Microsoft sent out a printable "cheat sheet" for Mass Effect 3's Kinect voice commands. You can get the full image after the break. We have to ask -- if you need a "cheat sheet," is this interface really that intuitive?
Click for larger image
Microsoft sent out a printable "cheat sheet" for Mass Effect 3's Kinect voice commands. You can get the full image after the break. We have to ask -- if you need a "cheat sheet," is this interface really that intuitive?
Click for larger image
Reader Comments (60)
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 2:58PM JRock3x8 said
Where's the option for "Mess that dude UP." ?
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 6:21PM Nashk said
@JRock3x8
They really could have added some alternative voices in to help this flow better.
For example, I want to shout "Take him out" and have my squadmate comply. I thought something like that had happened to me in the demo, I shouted "garrus take him out" and to my surprise the guy I shout at had his head blown off.
Only to find out it was a fluke. :(
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They really could have added some alternative voices in to help this flow better.
For example, I want to shout "Take him out" and have my squadmate comply. I thought something like that had happened to me in the demo, I shouted "garrus take him out" and to my surprise the guy I shout at had his head blown off.
Only to find out it was a fluke. :(
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:00PM (Unverified) said
"Cyro Ammo"? No one caught that?
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:02PM (Unverified) said
Between "Cyro ammo" and "Renagade", you'd think they'd stop hiring dyslexic and 12 year-old copy-writers.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:04PM FatherChesz said
In the time it takes to say switch weapon, I could have switched to and reloaded any weapon. That seems...useful?
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:16PM Copybass Ah jeez zombies said
@FatherChesz
Especially since you need to speak clearly, otherwise the Kinect's going to freak out.
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Especially since you need to speak clearly, otherwise the Kinect's going to freak out.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:16PM JasonGW said
@FatherChesz No you couldn't. I thought exactly what you just said until a few days ago. I've now played the Mass Effect 3 Kinect demo 4 times from start to finish, and Kinect voice controls are DEFINITELY faster and more intuitive. Simply telling your team to attack the target you're looking at is *awesome*, and really keeps you in the game rather than fiddling with the controller.
I really wasn't sure they could pull it off, but Bioware has done something special with integrating Kinect into a "hardcore" game. I'm impressed, and gotta give props where they're due :)
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I really wasn't sure they could pull it off, but Bioware has done something special with integrating Kinect into a "hardcore" game. I'm impressed, and gotta give props where they're due :)
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 4:16PM FatherChesz said
@JasonGW
Right. I can't press an arrow key and the X button faster than yelling at the Kinect. Come on now.
I'm not arguing that it's a helpful addition, but given the choice between a single button press or a verbal (or motion) command, I'm going to have to give it to the button press.
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Right. I can't press an arrow key and the X button faster than yelling at the Kinect. Come on now.
I'm not arguing that it's a helpful addition, but given the choice between a single button press or a verbal (or motion) command, I'm going to have to give it to the button press.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 4:17PM docalien said
@JasonGW
There were a few times where using voice made less sense (opening doors, activating switches, things like that), but using powers was WAY better. If you're a fan of the series and don't have to constantly look at the powers to remember what each one does, using voice gets it done much better.
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There were a few times where using voice made less sense (opening doors, activating switches, things like that), but using powers was WAY better. If you're a fan of the series and don't have to constantly look at the powers to remember what each one does, using voice gets it done much better.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 4:47PM plebeianprint said
@FatherChesz The benefit of the voice commands is that you don't have to stop shooting targets to use them. In terms of multitasking it is faster.
I enjoyed using the voice commands in dialog trees. I would say the answer in a tone that I felt represented the situation. It was like Mass Effect drama class.
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I enjoyed using the voice commands in dialog trees. I would say the answer in a tone that I felt represented the situation. It was like Mass Effect drama class.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:04PM Arsenal said
Posted: Feb 25th 2012 3:57AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:07PM eat it said
seems neat for telling characters what to do but not so much for changing your own weapon
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 6:16PM manbearchef said
@Altairio, changing weapons wouldn't be too bad if you're telling a squad member to change their's.
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Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:07PM Camel Carcass said
I hope they're just not showing the full list of squad members for spoilery purposes, and that there isn't only those characters...
Also, this probably sounds really bad, but how do you pronounce cyro?
Also, this probably sounds really bad, but how do you pronounce cyro?
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:55PM Major Pyr0 said
@Camel Carcass the complete list of squad mates are:
Ash/Kaiden
Liara
Vega
Tali(I assume there's an alternate... Kal Reger?)
Garrus(alternate?)
Secret( pretty cool, you could probobly guess, not an old squadmate)
CE/bonus character
like in ME2 their are character specific missions for variety, (Wrex, Aria, etc.)
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Ash/Kaiden
Liara
Vega
Tali(I assume there's an alternate... Kal Reger?)
