The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent
vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums
here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules
document is now in effect.
Kinect is $149.99 (£129.99 / €149.99), includes Kinect Adventures - thoughts?
Posts
I like to think of the Sony Lolipop as less of an upgrade and more of a Bizarro clone.
It's similar but oddly off putting and not quite right.
It's not like there has been any other add on pieces of tech designed to extend a console's life in the 150 dollar range.. Right? At least I don't remember any...
I never asked for this!
A modest proportion drown out the rest, while fine products are unjustly overlooked because the publisher/manufacturer either invested too little in their marketing, or didn't make an effort to understand their target audience and so made a half-hearted commitment.
So instead of 1v100, we get Kinectimals.
Heh, well my kid's already named the fucking tiger that I have to buy this thing for. She saw a commercial and that was that. She's six. So I guess I was basing my thinking on my own situation...being that some gamers have kids these days and if they are willing to dish out a couple hundred every few months on their own games, what's another 150 for something the whole family can get into? I'll have impressions when it comes out.
150 bones for a junk psuedo-wii that doesn't have an existing library of games. GEE WHIZ WILL PEOPLE BUY A 360 + KINECT OR JUST A WII?
Honestly, if MS really wanted to go this route, they should've released the Kinect as a stand-alone console - maybe one that could optionally interface with the 360. That would've done okay (not great, because the Wii is entrenched already and the Kinect's interfacing isn't as nice as the Wii's).
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Then MAYBE in the future,when it's a bit cheaper and there is something I actually want to play with it, I will get one. And shout XBOX! TRANSFORM AND ROLL OUT!
I'm genuinely concerned about what happens next if Kinect flops. Microsoft spent $Texas on this thing. They spent millions alone on deciding what to name it. There have been articles about MSFT facing internal and external pressure to kill or absorb the entertainment division. If Kinect fails it really puts the future of Microsoft as a console maker into doubt, IMO.
Well, you reap what you sow. The entertainment division at MS should've known better than to create a prohibitively expensive add-on that very few gamers would be interested in. If they wanted to appeal to folks who don't really think of themselves as gamers (and, as such, don't own 360 consoles), they shouldn't have released the thing as an add-on.
Certainly not as a $150.00 one.
that being said, XBox Live is a pretty nice cash cow, so I don't see MS's entertainment division going under from Kinect's impending flop. A lot of folks will probably get laid off (and a lot of them probably will not have had a whole lot of decision making power), and that always sucks, but I can't see MS just throwing in the towel after one failure. I mean, look at all of the peripherals that Nintendo spent all kinds of money on back in the day that just totally flopped (Power Glove, anyone? Maybe that's a better comparison than the 32X).
The Power Glove was all Mattel.
Oh.
Hey Jam, are you my long lost twin?
I can't see any super amusing future possibilities for Kinect technology. Controllers are just better; there's the immediacy of your motions being translated into what's happening in the game world that just isn't there with movement capture technology, there's the ability to program in game functions that just don't have intuitive body motions (what's the body gesture for zooming in with a sniper rifle? what's the body gesture for going to your inventory screen? what's the body gesture for changing your job class? etc), there's the fact that the game controller is a much friendlier interface than a camera that expects you to flail around with exaggerated gestures when you've come home from work and just want to veg out on the couch, etc.
It's just a dumb gimmick.
You could even sell a related game where some famous martial artist teaches you how to fight. I think a Kinect game where Chuck Norris teaches you how to fight (using Kinect to track if you're doing it right) and shouts instructions at you would be pretty cool as well.
I wouldn't say it's the kinect technology that's the issue here. I'd say it's more the processing power that's available that's limiting. If, for instance, kinect was hooked up to a machine that had a 1 Terahertz processor it could be comparable or better than a physical controller simply because the machine could analyze all the data supplied to it by kinect, and translate that into something usable much faster, and more reliably than the 360 ever would be able to. You could probably have 1:1 movement for every joint in your body with that kind of power.
I mean, the drop in functionality from the removal of the additional processor alone is pretty profound. One of the first demos of it involved you sitting down to drive in Burnout Paradise, but now it doesn't even work a lot of the time standing up.
I'd have much rather paid $250-$300 for the thing if they had kept the processor, and maybe beefed up the resolution on the IR camera and/or beefed up the processor.
They probably shoulda kept the processor and sold for $150.
