Kinect (Xbox 360)

[ndboarder]

I couldn't decide whether this should be here or in reviews. Considering the Kinect itself is hardware which can be used in a number of games I've decided it fits here for now. I was able to pickup my Kinect yesterday at 4:00 CST. After doing so I completed my work day and rushed home to finally get to test this thing out. The long write up follows, but the bottom line is this: If you have an Xbox 360 you NEED a Kinect, if you don't have an Xbox then you NEED and Xbox AND a Kinect.

 

First things first, setup. The base of the Kinect is probably someting like 2" x 2" except it's a hexagon, so it wouldn't just happily sit on top of my flat panel TV like a Wii sensor. It can of course also be mounted beneath the TV however my center channel speaker is directly below the TV and the vibration/noise would interfere with performance of the camera sensor and the microphone for voice recognition. I quickly fashioned a little wooden bracket that straddled the top of the TV and placed the Kinect sensor on it. From there it is as simple as plugging into the Kinect port on the Xbox and turning the system on where I was immediately prompted to install an update to allow use of the new hardware. Note that I have a newer 360, for those without a Kinect port there is an included adapter to provide a standard USB connection, but you have an AC adapter to plug-in as well. The Kinect port simply provides power and the connection to xbox elimating one AC adapter.

 

After installing I was guided through a quick calibration and given a short tutorial on use within the Kinect Hub. You cannot interact with your standard Xbox dashboard with the Kinect. By waving at the device you enter the Kinect hub which offers most of the same options from dashboard but in a touch friendly interface. Simply moving your hand around you guide the onscreen cursor and hover over tiles to select an option. You can also say "XBOX" and then be given a list of voice commands to navigate or say any of the names on a tile (such as Zune, Play Disc, ESPN, etc) and it launches the requested application. Very easy to navigate and faily intuitive. My only complaint on this is that once in a while when you launch an application or game it requires you to wave to Kinect again to get the cursor on screen for use. This primarily only seems to happen if an update for the selected title is available, which happened a lot last night since every game I tried had an update at some point or another.

 

On to the games. I started out with Kinect adventures. One of my biggest worries were reports that you would need to be able to get 8-10 feet away from your TV. The room I setup in is only 10' wide so with a couch and TV stand it means I can get 6-7 feet away at the very best. Adventures starts by determining the size of your playspace. You can have a "good" or "best" playspace. In Good you are only allowed one player, in best you can have up to two players side by side (any number of people can step in and out of play at their hearts desire though, and with Kinect ID it will know who you are if you are a normal user of the system your on). Sadly I have only a "good" environment. I backed up as close to the couch as possible and leaned back I could get it to say it was "best" but then it had issues picking me up since it expected me to be further away.

 

Back to the drawing board! I had heard that mounting the Kinect higher up allowed for a smaller playspace to accomodate multiple players. Also, if I mounted it higher, on a shelf on the wall it would move the Kinect another foot back from where I could stand. I fashioned another quick wooden object, a shelf, and mounted it centered above the TV at about 7' (a foot down from my ceiling) and placed the Kinect. I then went back to Kinect Hub and recalibrated the Kinect.

 

SUCCESS! Kinect Adventures now readily sees that I have a 'best' play space and 2 players is good to go. I played a few adventures and then it was onto other games. I tried out sports. Bowling and Table Tennis are the only ones I tried last night, but they were a lot of fun. Bowling seems more legitimate than those I've played on Wii. Table tennis on the other hand is pretty dumbed down. With the Wii or PS3 Move you have control over the angle of your paddle and everything since they can very acurrately track the angle of the controller your holding (but not of anything other than that controller), but on the Kinect you primarily have control over your players movement left to right across the table and if/when/how hard you swing at the ball. It isn't as accurate, but you sure can't "fake" playing on Kinect. By this I mean you cannot sit down on your couch and simply flick your wrist. You are going to be standing, you will be looking like a goofball, it will take your pictures while you look like a goofball and you WILL break a sweat doing it (well on some games at least for the sweat part).

 

I did try out one dance in Dance Central, which I felt like a complete jackass doing, but it is a lot of fun. We also tried joy ride, which isn't the most interactive of the games, but still fun and a good demonstration of the technology. Just to clarify this, I say it isn't the most interactive because it only requires you to use your hands to steer and tilt your upper body to drift or perform stunts, I did still find myself moving around quite a bit though.

 

I had fun playing on my own, but it was most fun in Kinect adventures when we had two people going side by side and you get warm very quickly playing this way. It's just a LOT of fun and in adventures especially it's about working together to complete the challenges whereas in sports you are primarily competing. With sports a couple people may be playing at one (table tennis) while other games do support up to 4 players each going one at a time (such as bowling).

 

Initially I did have some concerns as I didn't think it seemed all that responsive, but after calibrating the second time around and spending a little time with it I'm extremely happy with the Kinect. The navigation is unique, but for most gaming your still just going to use your controller and the standard dashboard. The Kinect Chat intrigues me (video chat to other Kinect owners or your MSN Messenger contacts), but I haven't been able to try it. Primarily this is just awesome for the gaming experience and truely drawing you into the game. Your not just moving a controller around its actually tracking your entire skeleton and doing it well. The slogan is "you are the controller" which I always though was a cheesy line, but an hour or so with this and you'll understand why that is truly an amazing statement to make.

 

 

[nodle]

Is the dancing game for two people or just one at a time?

[ndboarder]

Is the dancing game for two people or just one at a time?

