When The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim gets its next free title update, slated for release later in April, 2012, it will add a major new feature: voice control for Kinect owners.
See the voice control in action in the new video on our Skyrim page!
Now, you can actually activate the Dragonborn’s shout powers using your voice. Now, when you shout “Fus Ro DAH!” at the screen, it will actually work! Well, in the game, at least. Similarly, “Yo Toor Shur” will unleash your fire breath, and all your other favorite shouts will work as well.
You can also issue commands to companions like Lydia, such as “Ally, attack” and “Ally, follow.” And if you’re taking advantage of your companion’s carrying capacity to avoid overencumbrance, you can say “Ally, trade” and then use voice control to select the items to give or take.
You can even use your voice to change item hotkeys, selecting a hotkey in the menu and saying “Assign axe,” for instance. Best of all, you can use voice commands to change equipment without diving into the menus, saying “Equip fire spell” or “Equip axe and shield.”
Launch the map with a voice command and just say the name of the town or location to zoom on it, which is really handy when you’ve forgotten exactly where a town is on the map. There are more than 200 voice commands in all, including the ever-useful “Quick save” and “Quick load.”
Bethesda Game Studios also says it’s hard at work creating the first set of game add-ons, which will be exclusive to the Xbox 360, adding new quests, locations, features, and more to the world of Skyrim.