Or dropped it and sold for $100.
There's nothing inherently wrong with the technology. Most everyone has been saying how this tech would be fantastic for real-world use. Computer use, user interface stuff, things like that. There are hundreds of practical uses this thing could have.
As a video game controller used to slay the dragon, or shoot the bad guys though? Yeah, you're probably right, it's a gimmick that will likely fall flat, especially at that price.
However...
Who cares? What are you planning to do with that impressive big toe-bending detection? The flared nostril detection? Do we really want games where "raise eyebrow" is the button press that means "make snarky comment?" Do we want fighting games where you have to actually mime the actions you want your character to do? Or in the absence of that, do we want any games where you simply pretend to hold a controller and it detects button presses based on finger wiggles? Why waste our tech on that when there's a much more natural solution?
That's the biggest problem, everything is still just a button press. While we have the raw power to detect movements and react to that data, we don't have the intelligence to use it in a fun, natural way.
You've got to be kidding about it being better than a physical controller. We need a physical piece of hardware talking to another physical piece of hardware. Something like Kinect can have useful functionality, but it has to supplement a normal, reliable user interface. Just now I scratched my neck while I was typing and I am really glad that nothing stupid happened like increasing the zoom level on the browser.
Oh God yes we do!
The Power glove isn't really a fair comparison.
Microsoft isn't going to make a movie to advertise it. And no one in this not-made movie is going to say, "I love the Kinect. It's so bad!"
Picture Me Rollin'
Anyone want to place odds on a Wii price drop this holiday season? $150 Kinect vs $150 Wii is a much more interesting choice.
Using Microsoft's own comparison charts, for that $300+ you get three games instead of one, four games if you get that second controller with Wii Play. And while the balance board isn't a perfect gauge of fitness/health, it's still more accurate than anything Kinect can do. Kinect can't weigh you.
But Wii Fit can't tell you if you're holding your arms in the right position, either. I got to see a live demo of Your Shape, and it's actually pretty impressive. If the yoga parts of Wii Fit are commendable for attempting to keep your balance on par, Your Shape goes a step further in the "making sure you're doing things correctly and not injuring yourself" category. Things like this:
And it does track calories, plus I remember people saying that BMI wasn't really all that great of a stat to use in the first place. Don't get me wrong; I still think it's foolhardy to try and out-casual the Wii, and anyone who thinks Microsoft is interested in taking Kinect further than a flailing machine for the first nine months or so is fooling themselves. But I think Your Shape is actually pretty good, if you're interested in a legit workout program.
EDIT: I did also get to try Kinect Adventures, and the river raft game is as vapid and shallow as it looks on video, don't worry. :P I think it's kind of a shoddy pack-in title—something like Kinectimals or the Wii Sports knockoff would have been better, IMO.
An opportunity to teach the family about fiscal responsibility?
猿も木から落ちる
150 seems pricey but I did pay 110 for DJ Hero, so...
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/40090/Lewis-defends-Kinect-RRP
Is move massively expensive over in the states? Here in the UK there are stores doing the wand + ps eye for £40, then Toys r Us are doing the navigation stick for £22.99. I can't find the wand separate at the moment so let's say you get two bundles. I'll up the prices a little too to represent rrp a little better, so put the wand bundle at £50 and the sticks at £25.
2 * PSEye + Wand = £100
2 * Navigation Sticks = £50
Total = £150
Ok that's £20 over Kinnect but that's over estimating AND buying two bundles. I'm not sure where the $150 cheaper comes from...
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
He is probably trying to include the price of the consoles its-self. You know when a PR bloke is instead of trying to tell consumers why kinect is so good, he is trying to convince others the competition is more expensive that you know whatever is coming out of his mouth is bullshit.
Obviously, kinect is the much better and more affordable option.
Granted I don't know much about it, save for what I've seen in small videos. But if they made some sort of update of Seaman, I'd be considering it so hard.
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
That can both be interpreted in a horrible way if read plainly or in a cool way if you know the story revealed at the end of Seaman.
The Xbox already had one of those, HD-DVD drive. So that makes the Kinect the Sega CD? :P
Edit:
And I hate the european rape tax: $149.99 != €149.99
Y'know, I keep forgetting about the HD-DVD drive. My brother bought one just a week before the announcements went out that HD was being discontinued.
I was amused. Him, not so much.