The Xbox 360 Kinect Reviews Are Out

[Bolivar]

And they're not great.

The verdict seems to be that if you don't have 8-10 feet of space between you and your TV, it's just not going to work for you. If you don't have even more than that, you can say goodbye to multiplayer. If you do have enough space, it may not work unless you adjust your lighting, change your clothes, and move your furniture. Once that's not an issue, the interface is unreliable via voice control and unnecessarily slow via motion control. Finally, the most important part of this, the games, are not only tiring to play, but don't live up to the visual quality you'd expect from a High Definition console because of the RAM needed for Kinect alone. Some of them are said to be fun, but the novelty seems to wear thin fairly quickly. The biggest problem, however, is the intrinsic fact that you can't actually move your character, you can only control what they do while standing still, or on rails at a speed the game determines.

It just doesn't seem like a viable interface for video games.

Kotaku seemed to be the most positive (http://kotaku.com/5680501/review-kinect), saying it's amazing but you can wait for it, all the while acknowledging that the current firmware functionality and software lineup doesn't deliver on its potential.

Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/04/kinect-review/) and Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/04/kinect-for-xbox-360-review/) both knocked it for its difficulty and sometimes failure in working, and most of the games got pretty bad grades.

ArsTechnica (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2010/11/buy-a-house-clean-your-floor-move-your-butt-ars-reviews-kinect.ars) seemed the most brutally honest - the games were fun, but everything else said about it pretty much condemned the thing.

[Dreddz]

I have nothing against Kinect and hope it brings MS some money considering how hard they are pushing the device. But the whole idea of it changing video games was BS from day 1. When I see a game like Bayonetta running on Kinect maybe Ill listen but until then GTFO.

[Roto13]

You shouldn't be allowed to make Xbox threads.

[DMKA]

Seriously, was anyone excited for the inferior EyeToy Knockoff Kinect after E3?

[NorthernChaosGod]

I have nothing against Kinect and hope it brings MS some money considering how hard they are pushing the device. But the whole idea of it changing video games was BS from day 1. When I see a game like Bayonetta running on Kinect maybe Ill listen but until then GTFO.

Fuck that, when I can play Halo: Reach with Kinect, then I might give it a shot. :p

[Roto13]

Seriously, was anyone excited for the inferior EyeToy Knockoff Kinect after E3?

It may be the same basic idea as the EyeToy, but it's definitely not inferior. :P (I'm not saying it's good, but the EyeToy is clearly worse. :P)

[DMKA]

Seriously, was anyone excited for the inferior EyeToy Knockoff Kinect after E3?

It may be the same basic idea as the EyeToy, but it's definitely not inferior. :P (I'm not saying it's good, but the EyeToy is clearly worse. :P)

I disagree. The EyeToy at least knew it was crap and kept it's standards extremely low. Kinect is being marketed as the birth of an entire new medium, which it simply isn't.

And speaking as someone who has spent no more than 30 minutes playing with the EyeToy and the Kinect, from my experience, the EyeToy I played with eight years ago was far more accurate and impressive a piece of technology than the Kinect. If, however, the Kinect was what Microsoft has made it out to be and continues to market it as (hell, maybe it will be eventually, but I wouldn't bet on it) it would indeed be an awesome piece of gaming hardware.

But I'm not the least bit intrigued by all the motion control crap so perhaps I'm a tad prejudicial in my opinions on any of these devices.

[Madame Adequate]

I'm not surprised. Motion control is unraveling even for Nintendo (I don't remember the last Wii game which was talked about because of motion control, only the revivals of core Nintendo franchises). Which is as I predicted because soccer moms and old people don't buy consoles and games during a recession. If MS had got this out of the door a couple of years ago there might have been some mileage for them, as it stands I reckon this is going to tank pretty hard, just like all motion control ultimately will until it can give meaningful physical feedback.

[G13]

^Agreed.

Motion control has never intrigued me because you can do all of nothing with it. It's ugly and, really, exercising is the last thing I want to do while playing a video game.

