OFFICIAL Kinect thread.

[dougp]

I've had fun with it, but only played for about 20 minutes right now. Had an issue to deal w/ @ work, so my time was limited. If you have any questions, ask away. This was an impulse buy tonight by my wife, as I won't let her get a Wii because it'll just sit there like the PS3 did.

 

[sciwizam]

I don't think anyone of you can top this guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IbScGO0PXg&feature=related

 

[Tristicus]

I don't think anyone of you can top this guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IbScGO0PXg&feature=related

Our store manager would totally be the guy doing that.D:

 

[Trevor311]

After watching a lot of the Giant Bomb Kinect streaming stuff, it seems like a lot of the launch games just having tracking problems, I'm going to guess it's more of a software issue than hardware at this point. Kinect Sports seemed to be the worst of it, with about half the games just not tracking properly for Jeff and Ryan.

The one game that got me really stoked for giving Kinect to my kids for Xmas was Dance Central, which seems like a blast, and worked really well. Leave it to Harmonix to get it right from the get go, hopefully more developers will find ways to take advantage of the hardware and release more fun, innovative games.

If not tho, I think Dance Central alone makes the $150 for the hardware worthwhile. Hey, I spent $100 on my King Kong HD-DVD player 360 addon, so I'm used to buying hardware that only really gets used for one thing .

Yeah, it seems to be the one title with a solidly positive metascore on Metacritic. Not into the dancing bit myself, but if you were, it sounds like a solid buy.

 

[blurredvision]

Check this video out of how the Kinect looks through night-vision goggles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7nRKU0nFxA

Pretty awesome.

EDIT: Another video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvvQJxgykcU

 

[warcrow]

I played a ton yesterday--Kinect Adventures, Your Shape and Dance Central--and I'm soar this morning.

The only time I had issues with facial recognition and motion detection was when the sun went down. We've got pretty poor lighting in our living room, but other than that it's been surprisingly good.

I agree with Queasy--the voice command stuff doesnt save time, it's more of a way to show off the tech to friends I guess.

Regardless, we've had fun over the last few days.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Besides the hand free menu control stuff, this has no appeal to me...i do not want to look like a pathetic fool lol. I rather stick with the usual controller fun...

Not to mention it can probably get the Red Lense of Death or something...

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

Besides the hand free menu control stuff, this has no appeal to me...i do not want to look like a pathetic fool lol. I rather stick with the usual controller fun...

Not to mention it can probably get the Red Lense of Death or something...

Yeah you look fool enough with all of your fail threads. Don 't want to make it worse I suppose.

 

[blurredvision]

Yeah you look fool enough with all of your fail threads. Don 't want to make it worse I suppose.

Quit quoting him, it makes his posts appear for me.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

After watching a lot of the Giant Bomb Kinect streaming stuff, it seems like a lot of the launch games just having tracking problems, I'm going to guess it's more of a software issue than hardware at this point. Kinect Sports seemed to be the worst of it, with about half the games just not tracking properly for Jeff and Ryan.

The one game that got me really stoked for giving Kinect to my kids for Xmas was Dance Central, which seems like a blast, and worked really well. Leave it to Harmonix to get it right from the get go, hopefully more developers will find ways to take advantage of the hardware and release more fun, innovative games.

If not tho, I think Dance Central alone makes the $150 for the hardware worthwhile. Hey, I spent $100 on my King Kong HD-DVD player 360 addon, so I'm used to buying hardware that only really gets used for one thing .

$150 for a peripheral isn't that bad these days.
who doesn't have 2 guitars, a drum kit and a mic in their gaming room, and that's just for 1 game (or genre).

 

[Phobic9]

$150 for a peripheral isn't that bad these days.
who doesn't have 2 guitars, a drum kit and a mic in their gaming room, and that's just for 1 game (or genre).

*raises hand* :awe:

Dance Central looks to be the best use of the Kinect technology for now but I'm not convinced enough to buy it... yet.

 

[Narmer]

Wii 2.0. I learned my lesson. Never again.

 

[Aikouka]

*raises hand* :awe:

Dance Central looks to be the best use of the Kinect technology for now but I'm not convinced enough to buy it... yet.

I would maybe consider dance central, but why would I pay $150 + game's price instead of just playing DDR. I already own DDR, but bundles for it are cheap.

