| 19 July 2010
Microsoft is introducing the Kinect to the general public through the Kinect Experience Mobile Demo Tour until October 24th. You will have a chance to play Kinect and even share your opinions about it with Microsoft employees, hopefully leading to a better product as Microsoft is still trying to work out all the kinks. Below is a detailed account of our Kinect experience in New York City.
We got to experience the Kinect on Saturday July 17th while Microsoft’s Kinect trucks were parked outside of Macy’s on 35th and Broadway in Manhattan. Each trailer was fitted with the new Xbox 360 S, large TVs, and cameras to record your experience. There were plenty of attendants there to guide you through the games, as well as answer any questions you may have about the Kinect. The games available were: Kinect Sports, Kinectimals, Kinect Joy Ride, Kinect Adventures and Dance Central. Each trailer was hosting a different game and you were welcomed to try any of them, but you just had to wait your turn.
We were able to play Kinect Sports, specifically track and field, and after a little intro about the game by the Kinect experts there, we got the hang of it. The track and field game involves you standing up and running in place, the higher and faster you lift your knees, the faster your avatar will run. But then it gets harder because when the hurdles start appearing you will have to jump at the right moment (indicated by the hurdles turning green) and get over each of them since crashing into them will cause you to lose time. The game, or race, lasted a bit over a minute and we worked up a bit of a sweat; which is ok since the game itself was exciting enough.
That lady is totally calling her friends to tell them how cool Kinect is
Pyramus:
I was already planning on buying a Kinect, but I feel that this event sealed the deal for me. Getting to play with the Kinect and seeing how precise it is, is a lot different than just reading articles about it online or reading this article about it. When it was almost our turn to go in, the Kinect expert at the door encouraged us to play around with the Kinect’s motion sensing capabilities. I did just that when I got in front of it, and after a quick demo I was standing there making my avatar move around in weird ways. The latency between your movements and those of the avatar wasn’t nearly as bad as I had read before; in fact it was very minimal.
Also, the Kinect had no problems with differentiating between GundamCheerios and I as we both stood in front of it or while we frantically ran in place. It is also worth noting that the Kinects that people are playing with at these events are not the finished products, according to the experts there, and Microsoft admits that they have a lot of room for improvement.
When it comes to the games, you really are the controller and it is fun to see how your movements make the avatar move or how lack of movement simply stops the avatar. While this is only my opinion, I would go as far to say that the Kinect will be much more interactive than the PlayStation Move could possibly be. The Kinect expert speaking to us in line mentioned that in the final version of the Kinect a player will be able to use their actual image in a game, instead of a generic avatar. Kinect will be able to identify your body’s shape, size, and clothing, among other things, to basically "insert yourself" into the game making a more personal avatar for you to play with.
Of course, this makes me wonder what type of games will continue to be released once this product is launched. For the personalized avatar function, I assume it would only be for their family and sports games, such as the ones we saw at this event. So will Microsoft take Nintendo’s route and highly promote their family and sports games? Well, I sure hope not. I really want to see high-end games created by other developers in the near future; playing an FPS on the Kinect is bound to be exciting.
Well worth the 30 minute wait
GundamCheerios:
While we were standing in line for our turn, I was watching others play the Kinect, specifically a game called River Rush. I realized after my own turn that River Rush required much less physical exertion; once in a while, you move to the side, jump, or throw your hands up into the air like you just don’t care. Although the Kinect had been accused of bringing shovelware to the Xbox 360, this was the first time it had personally crossed my mind.
As we were led into the room, we were told to stand on a specific part of the carpet, a purple line, so that Kinect could best track our movements. The attendant had a little trouble bringing the cursor down the game we were going to play with her hand. She noted that it was because the Kinect was attempting to track all of our movements at the same time; I sure hope that kink is worked out before the final version ships out.
Before the game started, we had a little time to move our avatars around. The attendant who was handling the line outside explained to us all the different points of motion the Kinect tracks, specifically the points on the arm: the hand, the elbow, and the shoulder. To test this out, I raised my arm slowly, making sure to move the different parts of my arm separately, and then waved my hand. To say that the Kinect is “intuitive” would be an understatement in my book; this device precisely tracked my movements in real-time, without exaggeration; one needs to test it out to really understand what I mean. As for the game itself though, I felt like I was back on the NES Power Pad, running as hard as I could. Nothing was particularly remarkable about it, but it was fun. I realized when we were done that it didn’t matter to me if Microsoft introduced the Kinect to the world through shovelware. After being able to experience what Kinect can do, I am extremely hyped to see how creative independent developers can get with it. I was discussing this with one of the Microsoft employees outside, and we talked about how cool it would be to be able to rip the pin of a grenade off with one’s teeth and throw it in a FPS.
Expect to see me in line waiting to buy my Kinect in November.
Macy's window display for Kinect
Conclusion:
It is time to get off the couch, gamers, although you may just as easily interact with the Kinect while sitting. Full motion control is here and hopefully it is here to stay. But if you are still a non-believer, we encourage you to go and test it out yourself as Microsoft continues their national Kinect Experience Mobile Demo Tour. To find out when your town is getting a visit from Kinect, click here.
If you live in the New York City area, like I do, you will have two more chances to play with the Kinect on July 24-25 at the Seaport – Lower Manhattan Entertainment Area.
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