The Move looks like it might actually do what they're promising but I don't think it will be enough to keep the motion control craze alive.

From the first time I heard about Kinect I knew it would bomb and I can't say I'm sorry that it has. I have more control over the game with a controller than I do with my own hands or a wand.

[Yeargdribble]

From the first time I heard about Kinect I knew it would bomb and I can't say I'm sorry that it has. I have more control over the game with a controller than I do with my own hands or a wand.

I think it's a little early to be calling this one. The Kinect hasn't failed yet and I have the feeling it will be a tremendous financial success in the long-term. The whole Oprah fiasco has practically ensured that many people will rush out to get it (who otherwise wouldn't). Not to mention, it will probably be the tech gift for kids this Christmas. MS is being smart about its marketing. They are marketing it at the people that made the Wii (which we also all laughed at and have called a failure) a huge seller. It's the people who aren't core gamers.

Sony isn't aiming at those people really. Sony is trying to be serious about Move and I think it's going to hurt them (just like it hurt PSP). They are trying to be more adult and make broader claims about the broader uses of their device rather than going for the low hanging fruit of marketing it at gullible people who don't know the difference between an NES and toaster the way Xbox is. I think the Wii stumbled on this and was being earnest about wanting to get everyone involved. MS is just being pragmatic and lying to people to an extent.

Sorry, but most people don't have the means to play with Kinect. The biggest limiting factor is going to be living room size, but I don't feel like they've been entirely up front about that.

[G13]

I don't mean 'bomb' as in 'not make a lot of money', I think tons of people are going to see the commercial and think "That looks awesome!", buy it, and be very disappointed.

I suppose I should have used better wording to say I don't think it's going to get any better than how it is now. How long has it been since the 360 was released and how many 'RROD proof' consoles have we seen before this recent Kinect ready and "This time we mean it guys, it's RROD proof" one? As much as I love my 360 I strongly feel that MS are a bunch of assholes by releasing :bou::bou::bou::bou: before it's ready and I'm fairly sure that Kinect will be no different.

I'll probably one day give it a try but I'll most definitely be very surly and negative towards it because I just really don't like motion control.

[Iceglow]

I'm going to be blunt, Bolivar you're such a ps3 fanboy Roto is right I can put one post up with a few offhand comments in and you blow up in to a storm of fanboy defence of your console it's hillarious yes this does mean I troll you from time to time just like you troll or try to troll 360 owners on here, you really should never make a 360 thread you just could never be at the least impartial with it.

On to Kinect, we've got it up in store (again) to be fair it is fun, it's good fun too, bit of a pain to set up but having been on it for a good part of yesterday I can say fun once you do. It's far superior to the eye toy considering that the eyetoy registered movement from anything walking past where kinect will register the movement of you and nothing else (we've proven this by doing the international distress signal walking in front of others using it) which is a good benefit of the technology. The whole distance from the screen thing is a load of crap sorry but we've got the kinect sensor set up with around 5ft of space to use infront of the screen, it works fine.

Games wise, the best of the bunch really right now is going to be Kinect Sports though Kinect Dance is equally a good laugh from the looks of it, should it work how it is meant to it will sell well over christmas for sure going on the popularity of games such as Just Dance 2 on the Wii. However to expect there only to be crap shovelware or "Wii" style games for Kinect is wrong, at the moment in development is a brand new Steel Batallion game, Older or more experienced gamers will remember the first as having been released on the original xbox and came with a £130 price tag and it's own 2 joystick, 3 pedal, 60+ button control pad and for being one of the more brutal mech combat games ever made such as expecting you to eject if the mech got too trashed before it got destroyed so you could get a new one, failure meant restarting everything. Steel Batallion looks anything but terrible having looked at the screens available for it and frankly it could work well with Kinnect putting you inside the cockpit of your mech though admittedly a 40+ inch tv screen would be good for this if there are individual buttons on screen to use. This shows that Microsoft as Sony have indeed begun to attempt with new re-released of Heavy Rain, Resident Evil 5 and other games with move features which is the incorporate the serious gamers with their motion control, personally I'm far more endeared by the prospect of a full game designed speciffically for Kinect than a re-release of a game I completed ages ago just because it has a few "motion sensitive" additions.

