OFFICIAL Kinect thread.

[purbeast0]

i dunno, reviews from non-gaming sources really mean absolutely nothing to me.

that is kind of like me comparing 2 good mountain bikes, and i know absolutely nothing about mountain biking.

granted, these are the main target that MS is trying to reach with Kinect, but personally, reviews from MSNBC and USAToday mean absolutely nothing to me.

 

[Beev]

But they aren't supposed to. Your average tard-mom assume their news source of choice is an expert on everything, including gaming.

"Oh my! USA Today said this game was good and wholesome for my children. It must be fantastic!"

 

[warcrow]

For those who do not have an xbox it's a $300 experiment. If you already have a wii, you would be leary. If you have an xbox and really want it, why not? In other words, many will balk, I think.

Wao woa woa wait a second-- if you already have a Wii then you're automatically a famous comic/actor?!?

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

i dunno, reviews from non-gaming sources really mean absolutely nothing to me.

that is kind of like me comparing 2 good mountain bikes, and i know absolutely nothing about mountain biking.

granted, these are the main target that MS is trying to reach with Kinect, but personally, reviews from MSNBC and USAToday mean absolutely nothing to me.

Yeah but look at it this way. Kinect isn't really for gamers anyway. It is for housewives and children. That's just why I think the NYT and msnbc reviews mean a lot.

 

[purbeast0]

Yeah but look at it this way. Kinect isn't really for gamers anyway. It is for housewives and children. That's just why I think the NYT and msnbc reviews mean a lot.

yea i realize that, i was just talking about to me personally, cause i don't really care what non-gamers think about it heh.

but all in all i'm going into the whole kinect thing with a huge bias against it because i think it just looks terrible and have from the first time they showed it. would be nice to be wrong though.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

yea i realize that, i was just talking about to me personally, cause i don't really care what non-gamers think about it heh.

but all in all i'm going into the whole kinect thing with a huge bias against it because i think it just looks terrible and have from the first time they showed it. would be nice to be wrong though.

Yeah I feel the same. I don't have much time anymore to play real games, let alone "hop around like an idiot" games.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Given the heavy 360 bias in the game reviewer community, I expect to see the Kinect getting love from pro sites and bloggers alike, if for no other reason than them hoping it will encourage MS and Kinect publishers to send them more games and schwag.

But my gut tells me Kinect is just another version of Wiimote/Move, and in 6 months 90% of the people who buy one today won't be using it at all except occasionally when some game comes out that uses it for some "optional" feature that sounds cool, but is still easier to accomplish just pushing a button and Up on a gamepad.

 

[Deeko]

Kinect has potential to do more than just games, though. For example - it has a webcam in it that lets you video chat with other connect users & windows messanger users. You can control certain apps on the xbox with Kinect (beyond just the Kinect games itself).

 

[Beev]

For example - it has a webcam in it that lets you video chat with other connect users & windows messanger users.

Why would anyone want to do this? Who wants to monopolize their tv with something as insignificant as webcam chatting? It's amazingly simple to do this on a pc or laptop already. What a wasteful addition...

 

[Deeko]

Why would anyone want to do this? Who wants to monopolize their tv with something as insignificant as webcam chatting? It's amazingly simple to do this on a pc or laptop already. What a wasteful addition...

That's inane. Why should cell phones be adding web chatting when your PC can do it already? Because people want to do it, and maybe they don't want to use their computer. You might not have a webcam on your computer, or it might be in another room when you want to talk to them. Considering the hardware is already included in the Kinect, and the software already exists to do this, it would be wasteful for them NOT to include it as a feature.

No, its not a sole reason to buy the Kinect, but its an added bonus that comes with it.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Kinect has potential to do more than just games, though. For example - it has a webcam in it that lets you video chat with other connect users & windows messanger users. You can control certain apps on the xbox with Kinect (beyond just the Kinect games itself).

This just seems silly, but if that's something you will do, then you'll probably enjoy it.

The 360 has had a webcam since pretty much the beginning tho, there's no reason to spend $150 on Kinect when the standard 360 camera should do the same thing. Also, yeah, you can wave your hand to move stuff around on the screen, and that's a neat gimmick, but I think at the end of the day, people are just going to use the gamepad for it, because it takes less effort and it more precise.

 

[Deeko]

This just seems silly, but if that's something you will do, then you'll probably enjoy it.

The 360 has had a webcam since pretty much the beginning tho, there's no reason to spend $150 on Kinect when the standard 360 camera should do the same thing. Also, yeah, you can wave your hand to move stuff around on the screen, and that's a neat gimmick, but I think at the end of the day, people are just going to use the gamepad for it, because it takes less effort and it more precise.

How many people have the 360 camera? I'd assume not a lot. Again - its not something to buy the Kinect for, but its an added benefit you get when you have it. As for the hand waving and all that, I think it would be more useful when you're watching a movie or something - rather than having to use the controller/remote, you can just use the voice/motion command on the Kinect to pause/play/etc.

Just added benefits to having it, is all. Not game changing benefits (like being able to watch Blu Ray movies as an added benefit of the PS3), but benefits nonetheless.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Reviews are looking better than I thought but I really liked the Ars review. I can never see myself buying this but the Average Joe is gonna lap this up.

i wonder how much advertising MS does on some of these sites.


one of the reviews mention that kinect can't track you when you're seated.
i hear this was true a few months back and then fixed by MS more recently. which is it now?