Garrus(alternate?)
Secret( pretty cool, you could probobly guess, not an old squadmate)
CE/bonus character
like in ME2 their are character specific missions for variety, (Wrex, Aria, etc.)
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:08PM baby sea tuna said
Say "Mortgage house" to get enough money to actually afford all the ME3 DLC
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:22PM latin trident said
@baby sea tuna
I'm actually surprised this isn't dlc
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I'm actually surprised this isn't dlc
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:14PM EvilCartographer said
So does this mean that those six (really, five) are the only squad members we will have, or that those are the only characters we can order around with voice commands?
I recall reading that the number of possible squad members had been reduced, but that seems a bit much.
I recall reading that the number of possible squad members had been reduced, but that seems a bit much.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:14PM Uncommon said
"Bang blue chick"
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:15PM dingoperson said
Voice commands are cool! How can you argue with cool?
Just sit there doing your little thumb wiggle thing being uncool.
Just sit there doing your little thumb wiggle thing being uncool.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:20PM Scuba Steve said
I don't know why they let MS dictate this to be a kinect only feature, last I checked my headset could also accept voice.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:34PM baby sea tuna said
@Scuba Steve
But the voice recognition software is part of the Kinect, not the game.
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But the voice recognition software is part of the Kinect, not the game.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 5:35PM xxxsam said
@baby sea tuna
This is not the case. That's how they kept the price down for consumer release, by basically loading all the calculations onto the 360 processor. Voice recognition can be fairly hard, you don't want to do it on some dinky embedded CPU when you've got a powerful three-core desktop processor sitting in the main box.
I don't know where they got the voice recognition software from; if it isn't their own, licensing issues are almost bound to force this kind of approach. (I.e. they would be paying for the speech recognition with royalties out of every Kinect sale, so they can't let you use it without one.) Even if it is their own, they might decide to restrict it to Kinect for marketing reasons (i.e. so you buy a Kinect).
I assume that the software does not get loaded onto your 360, and is not available within the OS, unless you own a Kinect - i.e. it's probably, effectively, included as part of the drivers for Kinect. But it does physically run on the 360 hardware, not the Kinect hardware; and there isn't any fundamental reason that a developer couldn't license equivalent or identical voice recognition software within a game.
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This is not the case. That's how they kept the price down for consumer release, by basically loading all the calculations onto the 360 processor. Voice recognition can be fairly hard, you don't want to do it on some dinky embedded CPU when you've got a powerful three-core desktop processor sitting in the main box.
I don't know where they got the voice recognition software from; if it isn't their own, licensing issues are almost bound to force this kind of approach. (I.e. they would be paying for the speech recognition with royalties out of every Kinect sale, so they can't let you use it without one.) Even if it is their own, they might decide to restrict it to Kinect for marketing reasons (i.e. so you buy a Kinect).
I assume that the software does not get loaded onto your 360, and is not available within the OS, unless you own a Kinect - i.e. it's probably, effectively, included as part of the drivers for Kinect. But it does physically run on the 360 hardware, not the Kinect hardware; and there isn't any fundamental reason that a developer couldn't license equivalent or identical voice recognition software within a game.
Posted: Feb 24th 2012 1:47AM Courtney said
@xxxsam
I'm not sure that targeted voice recognition is that hard though. Sure, trying to dictate a full page of material is incredibly hard. But the Kinect is only having to figure out if you said one of a few dozen possibilities, many of which are already contextual (like if you don't have Liara in your party, it doesn't have to listen for her name).
10+ years ago, my Microsoft GameVoice headset came with a programmable voice command feature. It seemed to work about as well as Kinect voice commands do. And on that old of a computer, running top end games, I never noticed the voice recognition software cause any hit in performance to my games.
Also, there have been at least one or two games that used voice controls with just a headset (a Tom Clancy game for sure). Microsoft leaves it as a Kinect exclusive function because they want it to be that way, and no other reason.
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I'm not sure that targeted voice recognition is that hard though. Sure, trying to dictate a full page of material is incredibly hard. But the Kinect is only having to figure out if you said one of a few dozen possibilities, many of which are already contextual (like if you don't have Liara in your party, it doesn't have to listen for her name).
10+ years ago, my Microsoft GameVoice headset came with a programmable voice command feature. It seemed to work about as well as Kinect voice commands do. And on that old of a computer, running top end games, I never noticed the voice recognition software cause any hit in performance to my games.
Also, there have been at least one or two games that used voice controls with just a headset (a Tom Clancy game for sure). Microsoft leaves it as a Kinect exclusive function because they want it to be that way, and no other reason.
Posted: Feb 24th 2012 8:56PM Odog4ever said
@Scuba Steve
MS didn't force Bioware to do it.