Now, Playstation Move has been touched upon briefly here and so I will comment on this too: Whilst the cheapest of the 3 for the initial starter kit it soon enters the same issues as the Wii, it is expensive, some games will require a player to hold 2 wands each, that means for 4 player party games using such a control system they could require 8 wands in the uk this comes to a great price of £294.92 (£34.99 per wand + £49.99 for the starter kit) including the cost of the starter pack, that is more than a 320gb ps3 itself costs. Say the same person then wants 4 navigation remotes so that if they need them they're there thats an extra £100 (or £99.96 to be precise for 4 £24.99 navigation remotes) no games there apart from the starter disc which is a demo disc no more. Games for Move retail at around £29.99 per title. Move's biggest flaw is that Sony have been very careful to follow the Nintendo policy of making things appear cheaper than they are compared to Microsoft's charge high for the one piece of technology you need. It's fine really, but like the Wii when customers work out the cost of the equipment they could need to buy they're often put off from buying. As I said I work shopfloor in a games department and I see this first hand whenever I go in to work which is daily. However Move is by far superior to the Wii even with the handful of games it has at the moment of this post being written which just got bolstered today by the release of a new time crisis game amongst others. The 3rd plane of motion which can be tracked because of the camera tracking the wand is a major crushing blow to the Wii which can't do that. However long term, I'm seeing more arcade style games for the PSMove than for Kinect which kinda points out the flaw in the whole "Microsoft shovelware, Sony going for substance" idea what is being bandied around in this thread, Move gets a Time Crisis game, Kinect will be getting a serious mech combat game what is based on one of the most challenging and punnishing games of it's genre of all time.

Ok well enough for now, I've gotta get ready to go put a shift in probably playing on Kinect for most of it to demostrate it to customers.

[JKTrix]

Ignoring the actual topic of discussion; this is pretty cool.

YouTube - Look at Kinect using IR goggles. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7nRKU0nFxA)

Edit: Better video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvvQJxgykcU

[Madame Adequate]

I'll be incredibly surprised if the Kinect has the fidelity of control needed to do a game like Steel Battalion justice. Well, both fidelity of control, and able to create motions for all of its controls without resorting to silly things like "Stand on one left to change weapons" or what have you.

[NeoCracker]

Totally relavant. (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/11/5/)

That being said, Move blows kinect out of the water. Why? Because the dude doing all the PS3 advertisements is funny.

Other than that, I don't really care about either one. (Unrelated, but after I replace my computer in December, I may well just get another 360, with games like NN2 and Gears 3 and a few others. :p)

[Pheesh]

Meh, both the move and kinect seem like glorious wastes of money to me. I doubt there's going to be any game released for motion control that will rival games like God of War III and such, and I'd wager that even the best games that use motion control would/could be better with a regular pad (eg. Killzone 3).

[Roto13]

Meh, both the move and kinect seem like glorious wastes of money to me. I doubt there's going to be any game released for motion control that will rival games like God of War III and such, and I'd wager that even the best games that use motion control would/could be better with a regular pad (eg. Killzone 3).

Pointing to aim is superior to using a control stick to aim.

[Madame Adequate]

If that was true, I think we'd have seen a lot more lightgun games.

[JKTrix]

That has been the argument for PC purists ever since Goldeneye.

[Pheesh]

Meh, both the move and kinect seem like glorious wastes of money to me. I doubt there's going to be any game released for motion control that will rival games like God of War III and such, and I'd wager that even the best games that use motion control would/could be better with a regular pad (eg. Killzone 3).

Pointing to aim is superior to using a control stick to aim.

Not when you have to move a character as well.

[Meat Puppet]

Seems like a great piece of technology, although I am not even slightly interested in it for video games. Maybe that'll change, but I doubt it... even if I wanted to, I haven't the space, and my walls are too thin.

