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I've now played Kinect, playing Kinect sports courtesy of my local GAME's manager who got sent one by MS.
It's a lot better than I was expecting after all the lag issues at game shows and indifference by some people who previously played demo pods at the shows.
The bowling in particular is even more accessible than the one in Wii Sports, so easy that my 6 year old found it easy on the first go.
Anyway, has anyone else either played this or pre-ordered for release? I'm now thinking of ordering one for when the next batch come in.
It's a lot better than I was expecting after all the lag issues at game shows and indifference by some people who previously played demo pods at the shows.
The bowling in particular is even more accessible than the one in Wii Sports, so easy that my 6 year old found it easy on the first go.
Anyway, has anyone else either played this or pre-ordered for release? I'm now thinking of ordering one for when the next batch come in.
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Isn't the camera only 640x480? I remember being a bit surprised at how low the resolution was when I read up on it.
Interesting to hear the issues are with the software, rather than hardware, so with future titles these should get ironed out.
It really is quite tempting, but there isn't that must have title for me yet. Mrs YH so an ad for Dance Central the other day, and was then interested in it.
I wish shops had one up so you could give it a go, as I'd love to try one out to see, but £130 based on speculation is a little high for me at the moment.
Interesting to hear the issues are with the software, rather than hardware, so with future titles these should get ironed out.
It really is quite tempting, but there isn't that must have title for me yet. Mrs YH so an ad for Dance Central the other day, and was then interested in it.
I wish shops had one up so you could give it a go, as I'd love to try one out to see, but £130 based on speculation is a little high for me at the moment.
YH wrote:
pb wrote:
[i]
I'll post my initial impressions after I've had enough of a go.
So have you had enough of a go yet?
I'm curious to hear about it.[/i]
Spent so long getting the review face off up with the sports titles that I didn't have time!
Anyway, it's far more responsive than I thought it would be, there are a few issues with 2 players if you quickly dart in front of the other player or swap spaces it gets confused, likewise if you duck out of the game and someone of a different size comes in, but that's to be expected.
Not seen any big issues with lag either from Sports or Adventure, it's all been pretty responsive.
Most of the issues have been software related. Kinect Adventures has a terrible menu system, similar to the old eyetoy games. My 6 year old got frustrated with trying to choose the right option (and you can't help them because it confuses the machine) but Sports is much more neatly laid out and works a lot better.
I'm surprised at how bad the recorded quality is from Kinect Sports video playback though, it's the same issue with the PSEye, for £130 you'd expect a better HD video quality really, unless Sports is having to highly compress the video as it's doing the motion at the same time. Need to try out the video chat to see the quality of that, supposed to be better.
Anyway, Dance Central been given to me to try out and a keep fit title too, so more Kinecting to do!
pb wrote:
[i]
I'll post my initial impressions after I've had enough of a go.
So have you had enough of a go yet?
I'm curious to hear about it.[/i]
Spent so long getting the review face off up with the sports titles that I didn't have time!
Anyway, it's far more responsive than I thought it would be, there are a few issues with 2 players if you quickly dart in front of the other player or swap spaces it gets confused, likewise if you duck out of the game and someone of a different size comes in, but that's to be expected.
Not seen any big issues with lag either from Sports or Adventure, it's all been pretty responsive.
Most of the issues have been software related. Kinect Adventures has a terrible menu system, similar to the old eyetoy games. My 6 year old got frustrated with trying to choose the right option (and you can't help them because it confuses the machine) but Sports is much more neatly laid out and works a lot better.
I'm surprised at how bad the recorded quality is from Kinect Sports video playback though, it's the same issue with the PSEye, for £130 you'd expect a better HD video quality really, unless Sports is having to highly compress the video as it's doing the motion at the same time. Need to try out the video chat to see the quality of that, supposed to be better.
Anyway, Dance Central been given to me to try out and a keep fit title too, so more Kinecting to do!
pete_21 wrote:
Just seen someone on eBay has starting bidding on a Kinect at £350 !!!!! (item no. is 310268435239 if you fancy a laugh).
I've been looking at 360s on Ebay - lots of people putting up the new Slims for well over the RRP. Frankly these people are just like ticket touts - speculatively buying something they know will sell-out in the Xmas rush so they can make a quick buck is pretty low in my eyes.
Just seen someone on eBay has starting bidding on a Kinect at £350 !!!!! (item no. is 310268435239 if you fancy a laugh).
I've been looking at 360s on Ebay - lots of people putting up the new Slims for well over the RRP. Frankly these people are just like ticket touts - speculatively buying something they know will sell-out in the Xmas rush so they can make a quick buck is pretty low in my eyes.
Sonic Chris wrote:
Anybody heard the ruckus about hacking the Kinect system to utilise it with other technology, particularly for educational use? Microsoft have declared the Kinect system to be safe from hackers, but I always thought a hacker's job was to bypass these safety nets that are in place, hence the name...
