Middleditch Littlebitch

Kinect yourself before you wreck yourself

Or don’t.

Just got a Kinect.  Gotta say, it’s not that awesome.  It’s kind of fun, yes.  Kinect Sports is cool, with the soccer and volleyball especially being the coolest.  But Kinect, overall, suffers from the same thing Wii suffers from, and that’s recognition.  In terms of where your limbs are, and the precision of exactly how your limbs are articulated.  Now, this could be due to the fact that the games I’ve been playing are geared towards family fun, ie: retards, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s some serious room for improvement with the hardware itself.  Most notably, when I watch, say, a replay of my character getting his ass blown off by the computer opponent in boxing because, yup, apparently I had my legs crossed and both my arms flailing around behind me.

Funny, I don’t recall doing that.  But Kinect has trouble seeing where your limbs are.  And forget twisting your hand.  Like how on Wii, or even with the PS3 Move controller, you can twist the virtual paddle in a game of, say, ping pong; as far as I can tell nothing in Kinect tells me that you have that kind of motion.  It’s kind of like your limbs are clubs, so any games that treat your limbs like that are going to be great.

You know, Club Arms, and Club Arms 2: Future Clubs.

It does register in 3d space though.  So you can move in all directions within the little box it can see you in.  Forwards, backwards, side to side, up and down.  That’s neat.  And honestly, I spent over 2 hours with Kinect Sports working up a fucking sweat, so I can’t complain there.

I think, over time, the games and the hardware will improve.  Right now, it’s overpriced and there’s nothing incredibly awesome about it.  And when you start seeing the finicky nature of Kinect’s recognition in play, you really regret spending the money on it.

Will I return it however?  No.  I had fun.  There is fun to be had.  Kinect Sports, for example, has a few legitimately fun games in there.  Kinect Adventures sucks my sweaty balls.  Dance Central remains unopened, for it is a Christmas present for a certain lucky lady that should be arriving home any second now.  Maybe that’s going to be the greatest thing ever and then I will be eating my words.  Nom nom nom…WORDS!

So if by some stretch of the imagination you’re wondering if you should get one and you’re for some bizarre reason reading my blog here, I’d say…fuck it, go get it.  Kinect Sports is a must, however.  Just know that there are some issues and some super frustrating things with Kinect that the majority of the gaming industry just decides not to mention.  It will get better with time, I’m sure.  All Microsoft needs to do is merely speed time up to make that happen right now.  K thanks!  Kthx!

GAMES!

Also, if you have a PC, and you play Battlefield Bad Company 2, add me on Steam, I’m “Mr Greezy”.  Or just add me on Steam anyway and don’t be a scaredy cat.