Gran Turismo 5 AI Beauty

Well latly I have been playng one of my favorite racing games Gran Turismo 5. Sure it has been out for 1 1/2 month and now that I have played it for that long, its beautys are real hard to ignore now.

However what I didnt realize before was its brilliant AI. Sure sure..the reviews said the AI is too simple and then there are the videos on YouTube that show AI Fails. However that would not be the case if you really play the game for a bit.

I am currently a level 21 in A-Spec and a 6 in B-Spec so chances favor the AI still hasn´t hit full potential against me yet but I do already notice that it acts very realistic opposed to what people claim about it.

First, its not dumb or tied to a racing line. Iv had the AI take diffrent approaches at turns, some over shoot, some brake too early. Just like real life, drivers make mistakes when taking turns. Also they do try to avoid crashing into you. Of course most videos show crashes right after or on a turn. I have noticed that AI does try to avoid you but sometimes the programming prioterizes taking the turn perfectly over dodging you. Also I thnk its hard to dodge a crash sometimes comng out of a turn with full accelartion. They also will try to overtake when the oppurtunity arises both in straitways and turns. If you notice on the right side of the HUD while racing, the AIs Positions will be changing constantly troughout the race thus proving that they dont line up and parade around the track.

Which leads to my second observation. The AI behaves more like humans than Machines. To understand the full beauty of this concept you must play B-Spec. In B-Spec, when viewing any racer a bar at the bottem of the screen tells you how their holding up in the race. If their playing it cool...if they feel they are beng pressured, and if they go aggresive trying to catch up to someone. Ther personalty and over all performance is really affected by their mood. If there in the red..sure they will speed up and try to overtake but at the same time they start making mistakes just like in real life. If they are in the blue, they will take things slowly and insure that no mistakes are made. Their mood can change in a flash depending on their current situation.

This is not restricted to B-Spec but can also be seen in A-Spec. (You just have to be driving a car that they can match, your not gonna get to see them if your going too fast...which is why I reccomend you play Arcade Mode with Pro AI and use an Arcade Only Car to enjoy the trill.) Iv had AIs panick in front of me as I tail them using drafting and waiting for the perfect opening to make my move and over take them then they over shoot the next corner and go off the track. (Put Mechanical Heavy Damage On to resist the temptation of ramming them.) Another good example is one compleltly messing up because I passed him and on the next turn he sped up and took the Inside but didnt brake early enough on the turn and off he went off the track.

Also they dont react like this around you only. Some of the replays I saved to take pictures of my tuned up car a minute ahead of the pack has some intresting duels bewteen the AI drivers. They fight each other vigurously and I can say I saw a 4 car crash all because 1 of them decided to take overtake 3 guys in one corner.....I did not end nicly..especially with Heavy Damage on..they were all in the pits next lap.

Ok final observation of AI is their strength. They have 2 strengths...Physical and Mental...Once the Physical starts running out, their control over their car starts to diminish. (In order to view this you will have to race a very long race. A 35 lap race in Suzuka Crcuit should be enough.) Not that I have a problem with it...except when one of them your about to overlap fails at taking every corner correctly and spins out on the track making a block and you have to be carfull passing him due to the heavy damage on. (That 35 Suzuka Race....yea I came n 3rd thanks to one of the weak AI spinning out and I didnt dodge him. Pit stop made me go from 2nd to 3rd and trust me, the leading AIs in Pro mode are very very hard to catch up to. I saved the replay and will post it up on Youtube when I get the chance.) Now the Mental strength starts draining when either a tense situation arises or their physical strength. Once it starts depleting, they will further start makng mistaks shuch as incorrect angle on turns and either brake too early or too late.

Well thats about it for my observations. Sure sure, I still have a lot to go before hitting Level 40 in A-Spec and B-Spec but even so, the AI really is beautiful . You just have to play the game and observe them. And if you don´t believe me then do what I recommended and you will notice that the AI isnt dumb and static like many have claimed it to be. Hopefully I can get my replay up (need a capture card or else quality is gonna suck due to off screen recording.) Anyway if I do I will make another blog with the video in it. Reason why im not dong it now is that I am out of town. Well till next time fellow reader.

PART 2 is now up.
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