The one type of game that is great to play on a computer but a pain or poor port when it's brought to the consoles has always been the strategy genre. The use of precise
mouse targeting for troop micromanagement and multiple keyboard commands that all can't be crammed into just a controller has always been the factor holding back quality console strategy games.
So how can this be solved? Well by making you sound like you have become a resident at the local loony bin yelling things out at random that all sound nonsensical. Literally.
Tom Clancy's End War brought to us by Ubi Soft is the first game to utilize the idea of giving commands through headsets instead of blister forming button mashing. To be released on 11/4 and availble for PS3 or 360, I decided to give the demo a try.
Many jokes have been made from comedians to TV shows showing the usual results of a voice recognition program in use. This game had very little issue understanding what I was trying to tell it to do. I noticed a problem with differentiating of the numbers 4 and 5 but that may of been my own fault trying to talk so fast. I must admit, it was an awkward feeling that the game understood me as if it were really a new robotic friend that liked telling me, "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."
The game uses a walkie-talkie button to start the voice recognition and then a simple tiered if/then set of command choices is used. For example the first word can be things like deploy or unit but thankfully not deploy unit. If unit is picked then the number associated with that type of battle group can be chosen. Lastly the action for that group can be picked. In the end commands are read just like sentences such as unit 4 move to whiskey, deploy tanks, unit 3 upgrade foxtrot air strike, or unit 12 attack hostile 3.
Good strategy is done by fast micro managing troops and overall action is pretty fast paced. Beyond the single button for voicing your opinion to your troops, the other controls are mainly for camera control to help simplify everything even more.
The story is the typical futuristic world war 3 inspiring type game where resources are short, super powers rise up, and the fighting begins. Three main factions are shown in the game and they are the US, Russia and the European Union, each with slightly different units. A pre-order at Gamestop of this game also qualifies you for additional unit downloads on launch day and therefore would imply other possibilities from Xboxlive at later dates.
Not sure if the game will be worth the full price of the game, it's at least worth checking out some videos to see someone playing the game in action to give you a good idea of where games are heading these days with hardware possibilities. I had a lot of fun playing the demo spouting off R Lee Erney commands and the action scenes showing the destruction were visually rewarding. And hey, the cover of the game sports a picture of an explosion behind the Eiffel Tower so it really can't be all that bad.
1 comment:
Why does Tom Clancy hate mute people??
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