FUCK YOU WESKER
AND YOUR FUCKING ZOMBIE PARASITE-INFESTED ABORIGINAL BIGFOOT DOG TOO.
I finally cleared out the last of the achievements for RE5, War Hero. The big roadblock? Killing Ndesu. It shouldn't have been hard, but for whatever reason, the AI does not actually do anything productive, such as "take out wingmen and other assorted enemies that will kill you" and chooses instead to fire on the big parasite-infested African version of El Gigante from RE4. That is actually pretty helpful, but in terms of priorities, taking out the chaff in addition to the head honcho is right up there. It took me almost three times as long after giving up on trying to manage everything at once, and instead stuck to clearing out the riff-raff. It was almost as annoying as the AI-breaking 2v2 match in chapter 5. Inevitably, the programming for the AI breaks down because (a) the pathing is tremendously bad (b) the AI's decision-making is miserable.
I note this as being significant because you would think they would have caught this earlier on. The AI is fine even in Veteran mode, it's quite helpful and does everything it should. However, for whatever reason, when your survival depends on split second decision that have to be made immediately, the AI fails miserably - that and the pathing errors come out full force, particularly because you need things to move chop-chop instead of like a dead monkey's ass in January. In a blizzard.
The 2v2 encounter is really the pinnacle of how the AI fails. A single bullet will take you to dying, which means you have 10 seconds for the AI to find you and heal you. The room is large and has pillars on the sides for weaving and dodging gunfire. There is a second floor that has two sweeping staircases leading up to it and two balcony areas on either side. Everyone stars in the middle, and it should be a straightforward job of running around pillars, ducking for cover and shooting the main target of the encounter. However, this isn't the case because you are charged with one very important decision to make: if you allow the AI to run off and do what it was programmed to do, it will not take cover and instead run out into the open and stand and take potshots at the main target, but if you force it to take cover by calling it over to cover, you will be exposed and shot down. Normally this isn't a huge issue because the AI should heal you right away. It's a computer controlled partner and should be able to make decisions and act faster than you.
No.
If you look at the records and stats for my games, the AI has failed to rescue me almost 9 out of 10 times that I am going to die. In fact, in the 2v2 fight alone, the AI has shown time and again that I can be dying next to it, and then it will continue firing while I am screaming, "I need some help here!" If it actually stops firing, the computer actually will turn 360 as if looking for me despite the fact that I am next to it. Again, this takes almost 10 seconds for whatever reason and I die. The average time it takes for the AI to save me from death? 2-3 seconds. The time it has taken me to rescue my partner from death? 1.2 seconds. This is actually a metric you can look at in the records of the game. I find it hard to believe that the AI can be programmed that badly.
The pathing problems are also glaring in this situation. You would think that, given the tank controls, the AI would move, stop and turn X degrees and then move in a diagonal to get from point A to point B. In certain situations you can still move in an arc, albeit a somewhat wide arc - again due to the tank controls traditional to RE. This is not the case, as I am sure you have surmised. The AI instead calculated the least number of "step-wise" moves needed to get from point A to point B and then executes them. Imagine a large circle. Imagine that you need to get from point A on the edge of the circle to point B on the edge of the circle, given that A and B have a 90-degree relationship to each other. Using the controls, I am able to smoothly run along the edge of the circle to get from A to B while being lazy. If I were being retarded about being uber-efficient, I would run the perfect line that connects A to B. The AI in the game actually turns to face that straight line and pauses, and then executes a step-wise movement that is the equivalent of "down and over, down and over, down and over," until it gets to the destination. I can't begin to express how retarded this is, especially given tank controls which means that the AI turning requires the AI to stop and stand in place then turn and then move. In critical situations where you need cover fire? Don't expect it anytime soon. The AI will have to plot out it's step-wise path and then move there in that fashion, all the while you are getting AK-47 fire and possibly a couple of RPGs shoved up your asshole.
THANKS AI.
Ultimately, in the end, the game in Professional mode turns into the worst possible escort mission scenario. In RE4, you could at least tell Ashley to hide in conveniently placed dumpsters that made her near invincible. In this case, you have an Ashley equivalent that wants to help, and runs out into the middle of blazing gunfire while screaming, "cover me!" or "be careful, it's dangerous!" while you watch the AI laugh and spray gunfire everywhere since, you know, they only have to hit you once and you need to do twice the damage from before because it's Professional mode and that is how that shit rolls.
I don't know how this kind of bullshit gets through Q/A, and I'm sure there's a reason why an AI that is nigh game-breaking (in a bad way) can get past Q/A. I just don't know what the reason is right now and I can't think of anything plausible other than "they didn't really check it in a realistic scenario."