And what company would admit that their product can be hacked for other uses anyway?
I read it, not sure what all the fuss is about though. From an MS point of view, surely someone finding 'new' uses for the Kinect that weren't intended can only be a good thing as more people buy them... I guess the only downside being that it makes it easier for people without a 360 to play pirated games, but they still have to have bought the Kinect in the first place.
I get MS and others getting fired up about people hacking consoles so they can do stuff they weren't intended to, but Kinect is the equivilent of a controller. If someone said they had got an xbox 360 controller to work on a PC I'm sure it would be met with a shrug.
Also, I remember when I was finishing Uni, one of the final year projects was to try to get a Wii-mote working so you could use gestures to do... stuff (can't remember what, but basically it was "get a Wii-mote to work on a PC" - probably under Linux - which is just what this guy did with Kinect). If the hardware can be used for other purposes, why not?
Anybody heard the ruckus about hacking the Kinect system to utilise it with other technology, particularly for educational use? Microsoft have declared the Kinect system to be safe from hackers, but I always thought a hacker's job was to bypass these safety nets that are in place, hence the name...
And what company would admit that their product can be hacked for other uses anyway?
I read it, not sure what all the fuss is about though. From an MS point of view, surely someone finding 'new' uses for the Kinect that weren't intended can only be a good thing as more people buy them... I guess the only downside being that it makes it easier for people without a 360 to play pirated games, but they still have to have bought the Kinect in the first place.
I get MS and others getting fired up about people hacking consoles so they can do stuff they weren't intended to, but Kinect is the equivilent of a controller. If someone said they had got an xbox 360 controller to work on a PC I'm sure it would be met with a shrug.
Also, I remember when I was finishing Uni, one of the final year projects was to try to get a Wii-mote working so you could use gestures to do... stuff (can't remember what, but basically it was "get a Wii-mote to work on a PC" - probably under Linux - which is just what this guy did with Kinect). If the hardware can be used for other purposes, why not?
pb wrote:
I'll post my initial impressions after I've had enough of a go.
So have you had enough of a go yet?
I'm curious to hear about it.
I'll post my initial impressions after I've had enough of a go.
So have you had enough of a go yet?
I'm curious to hear about it.
The thing that puts me off the Kinect (apart from price) is that whenever I play the Wii with my daughter, if there's the option to use an old Gamecube controller instead of the Wii controller, I go with the old GC one. I just find it easier and much more responsive.
Anybody heard the ruckus about hacking the Kinect system to utilise it with other technology, particularly for educational use? Microsoft have declared the Kinect system to be safe from hackers, but I always thought a hacker's job was to bypass these safety nets that are in place, hence the name...
And what company would admit that their product can be hacked for other uses anyway?
And what company would admit that their product can be hacked for other uses anyway?
pb wrote:
Anyone who wants to play games with their family and have some fun that doesn't involve killing people, guns or swords might.
Wonder how many people in that category own Xbox 360's though ?.
Just seen someone on eBay has starting bidding on a Kinect at £350 !!!!! (item no. is 310268435239 if you fancy a laugh).
Anyone who wants to play games with their family and have some fun that doesn't involve killing people, guns or swords might.
Wonder how many people in that category own Xbox 360's though ?.
Just seen someone on eBay has starting bidding on a Kinect at £350 !!!!! (item no. is 310268435239 if you fancy a laugh).
That was really my only point. Their target market will find nothnig really new with the Kinect.
Hence they must be happy with the demand primarily being from 360 only owning users.
I didn't even bring up the price either but... really? It's different from the Move and Wii slightly (only in design not facility) so why the higher budget? They made a mistake there for me.
Being the 3rd to release the product makes me go ... meh.
Again though I am looking at getting one, just to justify owning a 360.
Hence they must be happy with the demand primarily being from 360 only owning users.
I didn't even bring up the price either but... really? It's different from the Move and Wii slightly (only in design not facility) so why the higher budget? They made a mistake there for me.
Being the 3rd to release the product makes me go ... meh.
Again though I am looking at getting one, just to justify owning a 360.
pb wrote:
Anyone who wants to play games with their family and have some fun that doesn't involve killing people, guns or swords might.
I think that is spot on. But for me, the space, the cost and the fact I can do that on the Wii means no deal.
Kinect will get some proper games like Forza 4 but I don't believe for a minute it will be a better experience than a control pad offers. It will be different but not better. I don't just single out Kinect with this, I hate motion control driving on the Wii and PS3.
Anyone who wants to play games with their family and have some fun that doesn't involve killing people, guns or swords might.
I think that is spot on. But for me, the space, the cost and the fact I can do that on the Wii means no deal.
Kinect will get some proper games like Forza 4 but I don't believe for a minute it will be a better experience than a control pad offers. It will be different but not better. I don't just single out Kinect with this, I hate motion control driving on the Wii and PS3.
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