At E3 last year, I know I wasn't the only one who groaned when Microsoft announced that Mass Effect 3 would be "better with Kinect." They had a brief demo of how voice commands could be used with the game, but it was obvious that the full idea BioWare and Microsoft had behind implementing the Kinect was not fully realized. The game was about nine months away from release, so there's plenty of time for tweaking and adding…motion controls.
Fortunately for those of us who are not a fan of motion controls (me), BioWare demonstrated at CES that the Kinect controls for Mass Effect 3 will only use the voice command features of the Xbox peripheral.
The lamest of all of the voice commands is the ability to read out loud your chosen dialog option to signal Shepard to say his or her scripted line. Seriously, I don't want to hear me tell Shepard what to say. The voice actors sound ten times better than anything I could muster. The second lamest is the option to tell a door to open instead of simply pressing the A button. If you had to say, "Open Sesame," I'd be far more amused.
However, the idea to use the voice commands to order teammates where to go and who to shoot at as well as using voice commands to call up weapons and powers is brilliant. I don't mind the wheel feature for selecting powers and weapons, but man, how nice would it be to just say, "Assault Rifle," and Shepard swaps out weapons instantly? When it comes to using powers and healing the party, voice commands would be far easier and quicker to trigger, especially when you're trying to take cover and get 10 krogan off your butt at once.
None of the action will have to be paused, so the combat scenes can flow seamlessly without breaking your stride. All I can think of is how more smoothly playing on hardcore or insanity would be.
Aw crap…I may have just talked myself into seriously considering buying a Kinect.
[Source]
