Microsoft Kinect

[angel]

Plus it'll probably drop to 99 quid in a few months with a better pack-in. Always gouge the early adopters.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

That too. I don't really mind paying a premium on a first day purchase if it really offers something great and new, but I'm not sold on the early titles at all. If the Xbox was in the living room I might have bought it for Kinectimals so my daughter can play it. However, as my Xbox is in my man-cave it won't get to see much casual action anyway so no dancing and flailing titles for me.

[Stolly]

Isn't Child of Eden going to be 'the' game for kinect? According to the Edge preview, playing using Kinect will be a 'really trippy' experience . Mind you Child of Eden will also be playable using a standard pad and is, I think, also going to be Move compatible on the PS3 version so you'd have to say it will need to come out first before anybody gets Kinect just for that 'trip'.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

I'm definitely interested in Child of Eden, but I await the reviews and impressions of the final product, the (early) videos of Child of Eden controlled by Kinect looked a bit messy.

[Massive Invisible Dog]

Yeah, maybe if you're on acid when you play you won't give a shit about the lag and the arm ache.

[ras el hanout]

Napoleon is such a joker. For years he's been trolling Nintendo threads with this looks shit. He saves most of his trolling for posts about the Wii and "Waggle"

MS make something that is waggle taken to ridiculous lengths. The best review you here about Kinect is "It actually works" Wow, a company made something that works. Anyway so MS make this thing and Napoleon goes all Boayatsea, showing videos of it to friends at work and seriously considering getting one. What a chump.

[footle]

Napoleon is such a joker. For years he's been trolling Nintendo threads with this looks shit. He saves most of his trolling for posts about the Wii and "Waggle"

How are you doing with the "Your Shape won't be able to check your pose because it's not got a set of expensive bathroom scales attached" argument, Ramone?

[ras el hanout]

How are you doing with the "Your Shape won't be able to check your pose because it's not got a set of expensive bathroom scales attached" argument, Ramone?

Pretty well. Apparently the lack of scales is what relegates YOUR SHAPE to the dustbins. Ask eurogamer.

[shirubagan]

Set mine up last night and plated a bit of the Adventure one. Seems fun... Can't wait to try Dance Central and that fighting one later this evening.

How does Your Shape fare? I quite got into Wii Fit last year, so am intersted to hear comparisons.

Couldn't get voice activation working though.... Does that even exist?

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

Napoleon is such a joker. For years he's been trolling Nintendo threads with this looks shit. He saves most of his trolling for posts about the Wii and "Waggle"

MS make something that is waggle taken to ridiculous lengths. The best review you here about Kinect is "It actually works" Wow, a company made something that works. Anyway so MS make this thing and Napoleon goes all Boayatsea, showing videos of it to friends at work and seriously considering getting one. What a chump.

I'm at the moment not seriously considering getting one actually. I skipped Move too. I think I said, "let's see some good games first."

And yes, I think that all Kinect titles so far look shit. With a little hope for Child of Eden but that looks flaky as hell too on the videos I've seen so far. I do like the way Your Shape 'scans' your body and tracks it and does all kind of Matrixy tracking stuff, but I want to eat crisps and drink beer while gaming, not doing any exercise because I am a lazy bastard.

[ras el hanout]

Set mine up last night and plated a bit of the Adventure one. Seems fun... Can't wait to try Dance Central and that fighting one later this evening.

How does Your Shape fare? I quite got into Wii Fit last year, so am intersted to hear comparisons.

Couldn't get voice activation working though.... Does that even exist?

According to Eurogamer the good about YOUR SHAPE is that you can't cheat at it (Quite why you'd buy an exercise thing and then try and trick the machine I don't know, although I often put a dog on my treadmill so the treadmill doesn't think less of me.) Anyway, yeah according to Eurogamer you can't cheat with YOUR SHAPE. Nor can or would you with WiiFit.

The bad with YOUR SHAPE, according to Eurogamer is it can't weigh you so there's no sense of progress and it's no fun. And it can't check your balance.

[ras el hanout]

I'm at the moment not seriously considering getting one actually. I skipped Move too. I think I said, "let's see some good games first."

And yes, I think that all Kinect titles so far look shit. With a little hope for Child of Eden but that looks flaky as hell too on the videos I've seen so far.

Oh right it's just that you sounded quite positive about the thing. Showing it to friends, thinking about getting one for your kid. I just found this a bit strange with your well documented ANTI NIN.. I MEAN ANTI WAGGLE stance.

But I see now you think it looks shit. Although you have SOME hope for Child of Eden. Hmmm, it's not like you've written it off. I wonder if you are as anti waggle as you suggest. It sounds like if Child of Eden actually worked you'd be flailing your arms around like a maniac. What's that about?

