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Konami's Lifeline Goes Voice All The Way
Mechanik writes "A new CNN article details Konami's new PlayStation 2 game LifeLine, which has a very interesting twist on control schemes. The piece explains: 'Unlike some other games, voice commands in 'LifeLine' are not optional -- they're the only way to control the action. With the help of a USB headset... you talk to characters and they respond by following your commands and/or answering your questions.' Apparently, the developers know just how we gamer geeks think too... 'Of course, if you have a virtual hottie like Rio at the center of an action game, some players will try to command her to do more than just run and shoot. 'I love you,' 'Take your clothes off,' 'What's your sign?' We have responses for most of those,' [the developer] says'." This title has only had a couple of reviews thus far, although they seem to paint it as a flawed experiment.
Did anyone ever play the voice-controlled DC game "Seaman"? That was voice controlled - you had to make an fish-type creature evolve.
Seems to me that having a game controlled solely by voice, though interesting, might be somewhat restricting in that it would not allow for very precise control. I think it would have been a more practical approach to add voice-enabled commands that could be customized macro-style. This could prove to be a far more intuitive use of voice control as you would have the precision of an analogue joystick for movement while the voice commands could execute combination style commands without having to memorize/execute complex controller manoeuvres.
Maybe now we can get a game like Police Quest, and instead of typing 'Open Door', we can just say it.
The Sierra games really went downhill when they changed from the text-input control to the icons, and this seems like it would be the best of both worlds (assuming it works properly).
If theres anything Sierra adventure games have taught me in the past, its that adventure games gets infinitismly more difficult to get through as more words are put into it. I think it would've been better if Konami included a list of key phrases or words players were to use instead of having them guess what the name of a certain item was.
It's a nifty idea, but I think the developers didn't think this one out completely.
you'll realize the fights boil down you yelling a set of commands, "Shoot, shoot, shoot!" "left" "dodge" and "reload" a whole lot.
This is stupid. Voice is a much more symbolic control scheme then a control pad. If this is the majority of the voice commands, then leave the controls on the pad.
Voice and words are a much more symbolic medium then clicks and button presses; we call it "point and grunt" for a reason. Converting the "grunt" into a word is not progress. What you really need is something more like the old Infocom games, which was a "native" word game. You never/rarely said "Walk forward six inches"; instead it was "Put the lamp on the oven".
The best use of this technology is to bring back the adventure game on the console with the rich verb set of the old Infocom games, without requiring any typing which puts off anybody who can speak more quickly then they type. The worst use of this technology is to convert button presses into voice commands. Sounds like this title did a little of both, but the latter can rapidly overwhelm the former.
OK so, does that sound like I was 15 when that happened? I was a bit older than that, but so what. What should I have been doing? At 15, what are my options - go to the mall? Go to my friend's house and watch TV? Do homework?
Or, let's say I was 21. Should I have been at a bar, drinking? I did plenty of that when I was in my 20's. I've been drunk in more different countries than most people can name (US Navy). So what?
Should I perhaps have been watching a sporting event? Did plenty of that, too. About 10 years ago I stopped watching sports - right after all the baseball players went on strike. (BTW, Cal Ripken does not have an unbroken streak of playing in however many games he was supposed to have played in. He went on strike and sat on his ass at home for a year.) Right after that football or basketball went on strike and I said that's that. So when I look at the front of the Washington Post sports section and see 'indicted', '$50 million dollar contract', 'steroids', 'rape', 'self-defense', etc. I just laugh. Do I think Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame? Probably not, but at this point I could give a shit. Barry Bonds - probably guilty - yes his records are probably meaningless, and again, I could care less. I keep up enough so I know what the issues are, but that's it.
Which stereotype are you talking about? Bunch of pimply-faced male teen-age geeks? We had several women/girls/females play with us. I dated several of the girls I met through D&D. Do I look back on my high school years and wish I'd been more sexually active? Sure, there are several girls whose pants I wanted to get into. Which guy doesn't have that yearning? In reality, if I'd done that I would have probably gotten someone pregnant and my whole life would have been screwed up.
What did you do on Friday and Saturday nights while in high school and college? Get drunk? Watch TV? Hang out? How is that a better way to spend your time? I'm 40 now. I'm still friends with those people. I'm not friends with anyone from my high school or the neighborhood I grew up in. But I'm still friends with a lot of the people I played D&D with. How many friendships do you have that have lasted over 20 years?
On Friday and Saturday nights we killed Dragons and Demons; forged swords of legend; rescued maidens; toppled kingdoms; fought everything in the Monster Manual (at least twice); escaped fiendish traps (well, sometimes we didn't). We laughed, we cried, we fought. We had fun. The fact that most of this happened in our heads doesn't matter. We had an amazing amount of fun.
If I could find a bunch of people around here to play with, I'd join in a night a week. I think my wife and son could spare me that.
I apologize to anyone who was offended by my statement. I merely tried to point out (perhaps in a rather politically uncorrect way) that game designers are already not able to make their games playable by EVERYONE.
Again, I apologize.