Every time I think of the Kinect campaign, one voice comes to my head: The AVGN shouting "Fire! Fire! Fire!"

[Roto13]

If that was true, I think we'd have seen a lot more lightgun games.

Doesn't work without crosshairs on the screen. A pointer and control stick is about the closest thing consoles get to a keyboard and mouse.

[Bolivar]

I'm going to be blunt, Bolivar you're such a ps3 fanboy Roto is right I can put one post up with a few offhand comments in and you blow up in to a storm of fanboy defence of your console it's hillarious yes this does mean I troll you from time to time just like you troll or try to troll 360 owners on here, you really should never make a 360 thread you just could never be at the least impartial with it.

I'm sorry, Iceglow, but I find it ironic that you accuse me of "blowing up into a storm" when you've just given us your multi-page, lone defense of Kinect in this thread. Not to mention you gave us a multi-page nonsensical tirade against Gran Turismo in our buying guide thread a few days ago, just at the mention of someone bringing it up as something they're waiting for, that eventually unpredictably devolved into your completely off-topic, irrelevant anger at the lack of awareness of the Yellow Light of Death. And how can you accuse me of not being "the least impartial" - I posted a thread about the Kinect reviews once they began surfacing, and they were indeed, not good. If anything, the content of my post merely reiterates what the reviews were saying. And again, I've never said anything as clearly erroneous as when you claimed to have scientific proof from your store that PS3's YLOD as often as 360's RROD (some display cabinet you guys put them in?.

Also, about only needing 5ft of space between you and the sensor, I'd much rather believe professional reviewers than your opinion. I'm sorry if that's unfair.


Doesn't work without crosshairs on the screen. A pointer and control stick is about the closest thing consoles get to a keyboard and mouse.

Other than, of course, actual Keyboard & Mouse support for games like UTIII ;)

As far as the whole using a wand in shooters thing, it seems like a good analogy, but it still doesn't come close. So far every game I played treats aiming like in railshooters - you move the crosshair around the screen, but when it gets to the edges, you start to turn. It just doesn't work that great in practice because a mouse, much like an analog stick, is always keeping the crosshairs in the center of the screen.

I used the move with MAG and Killzone 3 so far and while they seem like a cool alternative for subsequent playthroughs (or to use every now and then for an online-only game like MAG), it's just not as great as a controller. Especially in MAG where you want to jump on top of and across crates to get a good sniping spot - it's just way too hard to get that precise platforming with motion.

[Jessweeee♪]

Motion control was pretty good in the Wii version of Tomb Raider: Anniversary. Other than that, it was okay. Not bad, but not great.


8-10 feet will not do. We live in a mobile home and the futon is about two feet away from the TV. If the futon were to poof, we might have five feet.

[Roogle]

I am not surprised that the initial run of the Xbox 360 Kinect is receiving unpleasant reviews. I think that there is a lot of potential for this type of technology in the future, but we will have to deal with the clunky, awkward phase to get there!

[Yeargdribble]

That being said, Move blows kinect out of the water. Why? Because the dude doing all the PS3 advertisements is funny.


Too bad Sony negates the awesomeness that is Kevin Butler with the horridness that is Marcus PSP.


They say any press is good press. I wonder if that's really true. The Move has been met with almost no fanfare whilst the Kinect has be made into quite the spectacle. However, Kinect is getting ripped on harder. To those moderately informed people in the target demographic, maybe it's possible that they will hear the bad press on the Kinect and go for the Move instead, which hasn't gotten all of the vitriol Kinect has and is more Wii-like so as to be comfortable. On the flip side, Kinect is new and exciting.

I really wonder how it's going to play out. I just know that I'd rather get the motion controller that didn't have a big to do, but also didn't have a pile of s**t from the reviewers. The worst I've heard about the Move so far is that the launch library sucks. Same for the Kinect, but almost all reviewers I've heard have at least said the tech works and works well... they just aren't excited about it.

