Comments Locked

72 Comments

Back to Article

  • tipoo - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    The fan is pretty tiny so you probably wouldn't hear it over your TV and 360 anyways, but I'm curious if its audible?
  • Brian Klug - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    It's definitely not audible. I tried forever to detect airflow, much less it being on, and couldn't ever hear anything. It's possible I wasn't getting Kinect warm enough, but I did try on two pretty toasty LCDs and an even warmer plasma. ;)

    -Brian
  • mentatstrategy - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    I read that it doesn't pick up dark skinned folks very well..
  • tipoo - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    AFAIK dark skinned people's infrared signatures are no different from light skinned. If it used a standard camera for detection I would believe you as that's happened to laptops, but in this case the camera is just for video and the infrared sensor does all the detecting.
  • racerx_is_alive - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    rarson is right that it's just the facial recognition, and even that problem goes away if you have enough lights on, I thought.
  • Mumrik - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    I was hoping for an article primarily about the hardware and its possibilities on the PC. I know there's a lot of homebrewing going on and I'm honestly more fascinated by what this might do on PC than what it'll be used for in its natural environment on the 360.
    This all seems well written and so on, but I doubt many of us come here for the console coverage (though I do know that there tends to be hardware coverage at the point of launch).
  • tipoo - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    Interesting, thanks. I doubt the chips inside it need cooling, its probably for the Infrared sensor as that is sensitive to temperature. Maybe it only turns on if the ambient temperature is very high to start with, and Microsoft just decided to take no chances after that huge hoopla with the RRODs.
  • Noriaki - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    Bottom of page 1: "new Xbox 350 S console"
  • Brian Klug - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    Microsoft actually refers to the new Xbox as the Xbox 360 S in a few places, and I was being very pedantic in that sentence about which console I was referring to (Xbox 360 Pro versus S), so I used that nomenclature. ;)

    -Brian
  • Shadowmaster625 - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    ... with the latest dashboard update that brought UI changes and Kinect support (seriously)"

    And yet you did not plaster the word "FAIL" in big bold letters across the top of every page in this review. Oh it's a great product. It really rains on thw Wii's parade. And it only costs $150 + $300 for a new consoel because the old one is a piece of junk. That's cool though, perfectly normal. Is there no limit to the gullibility and/or stupidity? Does anyone have half a brain not to be so willing to be scammed? Every Xbox I ever see happens to be sitting on top of a dead one. What kind of stupid dumbed down abject morons are you people who feel the need to waste your money on such scams?
  • bplewis24 - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    I agree... and I find it pretty sad. When calling this thing anything but a disappointment from a gaming perspective, you've pretty much lost all credibility. This site is really letting me down lately after many great years.
  • ExarKun333 - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    Find a new site to troll. You will not be missed.
  • petenagurski - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    All gaming is subjective. My kids and I find playing the Kinect games a blast. Anandtech has "pretty much lost all credibility" because of a positive gaming review???? Get a grip and go back to fondling your wii wii.
  • ExarKun333 - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    Your a fool sir. Thanks. :)
  • cmdrdredd - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    Yes it's true and the games utterly SUCK! The number of things they can do with no pointer interface is mindblowingly small.

    It's a gimmick, so much more than the Wii ever was. At least the Wii is honest with what it is. This is a "me too!" item that tried to be different for the sake of being different. Microsuck is alienating the userbase that made the Xbox brand huge, and that is retarded.
  • c1dv1c1ous - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    I for one, bought my 360 6-7 mths after it released. After several years it RROD on me and they fixed it for free. The thing is still going strong too. I plan on buying a Slim when I get back home from Army deployment. I have no problem with this since....in the past a new console buy would be due by now, but the current ones are still usable. I will enjoy the smaller, quieter and sleeker Xbox 360 S.

    There is logic in this, if you dont agree, maybe you should go out and start your own console company. Show us how you think you could do it better. Competition only brings out better stuff for us to buy in the long run.
  • Nataku - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    u sir, need to do more research... even canadian price for Kinect + Xbox is only 299 not ur 150 + 300

    if u don't find a use for it don't buy, but some of us can see the potential and entertainment in these systems

    don't troll any of the comment section in any of the article on this site, they are reserved for actual useful comment
  • petenagurski - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    ...this little piggy said wii, wii, wii, all the way home....
  • neogodless2 - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    350 vs 360
  • Brian Klug - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    OOps, my bad!

    Fixed!

    -Brian
  • Noriaki - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    Yeah, I just meant the 350 part. Referring to it as the 360 S to distinguish it from the 360 Pro makes sense to me.
  • Noriaki - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    PS: Thanks for the in-depth coverage. This is the first time I feel like I got a good idea of what having a Kinect in my living room would mean for practical things like where my couch lives.
  • Aikouka - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    Brian, have you tried out DanceMasters (DM)? I noticed you commented on how your girlfriend compared Dance Central (DC) to DDR where DanceMasters is actually created by Konami.

    I own DM and have played the DC game, and I have to say... you'd probably be disappointed in the DM menu system as it is a tad bit harder to control. Way too often I found myself skipping past the option I wanted (as all options move left or right) and you then have to raise your (right) hand to select it. The problem comes when it might see you move your hand out to the right and actually shift your choice over one right before you raise your hand.

