Is Mass Effect Really Better With Kinect? |GiR|

GiR's Macca takes avlook at the Kinect features of Bioware's Mass Effect 3

[Godmars290]

Regardless that its not, MS has the money which "proves" that it is.

They have the money to make a round peg fit into a square hole.

[ArchangelMike]

'Better with Kinect' is just a tag line. Doesn't mean the game will actually be any better with Kinect.

[darthv72]

you do know a round peg will fit into a square hole....right?

I think you mean, make a square peg fit into a round hole.

[zgoldenlionz]

actually the shape doesnt matter at all the size does.

[BattleTorn]

@zgoldenlionz

That's what she said.

OT: when dealing with the same diameters, the saying is "making a sqaure fit into a circle"

[Wintersun616]

Mass Effect with Kinect has a feature that isn't available on other platforms, but whether voice control really makes the game better can be debated and is dependant on how well it is implemented and on the usefulness of voice control.

[darthv72]

what is it about the kinect mic that makes it different than the pseye mic? I havent been able to really narrow that down.

Nothing against kinect but to have voice support in one and not the other seems clearly (to me anyway) a marketing angle. MS wanted something to justify users to get kinect or specifically users who have kinect to buy the 360 version.

It reminds me of the joker levels in batman AA and how they arent available to the 360 version. We all know it can be done. From what i have seen it is very cool idea of ordering other characters to do things or scan stuff but voice recognition isnt the end all be all of buying this game.

If you are a fan of the series (which I am) the you get the game to continue the story. I have the previous 2 on 360 and will get 3 for 360 as well. Not because of kinect but because i generally like keeping games in a series on the same platform (if available).

[m23]

They've said that the only reason that they allowed Kinect voice support for the game is because they didn't have to put much work into it. Kinect already recognizes voice, so Bioware really didn't have to program a lot compared to what they would have with normal mics. Kinect is designed to take voice commands, so I think it was just the ease of implementing it that drove Bioware to support it.

BTW if you have Kinect you should try out the demo using it it actually works pretty well.

[IM_KINECTED]

From what I understand Kinect has voice recognition software and does all the work so you don't need to code anything extra to get it to work.

I don't know if you have a Kinect or not, but as a person who had an Eyetoy and Kinect, they are vastly, VASTLY different. Kinect has the best voice recognition/commands I've ever used. With Mass Effect it worked for me 100% of the time and I was talking very softly as to not sound like a fool.

I think people are kind of upset because it's a 360 only thing, but everything I've heard from Bioware seems to point to this not being able to be done with a simple headset.

I enjoyed the demo with Kinect and will use it when I play through the actual game, choices are great and I liked the feel of constant action without having to pause and setup my squad/weapons/powers

[darthv72]

thanks for the info. My kids pester me about kinect but we dont have one yet. Tax time perhaps.

[gamingdroid]

I want to add that voice recognition existed way before PC's was even popular. Back in the day when I had a Soundblaster 16, you would train the voice recognition software.

Does it mean the voice technology of those days can be applied today?

The point being, because it exist doesn't make it good and the Kinect Voice recognition is by far the best I have ever used.

Even on relatively powerfull cell phones, good voice recognition is done in the cloud. It's either huge dataset or massive processing power to get *accurate* result.

It's like saying well, the console can do 720p, why not 1080p, because they look the same from 20 feet away?!

It's relatively hard for users to quantify accuracy, but easy to quantify feature.

Can it be done on PC/PS3? Yes! Will it take a lot more work than on the 360 and potentially yield poorer results? Likely.

[IM_KINECTED]

I doubt you'll find many people in these part that think it's better with Kinect, but is Bioshock 3 better because of Move/3-D support? If you say yes to that question then you need to say yes to Mass Effect 3 and Kinect being better as well.

If you played the demo with Kinect like I did, then you realize it really immerses you into the game, you don't have to constantly pause the game to change weapons or assign tasks to your squad.

Also, you can talk quietly and it works 100% of the time, so no loud and crazy screaming required.

I've used, or attempted to use headsets for voice commands in the past, dating back to the NES and even Endwar, but they never worked very well and were rudimentary at best. Kinect's voice commands are more complex and actually work, so if you want to keep up the action and not have to pause the game a lot or if you want to feel like your actually part of the game, then yes it's better with Kinect. If it's not your thing then it's not and nothing will change your mind. Choices are great though and I'm glad people will at least have the choice to use the device to help enhance the experience.

[BattleTorn]

I didn't know Bioshock is going to feature Move!

I have to admit, I like "gimmicks". (ie 3D, motion)

I originally bought my first PS3 because I saw that ad with Kevin Bulter playing Killzone 3 with the Move-Sharpshooter. No joke.

And I usually keep Move compatible games, rather than trading them in, because I can show it to someone unfamilar with motion-control.

Same goes for Kinect. I usually always prefer Xbox, and have yet to get Kinect (because it doesn't have any compatible games even close to AAA-Move titles like KZ3/Socom4/Resistance3)

I will probably get Kinect just for Mass Effect 3.

I will probably buy Star Wars Kinect, just to try out the "gimmick".

Wrap your head around that; i guess i'm one of those gamers that are 'ruining it'.

[Machioto]

Sony has a voice recognition software.

[QuantumWake]

From what I've read from a couple of different people, Kinect actually works really great with ME3.

[baodeus]

It does. You can also try it out w/ Bing search. Man, it pick ups practically anything you say.

[sandman224]

Hell no, kinect if not for any game, unless its a dance game or a game specifically designed for the kinect. Its nice that they did incorporate it in the game for people who do own the kinect.