Kinect Games

[AzBat]

Hmmm I should try to find a Kiosk. Is there a Kiosk search tool to find the closest one?

According to BestBuy.com/Kinect the Bellevue Best Best Buy store has a demo.

BTW, if you're interested in Your Shape Fitness, then I think you might want to look at Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout as well. There's two guys on GAF that have written some extensive feedback on The Biggest Loser and even comparing it with Your Shape Fitness...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=24260131&postcount=4158

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=24269186&postcount=4275

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=24287524&postcount=4502

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=24333052&postcount=5021

Tommy McClain

 

[bkilian]

Ok, I was going to hold out on Kinect until it matured in regards to software but it seems the wife, out of the blue, is very very interested (read: Seattle rain has arrived). She barely knows anything about it, so I had to explain the technology and the games, but I guess she has been hearing things about it and seeing people hop around and such. We don't let our kids play many video games or watch many movies (we don't even have tv) but she liked the idea of the kids hopping around ... and I had mentioned to her about EA Active (from Scott's Wii experience) and seeing the YouFit stuff and she out of the blue thinks "we should get a Kinect."

Where would one even get one right now? The local Gamestop doesn't know when they will get more.

What games are people recommending? We have no interest in the seemingly amazing Dance Central, so Kinect Sports?

Is there a list of what will be in EA Active 2? Any vibe on what the best workout game (intensity, variation, fun, mulitplayer) will be?

I just hope the software matures. $200 for a Kinect and game is a lot for a novel idea. Some robust, active sports games with depth (boxing seems perfect if it can work) would be nice as well as some cross over gamer games (e.g. a good mech game, a robust light shooter, etc). I have high hopes for Kinect, but the initial offering shows devs either will need a wand of some sort or really make HUGE strides in user input with new gaming ideas.

or

My wife and kids are going to have a total blast with the Kinect games and all my hang ups will prove wrong. From my wife's reaction is definitely seems there is an attraction I don't get (prediction: she has a fairly busy blog, and she will blog about it and her readers will get a Kinect and my friend's list will be overrun by women and children!). Much akin to the Wii, which oddly my wife had no interest in after using the Wii Fit. The no-controller, whole body activity with more motions really appeals to her (she hated stepping on the board and waggling the wand for gestures). Hmmm I should try to find a Kiosk. Is there a Kiosk search tool to find the closest one?

Anyhow, thanks for all the feedback. Feel free to share some recommendations.



Thanks Nav, this is an option. I am still mad about Joy Ride I wanted my free traditional Kart game!!

You're always welcome to come check it out at my house I'm in Renton.

Fry's had a few last time I looked.

 

[AzBat]

I finally checked out the Kinect device at a local Best Buy. Man, it's smaller that I expected. How long is the cable? I think I may need to place it on top of my 58" TV (which is wall mounted), so I'm concerned the default cable may not be long enough.

The cable coming out of the sensor is about 9.5 feet long. If you use the supplied power cable to hook it up to an original Xbox 360, then you get 9.5 feet for the power adapter, but an additional 1.5 feet for the USB cable.

I don't think you will have problem with the length. Lord help you if you do since the official extension cable is $50 for a mere 10 feet.

Tommy McClain

 

[AzBat]

The pack in, Sports and if you have small children and I know you do, Kiectimals should serve you fine. I don't know about the fitness stuff yet, but you may not need it as Sports is partly calory burn based ...

Yeah, you can burn some calories with Kinect Adventures too. Robert gave me one hell of workout the other night. LOL BTW, I can also recommend Kinectimals. Wife & son love it. We got the Limited Edition one from Toys R Us with the plushy. We've also collected all the Burger King Kids Meal toys too. Not sure your kids ages, but I think kids under 5 might need some assistance with it though.

One other thing Josh don't give up on Joy Ride until you have played both demos. One is on the Kinect Adventures disc and there's another one on Xbox Live for Gold members that lets you play some combat racing. I was pleasantly surprised with it.

