The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Difference between revisions

** On a simpler note, also in Soul Calibur II, the AI has instant combos. Ivy in particular, has Summon Suffering/Calamity Symphony which requires moving the control stick across the pad 3 times, creating a delay long enough to make it unusable against a non-stunned opponent, but the computer can do it any time.

** ''[[Soul Calibur]] 4'' fixed most of the AI issues with 3, but also introduced a new element of it's own: Skills. Depending on the gear your character has equipped, your character will gain points that can be used to equip skills like Shave Damage or Drain Health. However, your character also gets stat bonuses from their armor, and generally pieces that give high skill points give low stats (and vice versa), so you'll usually end up making either strong characters with weak or no skills, or weak characters with good skills. Many of the computer opponents blatantly ignore this and come with custom programmed stats and skills, giving them overpowered combinations the player couldn't possibly get themselves. There are also a few skills that aren't even available to the player (usually improved versions of existing skills, Like Auto Nullify Ringout S -The best the player can get is Auto Nullify Ringout A).

* ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' is very... well... [[Just for Pun|guilty]] of this. On top of the usual array of unfair [[SNK Boss]] attributes for the "boss" versions of otherwise regular characters--dealing dramatically more and taking dramatically less damage compared to their playable counterparts, doing even the most absurdly impossible-to-input moves ''in the middle of combos'' completely at will, gaining a full bar of tension with a thought, etc.--''all'' AI characters on high enough difficulty settings or close enough to the final match of Arcade mode gain the ability to psychically read controller input. Many characters rely on having a good mix-up game, placing continuous pressure on an opponent until they finally make a mistake in their blocking, and going from there. It works pretty well against humans so long as the attacker doesn't get too predictable. Against the CPU, though, mix-up characters are almost completely useless, as every attack is more or less a polite request for the computer to please consider allowing this next one to actually connect for once. Which is usually denied.

** There is also, notably, Boss I-No from Guilty Gear XX -- she happens to have a boss-only move (which has recently been added to the player moveset, but not in the game she's a boss in) called 'Megalomania' which spams heart-shaped projectiles, and [[Oh Crap|if you so much as graze one the entire swarm will mug you.]] It has three ranges -- one that's fairly easy to dodge, one that's kind of like a wave and needs to be walked through, and one that fills the entire screen in front of her. The obvious solution to that last one might be to block or to leap over and behind her before she lets it go . . . but tell that to the guy who's freaking out at the sight of innumerable 'warning' signs covering 90% of the screen (the attack, it should be noted, is kind enough to tell you where it's going to hit).

** Every PSP version of Need for Speed seems to put a lot of effort in ensuring that its AI has a new annoying trick at its disposal. By the time of NFS Undercover, the cpu cars could drive faster than you, no matter what was your car and how well it was upgraded, were not affected by crashes (they were back on your tail in just few seconds), could TELEPORT if you somehow managed to make them stay really behind, or TURN MID-AIR! In one of the urban stages, there is a 90 degrees turn just after a really long straight that ends with a significant bump. To drive past it you simply have to slow down, but the cpu cars can drive into it at full speed, jump and turn in the air. Funny sight when you are looking behind at that time.

* Your opponents in [[Need for Speed]] Shift 2: Unleashed are rather fond of the Reverse PIT manoeuvre. It's performed in exactly the same way but it's the guy pushing that spins out. It's incredibly annoying when you've got a fast car and it gets congested. Generally, your opponent's cars weigh twice as much as yours according to the physics engine.

* In ''[[Star Wars]] Episode I: Racer'', the AI racers never crash, never run into walls, always hit turns perfectly, and never have to use the boost.

** And they know pretty much every shortcut; if you miss one, they'll take it and get way ahead, such as the upper route on Abyss.

** The same is also true in all other games in the Carmageddon series. ''However'', the computer cars cannot make use of their "no clipping" cheat-ability when the player has the main map-screen up; their location is always shown and they move much more player-like.

* ''Cel Damage'''s AI players can make sharper turns than the human player. This can be seen when the player is killed, and for the brief seconds until the respawn, the computer player (most likely the assassin) can make some incredible curves, even while standing on the same place.

** Try this (At least on the PC version): Play Test Drive 5 and use the "nitro boost" cheat, race on a track with a lot of straight roads so you can boost your top speed way past logical top speed like on the Sydney track, and take a look at the racer stats at the end of the race. If you've logged a top speed of around 400mph, then the AI will log a top speed of around 800mph just to keep up with you. Granted you would be cheating yourself in the first place, this is still an amusing way to prove the audacity of the rubber band AI under magnified proportions. And also shows you can't cheat a cheating opponent since it will just cheat more anyway.

* [[Midnight Club]] 3 seems to be malevolent and benevolent at the exact same time. In races, your opponents are always in better cars unless you have an A tier car(to the point that races can play out with you in a D tier and your opponent in a B tier BEFORE you've completely upgraded it.), you're opponents always have more nitrous shots than you (or in the case of bikes, HAVE nitrous shots.), and, somehow, obey the copenhagen interpretation, because even if you overlapped a car, if you are not watching him on the minimap, he will warp right behind you and be able to put you back into second place. However, you can outrun them on straight-aways, they cannot use slipstream turbo, and cannot use any special abilities.