Kinect Voice Commands Planned for Dragon Age: Inquisition on 360, Xbox One

[BlameTheWizards]

Kinect Voice Commands Planned for Dragon Age: Inquisition on 360, Xbox One

The feature is expected to be similar to the squad commands used in Mass Effect 3 to order party members around the battlefield.

Bioware is expecting the Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions of its upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition to use the Kinect to give in-game commands. "We're expecting that Xbox 360 and Xbox One editions will ship with a Kinect-enabled voice command feature, just like Mass Effect 3 did," creative director Mike Laidlaw said in a recent interview with the Official Xbox Magazine.

Mass Effect fans may remember that the Xbox 360 version of the game allowed you to speak battle commands to squadmates as well as choose responses from the game's dialogue wheel. It's not yet clear what advantages, if any, the Xbox One's newer version of Kinect will give that console's version of Dragon Age.

The interview also mentions that the Inquisition team is experimenting with using the Xbox SmartGlass phone app with their new game."It needs to make sense, of course," producer Cameron Lee told OXM. "But we want Inquisition to be an experience you can take with you everywhere - to work, the commute home, the living room, bed."

What do you guys think of this latest development? Do you think Kinect voice commands will add anything to the Dragon Age experience?

Source: OXM

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[Redhawkmillenium]

Meh. No one came away from Mass Effect 3 talking about how fantastic the Kinect voice commands were.

 

[Absolutionis]

They took out the tactical pause-and-command feature from Dragon Age 1.

Now they're adding voice commands to Dragon Age:I with the requirements being a proprietary $100 microphone (and superfluous camera).

Seems like we're stepping backwards here. Remember when this game series was supposed to be the spiritual successor to Neverwinter Nights?

 

[Alpha Maeko]

"Alistair, shut up."

My first voice command. It's going to be grand.

 

[oldtaku]

Hilarity will ensue. If you're watching. If you're playing, frustration will ensue.

 

[Carrots_macduff]

the best thing about voice commands is the smug satisfaction you feel about not giving a damn about the kinect, when you hear your friends frustration at having to repeat voice commands over and over while voice chatting with them.

ahhhh sweet savory shadenfreude

 

[Redhawkmillenium]

They took out the tactical pause-and-command feature from Dragon Age 1.

Now they're adding voice commands to Dragon Age:I with the requirements being a proprietary $100 microphone (and superfluous camera).

Seems like we're stepping backwards here. Remember when this game series was supposed to be the spiritual successor to Neverwinter Nights?

Er, tactical pause-and-command never went away. Dragon Age 2 kind of messed with it though by locking the camera on whatever character you have selected, rather than how DAO (on PC) allowed you to zoom out to an isometric view and freely move the camera around. That was a step backwards. With DAI though, not only are they bringing back the ability to freely move the camera around, they don't lock it into an isometric view to do so; you can zoom out and move the camera around freely in 3 dimensions like you would in a strategy game like the Total War series. And you can do this on all platforms, not just the PC version. That's certainly a step forward IMO.

Also, there's no added cost to use the voice commands, on the Xbox One version at least, given that a Kinect is included with every XB1.

 

[Trishbot]

This remains a feature a feel a lot of people would rather they drop and focus their energies on adding or improving other elements of the game. Kinect certainly did not make ME3 suddenly better than before.

I wonder if this is a Microsoft thing, where they pay them to pimp the Kinect to help push copies on their systems (with that whole "better with Kinect" tag on it).

I do admit to enjoying watching other people yell at their TVs and get frustrated when it doesn't work.

 

[The_Darkness]

So... huh. DA:I is coming out on X360? Did not realise that - I thought I was going to have to get a new gaming rig for it. Good to know!

However, this news about kinect... I'm not thrilled, but mostly because I don't have a kinect and never intend to get one. I doubt it takes that much development time to input though, so I'm not particularly bothered either.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

SHOEHORN IN OUR USELESS HARDWARE GIMMICK!

When will they realize that people don't care about Kinect allowing them to yell at their TV? Whatever, not my problem anymore. Haven't even turned my 360 on since I got my computer.

 

[circularlogic88]

SHOEHORN IN OUR USELESS HARDWARE GIMMICK!

When will they realize that people don't care about Kinect allowing them to yell at their TV?

As soon as Microsoft stops throwing money at the publishers to try and legitimize the Kinect.

 

[-Dragmire-]

You know, even if the voice commands worked perfectly 100% of the time, I still wouldn't use them. Hearing my own voice while trying to immerse myself really takes me out of the experience.

 

[Genocidicles]

And why cant the same thing be accomplished with a simple microphone instead of a shitty motion control camera?

 

[Dominic Crossman]

It was crap on me3 and I put my money on it being crap on da3.

You know, even if the voice commands worked perfectly 100% of the time, I still wouldn't use them. Hearing my own voice while trying to immerse myself really takes me out of the experience.

Also this^^^
Only time will tell I guess.

 

[Mangod]

They took out the tactical pause-and-command feature from Dragon Age 1.

Now they're adding voice commands to Dragon Age:I with the requirements being a proprietary $100 microphone (and superfluous camera).

Seems like we're stepping backwards here. Remember when this game series was supposed to be the spiritual successor to Neverwinter Nights?

...there's no added cost to use the voice commands, on the Xbox One version at least, given that a Kinect is included with every XB1.

That's what he meant by $100 microphone. Granted, I've heard that the XBone has recieved a pretty hefty price dump recently, but at its release, the Kinect hiked the price of the Xbox One up to being a 100 dollars more expensive than its competitor. The Kinect isn't/wasn't "free"; it was $100 extra on top of the console that you couldn't opt out of.

You know, even if the voice commands worked perfectly 100% of the time, I still wouldn't use them. Hearing my own voice while trying to immerse myself really takes me out of the experience.

This is also very much true. I do not sound like a heroic leader of men or a grizzled military maverick; listening to my own voice issuing orders when playing a game about killing dragons will just take me right out of the experience.