Well the gal won't even try this game so I'm not exactly sure, but I believe that it allows for one primary dancer, but will pick up on others and mimick their movements in background. I know there is an achievement tied to having an additional dancer, but I think it's just one main person tracked for accuracy at any time. I'll have to follow up on that one.

They will have additional songs available for download though, I know you had wondered that as well. There appears to be a store built into the game, si I'm sure it's only a matter of time before there's new songs avaialble if there isn't already.

 

 

[nodle]

So is ryanator going to get one now?

[jmanz]

Does it make you nervous to know you have a device in your house that can track your voice AND your movements?

[nodle]

Does it make you nervous to know you have a device in your house that can track your voice AND your movements?

Funny you should say that, there is alot on the net right now about people complaining about that. Does make you wonder...

 

 

[jmanz]

I guess a cell phone can virtually do the same thing, plus gps tracking.

[nodle]

I guess a cell phone can virtually do the same thing, plus gps tracking.

I have inside information that this is true... 4 realz.

 

 

[C Pav]

I am on the fence about the Kinect. I like the idea of no controller to play motion games since I do like the Wii and some of the family and party type games. Problem is I don't play the Wii that much and prefer games like FPS (Call of Duty) and role playing games. The price is a bit steep for what it offers and nothing really sticks out as must have at the moment. My wife asked me last night if that is what I wanted for Christmas and I said yes but now not so sure.

[ndboarder]

I am on the fence about the Kinect. I like the idea of no controller to play motion games since I do like the Wii and some of the family and party type games. Problem is I don't play the Wii that much and prefer games like FPS (Call of Duty) and role playing games. The price is a bit steep for what it offers and nothing really sticks out as must have at the moment. My wife asked me last night if that is what I wanted for Christmas and I said yes but now not so sure.

This is a completely different experience than playing the Wii or PS3 move. The sports games do appear similar, but the amount of immersion is higher. We don't play our Wii often, or the Move either unless we have a group of people around. This I'm sure will end up being the same way, but it will be the new preferred party game to play as far as sports or adventures. The dance one is probably more one that if it is up a persons ally you would play frequently. The workout games will also be huge on this since it can actually give you guidance on what you may be doing wrong unlike the move or wii fit.

 

 

[ndboarder]

Does it make you nervous to know you have a device in your house that can track your voice AND your movements?

No. 1) It is only one when the xbox is on, and if you want you can turn it off from your xbox dashboard. 2) it can only track me when I'm in front of it anyway unlike my phone which is with me 99% of the time.

 

 

[nodle]

I am also on the fence on this one. I was excited for it at first. But then I thought about how much I would actually use it. I mean it would be fun when you have guest over to entertain with. But just for me I can't see it being used all that much. I do like the idea better than the wii etc. But do I really want to drop $150+ only to use it when friends come over? I just don't know. If i could maybe try it then I might be sold.

[C Pav]

nodle, don't lie, you would be dancing to Lady Gaga every night.

[ndboarder]

You two are @$$3$, get out there and get this, you won't regret it

[C Pav]

You two are @$3$, get out there and get this, you won't regret it

http://imgur.com/xo8Ab.jpg

 

 

[jmanz]

hahahahah

[nodle]

[ryanator]

So is ryanator going to get one now?

I don't know now, I will need more convincing or better reviews.

 

 

[ndboarder]

Just go out and try it, but don't let any best buy employees try to do anything. I was at the local best buy last night and they had a guy just standing there, supposedly to help people and he didn't even bother to read any screens that came up to know WTF he was doing. He pretty much about ruined the experience for one kid that was looking at it. Luckily I was there to tell him what he should do. Man I fucking hate best buy.

 

On that note I guess I shouldn't try to write an honest post about my initial thoughts and setup experience. All anyone seems to have read or paid any attention to is the first hour or so of my experience before I had fully calibrated after the move from television to a shelf above the TV. Once you set this up, which for most would probably only take 10 minutes, it is absolutely great. It took me longer because I had to take time to whip up a few mounting pieces and experiment with calibrations just to see what happened. The bottom line is that setup is simple and the gameplay is incredibly fun.

 

 

[ndboarder]

Oh BTW, if any of you fgts do ever go try this, keep any best buy sales people away from it. The guy I saw trying to help a kid last night was pretty much trying to unsell the product from what I saw. Didn't know how to read apparently either since had he paid any attention to the screens he would've known what he should be doing when he got into the calibration mode. 1) once calibrated they don't need to do it for each person that walks up, unless they've moved the sensor 2) I don't even think the guy knew if he waved at the screen it would get you into the Kinect hub. Fuck I hate best buy

[nodle]

This guy seems to be rocking it!

 

[jmanz]

It would be worth the price of admission to see boarder do that lol

[ndboarder]

It would be worth the price of admission to see boarder do that lol

I didn't try any dancing that advanced, and I'm pretty sure after the number of drinks it would take to make me try that game in front of you sir, it would be an ugly site. Nice to see him do a good demo of it and tracking. That game is actually pretty tough. If you are off at all it tells you, I always ended up a bit behind and would be moving left when I should've been moving right and then to correct and get back into the right tempo was tricky. Definitely makes you work out though

 

 

[nodle]

I went to Best Buy today to try one of these out. To my disappointment, they didn't even have one setup.

[nodle]

Uh Oh, looks like it really may be spying on you...

 

At the BMO Capital Markets forum, Dennis Durkin, the chief operating officer of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment division, offered that if someone were watching a sporting event with Kinect on (for example, ESPN's new streaming service to the Xbox 360), Kinect could deduce what team they support based on what kind of jersey or colors they wore, and serve advertising tailored to that.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/kinects-camera-could-record-data-for-advertisers/