Kinect Games

[NavNucST3]

Hmmm so when do we get a good exercise-game? i.e. Not fitness software, but a true to goodness game that is fun and requires a lot of physical activity ... I am thinking of a boxing game Kinect Sports boxing wrapped up in a nice package (in between fight exercise band "training"? Speed bag etc) would do the trick.

That you don't think highly of the current games in no way diminishes the fact that over half of the line-up can give you quite the workout and for those of us who actually play these games I'm assuming we do it because we think they are...fun...

 

[BadTB25]

I played around with Kinect again yesterday for the first time in a month or so. I forgot how good a workout it can be. I played some boxing and table tennis (my favorites). There also seems to be an update for Zune and LastFM.

I wish you could you use Kinect Zune to stream your movie, music and pic library.


The Biggest Loser demo was a pretty good workout...I may end up looking for a used version.
Any word on Kinect Sports 2?

 

[Cyan]

I played around with Kinect again yesterday for the first time in a month or so. I forgot how good a workout it can be. I played some boxing and table tennis (my favorites). There also seems to be an update for Zune and LastFM.

I wish you could you use Kinect Zune to stream your movie, music and pic library.


The Biggest Loser demo was a pretty good workout...I may end up looking for a used version.
Any word on Kinect Sports 2?

Zumba Fitness demo is also great, you can give it a try... I have a friend on my friends list who is into Zumba dancing in real life and she loves it. The demo is quite fun and good to learn dancing some cool music.

 

[BadTB25]

Zumba Fitness demo is also great, you can give it a try... I have a friend on my friends list who is into Zumba dancing in real life and she loves it. The demo is quite fun and good to learn dancing some cool music.

Downloaded it yesterday, but have yet to try it. Dance games are not really for me.
My wife is attending a course to become a Zumba instructor as a hobby, so I thought she might get a kick out of it.

 

[RobertR1]

Any word on Kinect Sports 2?

Nothing but I'm hoping at E3 we get Kinect Sports 2 and more refined fitness game sequels. I really want to pick up a good one.

 

[BadTB25]

Is it me or is the lag on Kinect Sports less noticeable than when it released at launch?

It was a month or two that I last played it, but I barely noticed any lag.

 

[orangpelupa]

@bkilian
thanks

for me, kinect as chat device is good. really simplify the chat procedure
- no need to search where i store the xbox headset
- good to use while on bed with pillows and so on without a headset hanging on ear, head, mouth.

albeit there still a few concern
- my voice become a bit "mechanical" with kinect microphone.
- and talking without wearing headset or holding something still feels awkward and silly. Maybe i just still not get used to the technology. Like first time use kinect games i feel very shame moving body like that, but after a few days its full on fun

 

[bkilian]

I don't understand that sentiment, as I would assume the opposite was true (ie: it made perfect sense).

As an aside, I was online having a chat with Scott the other day while he was playing the new Fight Night (a game that is crying out for a spectator mode if any EA devs are reading this) and I decided to create a character. When it came to taking a photo of myself, I just foolishly assumed that Kinect would take the place of a Vision Camerax. Sadly that's not the case.

I suppose the obvious question is.... why not? I realise there aren't a vast quantity of games out there designed to use the old vision camera, but it seems plain dumb for the Kinect RGB camera to be seen by the Xbox as a vision camera for those titles that support it.

It doesn't make sense since our chat streams are associated with a logged in player. That isn't possible with the Kinect, so we do nasty permissions things with the Kinect chat stream when more than one player logs into the box.

And the RGB streams for Kinect and the Vision Cam are not compatible, There was a decision made early in the product cycle that we would not take the time to write the drivers that would allow for compatibility since it would take significant resources, and the potential upside didn't warrant the amount of resources that could be better used adding Kinect features. Sorry about that.