I finally cleared out the last of the achievements for RE5, War Hero. The big roadblock? Killing Ndesu. It shouldn't have been hard, but for whatever reason, the AI does not actually do anything productive, such as "take out wingmen and other assorted enemies that will kill you" and chooses instead to fire on the big parasite-infested African version of El Gigante from RE4. That is actually pretty helpful, but in terms of priorities, taking out the chaff in addition to the head honcho is right up there. It took me almost three times as long after giving up on trying to manage everything at once, and instead stuck to clearing out the riff-raff. It was almost as annoying as the AI-breaking 2v2 match in chapter 5. Inevitably, the programming for the AI breaks down because (a) the pathing is tremendously bad (b) the AI's decision-making is miserable.
I note this as being significant because you would think they would have caught this earlier on. The AI is fine even in Veteran mode, it's quite helpful and does everything it should. However, for whatever reason, when your survival depends on split second decision that have to be made immediately, the AI fails miserably - that and the pathing errors come out full force, particularly because you need things to move chop-chop instead of like a dead monkey's ass in January. In a blizzard.
The 2v2 encounter is really the pinnacle of how the AI fails. A single bullet will take you to dying, which means you have 10 seconds for the AI to find you and heal you. The room is large and has pillars on the sides for weaving and dodging gunfire. There is a second floor that has two sweeping staircases leading up to it and two balcony areas on either side. Everyone stars in the middle, and it should be a straightforward job of running around pillars, ducking for cover and shooting the main target of the encounter. However, this isn't the case because you are charged with one very important decision to make: if you allow the AI to run off and do what it was programmed to do, it will not take cover and instead run out into the open and stand and take potshots at the main target, but if you force it to take cover by calling it over to cover, you will be exposed and shot down. Normally this isn't a huge issue because the AI should heal you right away. It's a computer controlled partner and should be able to make decisions and act faster than you.
No.
If you look at the records and stats for my games, the AI has failed to rescue me almost 9 out of 10 times that I am going to die. In fact, in the 2v2 fight alone, the AI has shown time and again that I can be dying next to it, and then it will continue firing while I am screaming, "I need some help here!" If it actually stops firing, the computer actually will turn 360 as if looking for me despite the fact that I am next to it. Again, this takes almost 10 seconds for whatever reason and I die. The average time it takes for the AI to save me from death? 2-3 seconds. The time it has taken me to rescue my partner from death? 1.2 seconds. This is actually a metric you can look at in the records of the game. I find it hard to believe that the AI can be programmed that badly.
The pathing problems are also glaring in this situation. You would think that, given the tank controls, the AI would move, stop and turn X degrees and then move in a diagonal to get from point A to point B. In certain situations you can still move in an arc, albeit a somewhat wide arc - again due to the tank controls traditional to RE. This is not the case, as I am sure you have surmised. The AI instead calculated the least number of "step-wise" moves needed to get from point A to point B and then executes them. Imagine a large circle. Imagine that you need to get from point A on the edge of the circle to point B on the edge of the circle, given that A and B have a 90-degree relationship to each other. Using the controls, I am able to smoothly run along the edge of the circle to get from A to B while being lazy. If I were being retarded about being uber-efficient, I would run the perfect line that connects A to B. The AI in the game actually turns to face that straight line and pauses, and then executes a step-wise movement that is the equivalent of "down and over, down and over, down and over," until it gets to the destination. I can't begin to express how retarded this is, especially given tank controls which means that the AI turning requires the AI to stop and stand in place then turn and then move. In critical situations where you need cover fire? Don't expect it anytime soon. The AI will have to plot out it's step-wise path and then move there in that fashion, all the while you are getting AK-47 fire and possibly a couple of RPGs shoved up your asshole.
THANKS AI.
Ultimately, in the end, the game in Professional mode turns into the worst possible escort mission scenario. In RE4, you could at least tell Ashley to hide in conveniently placed dumpsters that made her near invincible. In this case, you have an Ashley equivalent that wants to help, and runs out into the middle of blazing gunfire while screaming, "cover me!" or "be careful, it's dangerous!" while you watch the AI laugh and spray gunfire everywhere since, you know, they only have to hit you once and you need to do twice the damage from before because it's Professional mode and that is how that shit rolls.
I don't know how this kind of bullshit gets through Q/A, and I'm sure there's a reason why an AI that is nigh game-breaking (in a bad way) can get past Q/A. I just don't know what the reason is right now and I can't think of anything plausible other than "they didn't really check it in a realistic scenario."