Tommy McClain

 

[Acert93]

You're always welcome to come check it out at my house I'm in Renton.

Don't tempt me, Renton is is 30 minutes from Lynnwood ... when I-5 / 405 doesn't look like a parking lot! I am not sure you would enjoy 4 little tikes with runny noses going crazy. I am actually scared to see their reaction to Kinect ... when I was a kid I was uber geeked out about VR and if I had a Kinect at their age I think it would have sucked me in and never let go

 

[Silent_Buddha]

At least with Kinect they'll get a lot of exercise.

Regards,
SB

 

[Acert93]

Wow, everywhere was sold out. the 10 closest Targerts were all sold out, Walmart, the 3 Best Buys, etc. I had to get some groceries after Sabbath so my wife decided to contact the local GS again and they JUST got some in. They were unboxing them when I get there. The staff are really unimpressed with Kinect but they said people are buying them fast and it is "well marketed" but added "we will never buy one" haha. I deflected, 'Yeah, my wife wanted it.'

 

[RobertR1]

Nice. Use the calibration card to do the calibration.

Never thought I'd see the day but I'm looking forward to a fitness game. I'm gonna keep a close eye on comparisons between Biggest Loser/Your Shape/Active 2 and see what's best for me. I want high intensity that focuses both upper body and lower body.

 

[NavNucST3]

Nice. Use the calibration card to do the calibration.

Never thought I'd see the day but I'm looking forward to a fitness game. I'm gonna keep a close eye on comparisons between Biggest Loser/Your Shape/Active 2 and see what's best for me. I want high intensity that focuses both upper body and lower body.

My recommendation is to do all of the extra calibrations. Definitely the more in-depth audio one (and at a high volume as mentioned by bkillian) which asks you to say, "one, two, three,..."and force yourself and others to do the Kinect ID the way it is supposed to be done, what I mean by this is that I see in my family (including me) we tended to try and keep our face directly at the camera even when doing the twists and turns, which defeats the purpose since KID is trying to get a look at you from many different angles, personally, I wouldn't doubt that this is the single biggest reason for KID not recognizing people.

The basic setups are nice and fast but spend the extra time doing the additional calibrations and, to me, it makes the system even better. Originally, I had to raise my voice when I was seated in our furthest seating position but after doing the extra cal and at much higher volume it is amazing how good it is though it is too far away for gestures to work...which sucks... I was going to refrain from jumping in the user thread and giving impressions but I just might go ahead and do that not sure though.

 

[NavNucST3]

Nice. Use the calibration card to do the calibration.

Never thought I'd see the day but I'm looking forward to a fitness game. I'm gonna keep a close eye on comparisons between Biggest Loser/Your Shape/Active 2 and see what's best for me. I want high intensity that focuses both upper body and lower body.

You know where my vote is and besides not only does Your Shape have the leaderboards but it also has the Challenges you can setup between friends. After you do the fitness test your shape has the full list of workouts that they have but then they also label the different ones for your level as "recommended" or not. Biggest seems to just go, "hey, heres our list, go for it".

 

[egoless]

Delete

 

[Shompola]

I don't have my xbox 360 connected to LIVE for the moment and I want to access the demo games delivered with Adventures. Is it true that you can only access them in the games-demo menu when the disc is inserted? So I need to have LIVE to have access to the games on the disc?

 

[eastmen]

I don't have my xbox 360 connected to LIVE for the moment and I want to access the demo games delivered with Adventures. Is it true that you can only access them in the games-demo menu when the disc is inserted? So I need to have LIVE to have access to the games on the disc?

you should be fine. Its on the main adventures screen when you first start in the bottom left corner. The games are on the disc and so you don't need live at all.

The demos are extremely limited. Your shape is just the blocks and dance central is a gagga song and some old rap song

 

[AzBat]

Anybody know when the next batch of games should arrive? I'm more than satisfied with adventures, sports and your shape (man my legs are killing me ). But I'm just wondering if the launch titles are it for this year.

