I've done a lot of reading on the next generation consoles these last few days. The potential for them in the line of games and the flow of creativity is mind blowing. But as I searched, there had been one thing that seemed to be restated in everything I read: developing for the new consoles is going to be Hell on developers. The programming and design for each game is going to take so much more, now. More people, more time, more money, more effort. So after a while I really started feeling bad for small development groups and programmers and so forth. I mean, I intend to get into the business later in life, and I could only imagine how bad it will be then for dev teams to shine. But then I came to think on it (my brother was playing GTA San Andreas and I was saying to myself that the next one would be perfect if the AI was far more realistic) and I thought that it if they could do things standard, and do them right, then maybe the first games or so would be difficult to produce, but otherwise it would be like making a movie on a computer: just take what you need from your archives, add a script for the actors to read, and build a world for the player to exist in. This came to me especially with AI. If you could do a really good AI, one that is realistic to the point of being near-flawless, then you wouldn't have to spend so much time making AI for each game. Make an artificial intelligence that learn and you will have one that is limited to fighting or driving or anything you need it to do. The same with physics: just do a complete system for physics, do That correctly, then when you need to break the laws you implemented, have a way to do so (Tony Halk games, for example). The worst of it would be teaching the AI a new craft for a new game. Would that not work? I mean sure, for a GTA, or some platformer (Ratchet & Clank) a really smart AI would make the games only that much more difficult. Just imagine trying to fight a boss that realizes your weaknesses and sits there and exploits them the whole game? Or imagine a cop on GTA that is smart enough to shoot you to death from behind a tree or from a roof, where you can't see him? But come on, isn't the goal to attain full realism in games? I think these are the next steps in the evolution of entertainment. What are your thoughts?

I think your idea of AI is to general. You have to understand that AI is based on pure logic. decisions based on pure logic will never be exactly the same as a human. Also, your use of non descriptive words like near-perfect arent specific enough to define much. by perfect do you mean a bot that makes the most logical decision? most human decision? Near-perfeict can mean alot of things. Lastly, if there were such a thing as a perfect AI it would be no fun to play against. Would you want a bot that can pick you off with a head shot from 2 miles away befor you can even dodge? I wouldnt. In my opinion if you want a bot thats more human you have to look at the reason why humans make the mistakes they make. I think the main difference between AI and humans is humans make decisions based on assumptions and AI makes decisions on what it knows as fact.