 

[dougp]

I would maybe consider dance central, but why would I pay $150 + game's price instead of just playing DDR. I already own DDR, but bundles for it are cheap.

Because it's not the same game? That's like comparing RB2 to the new RB3 that teaches you how to play the guitar.

Or perhaps Track and Field vs. the Kinect sports ...

 

[Beev]

What about Just Dance then? It's basically the same except the Wii captures much fewer controls. You still do full body dancing.

 

[dougp]

What about Just Dance then? It's basically the same except the Wii captures much fewer controls. You still do full body dancing.

I'm picking up one of the dance games on my way home today, I'll let y'all know.

 

[Queasy]

What about Just Dance then? It's basically the same except the Wii captures much fewer controls. You still do full body dancing.

You can literally just stand still with Just Dance and swing the Wii-mote around with one arm to imitate the screen. In fact, that's pretty much all it does as it needs the big sweeping movements to detect what the player is doing.

Dance Central detects the whole body and teaches you how to do actual dance moves at different skill levels...all of which I neither knew the name or how to do. It's as close an approximation to actual dancing with a game yet.

 

[Beev]

You can literally just stand still with Just Dance and swing the Wii-mote around with one arm to imitate the screen. In fact, that's pretty much all it does as it needs the big sweeping movements to detect what the player is doing. Dance Central detects the whole body and teaches you how to do actual dance moves at different skill levels...all of which I neither knew the name or how to do. It's as close an approximation to actual dancing with a game yet.

Yeah, I haven't played it myself, but I watched some friends a month or so ago, and being the loophole finder I am I thought "I could just move the Wiimote how it says..." The screen has a full body to mimic though. How does Dance Central "teach" you to dance? Or how does it teach you better than Just Dance?

 

[Queasy]

Yeah, I haven't played it myself, but I watched some friends a month or so ago, and being the loophole finder I am I thought "I could just move the Wiimote how it says..." The screen has a full body to mimic though. How does Dance Central "teach" you to dance? Or how does it teach you better than Just Dance?

It will teach you each individual move. If it thinks you get it immediately, it will move on to the next move in the set list for that song. If you don't, it will ask you to practice until you can get it right three times in a row. If you still don't get, it will slow the move down to show you how to do it.

You can also skip the move tutorial and jump straight into dancing though.

That's what I experienced with the demo last night at least.

 

[blurredvision]

Yeah, I haven't played it myself, but I watched some friends a month or so ago, and being the loophole finder I am I thought "I could just move the Wiimote how it says..." The screen has a full body to mimic though. How does Dance Central "teach" you to dance? Or how does it teach you better than Just Dance?

Because Kinect "sees" your entire body to ensure you're waving limbs and moving your body correctly. It provides feedback on if you're moving the right way in all aspects, not just if you're waving a controller around right.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Harmonix has said that Dance Central would work on the PS3 as well, it'll be interesting to see if it gets ported and how it works in comparison. In theory, the Eyetoy should be able to handle the same body tracking that the Kinect does, but I'm sure they'll find a way to force the Move controller into the mix as well.


Technically, doesn't seem like there's a whole lot to the Kinect. Most if not all of the parts are items you could find online cheap and replace if needed, and given the parts list, I think MS must be making a killing on these things from a price perspective. They could drop this down to $100 and still make money on it (and I'm sure once sales start diminishing at some point next year they will do just that).

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft-Kinect-Teardown/4066/1

 

[Trevor311]

Besides the hand free menu control stuff, this has no appeal to me...i do not want to look like a pathetic fool lol. I rather stick with the usual controller fun...

Not to mention it can probably get the Red Lense of Death or something...

Don't want to look like a pathetic fool? Why would it matter whether you are dancing in your living room or sitting on the couch holding a console controller? If anything, I'd say the dancing around bit probably looks less pathetic and foolish.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Anyone tried out the exercise game? I wonder how good it really is for a workout program.

 

[Queasy]

Anyone tried out the exercise game? I wonder how good it really is for a workout program.

I tried out the demo that is included with Kinect Adventures last night. Felt like more of a workout than the Wii Fit ever gave and you don't have to mess with any extra peripherals or controllers.

 

[blurredvision]

I tried out the demo that is included with Kinect Adventures last night. Felt like more of a workout than the Wii Fit ever gave and you don't have to mess with any extra peripherals or controllers.

That sounds like the best part about it.