Here's what's left for this year...

Europe Launch:

Available on 19th November

EA Sports Active 2
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1

Available on 26th November

Game Party: In Motion
Get Fit With Mel B
Dance Paradise
Sports Island Freedom
Zumba Fitness

US Launch:

Available on 16th November

EA Sports Active 2
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1


Available on 18th November

Game Party: In Motion
Zumba Fitness


TBA, Holiday 2010

Deca Sports Freedom - Amazon shows it coming Nov 18


Also, I've seen Brunswick Pro Bowling touted as launching December 7, but it's a game that Microsoft has never announced for Kinect before. Maybe that's because it's already out on Wii, PS3(Move) & PS2?

Tommy McClain

 

[AzBat]

you should be fine. Its on the main adventures screen when you first start in the bottom left corner. The games are on the disc and so you don't need live at all.

The demos are extremely limited. Your shape is just the blocks and dance central is a gagga song and some old rap song

LOL "some old rap song"? Wow, I feel old. It's actually a hip hop song & it's called Poison by Bel Biv DeVoe. Lady Gaga's song is Poker Face.

And you're correct you don't need a connection to Xbox Live to play the demos, but you also don't need to launch Kinect Adventures either. You can go into the Games Library and launch all 3 demos from the Game Demos & Trials section.

Tommy McClain

 

[eastmen]

LOL "some old rap song"? Wow, I feel old. It's actually a hip hop song & it's called Poison by Bel Biv DeVoe. Lady Gaga's song is Poker Face.

And you're correct you don't need a connection to Xbox Live to play the demos, but you also don't need to launch Kinect Adventures either. You can go into the Games Library and launch all 3 demos from the Game Demos & Trials section.

Tommy McClain

Don't feel old. I'm 29 ... just metallica , fear factory , white zombie , system of a down (when they were good in the mid 90s) , nirvana and the rest of the music like that was more of what i listened too. Don't thikn it make for good dance music tho....

MOSH PIT THE VIDEO GAME !!!!!!

 

[Rotmm]

Don't thikn it make for good dance music tho....

Or good music, full stop.

 

[Acert93]

I have a lot of comments (yes, I am using my family as test subjects) but don't have much time. The most obvious comment is the technology is amazing. The ability to pick up people and for people to enter/leave seamlessly is great. My parents have a Wii and Wii Fit board and for the most part for Kinect Sports the process was a lot smoother for getting someone into the game, learn the motion, and effectively do it. Part of that has to do with my non-gaming wife and the kids a year older, but it seems to do what it is supposed to do. Which is body motion family / social games that are fun. And it is.

I wanted to comment on boxing quickly: it works! You feel pretty attached to the avatar. My gripe is it could have been more ... and should be. At $50 and $150 for the Kinect I don't feel there is much depth here ... not that that was the focus. We have found that some of the tasks are pretty intensive (in a good way) and are shaking our heads, "Too bad they wouldn't let you string these together in a series to make a fun workout." e.g. The soccer goalie mini-game is pretty good. Have an option to ramp up the intensity (move more to the left and right) and faster kicking, and extend the time (e.g. 5 minutes) and then switch to the next event and you have a nice cardio workout that is FUN. Oh well.

Back to boxing. The core is fun, really fun! My big gripe it is rewards spamming. A punch-stamina/strength meter that the more/faster you box the less damage a punch does would be good. Reward a 1-2, etc but not the 10 punch flurry of 3 inch punches. Likewise those rabbit punches should be detected and not hurt much. That said we are enjoying it a lot. If they can get it to pick up more punch types, build on the stun mechanics (a lot of subtle stuff here), and add in the feet for movements and bob/weaving I think they could do a full game and is EXCEPTIONAL. Steal the Joy Ride austhetics, cherry pick the Punch Out gameplay concepts (each figher having a weakness), have training modes, workout modes, online, etc and I would pay $60 for that and play it endlessly. Yeah, I am digging the boxing. It could be a better Kinect Sports title with some refinements, but the core experience is fun and shows what Kinect could possibly do in the hands of a great developer refining a concept.

