Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Message Board older than one year ago

Kinect-based Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor is a concept that has a lot going for it, with a combination of controller and Kinect controls opening up a lot of gameplay options to immerse the player into feeling like they're actually piloting a giant "Vertical Tank" (VT) robot. The only thing that could break that immersion, which we saw occur several times when we checked out the pre-alpha build at Gamescom, should be obvious: Kinect not recognizing certain gestures. It's all good and fine for a Kinect hiccup when petting your Kinectimals, but this is war!

A small blessing of Steel Battalion is that it's played sitting down (for the most part). Stretching out your arms while maintain good posture calibrates your pilot for the system. Movement, aiming and firing are handled by the controller, while the player's gestures are used to look out windows, check outside the tank by lifting the hatch (that's the standing part), look around the cockpit and for pulling down or interacting with several of the VT's controls.

#steelbattalion Capcom's Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor for the Kinect paints a grim picture of a future U.S. blasted back to the Industrial Age and plunged into war. These striking images tell the story of the brave men fighting for our future freedom. More »

First announced at TGS last year, the Kinect-based Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor is finally revealed in its first trailer. Like the original game, Heavy Armor has players jump into huge, unwieldy robots called "Vertical Tanks." The above trailer reveals an oppressive World War 2-plus-robots style world in which computers have all been destroyed, and then everyone goes to war.

As revealed by Capcom's fact sheet, Heavy Armor maintains the series' legacy for complicated controls by using two forms of input: both Kinect and the standard Xbox 360 pad. The controller is used for movement, aiming, and firing, while the Kinect camera picks up "upper body gestures" used for starting the engine, using the scope, or operating a turret-mounted machine gun. You can also communicate verbally and nonverbally with your crew members. High fives are specifically mentioned.

Steel Battalion will engage your whole body in robo-warfare next year.

#steelbattalion Take a look at the debut trailer for Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, coming to you from Gamescom in Germany. New details are hitting as I write this as well, so refresh this for an update. More »

Hotly anticipated Kinect game Steel Battalion Heavy Armor will be making a brief, private appearance at Gamescom next week. Expect to read all about it the day before the show kicks off next week. And, yes, so far it remains a Kinect-enabled game. More »

# Microsoft gave this year's Tokyo Game Show keynote, but that doesn't mean Sony won't be giving a press conference. It so will be. What will be in store? What won't be in store? Let's find out. More »

TGS: Steel Battalion Screenshots

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor slated for release next year. It uses Kinect.