January 6th, 2011 
admin Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures!
- Easily hook up with friends with Video Kinect, no headset required.
- Sign into your profile by just stepping in front of the sensor
- Kinect games give you the freedom to jump, duck, and spin your way through a unique adventure.
- Kinect uses cutting-edge technology to provide a whole new way to play
- Kinect Adventures game
Kinect for Xbox 360 brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways with no controller required. Simply step in front of the sensor and Kinect recognizes you and responds to your gestures. Connecting in a whole new way is as easy as a wave of your hand. Kinect removes the last barrier between you and the experiences you love. Best of all, Kinect works with every Xbox 360 console.
List Price: $ 149.99
Price: $ 148.50
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Kinect from a hardcore gamers’ perspective (though self-professed),
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Thank you for reading my review and I hope it helps you get off the fence on this great item.
Being an owner of roughly every console since the Atari 2600 (yes I’m in my late 30′s) I could not help but give my review of this system and a couple of games we picked up along with the Kinect system. I remember standing at a best buy for hours before buying the WII on launch day. It was a fresh concept with a new direction and revolutionary in what it did and how it did it. We enjoyed it but with the lack of strong first person titles it got old. But because it was revolutionary it endured and was a smash success despite it’s lack of many quality games (yes it had great experiences) but not deep gameplay (though Twighlight Princess was a great game and showed the potential of the system) Here we are about 4 years later and with only minor exceptions the WII has found success by catering to children and the casual crowd along with providing some excellant fitness type concepts. I bring all of this up because it leads me to the purpose of this review.
As a gamer that enjoys COD and Halo along with all of the other staple franchise properties out there I found myself on the fence about the MOVE and KINECT systems. I’ve learned that not every concept works and sometimes a company is just trying to keep up with the Jones’ rather than making a product that it plans to support and grow it’s participant base. Clearly both Sony and Microsoft have been working on this technology for years but facts are facts… The Move is just not revolutionary in any way. It is a refined (yes very refined) Wii experience. The graphics are better by far and the company will put it’s weight behind the product (as Sony always does) and likely it will have success of it’s own.
But owning all systems and having put the Wii through its paces why would I buy a better looking Wii? The Controller is silly looking but even getting passed that, what does it do different than the Wii? We can argue graphics all day long and it is a valid arguement but seriously… It’s a better version of something we have already seen and experienced. Until it does ANYTHING I haven’t experienced before it’s a pass for me. I’ve tried it in stores on demo. I have not bought it. I realize that this makes my arguement less credible as I don’t own one. I have played it and tried out several games. It’s the Wii on steroids. The games are what you might expect… First generation and meant to show its functionality. But it does nothing of note that my Wii doesn’t. Being late to the party even if you refined the product is just not that exciting… yet. I say yet because this could change with a press release or an addition to the functionality of the system.
Which brings me to the Kinect… I have a wife that games with me (plays Halo along with more interactive games(rock band, dj hero, Lips) I have 3 children- ages 10, and twins that are 3 years old. So my gaming is not exclusive to my own tastes. I might buy Call of Duty Black Ops and Kirby in the same checkout. So I evaluate and research this thoroughly before making a jump to buy anything. I was going to pass on both the MOVE and KINECT but I have friends in the gaming industry and they told me that I should NOT pass up on the Kinect and further I should buy it now as it was likely the supply would be in question by xmas. So after several trips to best buy and Eb games I bit the bullet on a reccomendation and bought it.
IT does not look like much. It is a bit pricey at retail 150.00 at EB Games. But you get a game along with it which really makes them equal in price (sort of) For example (and I priced this hardcore)
Move kit is $99 (tricky part to Sony’s offering is the following) It comes with one contoller, the eye toy, and a game (no navigation controller). IF you want to play multiplayer you will have to buy another controller at around $60.00 and an additional Navigation Controller) total would be around $230 and you have just one game to play so go spend another $50 on that. Kind of tricky if you ask me. The Move was the lower cost option I heard at one time. But this is clearly a falsehood. I felt the same trickery when I bought the Wii. Classic controllers versus Wii remote? Had to buy another controller for your friends and then there was the possibility the controller would break and you might have to buy another one (or a new TV). My kids tore one of them up in around a month. So there is an upkeep involved in keeping the “car” on the road with both of these systems.
That’s why I bit on the Kinect… NO CONTROLLER!!!!!! NO need to buy any more of em. No need to charge them or to replace them. I guess you just have to worry about breaking an arm or a leg because YOU are the controller.
I didn’t believe it could work. I had heard of Project Natal and thought that this was the next…
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|Brilliant!,
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This is mostly a duplicate review from my Xbox360+Kinect Bundle review…
I only found out about Kinect a couple of weeks ago. After reading some of the preliminary reviews, I was intrigued enough that I pre-ordered it almost immediately. Since first finding out about it, I have read as many reviews as I have had time to read. Unfortunately, the more I read the more leery I got about my pre-order. Most of the reviews complained about lag, or the space requirement, or that the games were nothing more than regurgitated Wii games, and how every game title ever developed wasn’t re-developed for Kinect on launch day. WTF?
Setting up Kinect was a breeze. Plug and play. A few setup items and you’re ready to go.
We moved the coffee table out of the way and moved the couch back a couple of feet to get the 6-8 foot distance recommeded in the documentation. But I don’t think you need that much space, honestly. For some of the games, we were as close as 3-4 feet from the Kinect and it worked just fine. I think the space “problem” is a non-issue.
