Well...here are my thoughts on the CART AI. My thoughts on the rest of the
game can be found at The CART Precision Racing Playground at
[link lost in import]
The AI has its high and low points.
High Points-On road and street courses, the AI shines. Examples are really
the only way to convey how the AI performs, so here are some. I was in
second place trying to get around the leader, and I SWEAR he was much harder
to get around than the other cars were. It's possible I was imagining it,
but he seemed to be driving a line that was a little different from the
other AI cars, in that his line made it much more difficult for a car behind
him to pass. Another example of excellent AI is visible on any track, oval
or not. Lapped cars will move aside for you if you are on the lead lap. This
is one of the best things about the AI. You won't lose time if you're in a
battle for the lead and you come up on lap traffic. This is a great feature.
Another cool feature of the AI is that it is sometimes inconsistant. I
realize that this seems like a bad thing at first, but it makes sense when
you think about it. I followed Herta for 2 laps at Mid-Ohio, and on the
second lap, he took some of the turns a little wider than he had on the lap
before. This variation is a VERY good thing in that the AI does not become
predictable robots (as in ICR2). A final good thing about the AI cars is
that they will have accidents with each other, WITHOUT YOUR HELP!! This is
one of the most realistic features of the AI. If you've ever played Indycar
2 by Papyrus, you have probably noticed that for the most part in that game,
accidents do not occur unless you cause them. At Laguna Seca, I've seen
Parker Johnstone and Mad Max get together when Parker tried to squeeze by
Max, and Max turned into Parker because he didn't "see" him. I swear I had
nothing to do with it!! Overall, on roadcourses, the AI is very good and is
challenging to race against at the higher difficulty settings.
Low Points-One word. OVALS. I must say that I am fairly disappointed with
the AI on the ovals. Accidents between AI cars, while a good thing (as
described above), occur much too frequently. With a full field of cars,
every 3-5 laps a car will spin out. Unfortunatly, it will sometimes spin
into the center of the track, and will then get plowed by another AI car,
which will get hit by another AI car...and so on, until YOU come along and
hit a wall of indycars. This is an extreme case, and does not happen all of
the time, but it happens often enough to be annoying. Also on ovals, the AI
cars sometimes will slow for no reason in the middle of a straight. When
they stay up to speed on the ovals, and there are no major accidents, the AI
drives intelligently...but there are simply WAY too many accidents, and the
AI drivers have a few too many inconsistant behaviors. These problems are
currently all being addressed in a patch, and while they currently detract
from the game, they are far from totally damning. Unless you are planning on
ONLY racing on ovals, and never plan to download a patch for the game, you
will be able to live with the current shortcomings until the patch is
released..
