D
DArtagnan
Guest
.. What? Have you ever played San Andreas? There's nothing about the auto generated exploration and generic AI in Oblivion that trumps San Andreas. There are actually unique locations there, and while the police may be morons, they're not omnipresent like the ridiculous guards of Oblivion. Those guards are among the worst examples of AI I've ever seen. It's horrible.
Yes, I've played San Andreas. I'm not talking about geography - but about actually exploring the environment - including the ability to enter every location and find some secrets.
IIRC - you could only enter a few buildings in SA - and almost everything was just a building texture. You rarely came upon anything unique you could pick up or interact with in any way.
I consider that to be very boring.
As for the Radiant AI - I think the issue is how they tried to market it. It was supposed to be this super advanced AI - and people apparently expected HAL like behavior.
But if you look it at without the hype - it really WAS very sophisticated - and though you'd come across a ton of weird and inconsistent behavior - it was one of the first serious attempts at a simulating human behavior within a relatively free environment. I was quite fascinated looking at how NPCs roamed the town - and got back home, sitting down to eat - and practicing their skills.
The non-scripted nature of those things was kinda cool.
As for the guards - that wasn't an AI issue, really. It was a design concession in an attempt to balance crime and thievery. Their AI was much more sophisticated - which is evident if you use one of the popular mods that modify it.