 

[bkilian]

@bkilian
thanks

for me, kinect as chat device is good. really simplify the chat procedure
- no need to search where i store the xbox headset
- good to use while on bed with pillows and so on without a headset hanging on ear, head, mouth.

albeit there still a few concern
- my voice become a bit "mechanical" with kinect microphone.
- and talking without wearing headset or holding something still feels awkward and silly. Maybe i just still not get used to the technology. Like first time use kinect games i feel very shame moving body like that, but after a few days its full on fun

the "mechanical" sound is an unfortunate side effect of the algorithms we use for echo cancellation. We have a number of targets when we train the algorithms, and we have to balance echo reduction with essentially "understandability" (we have systems which measure this nebulous concept). Our pipelines are built mainly for speech recognition, and so we accept a lower PESQ if it doesn't hurt our word error rate and provides us with better echo reduction.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

And the RGB streams for Kinect and the Vision Cam are not compatible, There was a decision made early in the product cycle that we would not take the time to write the drivers that would allow for compatibility since it would take significant resources, and the potential upside didn't warrant the amount of resources that could be better used adding Kinect features. Sorry about that.

I'm surprised by that. I'd have assumed that XB360 would have a driver base for peripherals, and you'd just need a basic video stream controller for Kinect to provide a video feed, unless there's some unfortunate complexity in how the Live Vision is integrated. I can understand believing it's not worth trying because maybe Live Vision support is so sparse it's not worth bothering with, but I wouldn't have thought having camera support would be a complex task that'd divert resources invested elsewhere. I guess therefore that the video chat app on 360 is rewritten (or a different one?) to work with Kinect and Live Vision?

 

[bkilian]

I'm surprised by that. I'd have assumed that XB360 would have a driver base for peripherals, and you'd just need a basic video stream controller for Kinect to provide a video feed, unless there's some unfortunate complexity in how the Live Vision is integrated. I can understand believing it's not worth trying because maybe Live Vision support is so sparse it's not worth bothering with, but I wouldn't have thought having camera support would be a complex task that'd divert resources invested elsewhere. I guess therefore that the video chat app on 360 is rewritten (or a different one?) to work with Kinect and Live Vision?

I'm not certain if the excess resources would have been on the implementation or the testing side. It's just the resoning I was given when I asked the very same question. Not knowing how the Live Vision cam interacts with the system, I can't really be any more specific. The APIs for interacting with the two cameras are completely different though.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I'm not certain if the excess resources would have been on the implementation or the testing side. It's just the resoning I was given when I asked the very same question. Not knowing how the Live Vision cam interacts with the system, I can't really be any more specific. The APIs for interacting with the two cameras are completely different though.

This would explain why Fight Night Champion supports Live Vision for the photo face tool, but not Kinect.

 

[Acert93]

Hmmm so when do we get a good exercise-game? i.e. Not fitness software, but a true to goodness game that is fun and requires a lot of physical activity ... I am thinking of a boxing game Kinect Sports boxing wrapped up in a nice package (in between fight exercise band "training"? Speed bag etc) would do the trick.

That you don't think highly of the current games in no way diminishes the fact that over half of the line-up can give you quite the workout and for those of us who actually play these games I'm assuming we do it because we think they are...fun...

For those of us who actually play these games?

Sorry Nav, I *do* play my Kinect so I don't know where that came from. Further, I have tried a lot of software (Kinect Sports, Adventures, JoyRide, Sonic, Biggest Loser, Your Shape). Not every title mind you, but a fair share to know there isn't a title I was asking about.

I have put a bit of time into Kinect. e.g. I have well over 800 gamer points, lead every 1 but one leader board the last time I checked, and like an 80 rank iirc in Kinect Sports so it isn't from a lack of hours. If I had to guess I probably have at least 40+ hours into Kinect Sports alone and another 10 into the [aweful] Adventures.

So I have had fun with kinect.

And I never challenged that some of the games don't give you a work out.

But that doesn't change that many of the titles are shallow.

Further, the games tend to demarcate between "fitness programs" like Your Shape, EA Sports Active, Biggest Loser, etc and mini-game titles.

As mentioned previously in the thread I am surprised at the lack of *convergence*. To be more blunt (so you have something to jump on) I think the problem is thinking in the box. One side 1) we have TV-aerobics-turned-games and on side 2) we have Wii-fit minigame rips.

