'm playing some Saints Row the Third and doing a few side missions. After having a couple of problems with getting vehicles for people, I realized a big issue that I have with the game's idea of freedom.

You're allowed to store any of the vehicles you encounter in the game, provided you can hijack them and get 'em back somewhere with a big enough garage. Normally, taking a vehicles doesn't even get you any Cop Notoriety unless they're right there when you do it, and never more than 1 Badge's worth. Except when it comes to taking cars somebody wants.

This can get you anywhere from 2-5 stars instantly, and while you can make them go away with a single phone call it takes a considerable amount of time before you can do that again. Trying to get a slow or difficult to maneuver vehicle halfway across the city (cause it's never near by) with any number of cop cars riding your ass - and they will because the Rubber Banding AI lets them keep up with anything - is an incredibly ...unnecessary hassle.

Why? Two little words: vehicle storage. Because you can obtain anything, you should rightly be able to whip one out of your garage and go "here, with my blessings". Except you can't. I have no idea why, unless the "thrill of the chase" was all the developers had on their mind at the time. The simple matter is that you ought to be able to do this and you can't. You can't even get a vehicle, accept the job, and then hop in it - and even if you could, you'd probably still get the Notoriety.

Oh, and another thing. Why the hell is there such emphasis in Saints Row the Third on everyone being male? All the people you call for stuff like vehicles or generic posses answer with male voices, and the icon for posses is a dude. I suppose that goes back to how most of the women look like hookers and are generally being stepped on or whore'd out.

Oh, and what about the way AI vehicles go completely nuts when the cops are around and start swerving everywhere? I've seen a couple cars drive right over the side of a bridge to get out of their way, and other times cars don't do a damn thing. Makes it hard to know what you're supposed to do in certain situations.

Eh, probably me just finding something to complain about cause I'm in a bit of a grouchy mood. Doesn't make the points any less valid, but I'm probably being a bit overly critical about it right now.

[kinsie]

Your friendly reminder that Centaurs are assholes.