In this weeks posting I review two different games with differing AI.
I’m using quite a minimal setup on the Playstation, the headset and camera were purchased for this exercise.
Equipment Used
- Playstation 4 + Standard Controllers
PS4 with Standard Controllers. No modifications and using a Sony Braviria TV (1080p) for audio and visual. Connection is via HDMI, no noticeable lag/artifacts
Purchased for the Alien Isolation game as to get a more immersive feel from an auditory response. Also has microphone.
Allows scanning of player during gameplay. For Alien game can be used to ‘look around’ things.
Alien Isolation
Release in October of 2014, this game is showing its age visually, whilst the in-game videos and stills are very nice, the rendered humans are showing this game came from 2014 when expectations of visual representations of people/objects wasn’t as high as todays games, even on the same system.
The reason to choose this game however wasnt the visuals, is that the games AI received positive reviews, so on that basis alone wanted to see how good it was.
I am wearing the headset so there is no in-game audio captured in the video, but it provided an important part of the immersive feel.
Things I am looking for specifically are
- Does the game make me feel as if I’m ‘in’ the game, is it immersive ?
- Are interactions with objects realistic
- Do other simulated people/creatures exhibit ‘intelligent’ behaviours
To start with the music and visuals very much reminded me of the orignal ‘Alien’ film, with the ‘gritty’ visuals and atmospheric sounds, it was clearly the ‘Alien’ universe I was being brought into. As the game starts there is alot of ‘fill’ to give the game context, useful once and easily skipped over. Whilst alot of time has been spent on making the transfer from hard-drive to PS4 memory, some of the menus, particualy the ‘save game’ completely returned you to a ‘standard’ PS4 like shell, which removed me from the game-play completely.
The headset was a worth additon to this game, the sound and direction from where the sound came really added to atmosphere, things ‘clanking’, wires ‘sparking’ and lamps ‘blinking’ gave a a spatial representation, adding depth to the game.
Whillst it is easy to criticise 7 year old graphics, some of the visuals, like diffiused light and smoke, were very good, giving a sense of ‘being there’, esp as the player coughed on entering a smokey environment.
- interactions with objects
Any interactions using hands was done via the controller, and only when an option appeared to do so. Things I would ordinarially pick up and move out the way could only be done by ‘walking’ at them whereby they would move.
Items which could hurt the player, such as an loose electrical cord, were well represented and presented a challenge in having to ‘dodge’ them.
Other things, such as generator handles, light switches and picking up found things/constructing them was all managed by the controller. This felt a little inhibitive and not realy natural gameplay
- People/Creatures behaviours
Early in the game we interact with several other humans, mostly they are giving monologues as an introducton/feedback. In one scene another AI human report to the bridge of the ship, the path the AI takes is very much predetermined, even tho my player character tried to block/move in the path, the AI took no evasive action, it was more akin to watching in a film than playing with a character within it.
When i walk around and do ‘odd’ things like crouchign next to another person, they make no comment or do anything about it as I was doing nothing.
In the 30 minutes I played, whilst I could hear the Alien clanking around, I had no interaction with it. Maybe with more time or a harder level, I would of seen more of the Alien.
- Summary
This is clearly a game created several years ago even compared to todays PS4 games. The AI of people is basic and ‘programmed’ with no real sense my actions are being captured and acted apon.
I did feel some degree of immersion thanks to the visuals and sounds, in particular in scence in tunnels/air vents which is not something I would like to be in, I did get a sense of being tense, the sounds/clanking and visuals did make me feel as I was ‘there’.
I didnt see the camera being used at all, and i couldnt really ‘look around things’ as the game had promised. I do think that the microphone on the headset was being used to monitor me though as ‘clanking’ of what I think is the ‘Alien’ in the air ducts increased as I made more noise.
For me the game took too long to unfold, it probably is a good game but takes along time to play to get all the benefits from it, however for a game with ‘Alien’ in the title and no real visual/seeing an Alien in 30 minutes of game play, thats a bit disappointing.
F1 2020 Seventy Edition
Release in July of 2020, this is a more recent PS4 game. The PS5 is already relleased when this game was launched, but the programmers have done everything they can to get the most from the aging PS4 hardware.
Things I am looking for specifically are
- Is it Immersive, do i feel like I’m racing a car
- Do other cars demonstrate racing behaviours
To start with you can see this is a newer PS4 game, the menus are very slick, but seemingly quite complex to navigate around. I’m sure with more time I would find it easier to get to a point where I can start the game from loading and be racing a car. There is alot of menus to navigate and some nice visuals of the circuit which look pretty decent.
- How good is the immersion ?
Once in the car and racing on the grid the visuals and sound immediatly take over. My television is over 10 years old now, but of decent quality nethertheless, producing 1080p visual and good speakers within it. The sounds of the car and passing thru bridges was captured very well. When ever I hit a curb/gravel the controller rumbled, this was a neat feature and made me feel as I was driving the car ! Obviously the lack of gravity when breaking is something a game cannot do, but I did find myself using a ‘Senna’ style feathering of the break peadle to good effect (this is like doing ABS without an ABS system, but keeping switching between throttle and break very quickly).
- Do other cars demonstrate racing behaviours
I started off high up the grid and (3rd) and on the track (Spa) which has a very tight first curve gave the PS4 plenty of opputnity to demonstrate its AI capability. Mostly it seemed the cars were more interested in an ‘avoidence’ algorthym, rather than ‘holding a line’, whilst bumping into cars provided the desired efefct of damage and cars spinning all other the place in real time, that is more the physics of the world, whilst very well renderd, doesnt show the intelligence of the simulated drivers.
It can be seen as I work my way up the grid the other cars offer little to no resistence. A racing car should make itself ‘wide’ by moving left to right, even by a few inches, to make it difficult to pass, but the cars with AI drivers didnt exhibit this behaviour, it was far too easy to ove take.
Once I was in the front no one really attacked me, I should feel anxious and need to defend my position, but the other cars didnt take ‘dives’ into corners or try to get into the ‘tow’ of the car to slingshot around.
- Summary
The racing game was very immersive. If you put a big fan in front of me, put a 10kg weight on my chest and threw grit/oil combo I could believe i was atually racing a real car, as is from the comfort of my living room on a computer screen, this has to be one of the best racing games I’ve played in terms of the actual game play.
The cars AI at the level I was at seemed very basic, maybe on higher levels the cars do take on more ‘personality’ as only basic level so car/racing behaviour was exhibited.
Summary of the games
These two very different games from different times both showed vairous levels of AI in their gaming engines. I was more disappointed by the Alien game not having an Alien I could see even with 30 minutes, but did feel immersed from the ‘world’ that was created for me to play in. The AI of characters was poor due to the limited expressions/reactions to my behaviours.
The racing game was very immersive, and visually upto the standards of 2020/21 gameplay, even on older hardware. The vibation of the controller, use of advanced spatial sound and amazingly detailed rendered graphics was excellent. I will play this game some more in the hope that hte cars exhibit more ‘racing’ competitive behaviours, but it does demonstrate the levels of interaction/physics of the car/racing world very well already.