Your Shape had a good idea in the hoola and the boxing/kickboxing blocks--interactive exercise-games. As an avid sports fan I would like see more convergence.

I never challenged that the games cannot give a workout, but Robert's suggestion of playing through Adventures Obstacle Course front to back doesn't really cut it.

To each their own. Just don't take every suggestion or criticism as meaning people haven't used or like the platform. You don't even have to agree. So don't be upset when I ask how many more months do we have before 10 Kinect titles are released in 2011

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I'm not certain if the excess resources would have been on the implementation or the testing side. It's just the resoning I was given when I asked the very same question. Not knowing how the Live Vision cam interacts with the system, I can't really be any more specific. The APIs for interacting with the two cameras are completely different though.

Again, surprising! If it were me, I'd have wanted Kinect developed as an extension from Live Vision, using the interface for camera feed and with everything else on top. I can't see why it wouldn't be done that way, but then things have a way of being more complicated than our simple plans would anticipate .

 

[NavNucST3]

For those of us who actually play these games?

Sorry Nav, I *do* play my Kinect so I don't know where that came from. Further, I have tried a lot of software (Kinect Sports, Adventures, JoyRide, Sonic, Biggest Loser, Your Shape). Not every title mind you, but a fair share to know there isn't a title I was asking about.

I have put a bit of time into Kinect. e.g. I have well over 800 gamer points, lead every 1 but one leader board the last time I checked, and like an 80 rank iirc in Kinect Sports so it isn't from a lack of hours. If I had to guess I probably have at least 40+ hours into Kinect Sports alone and another 10 into the [aweful] Adventures.

So I have had fun with kinect.

And I never challenged that some of the games don't give you a work out.

But that doesn't change that many of the titles are shallow.

Further, the games tend to demarcate between "fitness programs" like Your Shape, EA Sports Active, Biggest Loser, etc and mini-game titles.

As mentioned previously in the thread I am surprised at the lack of *convergence*. To be more blunt (so you have something to jump on) I think the problem is thinking in the box. One side 1) we have TV-aerobics-turned-games and on side 2) we have Wii-fit minigame rips.

Your Shape had a good idea in the hoola and the boxing/kickboxing blocks--interactive exercise-games. As an avid sports fan I would like see more convergence.

I never challenged that the games cannot give a workout, but Robert's suggestion of playing through Adventures Obstacle Course front to back doesn't really cut it.

To each their own. Just don't take every suggestion or criticism as meaning people haven't used or like the platform. You don't even have to agree. So don't be upset when I ask how many more months do we have before 10 Kinect titles are released in 2011

Re-read your own question, in no place did you ask when the "next game" was due thusly your implication was that no game currently exists that can give you a workout that was not a fitness title. But then you proceed to simply disregard those titles that will give you a workout either because you don't like dance titles or the music in them or because they are "shallow" or because Kinect Adventures "doesn't cut it". Then you threw out the "shallow" charge...I'm not even going to get into to that because that will certainly lead me into a tirade.

EDIT: Of the titles you tried I'm assuming they were the demos, correct? ...

 

[AzBat]

Added Heavy Fire: Afghanistan (Teyon/Mastiff Games) to the OP list. It's coming out in about 2 weeks & costs $18 on Amazon. It doesn't require Kinect if the box cover is legit, just says "Works better with Kinect". Looked for a video, but all I found was a trailer for the Wii version. Everything I've seen says it's an on-rails shooter. Not great, but at $18 it might be worth the try.

Tommy McClain

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Supposedly a sequel to a Wii title. I wonder if the Wii title was any good? That might give an indication as to the potential quality of this one.

From the description on Amazon...

Expanded sequel to the #1 selling Wiiware title Heavy Fire

So it should be similar to that one.

Regards,
SB

 

[AzBat]

The Wii trailer looked like shit to me, but then again the Xbox version might be better, but I'm not holding my breath.

Tommy McClain

 

[RobertR1]

At $18, I wouldn't be holding anything....

 

[Arwin]

At $18, I wouldn't be holding anything....

Doesn't that go for all Kinect games? :