I still think MS does a better marketing job. PS3 only seems to seriously court the hardcore gamers even though they try to push the idea the the PS3 only "does everything." It still feels like it's not as accessible to non-gamers. Meanwhile, those core gamers are already playing all of their online games on the 360 and MS is courting the Wii's demographic.

Interesting...

[Roto13]

I think if Microsoft really wants to target the casual Wii audience, they need to sell the 360 Kinect bundle for less than the $300 they're asking now. A Wii is only $200.

[Depression Moon]

What's wrong with Marcus and so they really went out with it coming out this year? I remember the press conference, but I was feeling that that might've changed as I felt it was too early for something like that.

[Roto13]

Why would it be too early?

[Depression Moon]

When I first saw of it this year I was thinking that the technology wasn't probably ready for this day and age. Firstly because I thought was too ambitious and expected something like that to not have come out several years later when it could be efficient and innovative, but based on these results it seems like it was still in a testing phase. It seems like a bad idea to release something with so many flaws. I know they had to be aware of some of them and with time someone could have found how to fix those problems and make it all around better.

My second reason is because of the current economic state of the country. I just don't see too many buying it because of that reason.

[Roto13]

Apparently recessions don't affect entertainment things like video games, movies, music, etc. too much. :P People need their fun time to get over the stress of being poor, I guess.

[Meat Puppet]

I thought that's what alcohol was for

[KentaRawr!]

I'm not surprised. Motion control is unraveling even for Nintendo (I don't remember the last Wii game which was talked about because of motion control, only the revivals of core Nintendo franchises). Which is as I predicted because soccer moms and old people don't buy consoles and games during a recession. If MS had got this out of the door a couple of years ago there might have been some mileage for them, as it stands I reckon this is going to tank pretty hard, just like all motion control ultimately will until it can give meaningful physical feedback.

The Nintendo thing actually makes me pretty sad. Warioware: Smooth Moves was basically this big pile of ideas on how games could use the Wii Remote, and no one seems to be using them. Then again, the use of waggle is also dying down, which is good, and if the controller's unique functions are used, it seems like people aim for either the tilt sensor or the wii pointer, and that makes me happy. :3

Edit:


Meh, both the move and kinect seem like glorious wastes of money to me. I doubt there's going to be any game released for motion control that will rival games like God of War III and such, and I'd wager that even the best games that use motion control would/could be better with a regular pad (eg. Killzone 3).

Pointing to aim is superior to using a control stick to aim.

Not when you have to move a character as well.

Moving and aiming seemed to work perfectly well in Metroid Prime 3, but that's actually the only game with FPS controls I've played on the Wii.

[Yeargdribble]

What's wrong with Marcus

He just rubs me the wrong way. He's not snarky and witty like Butler. He's just plain obnoxious. Do you know anyone who watches him and thinks, "That kid is cool. He makes me want to be cool like him and own a PSP."? The way Kevin Butler makes fun of stuff like Kinect is almost tongue-in-cheek. The way Marcus puts down things like the iPhone is childish and silly on the face of it.

Is there a specific demographic he's trying to appeal to by being extra "black?"



I think if Microsoft really wants to target the casual Wii audience, they need to sell the 360 Kinect bundle for less than the $300 they're asking now. A Wii is only $200.

$300 isn't significantly more than people paid for their Wiis at launch. That was then and this is now. If it's like one of my hypotheses... the target audience of the Wii might be looking for something new and fresh 5 years later. The price probably isn't that much of a killer.... except for...


My second reason is because of the current economic state of the country. I just don't see too many buying it because of that reason.

I could almost see this being a problem, but I'm sure there are plenty enough people in the soccer mom Wii demographic where economic hardship isn't a big enough factor.

Hell, I the school where I teach is 90% impoverished and damn near everyone has an Xbox and a PSP even if they don't have nice clothes and are on reduced lunches. That's probably because...


Apparently recessions don't affect entertainment things like video games, movies, music, etc. too much. :P People need their fun time to get over the stress of being poor, I guess.




Moving and aiming seemed to work perfectly well in Metroid Prime 3, but that's actually the only game with FPS controls I've played on the Wii.