 

[AstroManLuca]

Some more tech-oriented sites have reviews as well:

Engadget

Kotaku

Joystiq

Most of them are pretty critical of it, saying some things work well, others not so well. Universal compliments and criticisms I've seen are:

1. Voice commands are great
2. Menu navigation is slow and clunky and there aren't enough options
3. It requires way too much space to be useful unless you have a huge living room
4. Games are generally okay
5. It's too expensive for what it is, for now. It needs to improve a lot.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Just added benefits to having it, is all. Not game changing benefits (like being able to watch Blu Ray movies as an added benefit of the PS3), but benefits nonetheless.

uhhh, bluray for ps3 was game changing. for many, it was/is the sole reason for purchasing a ps3.
one could argue that it was the reason bd beat hddvd.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

How many people have the 360 camera? I'd assume not a lot. Again - its not something to buy the Kinect for, but its an added benefit you get when you have it. As for the hand waving and all that, I think it would be more useful when you're watching a movie or something - rather than having to use the controller/remote, you can just use the voice/motion command on the Kinect to pause/play/etc.

Just added benefits to having it, is all. Not game changing benefits (like being able to watch Blu Ray movies as an added benefit of the PS3), but benefits nonetheless.

If the voice command stuff works well, yeah, i could see the benefit of using that occasionally, but it's just that much work to hit fast forward on my Harmony remote as opposed to saying Fast Forward" and hoping when I say "Play" it's actually going to stop fast forwarding.

At the end of the day, the Kinect definitely has a feature set that goes above what the stock Move or Wiimote setups do, I just question how much of it people will use, and how long before they just go back to doing everything with a remote control and and gamepad.

 

[Deeko]

uhhh, bluray for ps3 was game changing. for many, it was/is the sole reason for purchasing a ps3.
one could argue that it was the reason bd beat hddvd.

Which is why I said it was game changing, whereas voice control on DVDs is nice to have but not.

Read harder.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

uhhh, bluray for ps3 was game changing. for many, it was/is the sole reason for purchasing a ps3.
one could argue that it was the reason bd beat hddvd.

True dat.

But I still think the BD market, which isn't exactly thriving at the moment anyway, will take a lot quicker than DVD did due to online HD streaming coming into its own.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Which is why I said it was game changing, whereas voice control on DVDs is nice to have but not.

Read harder.

sorry, misinterpreted your sentence.

"It's telling that when I play a game with the Move after spending a week with the Kinect everything seems more satisfying with the Move. The cursor has less lag on the screen. When I want to make a selection I just hit a button instead of hovering it over my selection for a few moments. Without buttons, there are many things the Kinect can't let you control, which makes the games feel dumbed down in places. A core game like a third- or even first-person shooter? Nearly impossible. Look at how many games here have your character standing still, or being on a moving platform, or the game does things for you because there is no way to control them with motion? It's a major problem, and it's unclear whether or not anyone has a solution. I'd love to be proven wrong.

We're going to come out and say it: Microsoft is going to release a Move-style controller for the Kinect within a year or so. Both gamers and developers are going to be frustrated by all the things the hardware can't do, and they'll demand a way to interact with games using at least one or two buttons. It's not a coincidence that so many games at launch are in the same few genres, you know. The hardware simply can't handle much else.

ouch.
i think MS is relying on it's huge advertising and hype to get a kinect in every living room, similar to the hype that made wii so successful, and then calling it a day.

 

[warcrow]

Anyone who's visted this thread should read this.

An hour later, Matt Barlow, marketing boss for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, explains to Wired the vast business opportunity ahead. “Gaming is a $48 billion business,” he says. “The challenge is how you continue to grow. We have the capability to turn your living room into a petting zoo, into a sports stadium -- so our customer base is all those who have rejected gaming either because of the content or the controller. If you could say doubling, tripling, quadrupling the audience -- I believe that. We’re also talking about a hypersocial audience, predominantly female, who want to interact while playing.”

http://www.wired.co.uk/wired-magazine/archive/2010/11/features/the-game-changer?page=all

 

[Queasy]

one of the reviews mention that kinect can't track you when you're seated.
i hear this was true a few months back and then fixed by MS more recently. which is it now?

Microsoft changed up how Kinect reads the body (moved the focal point from the base of the spine to the base of the neck) so that it will work when seated. However, most of the launch games weren't designed with sitting in mind. (The exception being the exercise games)

 

[Queasy]

Anyone who's visted this thread should read this.




http://www.wired.co.uk/wired-magazine/archive/2010/11/features/the-game-changer?page=all

Yeah, I thought that was kind of the point all along.

 

[Pheran]

Ars has one up as well
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/revie...r-floor-move-your-butt-ars-reviews-kinect.ars

I just read this and it's a really illuminating review - I can definitely see how the lack of buttons is going to be a major issue. I'm certainly going to pass on Kinect for a while and see what happens with it.

 

[warcrow]

Yeah, I thought that was kind of the point all along.

Kinect isnt really geared towards the hardcore, and I dont think everyone gets that. You and I do (and some others in this thread do as well), but there seems to be some confusion about that.

 

[Queasy]

I just read this and it's a really illuminating review - I can definitely see how the lack of buttons is going to be a major issue. I'm certainly going to pass on Kinect for a while and see what happens with it.

Microsoft has stated I don't know how many times that there will be 'core' games that work with Kinect and a controller. It's not clear how yet but it could be anything from head tracking to voice commands.

They've got a bunch of Japanese devs coming out 'core' games for Kinect next year including a new Steel Batallion (remember the Original Xbox game with the massive controller).

As warcrow's piece above mentioned, for now Kinect is about expanding the number and types of gamers for Xbox 360 more than trying to appeal to 'hardcore' gamers.