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Game characters get smarter and less predictable (physorg.com)

Smarter and less predictable Game characters

Marooned Chic | July 13, 2008 | News | Playstation 3

Video games used to come preprogrammed with canned movements that expert players eventually could anticipate and figure out. But recent advancements in video game design — and new game consoles with dazzling computing power — have endowed computer-controlled characters with a sense of self-preservation and unpredictability not seen even a year ago.

NEW YORK (AP) — In the upcoming video game "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed," the evil Stormtroopers are smart enough to keep players guessing.

Throw something at the white-armored troopers, and they may toss a grenade back. Or they might just put their hands up. Or they could do something completely new, each time the game gets played.

he "Star Wars" game, which publisher LucasArts will show off at this week's E3 Media and Business Summit in Los Angeles, is just one of the games offering this advanced degree of realism. Game designers say this increasing sophistication is helping to put their medium on par with movies as a form of mainstream entertainment.

"I think you connect to these characters much more," said Torsten Reil, co-founder and chief executive of Britain's NaturalMotion Ltd., the company that developed technology used to breathe life into characters in the "Star Wars" game.

Called "euphoria," the technology generates animation on the fly, so each moment in a game is unique. The first game to feature it was Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s "Grand Theft Auto IV," whose April debut rivaled — and in dollar terms bested — blockbuster movie openings.

NaturalMotion grew out of research Reil and colleague Colm Massey did at Oxford University on the way animals and humans move. The resulting technology creates 3-D character animation in real time, simulating the way the body moves so it looks authentic.

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed [Wii, XBOX360, PSP, PS3, PS2, DS]

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Comments

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0 thumbs!
Demonfurby | July 14, 2008

Ahh, can't wait for Force Unleashed. This is just getting me more pumped
-1 thumbs!
tallteen86 | July 14, 2008

Meh, what I've seen of the Force Unleashed enemy character behavior hasn't been all that special.

The troopers madly trying to grasp at eachother? To me, it looks more like the hands are simply just sticking to whatever they come in contact with >_>

Still, better than a lot of games, I suppose...

Well, maybe I'm out of date on the Force Unleashed gameplay, maybe they have been improved....Though I have my doubts about how much -_-

Still, the game looks to be fun.
0 thumbs!
z fighter | July 14, 2008

Honestly, TFU looks great. Troopers grabbing on to walls and ceilinggs to avoid being pulled by the Force? Awesome.
0 thumbs!
Marshal Loss | July 14, 2008

That sounds really, really good. The sound of a challenge like that really gives me the energy to get off the soccer field and back onto the couch. Huzzah? XD.
1 thumbs!
HisServant77 | July 14, 2008

Excellent! I can't wait for this game to come out
-1 thumbs!
Drogo Baggins | July 14, 2008

I think this game looks awesome. I wish the story of the movies were as dark and sinister as this game's story looks.

I actually hated the Star Wars movies, but I think this game looks awesome.
0 thumbs!
nanobyte | July 15, 2008

I wonder if Free Radical can use Euphoria in Battlefront 3, that would be worth seeing with more enemies on screen and some serious guns. Stoormtroopers jumping out the line of fire and going into frenzy attacks.