Yeah, I was thinking this too. I don't like pushing at the edges of the screen, but with a few better uses of a D-pad in conjunction with an analog stick (both available together on Move I think) one should be able to move pretty easily and still get the drastically improved precision of aiming from something like Move over straight analog stick aiming. Of course I still can't imagine it being better than M&KB as far as accuracy goes just because of the smaller motion needed to get that accuracy. I could be wrong though depending on how good the tech is (I've not tried Move).

[DMKA]

From the first time I heard about Kinect I knew it would bomb and I can't say I'm sorry that it has. I have more control over the game with a controller than I do with my own hands or a wand.Sony isn't aiming at those people really. Sony is trying to be serious about Move and I think it's going to hurt them (just like it hurt PSP). They are trying to be more adult and make broader claims about the broader uses of their device rather than going for the low hanging fruit of marketing it at gullible people who don't know the difference between an NES and toaster the way Xbox is. I think the Wii stumbled on this and was being earnest about wanting to get everyone involved. MS is just being pragmatic and lying to people to an extent.

Actually the Move is doing quite well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation_Move#Reception_and_sales). Of course it helps that it actually works, you don't need an auditorium to play with it in, it's not $150.00, and it's entire marketing campaign hasn't been based on lies (Kevin Butler would never lie to me).

Not that I'll be buying it either.

[Roto13]

I might get a Move. Maybe. If there's a bundle that catches my eye.

I want to play Echochrome 2, dammit.

[Yeargdribble]

Actually the Move is doing quite well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation_Move#Reception_and_sales). Of course it helps that it actually works, you don't need an auditorium to play with it in, it's not $150.00, and it's entire marketing campaign hasn't been based on lies (Kevin Butler would never lie to me).

Not that I'll be buying it either.

Oh, no doubt the Move is doing reasonably well. I also agree that the marketing campaign is less shady than that of the Kinect. I just think that as the numbers come out the Kinect is going to be in the lead for the long haul (much like the Wii) because of the way it has chosen to market. I seems to be marketed more at serious gamers than the Kinect, but most serious gamers have an aversion to motion controls, so it's an uphill battle.

Also, to be fair, $150 is for a single person. You'll have to drop quite a bit more to get a second person playing with you. Still, at this point I'm more likely to get a Move than a Kinect. It appeals a good deal to my wife, but I'm just not sold yet because the games aren't out there.

However, some places seem to really like the Kinect. While I'm definitely more interested in something like the Move at this point, it's really going to be an issue of who comes out with the games that make me really want to play with the motion controls.

[Depression Moon]

What's wrong with Marcus

He just rubs me the wrong way. He's not snarky and witty like Butler. He's just plain obnoxious. Do you know anyone who watches him and thinks, "That kid is cool. He makes me want to be cool like him and own a PSP."?

Is there a specific demographic he's trying to appeal to by being extra "black?" My little brother and what do you mean by him acting extra black?

[Yeargdribble]

What's wrong with Marcus

He just rubs me the wrong way. He's not snarky and witty like Butler. He's just plain obnoxious. Do you know anyone who watches him and thinks, "That kid is cool. He makes me want to be cool like him and own a PSP."?

Is there a specific demographic he's trying to appeal to by being extra "black?" My little brother and what do you mean by him acting extra black?

He is a caricatured stereotype of a black youth.

Of course, something I've noticed is that in the school where I work (90% black), almost every kid that has a portable has a PSP and almost nobody has a DS. But I think that was the case before the Marcus add campaign, so I'm not sure if they are related or not.

I just find him to be an obnoxious twit and I don't think I'm alone. I'm bothered by his 2-dimensional stereotyping the same way John Hodgman plays an obnoxious, nerdy, pudgy, cubicle-working, stiff, boring white guy in the "I'm a Mac; I'm a PC" adds.