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

If Child of Eden has to be played by flailing my arms around like a maniac, my little hope is unfounded.

[Stolly]

According to Eurogamer the good about YOUR SHAPE is that you can't cheat at it (Quite why you'd buy an exercise thing and then try and trick the machine I don't know, although I often put a dog on my treadmill so the treadmill doesn't think less of me.) Anyway, yeah according to Eurogamer you can't cheat with YOUR SHAPE. Nor can or would you with WiiFit.

The bad with YOUR SHAPE, according to Eurogamer is it can't weigh you so there's no sense of progress and it's no fun. And it can't check your balance.

I take your point in comparing the two games head to head at this moment in time - wii fit is better, largely because of the balance board. But surely kinect, whether its the best thing since sliced bread or utter shite, should be compared with the wii remote and nun-chuck alone and not the the balance board as well. MS could always launch a fitness game down the line with a weighing machine/balance board thrown in or, even more simply, just allow you to add your weight periodically and let the game software record it and throw out progress reports and charts. Or how about MS coming up with a spreadsheet on your PC, they could maybe call it Microsoft Excel, which allows you to record your fitness progress in any way, shape or form that you want to

[ras el hanout]

If Child of Eden has to be played by flailing my arms around like a maniac, my little hope is unfounded.

Well you can also play it with a joystick but this is the Kinect thread. But do you see what I'm saying. You're waiting for good games for Kinect. How many good games are you waiting for before you embrace it? Because that would be quite a shift from you the loudest of the moaners against motion controls.

You've been totally against motion controls. You hated the Wii, you've written of Move - so that's the two most accurate motion controllers. And yet the Kinect which according to all available data is the least accurate and most flaky is the one that you're most positive about. I find that difficult to accept. It's almost like you weren't anti waggle per se.

[footle]

According to Eurogamer the good about YOUR SHAPE is that you can't cheat at it (Quite why you'd buy an exercise thing and then try and trick the machine I don't know, although I often put a dog on my treadmill so the treadmill doesn't think less of me.) Anyway, yeah according to Eurogamer you can't cheat with YOUR SHAPE. Nor can or would you with WiiFit.

The bad with YOUR SHAPE, according to Eurogamer is it can't weigh you so there's no sense of progress and it's no fun. And it can't check your balance.

That's an interesting comment. Would you like to point to the particular part in the review that links "it can't weight you" with "there's no sense of progress"?

(I have no beef with "it's no fun" - but then, I didn't find Wii Fit fun either.)

Also:

"But the positive flipside is, whereas with previous games there was too much guesswork involved to know if your technique was actually any good, now you'll learn to nail positions exactly to reap maximum benefits while maintaining correct form."

means that it can check your balance - if you're not holding a position exactly, you'll wobble and your balance will be off.

But keep trying to justify your purchase of your set of weighing scales. Perhaps you'll manage to justify my purchase of them too, while you're at it.

[ras el hanout]

I take your point in comparing the two games head to head at this moment in time - wii fit is better, largely because of the balance board. But surely kinect, whether its the best thing since sliced bread or utter shite, should be compared with the wii remote and nun-chuck alone and not the the balance board as well. MS could always launch a fitness game down the line with a weighing machine/balance board thrown in or, even more simply, just allow you to add your weight periodically and let the game software record it and throw out progress reports and charts. Or how about MS coming up with a spreadsheet on your PC, they could maybe call it Microsoft Excel, which allows you to record your fitness progress in any way, shape or form that you want to

Kinect is a peripheral for the 360

The balance board is a peripheral for the Wii.

And if MS launched a fitness game with a balance board/scales it would shit all over WiiFit.

[ras el hanout]

That's an interesting comment. Would you like to point to the particular part in the review that links "it can't weight you" with "there's no sense of progress"?

(I have no beef with "it's no fun" - but then, I didn't find Wii Fit fun either.)

Also:

"But the positive flipside is, whereas with previous games there was too much guesswork involved to know if your technique was actually any good, now you'll learn to nail positions exactly to reap maximum benefits while maintaining correct form."

means that it can check your balance - if you're not holding a position exactly, you'll wobble and your balance will be off.

But keep trying to justify your purchase of your set of weighing scales. Perhaps you'll manage to justify my purchase of them too, while you're at it.

LOL! I don't use WiiFit.

But there is no way that YOUR SHAPE can check your balance was well as the balance board. Use your brain, It's doesn't go from not putting your weight on the correct leg to falling over. There's having your weight on the wrong leg, something Kinect couldn't possibly know.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

Well you can also play it with a joystick but this is the Kinect thread. But do you see what I'm saying. You're waiting for good games for Kinect. How many good games are you waiting for before you embrace it? Because that would be quite a shift from you the loudest of the moaners against motion controls.

