The patch that adds Kinect voice functionality to Skyrim was released this morning. I had the sound up pretty far on my TV, and the game still had no trouble recognizing my commands. The only hiccup is that you need to hold down RB to use the shouts in the dragon language, though you can use a dragon shout in English without pressing a button. So, for example, you can just say "Unrelenting Force" and your character will use the strongest version of it, but if you want to say "Fus Roh Dah," you need to hold down RB. It's a minor issue, and would only really matter in that you'd need to hold down RB if you only wanted to use "Fus," instead of the full "Fus Roh Dah."

The quick menu, sorting, and skills commands are all nice additions to have and work pretty much as you'd expect. By far, the follower commands were my favorite as you can easily tell your follower to attack an enemy, grab an item, wait, move, or trade items much easier than going through the clunky dialogue options.

Bethesda put out a PDF that lists all of the commands. It can be found here.

I don't have it on 360, but I'd like to know how the delay is?

I know at least when I tried out the voice commands in Halo: CE Anniversary it was a little too long to be useful in a combat situation (throwing a grenade, reloading, etc.) Is it the same in Skyrim, or have they made it almost instantaneous?

How does it feel in general? Something you'd keep using or just a novelty?

Is holding down RB really that much of an issue? I mean the button is right there. It kind of makes sense too, seeing as how the Kinect is trying to understand a completely made up language. Holding down RB probably just signals the Kinect to get ready for said made up language.

Can people even remember the full vocabulary for shouts? Can people even remember what the shouts are named in English?? I guess this is a neat feature but it seems kind of futile because you have to navigate the menus to look up the name....and while you are there you might as well set what you are looking at to RB.

@Sitoxity: I also had issues with how long the voice commands took in Mass Effect 3. I really liked using them *when they worked*, but only for non-critical things like telling my squadmates what weapons to use or applying a different ammo type to all of my weapons while in a non-combat situation. Since you are almost always going to be in a hurry when you use Dragon Shouts, they can't have that same kind of delay...and unreliability.

Actually, now that I think about it that has been the only positive experience that I've had with my Kinect so far.

@EXTomar: Fus Ro Dah is pretty much the only shout you'll need. But if not now is a good time to learn a new language, even if it's a fictitious draconis language.

@Sitoxity said:

I don't have it on 360, but I'd like to know how the delay is?

I know at least when I tried out the voice commands in Halo: CE Anniversary it was a little too long to be useful in a combat situation (throwing a grenade, reloading, etc.) Is it the same in Skyrim, or have they made it almost instantaneous?

How does it feel in general? Something you'd keep using or just a novelty?

Now that I've gotten more time to spend with it, I can definitely say that there are some very practical applications of the voice commands that will make me keep using it.

Non-combat is where the voice commands shine, especially companion commands, sorting vendor inventory, quicksaving, picking skill trees to select perks, using the map, and swapping spells outside of battle are all much easier with the voice commands given how frustrating the menus are to use and how inefficient it is to work with companions using the speech dialogues. I always had trouble finding quest markers on the map, so being able to say "quest" and have it shoot right over to the marker is really nice, as is the ability to shoot the map over to any of the holds. Also, being able to say "ally trade" and pull up Lydia's inventory is so much better than talking to her, scrolling to trade, and waiting for her to say "I am sworn to carry your burdens." As long as she's relatively nearby, you don't have to face her or walk up to her or anything.

During battle, it's a bit of a mixed bag. I had some trouble swapping from soul trap to double lightning quickly enough to avoid damage. The reason for that is using the favorites menu pauses the game, while voice commands do not. So the time it takes for me to say "Equip Dual Lightning Spell" and the time it takes the game to recognize it (about a second) is a few seconds where an enemy can tee off on my very fragile mage. Also, I can't just hit RB to smack an enemy with a Shout, but I have to say it which again takes longer. Theoretically, that problem is offset by the ability to say any Shout at any time without having to select it first. In practice, though, I use Fus Roh Dah about 90% of the time, so it's not that big of a benefit. Maybe that will change when I learn all three words of Disarm and Dragonrend, as I used those a ton in my first playthrough. The game is pretty good about recognizing my commands, and I don't have to shout at the TV for the Kinect to register. However, it does fail to recognize my commands a small percentage of the time. It's a problem in battle, so I tend not to use too many voice commands when I'm fighting, other than "Ally Attack."

I wish they would add mouse and keyboard support to the Xbox version. After experiencing the glories of quicksaving and quick selecting weapons and spells on Oblivion PC, I want to do the same on 360.

Hmm, using the Disarm shout seems kind of key for lighter armored builds. In either event, as seen elsewhere the voice support can hose things like shown on Kotaku with "ally attack" and "quicksave". :)

@EXTomar: Disarm is pretty good, but I don't have it yet. The impact perk keeps most everyone away.