[Iceglow]

To be fair here guys I'm going to have to say try Kinect out for yourselves then comment on how good or :bou::bou::bou::bou: it is because until you've actually been on it you simply don't know. I have the ability to comment from actual user experience of the games on Kinect especially considering for over 3 hours yesterday my job consisted of playing on it with one of my colleagues demonstrating the tech and the various features we had a lot of fun on it and initially he was very negative about Kinect said it was going to bomb, be :bou::bou::bou::bou: and not do well, when he left work yesterday evening he was liking it and really enjoying himself when playing and had even changed his opinion on how well the sensor would do as a product, to give you an idea of how much this is a big deal, he got offered the chance to stop playing after a couple of hours, he spent his full 8 hour shift doing nothing but play Kinect with customers and me to demonstrate it, he's also the type of guy who once he's made his mind up about something just simply doesn't change it without damn good reason he owns every console out there even if he doesn't like it when it comes to gaming knowlege I think Lil' Dan at work probably knows more than Trix or WK possibly more than both combined.

The technology involved is really very, very good. It is well beyond the tech involved in the Playstation Move or the Wii. The way it manages to track the body is impressive. For example on the Kinect Adventures game is 3 demo's for other games, 1 for the Kinect driving game comming out (actually can get really competitive when theres two people driving it with deliberate boosting in to each other, side swiping and putting each other off) 1 for the Kinect fitness game comming out on launch and also Dance Central. In the fitness game demo theres one challenge available where you have to punch across your body to hit a target and the more targets you hit the more points. You really have to punch across the body or it doesn't even count the hit it tracks the punch across giving you a proper cardio workout. Dance Central I am going to be forced to confess a guilty love of this game already. I don't like dancing games, I'm not a fan but this game is really without a doubt the best dance game out there and probably the most fun because you're not just stomping on a giant d-pad or moving your arms around like in Dancing Stage or Just Dance but you're actually doing proper dance routines and moves theres only 2 songs in the demo but it's great and imho will sell crap tons come the 10th when we are selling the Kinect sensor.

I also spoke to someone who works at microsoft (thinking about it, she looks a lot like the girl who plays with Milo in the Natal trailers) yesterday during our demonstration session she was just in because she'd been shopping on oxford street and noticed us playing and having a laugh. She's not at liberty to say much for obvious reasons but the Kinect we see now at launch has basically due to legal reasons been at this stage for almost 2 years now so if you think, Microsoft have had this ready to go for 2 years and has since it's been ready has had 2 years to develop it further Kinect really could become something very interesting. I hope it does, I don't think the space requirements (and guys it really is 6ft not 8ft for reference we measured our "demonstration zone" and we have a box 7ft by 8ft roped off and in that zone we also have large piles of Kinect "chocolate boxes" on display we do a 2 player session in that easily) are great, the system for example would require in my bedroom at the moment for example me to have my tv on the door and absoloutely nothing, not even a bed in the room but if you have it set up in most living rooms theres enough space for it for sure. For those like Psy and Quin who visited my old flat for my birthday know that I'm not kidding when I say simply pushing the armchairs out the way would generate enough space for a good 4 player Kinect session in there and my flat wasn't particulary big really.

[DK]

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/4620/blabblahsteve.gif

[G13]

:redface:

[Madame Adequate]

Steve = Steve
Unimpressed guy = Everyone else

[NorthernChaosGod]

tl ; dr

[Depression Moon]

He is a caricatured stereotype of a black youth.

Of course, something I've noticed is that in the school where I work (90% black), almost every kid that has a portable has a PSP and almost nobody has a DS. But I think that was the case before the Marcus add campaign, so I'm not sure if they are related or not.


As I black man, I don't see it.

[Roto13]

I don't like Kevin Butler. Taking Sony's typica arrogance and making it funnier only makes it slightly less embarrassing.

[Bunny]

OP: "Hey guys! The Kinect sucks, lol!"
Everyone Else: "Eh."
OP: "No really! Look!
Everyone Else: "Eh...."
OP: "WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME"
Iceglow: ONE THOUSAND WORDS ON SOMETHING

[NorthernChaosGod]

OP: "Hey guys! The Kinect sucks, lol!"
Everyone Else: "Eh."
OP: "No really! Look!
Everyone Else: "Eh...."
OP: "WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME"
Iceglow: ONE THOUSAND WORDS ON SOMETHING

/thread

[Rostum]

Yeah, I was involved in a project developing a smaller indie title with Kinect. I am really not a fan of Kinect, it pretty much sucks and it sucking was a major factor in why our game was never fully developed and released.

