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Best Artificial Intelligence

As games become more and more lifelike in appearance, it's key that they become smarter as well. Artificial intelligence is more than just giving you a more challenging opponent. AI is also about creating realistic behaviors and decisions so that you remain locked in the illusion that you're battling a sentient being, rather than a soulless machine. We're on the cusp of a huge breakthrough in AI, with more and more computing power being made available to create believable opponents. But you don't have to wait for the next generation to battle some incredible foes right now.

Call of Duty 2

Developer: Infinity Ward
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360
ESRB: Teen
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Despite how many games have attempted to re-create the battles of World War II, Call of Duty 2 stands tall above virtually all of them thanks to the lifelike behavior of the dozens of friendly and enemy characters you'll be facing at every turn.

F.E.A.R.

Developer: Monolith Productions
Platform: PC
ESRB: Mature
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Ruthlessly efficient enemies will surprise you time and time again in F.E.A.R., a game whose shooting action is made all the better by the extremely challenging and surprisingly coordinated foes on the receiving end of your gunfire.

Forza Motorsport

Developer: Microsoft Game Studios
Platform: Xbox
ESRB: Everyone
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Forza puts most racing games (and most games in general) to shame with the artificial intelligence of the opponent racers. You can scale up the challenge to best suit your skill level, and whatever the case, you'll see other cars drive much more like real people than like mindless machines.

NBA 2K6

Developer: Visual Concepts
Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360
ESRB: Everyone
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Few basketball games have ever brought the sport to life quite like NBA 2K6, but that's not just because of the game's great looks. It accurately models the individual personalities and team tendencies of NBA players, making the action on the court a fantastic facsimile of what you'd expect from a real-life contest.

SWAT 4

Developer: Irrational Games
Platform: PC
ESRB: Mature
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Join a highly trained police force in SWAT 4 and rest assured your comrades have your back when the bullets start flying. Highly believable friendly and enemy AI do a lot to make SWAT 4 an excellent tactical shooter.

And the winner is... F.E.A.R.
Platform: PC
ESRB: Mature

Your typical opponent in a typical first-person shooter will kind of stand there and shoot at you. If you're lucky, your opponent might duck behind some cover. In F.E.A.R., the bad guys will knock tables and bookshelves over for cover and pin you down while a buddy runs up and tosses a grenade at you. Or they'll leap down from a ledge and flank you. Or they'll sneak behind you and shoot you in the back while you're busy fighting other soldiers. These guys are smart, tough, and ruthless, and they're the best AI soldiers we've ever battled, which is why F.E.A.R. features the best artificial intelligence of the year.