E3: Kinect Voice-Powers Mass Effect 3 and Ghost Recon

[John Funk]

E3: Kinect Voice-Powers Mass Effect 3 and Ghost Recon

Motion controls may be out, but voice controls are in.

Last week, we reported that BioWare's Mass Effect 3 team had been joking about Kinect functionality [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110650-BioWare-Devs-Probably-Joke-About-Mass-Effect-3-Kinect] in the sci-fi shooter. As it turns out, ME3 will support Kinect after all - just not in the "flap your arms" way most of us were imagining.

Microsoft revealed at its E3 2011 press conference [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110673-Microsoft-E3-2011-Press-Conference] that Mass Effect 3 would utilize Kinect's voice control during combat and dialogue scenes. During conversations, the player can simply speak Shepard's lines instead of selecting them, though one can only imagine that this would be a bit awkward if your Shepard is the opposite gender.

In combat, though, the Kinect voice control seemed much more intuitive. You could bark orders for your squadmates - ordering Liara to move up and perform a specific attack, or ordering everyone into cover.

Kinect voice controls will also be featured in Ubisoft's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The "gunsmith" mode, which allows players to customize their weaponry, will allow a user to kit out their gun with gestures and voice controls. Phrases, like "optimize for close combat," will also work.

Ubisoft said that every Tom Clancy going forward will also use this voice recognition technology. No word on how it will work for PS3 or PC versions of the games.

Read our E3 2011 Microsoft liveblog here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110673-Microsoft-E3-2011-Press-Conference].

See all our coverage directly from the show floor. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/conferences/e3_2011]

Permalink

 

[IamQ]

I saw the demo of it. Surprisingly good actually.

 

[AgentBJ09]

I had a feeling they would go the 'voice-activate' route like the Tom Clancy games.

Glad to see it's true in fact.

 

[Zhukov]

Umm... that sounds... odd. Not bad exactly, just odd. Call me set in my ways, but talking to my TV would feel awkward. Plus it would brutally break any sense of immersion of its knee with a sickening crack.

But hey, it's not the end-of-days scenario that was suggested when the news first broke.

...

Eh. I dunno. I'm on a PC anyway, so it's personally irrevelent.

EDIT: Here we go. Video for all. A bit of marketing wank followed by a glimpse of actual dialogue and gameplay, all smeared with a generous amount of Kinect turd.


You know what? Fuck the Kinect. This has much more interesting stuff in it.

Liara is back. Whoo!
Mordin is back. Whoo!
Garrus is back. Eh, sure, why not. Plenty of people like him.
Female Krogan. Hidden from sight. Oh, you coy bastards.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

Are you kidding me?
I watched a chunk of the Microsoft Press confrence on G4, and saw this part. It is absolutely pointless.
Yeah, maybe it will be slightly easier to command your squad, because I recently bought ME2 for Xbox, and that is my biggest problem.

But for what they showed with FW- That is just completely pointless. I could just easily move the custimization option with my controller, I don't need to waste 250 bucks on a kinect.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

Does the "Kinect" hardware even have any sound components at that? I thought it just has a few cameras mainly...

It has a microphone, which if you play online at all and have heard one in action, it makes you realize, they pick up every goddamn sound in that person's house/neighborhood.

The demos made it seem pretty smooth though, given they are in such a big area and the crowd was going off occasionally. If you're in a quiet enough house, it'll work fine.

 

[Gitty101]

Meh - not worth the £100 plus for Kinect XD

 

[Frapple]

Did you not watch it? There's obviously motion controls in Ghost Recon!

 

[Zhukov]

I saw the demo of it. Surprisingly good actually.

Where did you see it?

What mine of information is being hidden from me?

 

[Frenger]

So that's what ME3 and kinect will do.

But wouldn't a headset work for voice-commands? Nevermind, probably more clever than that. At least we don't have to flail our arms around. I'm cool with this.

 

[scorptatious]

It seems like all the ME3 doomsayers have gotten worked up over nothing.

Anyway, this seems like an odd feature, but as long as it isn't required to play the game, I don't really care.

 

[cgentero]

This is how I've always felt Kinect should be used i.e. to augment the controller rather than replace it. Looking forward to ME3, would have been cool if a Star Wars game used both a controller and then Kinect for force abilities. The Xbox 720 should come with both a controller and Kinect

 

[Fappy]

This isn't enough for me to buy Kinect, though it does look cool. I'd like to play a "no pause" playthrough of ME3 where I never go to the power wheel (try to only use hotkeyed powers for Shepard) and give my squadmates orders in real time. Don't really care too much for its use in conversations though... unless we're talking about flirting dialogue >

 

[MCDeltaT]

Hmmmmm time to think up some Mass Effect pick-up lines.

 

[IamQ]

I saw the demo of it. Surprisingly good actually.

Where did you see it?

What mine of information is being hidden from me?

Found a live stream. Google it! Use teh interwebz!

 

[cynicalsaint1]

I like the sounds of that actually. I was a little uncertain of the idea of adding Kinect support to ME3, but it sounds like they're doing it in a way that makes sense for the game. I mean being able to give voice commands for combat sounds useful since it was always a little awkward before.

My only worry is about how well it will work - I've noticed that that when using Kinect for voice commands in Netflix is my commands tend to get ignored during noisier parts of the movie.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Is it sad that using voice command to make Liara cast Singularity was the coolest thing shown at the Xbox conference? Because I think it's very very sad.

I was literally groaning to myself through that half hour of awful Kinect shovelware.

 

[AngryMongoose]

And they can't do this with the revolutionary new control system known as a microphone? Which comes with every xbox as standard?

 

[Methos12]

What a waste of time and effort to make an unnecessary system most people won't even use. if anyone thinks voice commands will trump reliable controller input I'd like some of that shit you're smoking. I don't know what the hell Microsoft was doing with this horrible panel. Just plain horrible.