As for Joy Ride... I totally dig everything about the game except the Kinect input. Game moves well, looks great in many ways, and is very cool. I love it ... but we aren't digging the free hand driving. Which is sad because we have Sonic Sega Racing which is fun but far too cluttered visually and it trades sliding everywhere and speed for nuances kart racing. I think Joy Ride has neat tracks and design but it Kinect bumbed me out. But that is just me.

Kinect is a winner here so far. The family played it from 6am to 3pm non-stop sans quick meals. I am craving something deeper--but enjoy the active controls--but everyone else is just having a blast.

 

[Rotmm]

Here's what's left for this year...

Europe Launch:

Available on 19th November

EA Sports Active 2 - Fitness Game
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1

Available on 26th November

Game Party: In Motion - Minigame collection
Get Fit With Mel B - Fitness Game
Dance Paradise - Dance Game
Sports Island Freedom - Minigame collection
Zumba Fitness - Fitness Game

Not picking on your post, just picking up on it to highlight the reason I haven't bothered with Kinect. There's nothing new available from this supposedly revolutionary tech. It's all Minigame collections, as popularised by Nintendo with the Wii, Fitness titles, as popularised by Nintendo with Wii + Balance Board, and dance games as popularised back in DDR days.

Sure, some of the titles may be fun, and there seems to be some popular support here (though primarily by those who show a strong loyality for the 360), but where's the differentiator. More importantly, where's the future for Kinect?

I seem to recall, when the Wii was released, it was all "yes, the games may seem shallow now, but when developers have time with the Wiimote/Nunchuck they'll bring out the real game-changer titles." 4 years later and we get minigame collection after fitness title after minigame collection. Is that where Kinect is headed? Move?

I've said before that I see Kinect as something I was interested in for parties. However, I was hoping for more. I think now I can see the future and it's very similar to the present. Which is a shame.

 

[Acert93]

Not picking on your post, just picking up on it to highlight the reason I haven't bothered with Kinect. There's nothing new available from this supposedly revolutionary tech. It's all Minigame collections, as popularised by Nintendo with the Wii, Fitness titles, as popularised by Nintendo with Wii + Balance Board, and dance games as popularised back in DDR days.

Sure, some of the titles may be fun, and there seems to be some popular support here (though primarily by those who show a strong loyality for the 360), but where's the differentiator. More importantly, where's the future for Kinect?

I seem to recall, when the Wii was released, it was all "yes, the games may seem shallow now, but when developers have time with the Wiimote/Nunchuck they'll bring out the real game-changer titles." 4 years later and we get minigame collection after fitness title after minigame collection. Is that where Kinect is headed? Move?

I've said before that I see Kinect as something I was interested in for parties. However, I was hoping for more. I think now I can see the future and it's very similar to the present. Which is a shame.

I don't think we should knock these devices if all they do is expand into new territory but fail to one up the tried and true mainstream game formats and controls. e.g. The gamepad was never going to do what we did today. Never.

But I share a similar concern with Kinect for this reason: MS has limited 1st party resources. Most non-Ninny Wii software is pretty poor. Without all of Nintendo's efforts the Wii would flop. So while I don't think Kinect needs to make core 360 gaming better it DOES need to make a compelling experience with legs. Where are the legs?

For me having FM4 with head tracking will be a plus (no system link or custom lobbies will be a 99% certain no sale though Dan) and I can see how a Mech game could be awesome and how Epic could branch a killer "Gears of War: Light Gun" version of GeoW3, but I just don't see the software right now for 2011. Probably because it isn't announced, but I am hoping MS is sticking development resources behind this because as it stands outside of the launch titles I am concerned. What we have is fun and with EA/Ubi/Loser already providing solid workout routines it isn't a loss, but I hope it has the staying power to mature.

If MS starts packing it in standard and we see a lot of 1st party or licensed support I will feel better. Right now it is a big hmmmm