Response from Dan Hsu to Killzone AI controversy

[Smooth Groove]

Pretty nice of him to respond to the complaints but I doubt that the critics will change their minds. 


http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8366927&publicUserId=5379799


A lot of different message boards are blowing up over our E3 awards in the October issue of EGM (with Silent Hill 5 on the cover). Specifically, some people are crying foul over our decision to give Halo 3 the "Lil Award" for Smartest A.I. and Killzone 2 the award for Dumbest A.I.

Bias! Moneyhats! Fanboyism! Well, it's been getting so much attention, I decided to answer my own FAQ about this, to help clarify how we picked those two games.

A Microsoft game vs. a Sony game. How convenient.
OK, that wasn't really a question, but it's a legit comment. We didn't pick Halo 3 and Killzone 2 specifically to go against each other or to cause extra controversy. We voted as a staff (including the entire 1UP Network, which includes 1UP.com and GameVideos.com), and we honestly and independently came up with Halo 3 at the top of the list for best A.I. and Killzone 2 at the "top" for worst. We didn't even think of it as Microsoft vs. Sony thing until we realized that both games won their respective categories.

But is it fair to pick Halo 3 because you guys actually got a chance to play it? Versus Killzone 2, which was only on demo, played by the developers.
Good question, but no...our previous hands-on experience with Halo 3 (for our last cover story) did not factor into the voting. Very few of us actually played single-player Halo 3 when we did our cover story, and when I voted, I kept that game time out of mind for these awards. I based my best/worst A.I. votes purely on what was shown to me at E3...and Halo 3 and Killzone 2 were both on equal grounds there. Both were not playable by us, only played for us by their respective developers, and based on those E3 demos and those demos alone, we voted the way we did. I saw excellent A.I. from Halo 3 specifically from the E3 demo, and I saw an extreme example of bad A.I. from Killzone 2 (see below)...also at E3. That's why I voted for those two games for those respective categories.

But there's gotta be some other, lesser-profile games with worse A.I. than Killzone 2.
Based on what we've seen and what we voted on, totally fairly, Killzone 2 nabbed the award. Part of the problem is, the Killzone 2 showed some very noticeable flaws. It wasn't like the enemies were just standing around. Like we mentioned in the write-up, the bad guys were actually jumping out of cover to get *in* the line of fire. It's like they wanted to get shot. That alone, unfortunately, made Killzone 2 look worse (A.I.-wise) than it probably is.

So you guys hate Killzone 2, huh?
Shut up, you stupid FAQ man. The write-up in EGM greatly compliments Killzone 2 as a whole. We're just making fun of one specific thing: that whole "jumping out of cover" business.

OK, then you must hate Sony.
Heh, check out how many good awards the company picked up in the same feature. Oh by the way--this should be obvious, but in case you didn't know, moneyhats are mutually exclusive. You can't accept one from Microsoft *AND* Sony at the same time. It's in the contracts.

Oh by the way again--this should be obvious, but in case you didn't know, I was joking just now.

Isn't it unfair to compare a game that's still months away from release (Killzone 2) to a game that's almost finished (Halo 3)?
Oh, for sure, but that's part of the problem for any E3 judging...all games are at different points in their development. But we still have E3 awards in EGM. We still have our annual E3 opinionated guide in EGM. The industry even has its own E3 awards. Are all of them fair? No...not if you look at how far along each individual title is in its development. But then again, yes...the companies are putting these products out for the media to see, and as we've done many times in the past, we'll judge them (knowing full well they're incomplete games). So in the context of these being E3 games and E3 demos, we're treating them all equally and as fairly as possible.

[demi]

Controversy? There's controversy over this?

[Mupepe]

gaming is only embarassing when people act like this.

[Smooth Groove]

Dan Hsu is a tool.

Why?  I just know that he's a big time nerd because he talked about how it was a dilemma for him to hand over his 360 when he was held up.  That's pretty sad when you would think about risking your life to protect your acheivement points when you already got a wife and kid.  

[demi]

This is a GAF topic, post this on GAF instead

[Mupepe]

Dan Hsu is a tool.

Why?  I just know that he's a big time nerd because he talked about how it was a dilemma for him to hand over his 360 when he was held up.  That's pretty sad when you would think about risking your life to protect your acheivement points when you already got a wife and kid.  

fuck that dude.  i would do the same.

that is my 400 dollar fucking console and i put a lot of time into that.

YOU GON' SHOOT ME, BOY?  YA GOT IT IN YA, BOY?  STICK THAT MANCANNON IN MY ASS AND BLOW!

[Smooth Groove]

Dan Hsu is a tool.

Why?  I just know that he's a big time nerd because he talked about how it was a dilemma for him to hand over his 360 when he was held up.  That's pretty sad when you would think about risking your life to protect your acheivement points when you already got a wife and kid.  

fuck that dude.  i would do the same.

that is my 400 dollar fucking console and i put a lot of time into that.

YOU GON' SHOOT ME, BOY?  YA GOT IT IN YA, BOY?  STICK THAT MANCANNON IN MY ASS AND BLOW!

   What about your daughter, mupes?  You think she would ever forgive you for dying for a Xbox? 

[Mupepe]

She'd know I didn't go out like no bitch.

And she'd probably do the same for her Dora toys. 

Trust me, we are on the same page.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

any link to this stickup story?

[MrAngryFace]

Why do people trust Killzone 2, the follow up title to a mediocre effort? Halo if anything has more to go on.

[demi]

What's controversy is giving Psychonauts a good score. I don't even know who Tim Schafer is.

I just used my 7000th post on a Psychonauts bash. I had to do it. I still hate Psychonauts on my 7001st too.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I know all about the Game Informer issues, I mean the time when he was supposedly held up for his 360?

[Rman]

I can't even go to 1up.  Why can't that damn site ever load.

[border]

Considering how many barely-started piece of shit games get shown every year, I honestly doubt that Killzone had the worst AI of all the games at E3.  It's just a convenient punching bag to help stir up controversy, get press for the magazine, hits for the website, etc.

"Enemies jumping out of cover" isn't even that great of a complaint.  It's not like opponents in Gears of War or Halo stay behind cover all the time.  The gave GoW 9's and 10's and the AI there will charge towards you in a heartbeat.  But hey, these games wouldn't be any fun if the enemies turtled the whole time....it'd just be another piece-of-shit shooting gallery like Call of Duty.

[Himu]

Oh EGM. How the mighty hath fallen. EGM fell from their top spot when Dan Hsu said EGM was the Maxim of gaming mags. 

[bork]

Gaming mags were only great before the internet took over because we had no idea how full of shit they all were.

[bluemax]

Gaming mags were only great before the internet took over because we had no idea how full of shit they all were.

So true.

[hyp]

Gaming mags were only great before the internet took over because we had no idea how full of shit they all were.

So true.

i can't even think of how many shit games i bought in my youth due to "glowing" magazine reviews.  the internets is REAL TALK.

[Bloodwake]

Gaming mags were only great before the internet took over because we had no idea how full of shit they all were.

Hallelujah and amen. Seriously.

[ferricide]

now that i have been away from gaming journalism for like 10 minutes i am beginning to really realize how stupid it is to write things based on trailers. or at the very least, to base opinions on trailers.

le sigh.