So last night I picked up Kinect at the midnight launch and have been playing about with it. I have never been to a midnight launch before, even a game I am really excited about can wait until the following afternoon, but I happened to be working until midnight last night and the store was only five minutes away, so I figured why not.
Initial impressions were mixed, I have no issue with the way it looks unlike many, the shiny black plastic is fine as far as I am concerned. It is quite a large piece of kit, as you might expect from such a complex device. I was however very annoyed that it doesn't come with a mount to sit it atop your TV. The TV mount is apparently sold separately, yet I cannot find one anywhere, in stores or online, including the official Xbox website, so when it is being released I have no idea. Hopefully it isn't too expensive because the extra distance you get from mounting it on the TV will be very useful, especially with a TV as big as mine.
Space is a real issue, I have the minimum recommended six feet of floor space available, but it can actually lose track of you within that, and I have to move my armchair out to play, so consider it a minimum of eight feet in actuality. This could pose a real problem for many people, and for such an expensive piece of kit, is really a deal breaker.
Getting it set up is very simple and doesn't take long, the actual technology of the device is really pretty incredible, it can pinpoint your hands, joints, and face very easily, and the facial recognition system is pretty cool. I was rather disappointed to find that the motion controls do not work on the main dashboard, only on the Kinect hub, I am told that dashboard interface will be implemented at some point, but it is pretty annoying that it isn't ready now. As far as the actual motion controls go for the Kinect hub interface, whilst it is kinda cool, it is much slower than using a pad, Minority Report this is not. On the other hand, the voice controls are awesome, and saying 'Xbox, play disc' is pretty damn cool.
The voice side is something I am hoping will live up to expectation, especially for party chat, because I have found the Microsoft headset that comes with each 360 to be very poor quality indeed. I will need to get some friends online and test out Kinect's microphones, see how they fare.
As far as the software goes, I didn't get any extra games, not having the money for it. Kinect Adventures is actually a lot more fun than I expected it to be, and this afternoon my brother joined in mid game simply by walking into the sensor's range, which was very very impressive. He isn't one for messing about a lot, but we both really got into these mini games and had a lot of fun. He described it as being 'really a lot more fun than it ought to be.' I have tried the Joy Ride demo too, and that looks better than I thought it would be, controls well, and probably great for groups/families.
All in all I think there is a great deal of potential here. I said from the moment Kinect was announced that it will take a while to find its' feet, and I still believe it will work a lot better when paired with a traditional pad. None of the launch games really interest me, and since they are all £40 each (roughly $60), same as a regular game like Halo Reach or Fallout New Vegas, I am unwilling to pick any up at the moment. Given that they are basically light party games, something like £25 would be much more reasonable.
Despite the lack of, for me, interesting games at the moment, I picked it up because I am a bit of a tech junkie and I was really interested in the technology behind it. The system really does do what it claims to do, and I hope that in the next few months some of the teething problems (like the lack of dashboard motion control) will be ironed out. What I am particularly looking forward to is Steel Battalion, I love mech games, and the chance to drive a mech without a pad sounds brilliant, I shall just have to see if it can live up to the hype. Kinect Star Wars could be fun too, as well as Codename D etc.
To sum up then, the technology is very impressive, certainly very capable, and I think could be used in a great many things. We shall just have to see how the core game developers respond to it, and how the early core games like Steel Battalion shape up. If you are unsure about picking this up, definitely keep an eye on it. It is expensive, and does need an awful lot of space, but wait until the new year, see if anything grabs your fancy, and definitely keep it in mind, I have been pleasantly surprised.
Initial impressions were mixed, I have no issue with the way it looks unlike many, the shiny black plastic is fine as far as I am concerned. It is quite a large piece of kit, as you might expect from such a complex device. I was however very annoyed that it doesn't come with a mount to sit it atop your TV. The TV mount is apparently sold separately, yet I cannot find one anywhere, in stores or online, including the official Xbox website, so when it is being released I have no idea. Hopefully it isn't too expensive because the extra distance you get from mounting it on the TV will be very useful, especially with a TV as big as mine.
Space is a real issue, I have the minimum recommended six feet of floor space available, but it can actually lose track of you within that, and I have to move my armchair out to play, so consider it a minimum of eight feet in actuality. This could pose a real problem for many people, and for such an expensive piece of kit, is really a deal breaker.
Getting it set up is very simple and doesn't take long, the actual technology of the device is really pretty incredible, it can pinpoint your hands, joints, and face very easily, and the facial recognition system is pretty cool. I was rather disappointed to find that the motion controls do not work on the main dashboard, only on the Kinect hub, I am told that dashboard interface will be implemented at some point, but it is pretty annoying that it isn't ready now. As far as the actual motion controls go for the Kinect hub interface, whilst it is kinda cool, it is much slower than using a pad, Minority Report this is not. On the other hand, the voice controls are awesome, and saying 'Xbox, play disc' is pretty damn cool.
The voice side is something I am hoping will live up to expectation, especially for party chat, because I have found the Microsoft headset that comes with each 360 to be very poor quality indeed. I will need to get some friends online and test out Kinect's microphones, see how they fare.
As far as the software goes, I didn't get any extra games, not having the money for it. Kinect Adventures is actually a lot more fun than I expected it to be, and this afternoon my brother joined in mid game simply by walking into the sensor's range, which was very very impressive. He isn't one for messing about a lot, but we both really got into these mini games and had a lot of fun. He described it as being 'really a lot more fun than it ought to be.' I have tried the Joy Ride demo too, and that looks better than I thought it would be, controls well, and probably great for groups/families.
All in all I think there is a great deal of potential here. I said from the moment Kinect was announced that it will take a while to find its' feet, and I still believe it will work a lot better when paired with a traditional pad. None of the launch games really interest me, and since they are all £40 each (roughly $60), same as a regular game like Halo Reach or Fallout New Vegas, I am unwilling to pick any up at the moment. Given that they are basically light party games, something like £25 would be much more reasonable.
Despite the lack of, for me, interesting games at the moment, I picked it up because I am a bit of a tech junkie and I was really interested in the technology behind it. The system really does do what it claims to do, and I hope that in the next few months some of the teething problems (like the lack of dashboard motion control) will be ironed out. What I am particularly looking forward to is Steel Battalion, I love mech games, and the chance to drive a mech without a pad sounds brilliant, I shall just have to see if it can live up to the hype. Kinect Star Wars could be fun too, as well as Codename D etc.
To sum up then, the technology is very impressive, certainly very capable, and I think could be used in a great many things. We shall just have to see how the core game developers respond to it, and how the early core games like Steel Battalion shape up. If you are unsure about picking this up, definitely keep an eye on it. It is expensive, and does need an awful lot of space, but wait until the new year, see if anything grabs your fancy, and definitely keep it in mind, I have been pleasantly surprised.
