Are you being cheated!?

We all know the story. You're playing a game against the computer and something happens to make the computer be winning. What do you do? You accuse the computer of cheating. Any many times it appears that the computer reall IS cheating! But we can't be sure. We've launched a special investigation to find out!

Games like LotusII don't really count because the game isn't based on position. Except when two players are playing. However, games like Xtreme racing (reviewed this issue) do seem to cheat! Many-a-time, I have seen one of my opponent cars go straight through a block on the Forbidden Castle levels.

Many a time I have seen the computer cars never need to slow down, and infact appear to be going slower than me, but still win! There's certainly no reason why developers wouldn't put code to allow the computer players to cheat, but why would they want to if it would only infuriate the player.

It wouldn't be realisic if they didn't cheat says Neil Bothwick of Amiga ISP Wirenet. I suppose its actually true. You can't really imagine the cars of XTR going round corners actually slowing down beforehand can you? Rather than make them slow down, just give them infinite grip.

Of the research I did conduct, the general consensus was that games do infact cheat, but if they didn't, it wouldn't really be a challenge to play the game.

So what do the difficulty levels on such games do? Do they change how good the players car is, or do they change how much the computer cheats? I would have to go with the latter.

Anyone got any thoughts on this subject? Send them to the usual address (woa@trogsoft.freeserve.co.uk)