The point toward which I’m carefully meandering is that, unfortunately, a lack of bots has made otherwise good games fall by the wayside for me. Bots may not be as random or clever as human players can be, but they get the job done, and some games (particularly the Unreal Tournament series, but also Quake Wars, surprisingly) have fantastic AI that creates a perfectly enjoyable solo experience. Quake Wars is a fantastic game, but the kind of teamwork required for playing online is something I just don’t have in me. I learned a long time ago I’m not much of a team player, and I can’t be alone in not wanting to coordinate massive strikes.

I don’t have to worry about coordinating with other players, and I can lone-wolf it the way I like. If I play with bots, however, I can control how difficult the game is. From a technical perspective, I’m also vulnerable to Merciless Ping, God of Latency, and although my Radeon HD 4870 is more than happy to hold up its side of the bargain, there’s no accounting for how random an Internet connection can be.

Playing online usually means some combination of the following: griefers, cheaters, jerks, horrible sound macros, being told to 'learn to play noob' or an abbreviation thereof, and often just getting pulverized. While playing these games with friends and family is fun, and LAN parties are a blast, I simply don’t like playing with the usual online folks. The online gaming scene has really exploded over the past few years, but I’ve elected to stay by the wayside. I’m writing this because I can’t be the only person in the world who doesn’t mind-and is in fact perfectly content-playing with bots. Your follow-up, I’m sure: 'Well, if you play online, you’ll get better.' That’s true, but what if I don’t care? What if I don’t want to? What if I’m perfectly content hammering the bots in Quake Wars on Easy mode? Why don’t you like playing online?' Well, simply put, I suck. 'Dustin,' I can hear you say, 'most of these games are great because of their online component. However-and this is a big however-I almost never game online. And as I’ve gotten older and my attention span has waned (side note: Chrono Trigger is still awesome), my desire for hard-core shooting action has only grown. It’s fair to say that I love the first-person stuff. Some of my favorite games since I started really getting into PC gaming include Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2004, Rainbow Six Vegas (1 & 2), Doom 3, Quake 4, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Mass Effect.

Call of duty 2 bots