No-headset voice recognition > headset voice recognition. More people can be comfortable with, and actually understand how to use, Kinect's mic than any headset (basically people who don't read Joystiq)
And while your mileage may vary I have been presently surprised at how my Kinect picks up my voice 99% of the time. It's mile ahead of the voice tech I was using with a PC a decade ago anyway.
If this is the future I'm all for it. Do you remember anybody in Star Trek trying to remember where they stashed their headset so they could interact with the computer? Hell no.
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MS didn't force Bioware to do it.
No-headset voice recognition > headset voice recognition. More people can be comfortable with, and actually understand how to use, Kinect's mic than any headset (basically people who don't read Joystiq)
And while your mileage may vary I have been presently surprised at how my Kinect picks up my voice 99% of the time. It's mile ahead of the voice tech I was using with a PC a decade ago anyway.
If this is the future I'm all for it. Do you remember anybody in Star Trek trying to remember where they stashed their headset so they could interact with the computer? Hell no.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:22PM warmonk said
This would be a billion times more cool if the commands were in some sort of natural language.
Maybe not, I guess "liara singularity" is faster than "liara shoot that guy!"
Maybe not, I guess "liara singularity" is faster than "liara shoot that guy!"
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 7:37PM (Unverified) said
@warmonk It makes sense to strip out as many words from the sentence as possible for anything relating to combat. I'm excited about kinect being used in place of complex menus, anything that requires pausing the game, and things that aren't worthy of a button slot. My biggest concern is whether my mass of swearing/taunting/yelling while playing single player campaigns will end up firing off the kinect commands. I'd be annoyed if calling an enemy a son of a bitch made me switch to my shotgun. Unless, of course, that happened to be just the weapon I wanted at the time. (I lack a kinect sensor otherwise I'd be trying all these things out).
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Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:23PM FredMC said
I have been playing around with the voice commands on the demo (without ever having seen a list of commands or cheat sheet) and I was pretty impressed with how well it works.
I was just saying "switch weapon" or "switch gun" and it worked, (went from assault rifle to shotgun). Later I noticed in the Weapon wheel it lists the keyword with a red microphone when you select a weapon/ammo.
I am also impressed how fast it works and is more seamless than using the bumper/wheel
Still having gotten Shepard to nail Ashley in the cutscenes though, stupid Kinect.
I was just saying "switch weapon" or "switch gun" and it worked, (went from assault rifle to shotgun). Later I noticed in the Weapon wheel it lists the keyword with a red microphone when you select a weapon/ammo.
I am also impressed how fast it works and is more seamless than using the bumper/wheel
Still having gotten Shepard to nail Ashley in the cutscenes though, stupid Kinect.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:29PM baby sea tuna said
@FredMC
Maybe Shepard just can't get it up for racist Spacepublicans.
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Maybe Shepard just can't get it up for racist Spacepublicans.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:35PM soniccar said
Kinect commands
Player:"Wrex [pause]"
Wrex:"Shepard"
"Stop conversation. Punch in face"
"Tali. Continue being the best character"
Player:"Wrex [pause]"
Wrex:"Shepard"
"Stop conversation. Punch in face"
"Tali. Continue being the best character"
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:37PM bensmith91 said
I haven't had a chance to try the demo yet, but does this work in practice? It seems like my kinect can never hear me when action is happening, and it's not like I'm really far away or anything. In Halo:CEA I had to mute the TV whenever I wanted to scan anything.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 4:21PM docalien said
@bensmith91
Have you tried the tuner? If your Kinect can't hear you over your TV noise, you should probably run that or (last resort) move your Kinect. I actually put mine on the top of my TV recently, and my whole experience got better (device is about chest height now, sees me better).
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Have you tried the tuner? If your Kinect can't hear you over your TV noise, you should probably run that or (last resort) move your Kinect. I actually put mine on the top of my TV recently, and my whole experience got better (device is about chest height now, sees me better).
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 4:06PM FredMC said
You can also speak your dialog responses, which I think is a little to far in the nerdy not-hot-chick-cosplay realm for me.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 4:10PM Tristan77 said
This feature could be good for some minutes but I don't imagine my self shouting for hours.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 4:43PM (Unverified) said
My biggest complaint w/ the voice commands was one that surfaced in the demo and this sheet doesn't seem to show that it is rectified: why is there no command: Reload? Every single button press option has a vocal command but reload...
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 4:52PM CaptainProtonX said
Say "DLC" to have your system auto-update your DLC cache with the latest in ME3 packs.
Account will be auto charged.
Account will be auto charged.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 5:14PM singleandlovinit said
Surely the only command Bioware cares about is "buy DLC"
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 5:22PM RyanS said
"Ah f***!" to respawn.
Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 5:29PM Altairio said
I hope you can record your own testimonials.
"Hi, it's Shep with the Slap Chop. You're gonna eat great food all day!"
"Hi, it's Shep with the Slap Chop. You're gonna eat great food all day!"