You've been totally against motion controls. You hated the Wii, you've written of Move - so that's the two most accurate motion controllers. And yet the Kinect which according to all available data is the least accurate and most flaky is the one that you're most positive about. I find that difficult to accept. It's almost like you weren't anti waggle per se.

I think Kinect does some cool stuff, mainly the tracking and recognizing of body parts. In that way I find the tech interesting from a nerd perspective. That video with IR goggles showing all this pinpoints of UV light made my geek heart beat a little faster. I can imagine it being kind of cool to have it on top of your PC monitor and use gestures Minority Report style to move windows around, open a finder or browser and that kind of thing.

However, as a gaming input device I'm not sold on it. I tried the Wii and didn't like it, skipped Move because it does pretty much the same thing as the Wii but more refined. Kinect does something new, but I never liked the Eyetoy in the past either and this comes pretty close so far. And I'd rather see Microsoft pump more money in Space Marines and a new generation of powerful hardware than this stuff.

[footle]

LOL! I don't use WiiFit.

But there is no way that YOUR SHAPE can check your balance was well as the balance board. Use your brain, It's doesn't go from not putting your weight on the correct leg to falling over. There's having your weight on the wrong leg, something Kinect couldn't possibly know.

I note that you've pulled back from defending your misrepresentation.

Next up, you'll think about how exercise works (if that's possible), and the superhuman strength that would be needed to move into a defined position while still keeping your weight incorrectly balanced.

Balance isn't fitness, anyway.

[Harsin]

I think Kinect does some cool stuff, mainly the tracking and recognizing of body parts. In that way I find the tech interesting from a nerd perspective. That video with IR goggles showing all this pinpoints of UV light made my geek heart beat a little faster. I can imagine it being kind of cool to have it on top of your PC monitor and use gestures Minority Report style to move windows around, open a finder or browser and that kind of thing.

You broke my heart Napoleon. YOU BROKE MY HEART!

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

I know. Moving over to a Mac and buying a Magic Trackpad turned me gay.

[Harsin]

It's too late, just be quiet and get in the rowboat.

[ras el hanout]

I think Kinect does some cool stuff, mainly the tracking and recognizing of body parts. In that way I find the tech interesting from a nerd perspective. That video with IR goggles showing all this pinpoints of UV light made my geek heart beat a little faster. I can imagine it being kind of cool to have it on top of your PC monitor and use gestures Minority Report style to move windows around, open a finder or browser and that kind of thing.

However, as a gaming input device I'm not sold on it. I tried the Wii and didn't like it, skipped Move because it does pretty much the same thing as the Wii but more refined. Kinect does something new, but I never liked the Eyetoy in the past either and this comes pretty close so far. And I'd rather see Microsoft pump more money in Space Marines and a new generation of powerful hardware than this stuff.

The Wii did something new. Has by any definiteion at least one or two good games.

So you didn't like the Wii and Move because...

You're going to have to fill int he gaps for me. I could understand it if you went. As a gaming input device it looks disastrous. But you're not saying that. Like I said it sounds like if they actually make a game that works well you'll be all over it.

So why do you hate the Wii, have written off Move without trying it and yet you sound like you want to be convinced by Kinect? Like, what did I miss?

See, you didn't like Move or Wii because... it can't be accuracy or standing or...

[ehesho]

Kinect Sports, Dance Central and Kinectimals are the stars of the launch line-up.

Cheers

[bradigor]

I am still hoping someone I know gets this, so I can test it out in my home before putting money aside over the next few months for it. Looking forward to hearing impressions over the next week.

[Mr. Gerbik]

I'm going to ask a mod to make me the OP of the anti-waggle thread, I think it's probably me who's next in line now that Nap has been lost to the dark side

Damn you, scott. Damn you and your waggley ways

[mechamonkey]

I'm having a Kinect party tonight (Dance Central, Sports, Adventure) so will report back tomorrow.

[ras el hanout]

I note that you've pulled back from defending your misrepresentation.

Next up, you'll think about how exercise works (if that's possible), and the superhuman strength that would be needed to move into a defined position while still keeping your weight incorrectly balanced.

Balance isn't fitness, anyway.

sigh. You know the bit on wii fit where you stand on the balance board with you feet apart and it tells you where your centre if gravity is? Could kinect do that? Yes or no? And most yoga poses are that taken to different extremes. Yes kinect would be better at telling if your arms were in the right position, wiifit assumes they are and measures the Important stuff.

balance isn't man fitness. But for chicks that yoga stuff is what they call exercise, and that's all about balance. Something best measured with a balance board.

[ehesho]

I'm having a Kinect party tonight (Dance Central, Sports, Adventure) so will report back tomorrow.

Looking forward to your review