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| Technically, THIS is the controller, but you don't have to hold it. |
The war has begun. Microsoft and Sony now have motion controller add-ons to their home video game systems. This time, however, they are not trying to beat each other at the same game. Instead, one improves a familiar setup, and the other innovates and introduces something completely different. Microsoft could have went with a wand-style motion controller (it almost did, actually) and it could have avoided the arena all together.
Instead, Microsoft might have brought the most innovative product in years to the consumer, just in time for the crazy holiday season. Thanks, Science. You got us again.
Majority Report
Simply put, the Kinect Sensor is a plastic tube with multiple cameras and microphones strewn about in a way to make magic happen. That's right... Magic. At least that's what it seems like the first time its motor engages and follows you around the room. The motion sensing device aims to mimic the type of computer functionality seen in Stevens Spielberg's "Minority Report". If you move your hand in the room, your character's hand mimics it on the screen. From the first moment you experience it, you will get the feeling that this type of system could change home electronics forever.
After the initial setup, it scans your body and face, logs it, and has you calibrate the sensor by moving around the room and striking a few poses. This might be the most important few minutes you spend with the device. The motion sensing abilities of the device are amazing on their own, but once you calibrate it, you can almost feel as if your movements are not just scans, but actual extensions of the game. There is a slight bit of delay between your body's movement and that of the character on the screen, but its minimal, at best. In fact, with the last few patches to the Xbox's dashboard, I believe the delay has been reduced a bit each time. Microsoft seems to be constantly improving the product, and the level of care they put into it before launch can be seen with the polish of the interface and quality of the launch games.
Hardware
The camera, much like the new design of the Xbox "slim", is coated in shiny black plastic with some metal highlight around the hinges. It is actually smaller than you'd imagine it to be when you first look at it (It is certainty no longer than the Wii's sensor bar). The base is small and stylish, providing a solid foundation for the motor that will move the camera when following you around the room. It has a very "Wall-E" feel to it when you see it across a room, especially since the red IR light and the green surface light act like a pair of eyes in the darkness.
It connects with a specially designed USB port, so it wont fit in normal slots on the Xbox. The new model 360 has a dedicated Kinect port on the back for this, but the unit ships with an adapter to allow old 360's to use the rear USB slot like other attachments do. (NOTE: this will not work in the front USB ports on the 360, mainly because of how the ports are connected to the motherboard inside the console. The rear port has more power management as a result.)
If you are using an old Xbox, you will need to power the unit with an AC adapter. The new 360s can send power through the Kinect Port, so using that will allow you to save a wall socket for your Nintendo Power Glove.
Software
Kinect ships with one game, Kinect Adventures, and for a launch title it is actually pretty darn good. Microsoft software developer Rare created several fast-paced action games and bundled them into a safari-style environment. The games range from playing a 3D version of the classic brick breaker game to a river raft down a suspiciously dangerous river. All the games get you up off the couch and jumping and moving around the room. At the end of every game, you are shown pictures that the Kinect took of you while you played, in all the embarrassing glory.
Another game I got the opportunity to try was called Kinect Sports. It is clear that Microsoft was targeting Nintendo's breakout hit, Wii Sports. They succeed in a lot of ways with this title, and fail in others. The activities chosen for the Microsoft version differ from their Nintendo cousins. From table tennis to track and field, Kinect Sports really motivates you to move during your game play. Boxing, Volley Ball, and soccer all offer pretty substantial workouts in the 10 minute sessions that they involve. You quickly forget about the exercise you are getting while playing these games, and just like Adventures, you get to watch images of your embarrassing movements replayed to you at the end of the matches. Games like these lead me to believe that software developers can take advantage potential health benefits of a machine that encourages you to be active, especially when you can enjoy these games with other people.
Problems
Kinect
I'm also unimpressed with the time it takes to select things. Moving your hand from option to option works fine, but you have to hover over your selection for three or four seconds before the system acts on your choice. Once you are comfortable paging through the menus in this way, those few seconds seem to get longer and longer. I would like to see this changed in the future to something more akin to a button press. If you highlight an option with your hand and made a pushing motion when you are making a selection, the Xbox should look at that as a "go" command. I'm sure the developers at Microsoft are looking into improving it, so I'm optimistic the experience will get better with time.
Finally, I am curious as to the plans for future software. All of the launch titles for Kinect are fun and motivating, but I'd love to see how more intense games, like Halo and Gears of War, can take advantage of this technology. Microsoft has stated that the Kinect can be used alongside a traditional controller, so I'd love to see how this will work. Time will tell.
Xbox, Make it So!
The Kinect isn't just revolutionary, its downright Science gone wild. This technology brings home features once believed to be nothing more than science fiction, and the fact that Microsoft put it in our living rooms is an example of how research brings results. Microsoft undoubtedly spent sinful amounts of money when buying this tech and researching its potential. For $150, some may say its a hard buy. I can understand that. It is a stretch to ask people to drop that kind of cash on a new and untested technology. People like me won't give it a second thought and buy it as soon as they can find it. Others may need to try it first. I urge those of you on the fence about it to seek out a demo unit somewhere. After playing with it you may find yourself reaching for your wallet. If you have one, show others. This kind of tech will find its way to your computers and cellular phones in no time, but the magic really starts in the living room with a group of friends.
I found it hard to rate this experience. I was clearly taken by the technology behind this unit and the games it plays, but there are quite a number of flaws that come with it. These flaws, however, can be fixed via software updates... there aren't many things that are broken because of the hardware itself. Since this is a tiered experience, I'll rate it as such:
Hardware: Fantastic
Dashboard Software: Fresh, but not implemented well. Lots of potential though.
Games (so far): Stuff that's there is fun when played with friends, but Microsoft needs more hardcore titles.
