Stupid AI errors in sports video games

[tuq]

As it pertains to football, I got wayyyyyyy away from play-by-play as it was too frustrating. Anyone else ever try Front Office Football? It's gotten possibly too complex over the past couple of years but it sims games based off of your talent and seems awfully realistic.

There is an equivalent in baseball that's just not coming to me right now. ARGH. I bought a lot of floppy discs from them. If it was brought up I could endorse them, until then...

[MacGuyV]

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I think in general football games lose a lot of their replay value for me because the computer just cheats at the hardest difficulty level and the next level down, which I usually play, is too easy.

You'll see all sorts of crap, from linebackers outrunning receivers, ridiculous bounces, the opposing defense shifting in the direction you're running every single time, sucky defensive lineman that dominate my future HOF O-lineman every single down etc. In particular I remember one game where I was sacking the quarterback and just as my guy was diving for the sack, the ball was released and went rigth to a receiver in the front corner of the end-zone. I watched a replay and what happened is the ball went basically straight down and bounced off the tackler's shoulder and went straight to the guy for the TD. Absolutely impossible in real life obviously, and I never once saw anything vaguely similar happen in a two-human game or at easier difficulty.

Another issue with these settings is that to make the game harder they tend to even out the teams. This has gotten better, but for example how fast your opponents are is irrelevant because they jack up everybody's speed on the other team to a ridiculously high level. Same goes for the defensive line. It doesn't matter if it's the 49ers defensive line or Seattle's, they will both equally dominate my offensive line and I can't run for [censored].

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Agree, this is stupid. If the WR is 8 yards behind the LB and there is no pressure on the QB it should not get picked off, especially when I don't hold down the button for a "bullet pass". In 2005 (or whatever year Ray Lewis was on the cover) they bragged about a new focus on defense, which basically just meant superhuman LB's who made crazy int's and had this special burst of speed to return every int to the house. The problem is EA putting so much effort into gimmick concepts every year and never fixing the actual gameplay or AI. Sadly, it's hard to blame them for this. I used to visit video game sites where they would interview game developer/programmers and 95% of the questions would deal with stupid questions like "how is the create-a-player feature improved this year?" I'm just like OMG who gives a [censored].

[MacGuyV]

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okay I remember vividly when I first played Madden 2006. I had a nice franchise mode going on All-Madden. With 8 seconds left and me winning by 4 in the Superbowl, the CPU throws a hail mary from its own 40. The guy catches it with both feet out of bounds (and it's not even close, a good 4 feet out of bounds) and it is ruled complete. There was no challenge or anything. It immediately calls timeout with one second left and scores the game winner on the next play.

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If your opponent had a Patriots uniform, this is realistic.

[JaredL]

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Most things mentioned are not AI errors.

I don't want to troll, this is an easy mistake to make. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Sure, the problem is that the things mentioned are a symptom of bad AI. If the AI was better then they wouldn't have to use gimmicky crap to make the game hard.

[prohornblower]

Nintendo's MLB baseball (from like 1988) LJN has to take the cake. This is a game where, if you hit the fence near the foul pole, it was a homer.

And the fielders threw the ball 42 mph on a line. Gravity was not a factor in this game.

[disjunction]

A couple of legit AI errors in sporting games. These are older games since that's all I've played.

Strat-o-matic baseball had a bad habit of putting in tomorrows starter as a relief pitcher. They've put in hooks since then to stop this.

NHL '94 and the like had terrible goalies. There was always a trick to faking them out. I think this was caused by the goalies taking bad angles.

Similar as above for Madden tackling. AI defenders took bad angles.

It would be cool for these games if the AI learned your favorite move, so that they would work once, but not 5 times in a row. For all I know, this has been done...

[VarlosZ]

In the most recent Madden versions, playing a Cover-2 defense is not an option because the AI has no idea what to do with the Safeties. For instance, they'll shift towards the middle if there are some underneath crossing routes, while ignoring the WR on a fly route -- and since the CB is relaeasing the WR to the Safety, that essentially means that the WR is uncovered once he gets 15 yards deep.

I really wish they'd fix this. I like to control one of the Safeties on defense, but it's really frustrating to be in position and shut down your half of the field while your oppoenent just burns the hell out of the other Safety all day long.

[New001]

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Try MLB 06. The hardest setting, HOF, is probably the most perfect baseball game around.

As for football games, I don't play them (or basketball). Waaaaay too unrealistic. As someone who really tries to study the game things are just way too off for me to enjoy them.

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Is MLB 06 just for PS2 or am I thinking of something else? I need something to replace my missing MVP Baseball 2005 that I lost (and had a lot of fun with), and I've been considering getting a PS2 anyway.

[MacGuyV]

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In the most recent Madden versions, playing a Cover-2 defense is not an option because the AI has no idea what to do with the Safeties. For instance, they'll shift towards the middle if there are some underneath crossing routes, while ignoring the WR on a fly route -- and since the CB is relaeasing the WR to the Safety, that essentially means that the WR is uncovered once he gets 15 yards deep.

I really wish they'd fix this. I like to control one of the Safeties on defense, but it's really frustrating to be in position and shut down your half of the field while your oppoenent just burns the hell out of the other Safety all day long.

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You must be referring to 'cover 2 pinch'? Try the 'under man 2' - the corners play man-to-man and the safties play the 2 deep - it's a money defense on the All-Pro level anyway. In any case, I usually control the SS since I can't rush the QB worth a [censored].

[Ian.]

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NHL '94 and the like had terrible goalies. There was always a trick to faking them out. I think this was caused by the goalies taking bad angles.


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I laughed when I saw NHL 94 mentioned as it is my favorite sports game of all time. It took me a really long time to score my first goal. If you try to just shoot at the goalies (any goalie) from any distance they will always block it. Since I learned how to score goals (you can juke the goalie or wrap-around the goal), I score ~30 goals/game against the CPU.