Kinect launches today, anybody here going to be a guinea pig? Reviews seem to be all over the place, hinging greatly on how big one's living room is. Doesn't look like it's a viable remote control replacement yet, but it looks like there are a couple of really awesome launch titles in dance central, adventures and sports.

I think I'm gonna wait it out for a couple of weeks until someone figures it what (if anything) it can do as a USB device on the pc.

11/4/2010 12:29:47 PM

I'm kind of disappointed in the reviews. I really want to see some more positive gaming experiences coming out of this, I think my wife would like to play some casual games with me.

Are they putting demo units out in stores?

Also, I think it was a mistake to remove the integrated processor.

[Edited on November 4, 2010 at 1:11 PM. Reason : .]

11/4/2010 12:47:06 PM

i hear kinect is racist and doesnt play well with brown people

11/4/2010 2:17:05 PM

I got it. It's sitting here on my desk along with the game it comes with and Your Shape. Target were bad and declined selling me Dance Central for some reason. Will hit gamestop on the way home for that game.

Not sure how much time I'll have to play with it tonight but if I do I'll mention it tomorrow.

^really? Link? It uses an infrared depth camera for most of the heavy lifting...

[Edited on November 4, 2010 at 2:24 PM. Reason : .]

11/4/2010 2:24:18 PM

^It's just a stupid rumor that gets tacked on to any motion-tracking technology.

11/4/2010 2:41:25 PM

yeah, cnn tells me it doesn't work for the blacks

[Edited on November 4, 2010 at 8:38 PM. Reason : maybe it's an antitheft feature]

11/4/2010 8:37:07 PM

^
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming.gadgets/11/04/kinect.dark.skin/index.html?hpt=T2

11/4/2010 8:50:48 PM

Reminds me of Better off Ted (S1E4?)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ1TaYwU394

11/4/2010 10:15:55 PM

[Edited on November 4, 2010 at 10:25 PM. Reason : ]

11/4/2010 10:25:44 PM

Ok, played for a few hours. Your shape, and then Dance Central.

Dance Central is a blast. It's well made, pretty forgiving (but not overly so) about the moves as long as you keep your feet in rhythm. Played 4 songs (and did the warm up to learn the moves on each song) and then the compilation challenge.

Your shape, fitness evolved is going to be awesome once I shake the rust off and can keep up with the more intense cardio. The interface feels futuristic and intuitive. I didn't try any of the gym games (where you break blocks and shit). Yoga is tougher than I thought it would be.

My only complaint about controlling the Kinect dashboard is that there aren't enough features to control with voice or gestures. I did a video Kinect chat with my mom in Colorado and it worked fine. Also joined party chat with some friends and it worked great. Wish there were more voice commands. Also unless I was doing something wrong I couldn't access my own shared music library through the Zune interface. It's going to be fucking annoying to have to redownload everything I've already gotten on my Zune pass.

I didn't have to move any furniture but I have to angle it into the length of my room and my stupid tv base is pointed dumbly and I can't rotate the tv to match it. Need 2 people to lift the TV to rotate the base. Anyone want to come try Kinect?

It never asked me to re-calibrate during 2 hours of play time. I did have to do the facial recognition again because I turned most of my lights off. But once I did it recognized me no problem in varied lighting. Even if it doesn't recognize you, you can still play, you just have to manually select your profile.

Overall the whole thing is fun. I occasionally had to repeat some voice commands but it wasn't enough to be frustrating. Let me know if you have any questions.

11/4/2010 11:39:32 PM

my main concern is lag between your movements and the screen...

ive heard some people say its terrible while others says its fine

i have one still sitting the box because i'm still undecided

11/5/2010 9:22:37 AM

It's entirely game specific.

In the Kinect Tuner where you can see what the depth sensor is picking up, it's lagless.

In Dance Central where you can't even see a representation of yourself, it's unapparent. Actually you can see a tiny representation of yourself and it appears lagless, though you're never actually looking at it.