Overall, its a pretty good experience for a first attempt by Microsoft. The freshness of the experience is what sells. Unlike the Playstation Move, you'll have a hard time finding one this holiday season.
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| Theres a lot of tech in this little machine. |
After the initial setup, it scans your body and face, logs it, and has you calibrate the sensor by moving around the room and striking a few poses. This might be the most important few minutes you spend with the device. The motion sensing abilities of the device are amazing on their own, but once you calibrate it, you can almost feel as if your movements are not just scans, but actual extensions of the game. There is a slight bit of delay between your body's movement and that of the character on the screen, but its minimal, at best. In fact, with the last few patches to the Xbox's dashboard, I believe the delay has been reduced a bit each time. Microsoft seems to be constantly improving the product, and the level of care they put into it before launch can be seen with the polish of the interface and quality of the launch games.
Hardware
The camera, much like the new design of the Xbox "slim", is coated in shiny black plastic with some metal highlight around the hinges. It is actually smaller than you'd imagine it to be when you first look at it (It is certainty no longer than the Wii's sensor bar). The base is small and stylish, providing a solid foundation for the motor that will move the camera when following you around the room. It has a very "Wall-E" feel to it when you see it across a room, especially since the red IR light and the green surface light act like a pair of eyes in the darkness.
It connects with a specially designed USB port, so it wont fit in normal slots on the Xbox. The new model 360 has a dedicated Kinect port on the back for this, but the unit ships with an adapter to allow old 360's to use the rear USB slot like other attachments do. (NOTE: this will not work in the front USB ports on the 360, mainly because of how the ports are connected to the motherboard inside the console. The rear port has more power management as a result.)
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| The Kinect Port on the Xbox 360 "Slim" can also handle higher capacity power output than normal USB |
If you are using an old Xbox, you will need to power the unit with an AC adapter. The new 360s can send power through the Kinect Port, so using that will allow you to save a wall socket for your Nintendo Power Glove.
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| Nintendo's closest competitor to the Kinect |
Software
Kinect ships with one game, Kinect Adventures, and for a launch title it is actually pretty darn good. Microsoft software developer Rare created several fast-paced action games and bundled them into a safari-style environment. The games range from playing a 3D version of the classic brick breaker game to a river raft down a suspiciously dangerous river. All the games get you up off the couch and jumping and moving around the room. At the end of every game, you are shown pictures that the Kinect took of you while you played, in all the embarrassing glory.
Another game I got the opportunity to try was called Kinect Sports. It is clear that Microsoft was targeting Nintendo's breakout hit, Wii Sports. They succeed in a lot of ways with this title, and fail in others. The activities chosen for the Microsoft version differ from their Nintendo cousins. From table tennis to track and field, Kinect Sports really motivates you to move during your game play. Boxing, Volley Ball, and soccer all offer pretty substantial workouts in the 10 minute sessions that they involve. You quickly forget about the exercise you are getting while playing these games, and just like Adventures, you get to watch images of your embarrassing movements replayed to you at the end of the matches. Games like these lead me to believe that software developers can take advantage potential health benefits of a machine that encourages you to be active, especially when you can enjoy these games with other people.
Problems
Kinect
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| The black bars on the bottom of the tiles represents voice triggers. |
I'm also unimpressed with the time it takes to select things. Moving your hand from option to option works fine, but you have to hover over your selection for three or four seconds before the system acts on your choice. Once you are comfortable paging through the menus in this way, those few seconds seem to get longer and longer. I would like to see this changed in the future to something more akin to a button press. If you highlight an option with your hand and made a pushing motion when you are making a selection, the Xbox should look at that as a "go" command. I'm sure the developers at Microsoft are looking into improving it, so I'm optimistic the experience will get better with time.
Finally, I am curious as to the plans for future software. All of the launch titles for Kinect are fun and motivating, but I'd love to see how more intense games, like Halo and Gears of War, can take advantage of this technology. Microsoft has stated that the Kinect can be used alongside a traditional controller, so I'd love to see how this will work. Time will tell.
Xbox, Make it So!
The Kinect isn't just revolutionary, its downright Science gone wild. This technology brings home features once believed to be nothing more than science fiction, and the fact that Microsoft put it in our living rooms is an example of how research brings results. Microsoft undoubtedly spent sinful amounts of money when buying this tech and researching its potential. For $150, some may say its a hard buy. I can understand that. It is a stretch to ask people to drop that kind of cash on a new and untested technology. People like me won't give it a second thought and buy it as soon as they can find it. Others may need to try it first. I urge those of you on the fence about it to seek out a demo unit somewhere. After playing with it you may find yourself reaching for your wallet. If you have one, show others. This kind of tech will find its way to your computers and cellular phones in no time, but the magic really starts in the living room with a group of friends.
I found it hard to rate this experience. I was clearly taken by the technology behind this unit and the games it plays, but there are quite a number of flaws that come with it. These flaws, however, can be fixed via software updates... there aren't many things that are broken because of the hardware itself. Since this is a tiered experience, I'll rate it as such:
Hardware: Fantastic
Dashboard Software: Fresh, but not implemented well. Lots of potential though.
Games (so far): Stuff that's there is fun when played with friends, but Microsoft needs more hardcore titles.
Overall, its a pretty good experience for a first attempt by Microsoft. The freshness of the experience is what sells. Unlike the Playstation Move, you'll have a hard time finding one this holiday season.
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| I know you scrolled down to the rating and skipped my review entirely. Click here to find out how meaningless a star rating system really is. |
~ Jimmy "Sony literally copied Nintendo. Flat out copied. No creativity there." the G.
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This post has a Shenanaganary rating of:
"...what's even more hilarious is that the Playstation Move is actually pretty cool and beats the Wii at its own game."
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