[Shattered Dreamer]

I gave Kinect a try only a couple of days ago in Game & honestly it was the least enjoyable gaming experience of my life. It doesn't respond nearly quick enough and the game were pretty dumb!

It took me a long time to warm to the Wii and the game that warmed me up to motion sensing was Sonic Unleashed. This game blended joypad use (general movement & jumping) with motion sensing elements (combat & some more advanced movement) very well. For me this is the way forward with motion sensing, not standing in front of a glorified over priced web cam flailing around like a dumbass. As for Playstation Move I've no desire in slightest to even try it out. If motion sensing ever replaces the humble joypad I'll give up gaming for good!

The Wii does so well because it provides the ultimate in mindless simple multiplayer fun for the CASUAL GAMER! It's obvious neither Microsoft with their stupid web cam & Sony with their plastic light up Wiimote knock off that they really haven't grasped this point!

[Aerith's Knight]

Kinect Hardware Angry Joe Review – Blistered Thumbs (http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2010/11/kinect-angry-video-review/)

This guy is usually pretty honest. He brings up some good points and it gives me a pretty good idea what the kinect is like. It's fun, but I certainly don't want to shell that much money for it, and it'll never be more than a gimmicky dance peripheral.

[Iceglow]

Kinect Hardware Angry Joe Review – Blistered Thumbs (http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2010/11/kinect-angry-video-review/)

This guy is usually pretty honest. He brings up some good points and it gives me a pretty good idea what the kinect is like. It's fun, but I certainly don't want to shell that much money for it, and it'll never be more than a gimmicky dance peripheral.

The other games do work quite good on it must be said tried the fitness evolved game today full edition, it's actually very good far better than what I expect from a fitness game. First it won't let you cheat and doesn't reward you for poor performances or lack of effort. To progress to a higher difficulty the task/challenge must first be done on the easy difficulty and it's not afraid to point blank say "you're not ready to move on, try it again" I like that it also through speed of movement and body tracking works out how many calories you've burned and sets goals of realistic calorie burning (first target is 100 calories) The fitness classes work well with the demonstration done by an actual body tracked person not an XBL avatar which is good and doing something like the "Zen" lesson (tai chi) it accurately depicts how good your form is as a percentage and also by highlighting the body parts what are in the right position. I think that this is far superior to fitness games on other formats and since the wii fit balance board has a capacity of 21st weight this which requires someone to input their weight to begin with is likely to be better off for heavily obese people since nothing can break under their weight except the floor lol!

I'm still going to reserve judgement on the Steel Battalion game for when it arrives but so far Kinect looks to have some of the most promising movement control games out there atm though as me and our nintendo rep argued about before eventually agreeing, the wii still has a strong advantage in terms of quantity of quality games if we look purely at Nintendo own "in house" developed games.

[Raven Riley]

I had a go on a Kinect in a store and it is actually a lot of fun! I might ask for one for Christmas... :D

[Shlup]

I just played it with BJ's entire family. I want it. I want it now.

BJ's aunt did punch her son in the eye though. Still, I was impressed.

[NorthernChaosGod]

BJ's aunt did punch her son in the eye though.

And thus the only reason for the Kinect's existence comes to light.

[I Took the Red Pill]

I'll just leave this here:

"The Future of Gaming" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWbLOFGSEDo)

[DMKA]

I'll just leave this here:

"The Future of Gaming" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWbLOFGSEDo)

Everyone in this thread needs to watch this.

Everytime I do, I can't stop laughing.

[Iceglow]

I'll just leave this here:

"The Future of Gaming" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWbLOFGSEDo)

I hadn't been made aware that Huxley had already brought Kinect! I wonder if he has Dance Central