Xbox 360 Kinect Discussion Thread
 

Original article- New Xbox Kinect: What you need to know from E3 2010 - CSMonitor.com

The new video game peripheral, due out in November, enjoyed the limelight Sunday evening as Microsoft kicked off the annual E3 conference in Las Vegas with an all-Kinect event.
If you haven't seen Kinect in action, imagine the Nintendo Wii sans remote. Kinect consists of two cameras that capture the movements of the player. Much like human eyes, the twin cameras allow for depth perception, so Kinect can pick up on a wide range of motion without the aid of a video-game controller. This lets gamers shake their hands, feet, or booties and watch their character do the same.
At last night's Kinect event, Microsoft unveiled the new name and demonstrated several motion games. Upcoming titles include an athletics mini-game collection called Kinect Sport, which looks surprisingly similar to Wii Sports; a full-body rhythm game named Dance Central; and Kinectimals, which lets you train a virtual pet.
Microsoft also showed off new motion controls for videos purchased through the Xbox marketplace. (This time, imagine "Minority Report" instead of the Wii.) Hand swipes allow viewers to stop and fast-forward through the movies.
The Xbox crew promised more information about Kinect at Microsoft's E3 keynote Monday. Check back with the Horizons blog throughout the week for new details from E3 2010 and how Kinect stacks up against the Wii and Sony's upcoming motion controller, the PlayStation Move.

So what do you think about Xbox's debut into the motion sensor market? Unless you were actually AT E3 then there's not much we can say in the way of actual performance, but rumors are saying that it's supposed to outperform the Wii's motion sensing abilities, claiming to be more precise and more accurately follow the players' actual movements.

Discuss.

The E3 presentation was boring as hell and showed no games that were even remotely interesting for Kinect. The Star Wars lightsaber duels were mildly interesting until it showed he was the slowest Jedi ever and stuck on rails. About the only amusing thing they had for Kinect was that obstacle course game (the one before the river rafting), and only because we have apparently finally mastered Nick Arcade technology. I honestly wouldn't have been surprised to see them fight a wizard at the end of the level.

I want to know how responsive the Kinect really is. I think it has a lot of potential - for example, it would be awesome if someone were to consult with some taichi masters and then come up with a comprehensive taichi trainer program that corrects mistakes on the fly. I would buy that instantly.

I also think that Kinect games will be a lot of fun to play with my friends and family. If the Xbox 360 Slim doesn't have the problems plaguing the 360 Phat, then this might finally push me into buying an Xbox.

The conference itself was awkward. Forced banter, weird jokes, etc. The whole video chat between "lollicup" and "velveteen" made me cringe.

And I've said this before, and I'll say this again. Fuck the people who are crying about how hardcore gamers are being ignored or whatever. The amount of whining I'm seeing about this in some places is unbelievable. People on GAF are already calling this the worst MS conference ever. You'd think that showing Halo, Metal Gear and Gears of War would satisfy some people, but apparently not.

That would be amazing.

http://colonelskills.belkanairforce....readsminds.gif

Maybe if they actually demonstrated it instead of having a guy react to the game instead, we could have something worth while to talk about.

But the demo was embarrassing and fake; it's Milo version 2.

The Kinect part of this conference was pretty horrible, people are right.

Yeah, the Star Wars thing was underwhelming, to say the least.

Whoa that's awesome. So with this kinect thing, the game controls your body. I can't wait to try this with Street Fighter!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...6597865259.gif

SKITTLES!

wait wait wait. So essentially you can now mock-jedi mind trick your 360 to search through movies and shit. Sold like fucking what. This is not the part of the movie you're looking for.

Also re: image of that dude backing up what people haven't figured out yet is that it's not actually motion control it's mind control. The thing literally reads your mind and reacts to it before your central nervous system can act. I am impressed by MS innovation.

I didn't actually watch the conf because E3 has devolved into incredible levels of dumb and I would rather be forced to watch both seasons of K-ON than sit through big three shows, but this GIF makes me laugh like shit and almost makes me wish I had watched.

http://www.gelb-2.belkanairforce.com/Images/nQb0S.gif

e: ahahaha oh my god

ee: /r/ing Muscle March Kinect port. Literally all I would play for the rest of my life

I'll be picking up a Kinect probably at launch, though not necessarily because any of the games shown have tickled my fancy so much (I have my reasons). However, the kit does look pretty fancy and I imagine it could be put to good use. If nothing else it should make for good fodder for party games and the such like, something I lack capacity for at the moment as I don't yet have a Wii.

I really like how we just barely found out about the slim just the past week and its out in stores.

There's a nice trade-in deal at Gamestop going on.

Or you could just buy a Wii.

As I said, I have my reasons for the purchase of a Kinect (which will only not happen if they charge silly prices for it).

Stephen told me about an hour ago that the rumored price is about $150 us.


So that's retarded.

I thought the fitness game was kinda interesting, because I get the feeling you wouldn't be able to cheat at it as easily as you could Wii Fit. But I still stand by saying nobody wants to stand up to play games... I feel like this is going to fall into constant gimmick wiggle waggle games and face the same fate the Wii has. "Hey grandma, nice to see you! Hey you gotta play this game, it watches you're body it's so cool" and then you never touch it again until next christmas when grandma visits again.

Also Skittles was this horrible mass of uncanny valley bloom lit fur. I was terrified.

Off topic, wouldn't it be neat if there was a fitness game that wasn't all feel-good vector stuff-on-white-backgrounds shit? Like, ZOMBIE TRAINING or RUN FROM DINOSAURS! PUNCH THE GIANT BEES WORK UP A SWEAT etc.

They should combine boxing and Trauma Center.

"Okay I'm opening the patient."

"OH GOD THERE'S TUMORS EVERYWHERE!"

::activatefistofthenorthstarmode::

::PUNCH PUNCH RIP TEAR *AIR MACHINE GUN* AHNOLD NOISES::

"Doctor! The tumors are gone! The patient is stabilizing."

::Duct tape::

YOU'VE EARNED QUINTUPLE S SCORE!

Kinect could be POTENTIALLY good, but just like the Wii, they are blowing off all that potential into the absolute worst, simplest, most pathetic type of "family friendly" games.

I mean, imagine if you had to play something like God Hand with this thing. You'd actually have to do a right hooks and dodge and do flips and shit. Sure, it would be extremely tiring, especially for us fatass geeks. But by the time you finish the game, all that karate would turn you into Muhamad-I'm-Hard-Bruce Lee.

edit: and fuck, once they make some kind of retail holographic projector, or even just a 360 degrees television setup, we'd be talking virtual reality. And I mean virtual fucking reality.

Emphasis on the fucking?

Just thinking about some shit like this has me in tears. It has to be made.

If indie developers get a handle on things I know we might see some crazy/weird shit for the Kinect.
I can actually see this type of play style coming true and exploding on youtube in the future.

YouTube Video