Kinect Makes Yelling At Mass Effect 3 Actually Work

[Shepard] This is Shepard.

Civilians have been evac.

Special forces can take it from here.

(dramatic music)

[Man On Radio] We're dropping you into a hot zone.

Get down there and engage the enemy.

The cool thing about what we've done

with Mass Effect in Kinect

is that we're using voice for the areas in the game

where you as a player

would use your voice if you were in that actual situation.

[Player] James, frag grenade.

(gun fires)

(explosion)

Examine.

One of the really cool things about what you can do

in combat for example is

in many games you're busy with the controller.

Your hands are moving,

and you would like to do something else.

You would like your squad members to help you out,

but you don't have any extra fingers.

But in Mass Effect 3, you can actually say, by name,

Liara,

take out this enemy.

James, switch to shotgun.

And you can actually tell them these things,

and they'll do it.

Once you're doing that, you realize that

these characters, you feel like they come alive.

You have more control over the game,

and it actually really does help.

The thing that actually made us decide

we wanted to integrate Kinect was that,

first of all, the hardware and software

that is part of what we get as developers from Kinect

really kind of skips

the research and development process for us

to where we can literally plug in a function from the game

to your voice as the player.

We also realized that because our game uses conversation,

we wanted players to actually

be able to speak with virtual characters in the game,

and speak those conversations,

instead of speaking through pressing buttons.

[Players] James, follow me.

(gun fires)

[James] Affirmative.

[Player] James, move.

[Man On Radio] Ready, James?

[James] Hell yeah, let's take it.

(gun fires)

[Player] Concussive shot.

One of the things we actually ask ourselves was

what are the things that players yell at their TV,

and let's let those things actually do things in the game.

Mass Effect 3 comes out on March 6 on the X-Box 360,

PS3, and PC.

(electronic music)