Okay, as most of you know, I've been playing The Orange Box this weekend, and today I decided to try out Team Fortress 2. Well, since I'm not an Xbox Live Gold member, I can't play it online. I had hoped there were computer-controlled bots in the game, so that I could play it offline, but none were to be found. This makes that entire portion of the package useless to me

This is something that has bothered me for a long time now in other many games too. Not everyone likes to play online or has a high speed internet connection, so online gaming just isn't an option for a lot of people. I fall into the former catagory most of the time. While I do like to play online with people I know, I simply don't like playing against strangers. To me, playing against a stranger online is no different than playing a bot, so why not just play offline instead? With more and more single player shooters becoming shorter due to devs focusing on online multiplayer, I feel that a lot of us offline gamers are getting the short end of the stick. 

There have been some excellent examples of how bots can really add a lot of fun to a multiplayer-styled gamefor offline players. For instance, I loved playing Unreal on my PC years ago, not because of the single player champaign (which I really didn't care for), but for the game's deathmatch bots. Playing against them was a fun, intense, arcade-like experiance that I had a lot of fun with for months. I went on to buy Unreal Tournament for PC as well, and I was impressed with how much they improved both the gameplay by having a complete offline tournament mode and the bots A.I. This made for a fantastic gaming experiance for me. For a more recent example, Perfect Dark Zero has offline bots, and I find myself consistantly going back and playing that game's various deathmatch modes.

So, what's your opinion on offline bots in modern, multiplayer-styled games? Yea or nay?

Yodariquo said:

Grammar note: Yea or nay

 Okay, grammar police, I edited my post.  

Rare needs to release Perfect Dark on 360 . . . now!

Going by the respones so far in this thread, it appears that most people like bots. So why are they not a required feature in all multiplayer games? 10 years ago, they were required. Now, despite the advancements in AI and computational power, they are seen as an afterthought that most devs no longer care about. In this gaming generation, I have only seen one game that has included bots: Perfect Dark Zero. And that is a shame. 

Ravenprose said:

Archangel3371 said:

Perfect Dark would be a "perfect" fit on XBLA and it wouldn't surprise me at all to see them do it.


As for bots sure put them in. I can't see why anyone would be against at least having the option available. Gears of War 2 has bots for it so you can play multiplayer offline and it works great. Personally though no matter how good bots may be in a game they always pale against playing with human opponents. I don't care whether it be friend or stranger I always prefer playing with or against human players.

Gears of War 2 has bots? I did not know that. Did Gears of War have them too? I thought PDZ was the only one. Reviewers don't usually mention if a game includes bots, so it's hard for me to tell.

Yarcofin said:

Even the James Bond games had some half-decent AI bots... it's not that hard.

Personally I won't buy a game that's "online only"

Hell even Metroid Prime Hunters, a DS game has bots! 

Ravenprose said:

Iga_Bobovic said:

Yarcofin said:

Even the James Bond games had some half-decent AI bots... it's not that hard.

Personally I won't buy a game that's "online only"

Hell even Metroid Prime Hunters, a DS game has bots! 

 I actually hated that game. Not because of the game itself which was very good, but because the stylus controls killed my hands.

Yep had the same problem, but I have a DS Fat. I used the thumb strap, but it does not matter it kills your hands.  

Coopersville said:

Ravenprose said:

Gears of War 2 has bots? I did not know that. Did Gears of War have them too? I thought PDZ was the only one.

Also: Unreal Tournament III, Shadowrun, Left 4 Dead, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, Quake Wars, Far Cry Instincts: Predator...

  I guess I'm pretty stupid. I'm out of the loop on all of those games. I forgot all about Unreal Tournament III. Nobody ever talks about it, and I didn't know it still had bots which is cool. Left 4 Dead is certainly another possibility. I'll wait until both are much cheaper, though. Sadly, the rest of those games don't appeal me. It's too bad Halo 3 doesn't have bots; I could've gotten into that one.