We played Kinect Adventures first, the game that comes in the box. Wii-like? Yes. Fun? Soooooo much more fun than any Wii game I’ve played. That Kinect can track your every move — your hands, head, arms, feet, hips, EVERYTHING — is just amazing. No controller can detect whether you’re moving side-to-side, or backwards and forwards, or squatting or jumping while at the same time moving your arms and feet. It’s just brilliant how well Kinect works.
One game in particular really shows the potential of this thing. You’re in an underwater tank and crazy fish keep poking holes in the glass. You have to plug these holes to keep the water from coming in. In some cases I had to use both hands, both feet, and my head to plug all of the holes…yes, all at the same time. The girlfriend and I had a blast with it. The other games were just as fun.
I think Your Shape best highlighted what Kinect is capable of. You are an infrared replication of yourself on the screen. The shape of my body was precise (unfortunately) and it even picked up the logo on the t-shirt I was wearing. There are numerous exercises you can do and you follow along with an instructor. You have to stay in sync with the intructor to earn points and advance to higher levels and the Kinect does an amazing job of following your every movement and comparing it to the instructor. Not spreading your feet far enough apart? It’ll tell you. Not keeping the right rhythm? It’ll tell you. It is so much more immersive than anything I’ve played on the Wii and I can now actually see myself doing Your Shape instead of going to the gym. It’s really fantastic.
A lot of the reviews complained about lag, meaning it takes a bit for the Kinect to detect your movements and get them on the screen. Is there lag? Yes, as measured in fractions of a second. Is it noticeable? Only if you’re specifically focusing on it. But it’s not noticeable during actual game play because you’re focusing on the game. And just like with the Wii, you quickly learn to compensate for that fraction of a second difference. It’s an absolute non-issue!!!!!
All-in-all, having played three titles (Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, and Your Shape) over a span of a couple of hours, the girlfriend and I were exhausted, exhillarated, and amazed at the experience. My girlfriend, being a typical girl, whose life isn’t defined by gadgets, even posted on FB that the Kinect really is AMAZING! It more than exceeded our expectations and I couldn’t be happier with the purchase. And I am absolutely ecstatic about what Kinect means for the future of gaming. Fully immersive Call of Duty? Yeah, it’s coming!
Great job Microsoft! You should be proud of yourselves!
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|4.5 stars – very pleased so far,
First off, I have a hard and fast rule – never buy first generation equipment, especially from Microsoft, and especially when it’s brand new technology. However, rules are made to be broken, right?
My boyfriend’s birthday is today, and he really wanted the Kinect for his birthday – it was a sign that it was released the day before his birthday, right?
So, like a good girlfriend (and fellow gadget addict), I ordered it from Amazon for him and it was waiting for us yesterday when we got home from work. Props to Amazon for flawless release date delivery!
He had it set up before I got home and reported that the setup was very simple. What took the most time was re-configuring the furniture and figuring out the best place to put the sensor. We have the 360S, so the device was plug and play.
We tried the Kinect Sports and Your Shape games, we also have the Adventures game that came with, and I plan on getting the Dance Central game as well.
So far we’re very pleased with how the unit works. It definitely takes a little bit of getting used to, but that’s the case for any new technology. I know there were reviews about how this isn’t good for hardcore gaming – and for us that’s fine. He’s a gamer (MW2, excited for BlackOps), but if he’s going to play those games he’s going to use the controller. I am not a big fan of the controller gaming, I am a Rock Band fan – much happier with a mic
We bought the Kinect so we could burn some energy and not be such couch potatoes. The shape-up program is really great so far, but I suppose I should take my review for that over to the game.
The acid test for the unit will be tomorrow – birthday party for the boyfriend and we’re going to have a bunch of friends over to play games with the Kinect. Kinect Sports has a party setting that should be perfect, but with that many people in the room and players of varying sizes and shapes, I will be very curious to see how it goes.
To sum up –
Pros: Easy setup, recognition is cool, actually burning calories while playing games, chance to get in better shape with a video game (the personal trainer feedback so far is really cool), fun party toy, voice navigation of the Xbox unit
Cons: Had to re-arrange the living room, and in a small apartment it’s kind of difficult to do that. Only two players at once. Interface takes some getting used to.
So, all in all, I’m delighted with the purchase and can’t wait to see what other cool things this can do. I’m really looking forward to the video chat aspect. I’m also looking forward to the future of video gaming. Using the unit last night I really couldn’t help but to think that this is really going to change the video game playing landscape.
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A post-Kinect party update:
The unit worked flawlessly. Space was a little tight, but that’s a function of the small house and tall friends. Everyone had a blast either watching or playing the games. Most popular were the games where you could challenge someone else there. The sports game and Dance Central (Yeah! Dance Battle!) were the most popular for that. The unit worked perfectly as far as working great with different people trying the games – 17 of us tried different games at various times and it worked without a hitch. Everyone at the party was jealous of our toy and several people left trying to figure out how they’re rearrange their house so they could get one too!
Oh, and we tested out the Xbox Live feature with the ping-pong and boxing parts of Kinect Sports and were pleasantly surprised at just how well it worked. Very little lag and very responsive.
Them I spent an hour or so yesterday on the workout mode of Dance Central and boy I tell you what, I definitely got a good workout. Boyfriend has been doing workouts with the Your Shape game and is also quite pleased.
Love it love it love it love it….
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