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One of Halo Anniversary's Inoffensive Kinect Hooks Revealed

Want to switch between the visuals without hitting a button? No? Well, fine.

Switching between visual styles is as simple as clicking a button or talking to your Kinect.
Switching between visual styles is as simple as clicking a button or talking to your Kinect.

The mere mention of Kinect will cause some people to twitch. When 343 Industries and Microsoft started mentioning Halo and Kinect in the same sentence, the response was appropriately hyperbolic.

Almost immediately, the line from Microsoft was that Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's Kinect hooks would have nothing to do with waving your hand around and shooting Covenant.

We don't know all of the Kinect features in the high-definition update, but 1UP spoke to franchise development director Frank O'Connor, who revealed one that makes some sense: switching visuals.

By saying "classic" or "remastered," you'll be able to swap between the two versions of the game.

We should know the rest of the Kinect features soon enough, sometime next month.

"We don't want to oversell it," said O'Connor. "It's not something that radically changes the gameplay; it's just another additive bonus on top of the other stuff we've added. We think of it like the 3D: something that makes the experience better, but doesn't change it."

Patrick Klepek on Google+

122 Comments

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zFUBARz

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Edited By zFUBARz

@Kordesh said:

@bio595 said:

@Kordesh: The Kinect has voice recognition hardware. The Xbox by itself does not and the the processing time that it takes to only do it software would have a negative impact on the other shit your doing, like running a game.

Also, the xbox headset is fucking garbage

I am aware the headset is in fact garbage. I'm also aware that the Kinect assists with voice recognition. My question is if End War (garbage game aside) was able to competently use voice commands via the headset, I don't see why the same couldn't be done in this case.

endwar's voice commands sucked horribly, i gotta give microsoft credit for the voice recognition in kinect, it is the only recognition software that has ever worked essentially flawlessly for me, maybe end wars would be better if it connect through kinect (better mic) but that's beside the point. basically what I'm saying is that this is by far the least offensive way to incorporate that weird little camera into a game.

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bio595

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Edited By bio595

@zFUBARz: I agree.

I think the future of the Kinect is through subtlety. When they released they were all like, YOU ARE THE CONTROLLER. AREN'T GAMEPADS SO HARD TO USE?

I think that it is successful when it extends what you can do with a controller like this feature, the play/pause commands, and the dialogue in ME3.

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MakoTitan

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Edited By MakoTitan

"XBox, refund"

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gunslingerNZ

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Edited By gunslingerNZ

@Tylea002 said:

THIS MAKES ME ANGRY.

TIZZY.

In serious - this should be in like, all games. I don't have a kinect, but adding an optional audio hook rather than a button press for some actions could be helpful in about 70% per cent of games, and doesn't hurt non-kinectees.

What I don't understand is why they're trying to sell the audio features as a "Kinect bonus". Why don't they allow people who have a headset to do the same thing, kind of strikes me as clutching at straws as far as uses for the Kinect are concerned.

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gunslingerNZ

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Edited By gunslingerNZ

@ProfessorEss said:

@Box3ru13 said:

Much like 3D, Kinect support has never made anything better.

It made the dancing genre much, much better. I'd almost say nigh-astronomical.

I dunno man DDR is kind of insane fun. Dance Central is more laugh at your friends fun. Both were good just serving different purposes.

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snaptroll

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Edited By snaptroll

Jeez, when will the industry learn that no one gives a shit about 3D?

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eXists

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Edited By eXists
@snaptroll

Jeez, when will the industry learn that no one gives a shit about 3D?

Exactly
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SeriouslyNow

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Edited By SeriouslyNow

@TheSouthernDandy said:

@RE_Player92 said:

I'm not trying to sound like a sarcastic prick, this is a genuine question. Does the Kinect have some special tech in it that recognizes voice better? Why couldn't you do this with a regular mic?

Probably yeah, I think it's just there as a bullet point. Basically if you have your Kinect on, you can use it. I imagine that there's other little things you'll be able to do for this game.

It has a Mic Array. That means it has more than one microphone which allows to better pinpoint sounds in specific frequencies, like say, a voice over background noise or the difference between one voice and another.

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SpydrMrphy

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Edited By SpydrMrphy

@Box3ru13 said:

@ProfessorEss said:

@Box3ru13 said:

Much like 3D, Kinect support has never made anything better.

It made the dancing genre much, much better. I'd almost say nigh-astronomical.

You know what's better than dancing games? Actual real dancing! And you don't even need a Kinect for it. Plus you can do it anywhere: bedroom, living room, patio, deck, etc. The possibilities are endless!

But you get points in Dance Central. Come on man... Freaking Points!!! Points make everything better. Games, Sports, French Toast, everything is better with points.

Also, every Kinect voice command reminds me of this.

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Tea_bird

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Edited By Tea_bird

This whole connect thing doesn't really bother me, to be honest. Especially in a remake of a game where they're not really losing a whole lot of ideas by spending time on a feature like this. As long as the peripheral isn't required to enjoy the game, I don't really see what the issue is.

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MeatSim

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Edited By MeatSim

I will just hit the button but I am not gonna freak out just becuase it has Kinect support.

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time allen

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Edited By time allen

harmless features, but i don't understand why anyone would say out loud what they could do in a single press of a button.

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kinapuff

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Edited By kinapuff

This just feels forced.

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MormonWarrior

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Edited By MormonWarrior

@squeeiswin: What are you talking about? This is a totally standalone game. It comes with maps you can download into Reach but that's it.

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Siphillis

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Edited By Siphillis

Totally worth 150 bones.

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Little_Socrates

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Edited By Little_Socrates

As Patrick said, this seems completely inoffensive, like GunSmith. There'll be some people who get a huge kick out of it, but most will ignore it and it'll be totally fine. It's not like it's gonna take them that much time to program another input for a command they already created.

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ohrenclez

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Edited By ohrenclez

I think many of you aren't reading through the article, but just reading kinect and halo, and think "they're destroying the game's legacy"...it's not anything that changes the game-expierience, it's just controlling some of the settings by voice

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blacklab

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Edited By blacklab

'Classic' and 'Remastered'? How about OLD and NEW?

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SpacePringles

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Edited By SpacePringles

will this have the multiplayer maps from the original halo and will you be able to play online with them ?

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d0x

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Edited By d0x

@RE_Player92 said:

@d0x said:

All you people complaining really need to get a life.. Its simple really, if you dont like it dont buy it or use it! I just dont understand what the complaints are for. Yes pushing a button is really simple but sometimes in the heat of battle its probably easier to say it and dont pretend like you wouldnt want to switch during moments like that.

I agree with you but I laughed really hard reading that.

That was my intent. Inject a little dry humor into a pointless argument. Of course I wouldnt consider anything game related to be "heat of the battle" esque.

My real point is people are complaining about a complete and total non issue.

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Contro

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Edited By Contro

Opening Cinematic