In Your Shape where you see a virtual representation of yourself it's almost lagless. Sometimes you feel like you did a lunge or squat correctly and the sensor just missed it. It's not often.

I haven't played the Adventures game in depth but the timing of the jumping feels a little off. I think it will just take a little getting used to.

I've read the Sonic is a piece of shit in this department.

Oh, and just navigating the dashboard is lagless too. I find the voice commands are easier though, but the gestures work even when you're sitting down.

[Edited on November 5, 2010 at 9:42 AM. Reason : .]

11/5/2010 9:33:36 AM

i need to know about the sports game

11/5/2010 9:50:41 AM

Don't got it. Reading: http://kotaku.com/5679411/review-kinect-sports

Quote :

"Controller free sports sounds interesting, how do you play these games? Is the controller responsive enough? It's a neat premise. You stand in front of your television until Kinect recognizes you and then you wave your hand around to choose the sport you want. It's important to know that when I stood eight feet from the TV, Kinect Sports still wasn't delighted with the amount of space in which I had to play. That may be why the menu interface was a bit skittish for me, with the cursor skittering around as I tried to select a sport. Once I got into a particular sport, the controls were mostly accurate. And that's OK for some of the games."

Quote :

"Kinect Sports offers an interesting variety of games to play alone and with friends. It's fun when it works, but it doesn't always work. Having a bowling ball or a javelin stick to your hand or a boxer have a sudden spasms can ruin the experience. In the end that's going to be the greatest challenge this Kinect game faces. A great experience, no matter how fun, can't survive working only most of the time."

11/5/2010 10:01:21 AM

I want Kinect to pause Halo when someone walks across my screen. (Campaign only)

I want a console/game, that combines Kinect, Move, 3DTV, and head-tracking. With the usual surround sound, HDTV, rumble pack stuff. And that game will be called Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Awesome.

11/5/2010 2:18:12 PM

Give it 10 years. It'll be sweet. Except it will be holograms. I honestly don't think Minority Report is that far off. Except the cars, that'll never fucking happen.

11/5/2010 2:22:12 PM

so why do i feel like i should return mine unopened?

11/5/2010 2:53:52 PM

Because it's basically an expensive toy. I'm serious about losing some weight and an avid gamer so the games that I knew would work awesome with it (Dance Central and Your Shape) are great. I also have a 2-yo who is almost certainly going to get Kinectimals for Christmas or her birthday next year.

It's...neat. It's most certainly a novelty though. I agree with Kotaku...it's not a "must buy now" so much as a "must eventually have".

11/5/2010 2:58:17 PM

Quote :

"I want a console/game, that combines Kinect, Move, 3DTV, and head-tracking. With the usual surround sound, HDTV, rumble pack stuff. And that game will be called Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Awesome."

Kinda makes you wonder what the next generation of consoles will look like. Granted, Move and Wii aren't all that different from a 3rd party development perspective, but Kinect is a whole different animal. Seems like all the different motion control techs will converge at some point and we'll end up with 2-3 more or less samey consoles, just like previous generations. Granted, there will be all sorts of patent shit to hammer through, but I could totally see MS adding some sort motion control wand down the line and Sony adding a depth sensor to their PS Eye. Nintendo will probably come out of left field with something crazy again, since that worked for them this generation.

11/5/2010 3:42:39 PM

buying one in T-minus 20 minutes

11/7/2010 12:55:16 PM

Awesome stuff.

11/14/2010 1:48:59 PM

awesome

11/14/2010 1:57:36 PM

^^Seriously awesome. The PC is why I want a Kinect. Cant wait to see how all the swedish geniuses figure out how to use this thing.

11/14/2010 3:24:42 PM

that guy on you tube with the wii virtual head tracking should pair up with this guy

found him
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

11/14/2010 4:20:47 PM

^ - He's working for Microsoft now..

http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/

11/14/2010 4:30:00 PM

Quote :

"The PC is why I want a Kinect. "

11/14/2010 6:58:56 PM

I went and got the Kinect. man, this thing is awesome. I am only using it for it's gaming purposes and it blows the wii out of the water. I am having a lot of fun with it and havent experienced anything negative about it yet.

