Slashdot links to a game currently in development, called The Crossing.  It is based around the idea of having the enemies controlled by other humans.  In the single player, story mode, you have missions to accomplish, and occasionally skirmishes to fight in.  In the mission mode, you will likely be on your own, but with a chance another human may take over one of the AI characters, a la ‘Agent Smith’.  In the skirmish mode, those playing single player games take the roles of Elites, and the purely mulitplayer people take on the role of Skirmishers.  These skirmishes take place in the normal flow of the story, but with a certain difference from than the normal AI rushes most will be used to. 

When playing multiplayer without any Elites around, there are Team Deathmatches to play, as well as Capture the Flag, and Land Conquests, so you won’t get bored if there are no single player Elites to beat on.  If you think that is pushing the envelope a bit, they have incorporated hand to hand combat similar to Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, not just the running around swinging a knife wildly in CS:Source type.  Plus they are incorporating grappling hooks and wall climbing spikes, booby traps and more.

This game won’t be likely to sit in the middle of the road, it will be either awful or awesome, and if the latter it could have a huge impact on games in the future.  Read the article, as it is impossible to explain this concept quickly.

“In the simplest sense, story missions are single-player shooting with an exception: Naturally intelligent human opponents take the place of A.I. There are two types of players: Elites and skirmishers. Elites are gamers playing the game in story mode. They’re beefed up, heavily armored, and heavily armed. They have to be able to hold their own against a swarm of skirmish players. Skirmishers are gamers who typically play on multiplayer maps: well-trained, rank-and-file soldiers playing primarily to have some quick fun and increase their rank through defeating the occasional Elite. Skirmish players can also invade story maps and ‘possess’ A.I.s ala Agent Smith in The Matrix.”

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