Gaming Xbox 360 Kinect First Impressions

Joe and Paul go limbs-on with Kinect, Microsoft's new motion controller for the Xbox 360.

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/xbox-360/2010/08/03/xbox-360-kinect-first-impressions/1

 

just as i thought. expected.
a waste of time. and money.

would rather see improves in actual gaming hardware.
not interested in acting a fool in front of my screen.

microsoft's second flop? i think so.
first kin fails. next kinect.
good-bye. ballmer.

 

I would have to disagree about the fail side. Yes it has input lag (Death of the product if not fixed) but then think of the possibilities. Remember the Tech Demo for Milo. This shows true potential.

Games like Star Wars Kinect will do it for me.

 

A tech demo that won't see release and a game that AFAIK nobody has seen yet? Great.

 

I hold my doubts as this is still a largely untested product....but hey so was the Wii. And the Wii has crap and inaccurate motion sensing....but no one much gave a damn about that....I'm quietly hopeful because I can see potential in this.

 

When I saw this a couple of weeks ago we were told in the brief pack that it was still Alpha and that all the lag problems would be solved before launch.

Was this fact omitted when the review was put together... I think so

 

You have to remember this is from xbox engineers, the release product is just a rough sketch of what they want to end up with after 7 revisions and 5 years.
Only difference is the 360 was fun from day one and has real games, whereas Kinect is a stinky pile of fail.

 

We weren't told any such information, is probably why. Nor were any of the other journalists who I have discussed it with, AFAIK. If the matters are solved upon release then we'll naturally report on that then, but right now we can only report on our experiences.

 

Sounds like their just trying to muscle in on the wii's success.

 

Did you get anyone from Microsoft to comment on the input lag? If no, could you?

There's two options: theiy either intend to fix it but opted to release before Sony instead of just releasing it when it was done, or they think they should be allowed the same level of tolerance that the Wii has. I'm curious what they think their market is

Also, good luck with your ribs Joe!

 

I don't think we got an official comment from Microsoft, but an anonymous source who works with the company has since confirmed that Microsoft is still rolling out updates to developers working with Kinect.

It's entirely possible that Microsoft will fix the lag, just as information in any hardware or games preview is subject to change. Could fix it, could get worse.

 

Microsoft release a shoddy over-priced product? Surely not?

 

would love to see a fighting game using this, with two people pretending to fight each other. Then maybe they accidently hit eachother, get angry and start having a real fight which ends up in a scrappy bundle which the kinect cant understand. hahaha (this will probably pop up on youtube at some point)

As far as games are concerned I don't think it will be great until game developers really spend time producing an awesome game that really takes advantage of the kinect features, and that will probably be only a few.

I think though it will have much wider application outside of gaming and it is good to know that the technology exists and can be developed for other things such as facial recongition and eye tracking for controlling computers for paralysed people.

 

Annoying as hell to think that this piece of overpriced gimmicky tat will delay the launch of a new Xbox console by 2 or 3 yrs if it is a success....

Great...2 or 3 more years of DX9 console port hand me downs for Pc Gamers to look forward to....not.

 

Motion controllers, it's a fad, it will pass.

most teenagers dont have the space to use motion controllers in their room's and most older owners dont have the time or inclination to jump up and down regularly in front of their tv's.

 

There was a video of the Star Wars game shown on the MS E3 presentation video and, tbh, it looked disappointing. Very bland sigh: like the rest of the Kinect Line-up so far).

The only interesting thing about the Kinect so far is the voice control of the X-box UI... and I don't think that's worth 120 quid.

 

Strange that, Neil Thompson came on the stage at the Summer Showcase 2 weeks ago and that was the first thing he said.

Perhaps it's already got better.

 

Ouch. Nice article, that lag is going to be a killer. Do you reckon this will be firmware/software fixable in the future on the current hardware spec?

 

I reckon Kinect's killer app isn't going to be motion control, but rather as a multiple user input device. I can see apps (and possibly games) built around the idea of multiple people being able to manipulate the same objects or data on the screen at once.
An example of this kind of interaction would be something like having lots of photos scattered across the screen, and each user can drag around, resize etc each photo. Just a small leap from there to having a jigsaw puzzle on your screen that multiple people can collaborate on

I know, not quite things people are going to spend this much money for, but to me this is the sort of interaction that the Kinect is meant for

 

You guys will be sniggering on the otherside of your faces when MS hooks the Kinect(sic)(TM) up to Windows 8(TM) systems!!
Just imagine the possibilities!! Multi-touch gesturing to move your photographs ('n other stuff) around the screen!! Something we all probably do a lot of...