Kinect Impressions

By now, you may or may not have read my little write-up on the motion game, and you may or may not agree with my opinion that casual/social gaming is here to stay (whether you’re a fan of it or not), so here are my impressions around Microsoft’s newly released Kinect, for Xbox 360…

It’s pretty damned good.

Oh – you want more? Well… It’s HUGE. Far bigger than I expected (see my AWESOME crafting abilities in picture to left – the damned thing doesn’t come with a mount for the top of your TV). I’d suggest it’s as big as a Wii, but a different shape. Big surprise. But hey – it houses three cameras and does some impressive stuff, so it makes sense.

Secondly – it’s shiny and pretty, but there are lots of cables (if you have an older 360).

Apart from that… What’s it like? First off, it’s pretty sensitive. Takes little-to-no effort to set up, and detects a hell of a lot of movement virtually one-to-one. Sure – there is some lag on occasion, but not when it matters, and let’s face it, for the stuff it’s doing, it’s friggin’ impressive.

It detects sound really well, and acts as a pretty good microphone – we used it for Vidoe Kinect with my wife’s parents over MSN, and it worked flawlessly. I haven’t had a chance to test it properly in game, but I’m not sure whether I’m happy to use Kinect for in-game chat anyway… Much prefer my headset – at least there’s a quick mute button. Might work well for party chat, though…

Oh, and the damn thing follows you. It’s weird. Using it for MSN, the auto zoom function would follow you around the room and zoom in on you (this can be switched off). And although it looks a little chunky on the TV, it apparently appeared quite clear on the in-law’s PC.

Controlling your Xbox using Kinect? To be honest, I can take it or leave it, really. You can’t do EVERYTHING using your Kinect, and you can’t swipe through options like I was expecting to. It works well for Zune (which has been redesigned to work AWESOMELY with Kinect), and you can do some basic stuff, but the controller’s still the go for this really – and voice controls are yet to be switched on for Australians, although I really don’t see the point of holding off. Oh – and recognition? Awesome. The fact I can switch on my Xbox now and it automatically logs into my account based on the fact it RECOGNISES ME? Fantasmagorical. (Note to self: continue to update recognition data, as this sometimes fails.) Of course, I must add at this point that it only logs you in when you sign in to Kinect Central, for some reason, even though Kinect is very obviously ON AT ALL TIMES (note to others: remember to turn off chat unless you want every conversation to be heard by all and sundry).

But what about gaming, I hear you cry? Well, that depends… on how much you like social/party games. In reality, Kinect is well and truly in the same boat as Wii and Move – even if it is different. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest Kinect is MORE fun – but why? At the risk of confusing the hell out of you – it’s more fun because it’s more active. Sure, I can play Wii games sitting down, but do I really need a motion controller? IMO – no. I’d MUCH rather use a standard controller (thus, my heavy use of Classic controller on Wii). So if I have to play motion games, I’d rather stand. And If I have to stand, I’d rather be doing something. So yeah – jumping, kicking, grabbing, slapping – it’s a lot more fun than… waggling and pointing. But – it’s still very much the same.

Then again, without having played Dance Central, I’m not really in the best position to comment on  the quality of Kinect games – if the hype is to be believed (and it does look fun, so I might rent it). I have got Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, though, and it’s there that I do have some negative remarks…

Kinect REALLY wants you to be more than 6 feet from your TV. Six feet works, sure, but well? No. for Kinect Adventures, it’s no big deal (unless you want to play two payers). Navigating – no issue. But in “Your Shape”, it really needs to see you from your head to your feet, and you need some distance for this. If you aren’t in the right spot – it’s not going to detect you well, and it’s not going to gauge your movements correctly. To be honest, it’s not a big deal unless you simply MUST get a good score in all your games. If you treat it in much the same way as you would treat a fitness video, it will probably do you well. It is doing well for me (I’m a heavy-set individual, so I find the workouts in YS:FE to be quite intensive… although the reality may well be that they are not… sigh). Given the space, it’s an enjoyable game – sure, there are some things it misses, but come on, the technology’s pretty new and it’s still pretty impressive, let’s not be so pedantic. It’s AMAZING stuff, so I’ll let it screw up on occasion.

Overall – it’s very impressive. There is a lot of potential for navigation alone, and when voice commands are available, it may even become more useful. Gaming – well, it’s fun, and I’d like to try to lose weight playing YS:FE, but it’s not going to replace my standard Xbox controller anytime soon – but I don’t think anyone really thought this was going to happen. It’s going to result in additional connectivity between Xboxes and PCs, and mean less use of headsets for in-game chat (although it won’t replace it completely, I don’t think). Personally, I would suggest buying one, if you have the means, but if it’s a choice between recent titles and Kinect, well… there were a few good games released recently, so I don’t envy the decision ahead of you.

And if you are one of those gamers with both a PS3 and an Xbox, and are trying to choose between this and Move? I would suggest forking out the extra dollars for Kinect, unless you really want to play shooters like Time Crisis. Kinect Sports is more fun that Sports Champions, and the technology itself is so much more impressive.

But, if you aren’t into casual/party gaming at all, and don’t have friends that might come around to check out your gadgets, and aren’t interested in video on your TV? Well… Stick with just your PS3 and Xbox, and don’t waste time reading any more posts on this topic, fool.