And that software comes from Microsoft and works only with Kinect. Which is why things are the way they are.

The voice commands for ME3 are powered by Microsoft's Kinect software though, which is why BioWare can't simply use it outside of there. And it probably would need some heavy tweaking to work properly anyway.

That's Bioware's problem, because they don't need to use Kinect libaries to make voice commands work with everything else. I'm not taking shots at MS or Kinect if you haven't noticed yet.  The feature itself is of course cool for console players since console players don't have keyboards to macro things or keybind all sorts of commands to. I wouldn't use it even if they had it on PC since pressing a key or button is faster than voice commands.

I'm not saying you were taking shots at them, I'm just saying that apparently, BioWare isn't interested in putting a lot of ressources into making it work on other platforms where it isn't as easy. I'm just telling you why things are the way they are at the moment.

There are several reasons why I think this is rubbish.

1) It's clearly just shoehorning the Kinect into the game somewhere purely for the ability to say 'ME3 has Kinect support!'

2) Voice recognition has never been able to work smoothly over a variety of accents, unless MS has nailed it (which I doubt) it's not going to be reliable

3) It doesn't actually add anything to the game, it just gives slightly different and generally less easy or effective ways of doing things that already exist.


Also the entire 'think of yourself as the devil/angel on the shoulder' thing, aren't you meant to think of yourself as Shepard - isn't that what 'immersion' is all about?



So yeah, colour me sceptical about this use of Kinect in ME3.

1) It doesn't seem that way to me, it seems like it's generally going to make the game more immersive, which is something BioWare is aiming for in the first place.

2) No one has been complaining spotty voice recognition from the languages Microsoft support at the moment. We'll see if that changes when they launch the next batch of supported languages.

3) Less easy or effective? It looks way faster than going through a bunch of menus for giving your squad commands, not to mention hellishly more immersive. The storytelling aspect might not be easier or faster, but it has potential to be much more immersive I think. And it's not like you need good response time for that...

I found the section that touched on this in the interview between Geoff Keighley and Don Mattrick on GTTV revealing. Watch the video here (the relevant section is between 2.45 and 3.02, but there is other good stuff in there). In short, Don makes it pretty clear that a mic could do the job just as well (which, obviously, it could).

So, Microsoft, in their drive to promote Kinect, are presumably limiting the function to Kinect only (I kinda still hope this isn't the case). Which, if true, is a shame as it would be awesome if a broader base of 360 players could also use the function, but understandable as Microsoft want to sell more Kinects. In short, it seems Microsoft are stinging their own Kinect-free customers here, who already all have mics, and I think that's a bit shitty. It's just voice control, after all. It's not that big or that clever. If SingStar can do it, I can't see any reason why any game shouldn't be able to employ it.

That aside, the function itself appears to be one of the least useful I could imagine for ME (which is one of my favourite games, by the way). For example: pressing a button is quicker and easier than saying something like, 'Make the sexxors with me.' Talking is slower and unintuitive (especially when those onscreen don't repeat what you've just uttered). I'm pretty sure I'll never use it (just like I don't use voice control in SingStar, even though it works really well).

Voice commands for combat are potentially more useful, but completely lack fine control, and could potentially be useless in practice (how could I command Miranda to Warp the 2nd heavy weapon guy on the right on the gantry at the other side of the battlefield? It's too complex a target). There are simply better games to integrate this sort of tech. Here it feels tagged on and gimmicky, only employed to allow Microsoft to add the BEST WITH KINECT banner.

My Kinect is highly unlikely to be used for this. Give me decent integration of Kinect's capabilities, please, not gimmicks.

What could actually be interesting if done well is kinect control of techs/biotics.

I'm going to call you out on these. I think your enthusiam for the tech is perhaps blinding you to some obvious flaws.

1) I will give you this. It could be more immersive. I doubt it will be in practice, but it certainly could be.

2) The Kinect often fails to get one of my voice commands correct. It is not 100% accurate at all. Certainly nowhere near as accurate as pressing A.

3) It will be very much slower. Let me explain why it is in two important ways:

Assume the order I want to give is for Tali to arm a Shotgun. This is as simple an order as I can imagine. Choices for this are:

i) Say 'Tali: Shotgun'.

ii) Press LB and select the Shotgun.

The first option, i), not only takes longer in practice, as it takes more time to utter the words clearly than it does to select the shotgun (which takes a fraction of a second once practiced), but it also takes far, far longer in-game. During play, option i) takes a second or two, during which time you wil be shot, or the state of the battlefield may even have changed; option ii), by comparison, is instantaneous, as the game pauses while the order is sent.

In short, voice commands are always slower. More immersive, probably, but much slower, and also considerably less accurate. And I don't just mean in terms of recognising quickly uttered phrases (which it will not always do as I mentioned in 2 above, especially as voices will frequently be excited), but I mean for accurately targetting bad guys as I mentioned in my previous post.

That all said, perhaps it will work in a way I simply don't expect. However, having played many games with voice recognition, both good and bad, I kinda doubt it.

... aim at them?

I have said it before, and will likely say it again, that even if it is only a small integration like this it is still increased incentive. And if in the end you see that there are dozens or even hundred of games that play better or even require Kinect that interest you then you are more likely to buy it... ofcourse when I say 'you' I am using it objectively. This is pretty much the philosophy Microsoft are following.