Ghetto holodeck

[Green Gibbon!]

I don't expect anyone here ran out to Best Suck to wait in line for a Kinect, but I'm curious to hear some impressions from anyone who's got it or tried a demo unit or something. Does it work? The technology is pretty impressive. Useless for games, perhaps, but impressive!

I actually bought a Move a couple weeks ago, but I haven't tried it yet. It's supposed to be more accurate than the Wii remote, right? (Not like that's saying much.)

[cjmcray]

I heard a few months back that lag was a serious issue with Kinect, but while Google searching for said article, several results came up, saying that lag is no longer an issue and any lag you may experience with it is the fault of the game developer, not the Kinect device itself.

Kotaku says Sonic Free Riders has terrible motion controls. (The Sonic Cycle strikes again)
http://kotaku.com/5681472/review-sonic- ... s-can-beHm.

I'm not that interested in Kinect. I might pick one up someday, when I can find it used at Gamestop for $40, but no way am I paying $150 for this.

[j-man]

(The Sonic Cycle strikes again)

>implying anyone was excited about Free Riders in the first place

I've never seen a Kinect with my human eyes in arr ell, but we don't really get demo setups of game stuff in this neck of the woods. Move is fun depending on the subject matter; your bog standard sports games don't bring much to the table, but titles like Heavy Rain become a whole new animal and immersive like a motherfucker. I am saying it is like immersing yourself in someone's mother and fucking her.

[Green Gibbon!]

Yeah, I just tried the Move this evening. I only got two games - Beat Sketch, which came with it, and Machi Suberi, the Hong Kong chair sliding game.

The accuracy is a tier above the Wii, but that's certainly the minimum requirement if you're going to shamelessly mimic your competitor's product four years after the fact. The orb at the top of the wand is awesome. It glows all different colors. Dust and other nasty particles stick to the surface, though.

The main thing I noticed is the way it reads space. It doesn't exaggerate your movements like the Wii. You really have to move your arm. With the Wii I usually just rest my elbow and waggle the wand, but with the Move, I have to stretch my arm all the way to reach the edges of the screen. And I've got a small TV. I only played for about an hour and a half, but my right arm feels like it did after that time I bumped into Tsui's mom on chat roulette.

Beat Sketch is mainly just a tech demo. You doodle on the screen. As you doodle, the beats pick up. There is a challenge mode which plays kind of like a musical rhythm game, kind of a midair Ouendan. When you finish the song, the screen pans out and you can see that all the motions you've just made have made a picture. It's kind of cool and oddly compelling.

Machi Suberi is funny and solid, but the controls are not very intuitive - it's tough to remember how to sidestep or do a kung-fu kick on the fly. The grading system seems extremely forgiving, though - no matter how much I suck, I get A's and S's. I think it's one of those situations where the motion controls don't really enhance the experience. It's not a bad game, but I think it'd be just as good (maybe better) with a regular control pad. Love the concept, though!

[MiraiTails]

Yeah, I just tried the Move this evening. ...
The accuracy is a tier above the Wii, but that's certainly the minimum requirement if you're going to shamelessly mimic your competitor's product four years after the fact. ...

A tier above Wii motion plus, or the plain old Wii remote? I've never used Wii motion plus, personally.

[Green Gibbon!]

Hard to say. I've got Motion Plus, but I've never played any games that utilize it. I doubt it's as precise as Sony's technology, though.

[K2J]

Is buying a product without a game to utilize it a common thing in Japan? Nearly three hundred thousand standalone units were sold in MotionPlus' Japanese opening week, and I'd always thought that was kinda curious. Do you just have it to be ready, in case they sell out, or something?

[Popcorn]

Just so everyone knows, Bumble was Microsoft's idea.

[Segaholic2]

The PS Move technology is quite impressive; basically what people thought the Nintendo Wii was going to be. I only have Sports Champions for it at the moment, and it's a pretty good demonstration of the tech's capabilities. The gladiator game especially is quite fun with two controllers. I'm excited to see what developers will do with it.

Kinect just seems like a horrible concept in general to me.

[Green Gibbon!]

I tried a couple more demos. Everything sucks except EyePet, and that's not really a game, though it is pretty clever.

I couldn't play the sports game demo at all because my TV is positioned too low to the ground to calibrate my body motions. I think that's actually the main problem with Kinect, I don't think I'd be able to use it at all unless I buy some big furniture which is not really feasible for me (plus I prefer living close to the ground anyway).

[Green Gibbon!]

Finally hooked up my Kinect yesterday. It is pretty amazing technology. It even has face recognition, so once you calibrate it for this function (a process that basically involves moving around the room and doing the hokey-pokey - and it is actually fun, though I advise being alone when you do it), it automatically recognizes who's playing when you start a game. This is both incredible and terrifying.

My stuff is all on Japanesey low-to-the-ground furniture, a bit below the 2-foot minimum specified in the Kinect manual, so I was worried it wouldn't work, but I haven't encountered any problems other than the slightly disorientating fact that as I'm playing, my on-screen avatar is not level with me. I really wish there was a mode where you could just dick around with your avatar. When doing the face calibration, I started off just by dancing around watching with delight as my avatar mimicked my actions on screen, then the Xbox chastised me like, "You need to do this to proceed. Maybe you should check the position of the sensor." Yes Hal, whatever you say, Hal.

My only complaint is that there is a noticable lag between when you perform an action and when it's represented on screen. It doesn't affect the games much, but that's really just a testament to how shallow the games are and will continue to be, I imagine. Also, I'm slightly near-sighted. I usually sit close enough to the screen that it doesn't bother me when I'm playing games, but I have to stand so far back with Kinect I need to wear my glasses to discern shit on the screen. And I fucking hate wearing glasses. I guess that's God's fault, though, not really Microsoft's.

I played a couple of demos and of course Kinect Adventures, which comes with it. Adventures is definitely the best of what I played. It is, of course, nothing but a collection of mini-games, but they are clever and solidly-executed (except the bubble-popping game, that's one's kind of lame). It's not the sort of game that will have me anticipating the weekend when I have time to play it, but I have to admit I did have fun.

I do think it's a novelty and not much more (at least as far as games are concerned), but on a purely tech geek level, this is pretty awesome. Ten years ago you'd have had to go to Disney World to try something like this (did anyone else ever try that utterly unplayable VR Pac-Man?) and now here it is in my apartment.