At Microsoft's E3 2011 press conference, BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka was on hand to show off the latest demo of Mass Effect 3. While most of the demos thus far had been pretty standard gameplay demos, Mass Effect 3's demo provided the first example of Kinect-enabled gameplay outside the usual array of gestural controls.

In the game, players will be able to use their own voice to initiate dialogue trees. During the demo, the BioWare rep would simply speak the lines he wanted Shepard to say to progress dialogue. Beyond this, players will also be able to use vocal recognition for tactical voice commands during combat, making it so you can engage enemies without having to pause combat.

How excited are you to have Shepard's voice be your voice? I imagine if you're a man playing as female Shepard, or vice versa, that's gonna be a little awkward.

At Microsoft's E3 2011 press conference, BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka was on hand to show off the latest demo of Mass Effect 3. While most of the demos thus far had been pretty standard gameplay demos, Mass Effect 3's demo provided the first example of Kinect-enabled gameplay outside the usual array of gestural controls.

In the game, players will be able to use their own voice to initiate dialogue trees. During the demo, the BioWare rep would simply speak the lines he wanted Shepard to say to progress dialogue. Beyond this, players will also be able to use vocal recognition for tactical voice commands during combat, making it so you can engage enemies without having to pause combat.

How excited are you to have Shepard's voice be your voice? I imagine if you're a man playing as female Shepard, or vice versa, that's gonna be a little awkward.

That does sound really interesting!

Less clunky than the d-pad is for combat commands I hope.

me not like

Now I need a Kinect?  Maybe?

Wait?

I can be the Commander Shepard!?!? Sweet!

Why is this a Kinect specific feature? Can't I do this with the standard microphone they gave me when I bought the console?

while cool, i still think kinect is dumb and not worth the money 

hahahaha Kinect.  what a fucking joke.
 
squad commands! hurray! you can do the same thing with a fucking $10 headset.
 
glad I never bought one of those stupid ass things

Yeah, it works, but who will use it? The Ghost Recon stuff is more impressive.

Kinect integration, just what I needed for Mass Effect 3. Now its my story!

Will I have to kick in my TV to initiate the renegade action of kicking people out of windows? :o As for guys having the ability to somewhat VA their Lady Shepard; millions of more Kinect systems have now been preordered.

What are the details on this. Is it going to require Kinect, even though it's nothing but a microphone? Is it going to be 360 only, even though it's nothing but a microphone? This E3 will be interesting

Didn't Rainbow six 3 on Xbox do this?

Its look kinda like a pointless gimmick for microsoft's sake of advertising the kinect. I'm glad its something that won't affect 99% of the people who play the game.

apart from adding MP til ME, this is the dumbest thing they could add imo

I see no point the dialogue integration, simply selecting a choice with the pad should be much quicker. But it can see the combat commands being useful, now Germany only needs voice recognition for Kinect enabled...

ME3. Be the first Shepard yelling like the Swedish chef!

An interesting gimmick, certainly, but I can't help but doubt it'll compel me to buy a Kinect. As others note, when you're ripping it up in the middle of combat, it'll be easier and quicker to issue commands the usual way (and then there is use of radial panning, since a lot of the time its important to have both respond to orders simultaneously).

Still, if you *have* a Kinect already, it might be amusing to check out.

Saying the summary and then hearing Shepard say the whole part seems dumb.   It's just a clunky way to select what Shepard will say.

Cool, I guess. Totally doesn't apply to me, no way in hell I'm buying a kinect for it. I like to play my ME all quiet like, in the dark. Alone.

At least we still have Shepherd's dialog not being anything close to the summary!

@endaround said:

At least we still have Shepherd's dialog not being anything close to the summary!

My thoughts exactly while watching that.

Boy, people sure won't be using that feature.

I hope this works with headsets so much!

so, will this work with the PC version of kinect? didn't MS they kinect would come to PC?

@pepper said:

Why is this a Kinect specific feature? Can't I do this with the standard microphone they gave me when I bought the console?

My thoughts exactly.

THANK GOD 
THIS WILL BE SO MUCH EASIER THAN JUST USING THE CONTROLLER IN MY HANDS
 
God damn it Microsoft.

This is dumbest thing I've heard in days.

Sounds neat, but I will not buy a Kinect for that.

Voice commands to select the speech option seems like a good way to destroy emersion. Well done doctors.

Give me Star Trek Bridge Commander Kinect. Then I'll be excited.

Great, now manchildren in mom's basement wil be yelling things to themself as they sit half naked in their room. There should never be any kind of voice command in any singleplayer situations cus its just silly.

Mass Effect 3 on Zulu!

Lesbian love scene on Zulu!

I'm not going to buy kinect, I don't have the room or the will, but i'm OK with this if I can use my headset that I don't use.

Saying the summary and then hearing Shepard say the whole part seems dumb.   It's just a clunky way to select what Shepard will say.

I guess it's okay not that I'm going to run out and buy a kinect in order to play it.  It would be cool if the star map and such was controlled by gestures since the ideas are so similar.  I really don't know about the voice commands thing, but this is microsoft's way of throwing crap at a wall and seeing which one sticks the best.  They sold a ton of kinects and are pushing hard to support it.  So we will see if this is a total failure in about a year.  

I would definitely use Kinect combat commands because I don't like pausing the action.
 
Miranda, make me a sandwich.

Give me Star Trek Bridge Commander Kinect. Then I'll be excited.

"Xbox, punch reporter"

hey guys, i hate to ruin the fun, but i could give voice commands to teammates in SOCOM all the way back on the ps2. only i had a $15 headset

So instead of just pressing a button I would have to speak what is already on the screen...Why is that a good thing?

"Xbox, Renegade"

The little bit of this they demoed during the conference was actually pretty cool. But like every other Kinect-supported game that will come out, it's really more of a novelty than a practical way to play a game.

@Hizang said:

So instead of just pressing a button I would have to speak what is already on the screen...Why is that a good thing?

Bbecause you are the Commander!

But what if you're a guy playing FemShep?