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

[godofallu]

Is everyone forgetting that R63 had voice controls and it DIDN'T USE KINECT.

You can have voice controls without using Kinect, remember Endwar (ok bad point since that game failed). Still Kinect is supposed to exist for motion controls, which suck.

Make the voice thing work through a mic and i'll happily tell my squad to open-breach-and clear.

 

[airrazor7]

I'm playing on the PC so the Kinect crap doesn't matter to me anyway, but I like what I see!

By the way, is it just me or does Mordin's voice sound different?

Oh don't you worry. M$ is already working on selling its kinect gimmicks to PC players. Modders have already been programming it on PCs so its just a matter of time before the next expansion of WoW or the next big PC hit is used to feature the thing.

I noticed the same thing about Mordin's voice. Michael Beattie providing the voice for Mordin in ME2 was one of my favorites. IMO, Mordin singing the gilbert and sullivan parody was the best part of the game. Another voice that stood out to me was Zaeed's. My favorite line from him is "Let's get it out of the way so we can focus on being big goddamn heroes." I could listen to either of those two characters talk all day long.

Whoever the new actor doing Mordin isn't bad but it sounds as if he's trying too hard. Also, I place Beattie in the same category with Mark Hamil. No one is going to do a better Mordin than the Beattie just like no one is going to do a better Joker than Hamil because it's as if his voice created Mordin as Hamil's voice created/embodied the Joker.

 

[Daniel_Rosamilia]

Um...
Am I the only one who gets linked to the Minecraft Kinect article?
Also, I wasn't a fan of Mass Effect, but this still sounds a bit on the stupid side.

 

[Warachia]

Hey Jhon, you do know that the link on the front page goes to the Minecraft story instead of this one right?

 

[Frotality]

kinect being used for pointless dribble....pointless dribble that doesnt even require kinect, voice commands are old news.

damn is EA desperate to shoehorn kinect into everything they can. as well as pointless combat rolls to make it even MORE like gears....will ME3 have ANYTHING of its own new, or is it just an amalgamation of marketing gimmicks now? ive heard nothing else announced about this game that isnt an attempt to appeal to the GoW fanbase and/or saying "no really, its still an RPG though, honest!". the only announcement thats positive AT ALL is the introduction of the omni-tool stabby interface, if only because its something new thats not ripped from gears.

this game is going to be ruined by trying to appeal to everyone at once. and by ruined i mean suck but still do really well.

 

[Shadesong]

Well I guess it's better than flailing your arms around like a wild baboon, but I still don't think screaming at the TV is much better.

 

[RevRaptor]

Meh, I have a kinnect (in NZ every xbox comes with the stupid thing) still haven't unwrapped it, this ain't going to make me change my mind. I doubt I'll ever have a use for the stupid thing. a stupid gimmick for a stupid gimmicky thing.

 

[Jesus Phish]

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.

Not if they died on you. I think Mordin may have been one of the few I didn't save the first time around, which is the import file I'll be using.

I don't see how this couldn't end up on PC and PS3 with using a microphone headset, other than them being paid to make the feature Kinect Exclusive.

 

[Still Life]

I am glad that it is something that isn't as intrusive as whipping your arm to cast fire balls. If I can split the cost with my sisters, I'll try out Mass Effect while they dance central.

You have the best avatar!

OT:

I think the kinect functionality for ME3 is a good thing, seeing how they're trying to implement it. It won't detract in any way from the game, and is simply an option based upon personal preference.

Can't wait for ME3 -- shaping up to be totally awesomesauce.

 

[ufoheel]

The point of this isn't to get you to buy kinect, it's showing you that "Hey, we see you already bought our nifty piece of hardware. Look at this AWESOME game that supports kinect!"

 

[Umenrakh]

Console games have been using voice commands since 2003's Rainbow Six 3, it's nothing new. Did everyone forget about Tom Clancy's Endwar that came out last year and could played solely with voice commands?

And reason we don't "converse" with our computers has more to do with a lack of sentient AI capable of responding and not a lack of voice recognition software.

And 3d has been around for decades, but Avatar still looked banging (even if all the other digitized 3d movies don't). The idea is a good one at its core, but technology and implementation need to improve to make it viable, that's what I'm hoping will happen in ME3. or at least some time soon.

As for the second part- yeah, that's true (although personally I think the main problem is actually teaching computers to comprehend language), but am I the only one who likes to see steps being taken towards that eventual goal?

 

[babyhenchy1]

The motion and voice stuff they showed for Future Soldier was pretty interesting. I enjoyed the gunsmith mode and while the motion control with the Kinect looked a bit odd, it didn't seem too bad.

As far as Mass Effect goes, it looks like the stuff they're doing for the 360 won't be enough to ruin the game on the other platforms.

It won't ruin the game on the 360 either. You don't have to use the Kinect.

 

[Kavachi]

It doesn't matter what they do, the console version will not live up to the PC version. It never does with Bioware ^^ So spend that extra 200 you save from not buying Kinect and upgrade your video card

 

[Metalrocks]

wondering how this will work for the pc. and if we have the option not to use the voice control. i still prefer selecting the powers for the team and press a button to point my team where they should go. hope they will say something about the pc version too for a change. hope my graphic card can hold up
but well, lets wait and see.

 

[Omega Deuse]

I'm a bit disappointed. The idea of using voice controls to interact with characters out of combat and give orders in combat is great. Unfortunately the way they seem to be presenting it that's not what you're really doing. All they're using it for is a glorified action button. You still need to have you're cursor designating where you want them to do what ever, which is understandable (if annoying), but the fact that in dialog it's just being used to select from a radial menu calls it out as a gimmick. That's also probably the biggest break in immersion. If you're using a button to select his dialog it's ok for him not to read it verbatim since since you're just selecting a path not actual lines and the level of disconnect built into a button press is the same one you're using for the rest of the game (which also doesn't have him copying you verbatim) but with voice control you're essentially reading his lines, which is allot more immersive and thus a lot more immersion breaking when he doesn't follow through with what you say or repeats something with a drastically different wording.

As is, I'd rather not use the voice controls, which is sad.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

oooh, voice commands for squadmates sounds badass.

...but I don't have a Kinect. Hell, I don't even have a 360.

Ah well, not like it really matters that much.

 

[Lonan]

I'm very disappointed, but it's understandable that it would be extremely difficult to make Kinect work for an advanced shooter such as Mass Effect 3. I was really hoping I could use my arms to aim, not just a slight movement of the fingers.