It's been quite some time since I've played Skyrim, but since the release of the DLC "Dawnguard" and Kinect voice support I've been itching to try my hands at Skyrim again.
The first time I played Skyrim I was a little jaded. I was a huge fan of Oblivion, so of course I was extremely excited for Skyrim... at first. After preordering and going to the midnight release party at Gamestop I hurried back home and began a Skyrim binge that has now become a blur in my memory.
What I did not know when I popped that disk into my Xbox is that I'd begin a grueling decent into a game full of game breaking glitches, mechanics that screw you out of achievements, and backwards flying, invincible dragons.
Skyrim was a hot mess, but I persevered. After having to create three characters in order to get all the achievements I wiped the sweat from my brow and put Skyrim away in its case. And there it has gathered dust for many moons.
When I bought the Kinect bundle 250 GB Xbox 360 I had no idea that Skyrim would ever feature Kinect support, and when I heard about its expansion I thought for sure I'd finally get some use out of my dusty Kinect. (Well, for something more than Netflix voice commands...)
So today I hooked up my Turtle Beach x12 headset and pulled up a list of all possible voice commands for Skyrim. I created a new character, an Argonian female, and felt very confident that the Kinect was going to breathe new life into Skyrim.
How wrong I was.
Like all things with Skyrim I have become extremely frustrated with Kinect voice support for the game. I have done the math and over 75% of the time my voice commands do not register. I thought , 'Maybe it's because I'm female and have a higher pitched voice.' I also thought it could be because of my Southern accent. It definitely wasn't my headset. These Turtle Beach x12's are awesome. Surely it had to be me.
Then I got someone I knew who was male and from the Northern half of the U.S. to give it a go. Same result. More than half of the time the game answered his commands with white question mark next to the voice icon. So once again the Kinect is "uncool" and a dust catcher. Oh well.
What I will say is that I am pleased that those game breaking glitches I experienced in the early days of Skyrim have been all patched up. Some of the exploits are still there, probably always will be there, but at least those are avoidable.
Also coming back to Skyrim I have found new things to enjoy. Arrow kill cinematics have been added as well as combat from horseback. Hunting elk from horseback on the plains outside of Whiterun has been very enjoyable for me. All that leather - leveling up Smithing has never been easier.
I still have not yet purchased Dawnguard, but I'm looking forward to that experience as well. I will be sure to write about it in a future post. Until then, my fellow badgers out there, I bid you adieu and leave you with this advise: Don't bother with the voice commands for Skyrim. Total waste of time.
