Black Ops 3 will "overhaul" the series' AI

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The problem with churning out a COD every year is that it's hard to do anything but make a game. That's why COD shifted to a three studio set up, with Infinity Ward, Treyarch and Sledgehammer each getting three years to make an instalment. Next up is Black Ops 3 from Treyarch, which is using that extra time to "overhaul our entire AI system".

Speaking in the upcoming issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, Treyarch boss Mark Lamia is clear that the extra development time has been instrumental to the changes: "Without a three- year cycle, we wouldn’t have been able to take the kind of risks that we took on this game, frankly" he says. "We would not have been able to overhaul our entire AI system, which supports the kind of engagements in an open play space like we have". (They're also planning to "break the rules" with Black Ops 3's multiplayer.)

A robot, yesterday.

You see, robots behave differently to people: "human AI needs to look smart" explains Lamia, "it needs to take cover and take opportunities to shoot at you". Robots on the other hand? Not so fussed. "They’re not as worried about their own self-perseveration," he says. So that means an enemy that's not too precious about incoming bullets or having bits blown off. Having that style of enemy "introduces a lot of new variety [of gameplay] that we’ve never had before" says Lamia and, when combined with vehicles and human soldiers, allows Black Ops 3 to do "more complex AI interactions" than the series has had before. Mark talks more about Black Ops 3's robot army here.

The new issue of Official PlayStation Magazine is on sale on Friday the 8th. You can buy a copy here or subscribe to future issues.

Leon Hurley
Leon Hurley
Managing editor for guides

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for guides. I also write reviews, previews and features, largely about horror, action adventure, FPS and open world games. I previously worked on Kotaku, and the Official PlayStation Magazine and website.