Is Kinect Kewl?

ZombieTron's picture
Submitted by ZombieTron on Wed, 06/16/2010 - 23:32

YES! Is the quick answer, it is very cool technology, one step closer to the tennis trainer in Total Recall... the future is here NOW! or at least in November!

But...

I do have a few issues with what I have seen so far, mostly because of the driving games they have shown using the Kinect system. I just don't get it. Why would anybody want to play a racing game by holding their arms up at 10 and 2? I get playing racing games with steering wheel controllers as it brings an element of realism. I get using Kinect for full body games like dancing, sports, fitness, fighting and other innovative original titles that take advantage of the unique control method that Kinect offers. But, I don't get playing driving games with Kinect, or why MS chose to make Joy Ride a Kinect game when they said it was going to be free for everybody and we should have been playing it for half a year already! (although the free bit was only ever going to be a bare bones version with all the shiny extras being paid for on the marketplace.)

I will be getting Kinect as I am a fan of dancing games and am interested in getting back into shape following the baby which I haven't bothered doing yet. I am hoping getting Zumba fitness on the Xbox will give me the right level of motivation!

When I have Kinect in my living room I will try the racing/driving games to see what it is like in practice, you never know I may change my mind and convert to racing holding my arms up at 10 and 2... but I can't see me putting down my control pad for a long time to come!

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ZombieTron's picture

ZombieTron

Tue, 09/07/2010 - 08:28

I just took a look at the Inside Xbox video of Kinect from PAX, as far as the cool question goes, you definitely DON'T look COOL playing Kinect!

Everybody interviewed remarked about how impressed they were with the responsiveness, but until I try it for myself, I will remain skeptical about that.

The other thing I noticed is the exagerrated movements that everybody was doing. Running on the spot was more like super fast knee lifts, everybody (except maybe the super fit) will be knackered after one round!

JoyRide still looks horrible to me, really wish it was a joyPad game!

Boxing looks like it controls OK, but the graphics look old school, and there is no ducking or weaving?? It really doesn't look different enough to Wii Boxing to justify not getting a Wii now for pretty much the same price as Kinect.

The only real plus point I can see for Kinect (other then possible future titles), is Xbox Live... but as the games are not controller based, I wont be wearing a headset to play... will in game voice be from the mic on the Kinect sensor? will voices come from the TV speakers? That really wont work for me. I need to be able to talk to and hear the people I am playing with.

Really not sure if I should get a Wii (as I do want to play motion games) or if I should still wait and see on Kinect???

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ZombieTron

Thu, 10/21/2010 - 13:41

It appears that you can not use the Kinect sensor to control Vision Cam games like Totem Ball and Your In The Movies. It also appears that you can not send picture messages with Kinect.

I went to send a picture message this morning as we have snow in October... I selected to add a picture before I had plugged in my camera and I got the following message:

Connect your Xbox Live vision camera to take a picture. If you have a Kinect Sensor unplug it.

This could be due to the fact that the Kinect beta is going on and the ability to send picture messages with Kinect is currently disabled, or it could be because you can't send picture messages with Kinect.

I think it is really daft that Kinect doesn't act like the Vision Cam. If I do get Kinect I wont want to have to keep plugging in my Vision Cam just to play Vision Cam games or send picture messages.... oh well, as I am currently thinking I'm not going to get Kinect I guess it doesn't make a difference to me.

ZombieTron's picture

ZombieTron

Fri, 10/22/2010 - 23:01

The more I see about Kinect the less I want to get it... well worth watching the vids on Inside Xbox for pure entertainment and shoddy production value.

And if you want to hear from the incubator watch this:

 http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/tech/2010/10/21/nr.gaming.with.your.body.cnn.html

Thanks to Suffur for tweeting the link.

Chu's picture

Chu

Sun, 10/24/2010 - 20:36

 That picture stuff sounds really odd to me. I've heard speculation that the camera on the Kinect is just a Vision camera. Regardless of that though, it is still a camera... hmm.