2011 Kinect Games To Watch #3: Steel Batallion

Once upon a time, Steel Batallion was a £100 mega-moth of a game packaged in with a huge controller of around 50 buttons used to control your on-screen army in the most complex and downright convoluted way possible. Not anymore, however, as Steel Batallion: Heavy Armour will utilise the simpler technology (for the player, at least) of Microsoft's Kinect. That the motion camera uses both your body and voice to control many parts of the game-play experience could easily factor into this high-octane sequel due out later in 2011, set in the year 2082 where the world is now lacking in computers so needs people to control its robotic armies from the skies (that does seem like some sort of juxtaposition, but this gamer is always open to these possibilities). Both action and vehicle sequences will be incorporated in some form, and as long as some of these take place with the player directly controlling the gunner or driver then there should be some serious gaming satisfaction coming in Heavy Armour. In fact, I'm willing to bet that provided we see it before 2012 the next Steel Batallion could easily be the best selling Kinect game of this year (watch out Kinectimals!) and perhaps even the best received one. Look out for a release date reveal here soon and of course the full review when Heavy Armour hits the UK later in 2011!