11/14/2010 9:11:43 PM

Wow, when I saw they were using an IR camera for tracking, i wondered if they were using structured lighting, and it turns out they are.

The Kinect just became a little bit cooler...

11/14/2010 10:23:35 PM

here's a video of the IR array (is that the right word?). Pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvvQJxgykcU&feature=related

11/14/2010 11:48:27 PM

I got the Kinect on Sunday. It is pretty dope. I enjoy white water rafting and boxing.


Pros: When it works well- it's on point and really fun.
Diverse games in just the "adentures" game that it comes with.
The Motion Sports has soccer, football, boxing, horseback riding, and ...um...one more i forgot.
It is very active. I think it's more active than the Wii- I mean, after boxing- I'm frikkin' sweaty. Then again I'm stupidly out of shape.
To bring on a new player- you just stand in the range of the sensor- and it picks up the new player. No "press start to join" bullshit....
It recognizes me as my xbox live acct- and it recognizes my boyfriend as his own player too....so if i'm playing a game- he just stands up and it recognizes him and has his history. However, this is kind of confusing - and I haven't set it up properly, yet...

Cons: With two player, it's easy to go too far out of range on the left or right of the sensor- this is frustrating when you're trying to plug holes in a glass aquarium (one of the games). It just doesn't see you, so it is worthless.

11/17/2010 5:50:17 PM

i dont recall horseback riding

11/17/2010 7:29:24 PM

yep...you do jumps and stuff....

it's kinda strange. But the novelty of it is enticing. it's just a new techmology that makes it cool. Just like the Wii. I would hypothesize the next wave will be a more specific motion detector. The Kinect just detects arms and legs...I wonder if the next wave will be able to detect finger motions from the couch?

11/17/2010 8:24:04 PM

Quote :

"It recognizes me as my xbox live acct- and it recognizes my boyfriend as his own player too....so if i'm playing a game- he just stands up and it recognizes him and has his history. However, this is kind of confusing - and I haven't set it up properly, yet..."

Awesome. Microsoft took the absolute worst part about the Xbox 360 and made it even more confusing. I didn't think it was possible to have a worse account system than before.

11/17/2010 8:43:58 PM

The principle of it is pretty cool, though....

11/17/2010 9:33:00 PM

there's no horseback riding in kinect sports? i have it and dont see that

11/18/2010 9:06:41 PM

she said motion sports, which i havent seen. I have kinect sports as well. best games are volleyball and ping pong. ping pong is incredible. different spins and force. A+ technology

11/18/2010 10:14:39 PM

my bad, i was thinking kinect sports

11/19/2010 8:52:29 AM

i think that was fairly evident when you said "in kinect sports" in your last post.

I wasn't all that interested in this thing (though I didn think it sounded cool). These threads have changed that somewhat.

11/19/2010 10:14:19 AM

http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/the-greatest-kinect-hacks-weve-seen-thus-far

[Edited on November 19, 2010 at 10:22 AM. Reason : two different threads?]

11/19/2010 10:20:48 AM

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/kinect_browser_navigation.php

11/30/2010 3:01:51 PM

My brain is impressed by my arm is tired.

We need an input system that requires LESS actual motion.

11/30/2010 11:34:45 PM

Clearly Kinect will play a large role in the destruction of the human race. It is only a matter of time before it becomes self aware and tries to kill us all.

12/6/2010 1:59:10 AM

I wonder if Microsoft's HR is browsing youtube looking for future employees.

these people seem to be doing things with the kinect that the developers probably hadn't even thought it could do.

12/6/2010 10:31:49 PM

Kinect SDK available this week to the public.

Full Skeletal tracking for 2 people
Full Audio and voice recognition API

And every Mix11 attendee got a free Kinect (doh!)

sign up to get the SDK here http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/

4/13/2011 2:08:31 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGJ-j3S-fSE

3/3/2013 6:03:04 PM