    The part where I think DM beats DC is the actual dancing. In the demo for DC, I found it awkwardly difficult to pay attention to the way the dancer was moving (left or right, etc) and the upcoming movement that was shown on the right side of the screen. When my brother and his girlfriend played, I noticed one huge trend... we *all* would miss the first dance move after they changed from one move to another.

    This is kind of better in DM, because it uses arrows that signify how your hand (or hands) should move in a second or two. There are also circles that will appear on the screen and you must hit them with either your hands or feet (obvious depending on the location). The last movement is the "pose silhouettes" that appear on the left and right side and are green in color. They move to the center of the screen and when the two silhouettes combine, you are supposed to be in that pose. The only problem is that it's not terribly picky on what you do in between these three types of inputs and another problem is that it loves to put circles beneath your feet (so you keep moving), but they're hard to notice. I found this easy to combat by simply always moving your feet.

    Overall, there's a huge difference in the style of music between the two as well, which influenced my decision. I've never been a "Top 40s" kinda guy and I've played DDR quite a bit, so I went with the game that had the music style I was used to ( and also considering that I've heard quite a bit of Eurobeat, which DM also has ).

    The one thing that was always fun about DC was the "freestyle" section where it shows you as this sort of glowing silhouette and you just do whatever dance you want. At the end, it will play this back to you in a sort of time-lapse video (which you can then save).

    To talk about a different game, I noticed some problem with jumping in Kinect... mostly in the rail-based obstacle course. Maybe I was just doing little hops and Kinect didn't register it... maybe it was a problem with the cargo pants (khaki color, so they're fairly flesh-toned) that I was wearing. It was pretty crazy though... at one point I had to duck down, so I dropped to my knees and then needed to switch sides, so I pulled out the Starfox-esque barrel roll! Kinect did actually sense that correctly.

    The one thing I did notice is that it is *very* common in Kinect Adventures for it to yell at me about getting too close or too far... especially in the bubble popping mini-game.
  • Brian Klug - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    I haven't checked out Dance Masters, but I'm starting to think that I definitely should. I think at the time when I originally put together this list of games, that wasn't available and I overlooked it. I'll grab it and maybe update with a page or two.

    It's interesting how dancing games are quickly becoming something Kinect is very well suited for. I definitely agree about jumping and the clothing choice, I have a pair of cargo shorts that just don't work with most of the titles, and Kinect Adventures does yell a lot about position, agreed.

    -Brian
  • GSJ - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    If only i could use this with my p.c.....
  • ExarKun333 - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    I purchased the Kinect soon after the launch and I came to pretty much the same conclusions are Brian. The lag is there, but acceptable. More importantly, the games are FUN. MS did a great job with this launch. The hardware is easy to install and configure, and the games are easy to pick up on. I agreed 100% that the menus in DC are superior to the method in the Dashboard. Maybe an update at some time? :)
  • knowom - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    267ms on a DAW would be completely unthinkable in fact most people that play or record music try to stay below 10ms.

    I'm just using that example as a clear easy to demonstrate reason to why 267ms is a abysmal amount of input lag you can completely rule out music based kinect games as well as any twitch/quick reflex input games or applications.
  • SodaAnt - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    In the comment about the laser probably being 650-700 nm, that is wrong. 650nm is the wavelength of a normal red laser pointer. Normal IR diodes lase at either 780, 808 or 980nm.
  • Brian Klug - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    Hmm it's on the fringes of what I'd consider visible, but 780 probably is a much better choice. I'll update.

    -Brian
  • mcnabney - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    Okay, I am probably the only prig to bring this up, but the distances required seem to be a problem for some not often thought of reasons.

    9-12 feet of clearance appears to be required, which means the sofa will need to be 15' back (unless you move it every time you fire up the Kinnect).

    I would point out that you would need to have a 55"+ HDTV to fully benefit from the 1080p image from the Kinnect playing area, For regular game playing / movie watching on the sofa (behind the playing area) you would require a 100"!!!!! screen to fully resolve the 1080p image that the Xbox360 or a BluRay player is capable of displaying.

    For this thing to really work in a robust media environment (and most living rooms) it should have been able to to work perfectly with the user standing 3-5' from the screen.
  • Quidam67 - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    I agree with this. The distance is just not realistic for most lounge set ups. I could go minimalist and ditch the sofa, and you know, just sit on the floor, but really, that's asking a lot just so I can play Kinnect games.
  • Aloonatic - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    Unrealistic for most living rooms, so how on earth they expect this to fly in many kids bedrooms too, I have no idea. And how many kids have TVs taht would be big enough to be viewed that well from those sorts of distances too.

    Kinect seems like a great idea and tech that is perhaps just a little ahead of it's time, so unusable by many, even if they really really really* wanted to.

    * One would need to really really really really want to use Kinect to justify moving to a new house so that you might be able to :o)
  • Nataku - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link

    I've actually seen the toy in action at the mall and people were standing only 4~5' away and it seems to work ok... im getting the feeling that the bigger you are the further back you need to be and if your only a kid you can be much closer than an adult would be able to...

    i don't see how screen size is an issue though, they are demoing these things off of 27"~30" TV sets...
  • Patrick Wolf - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link

    Kinect is going to be the new Wii, everyone will have one but no one will use it. Actually not everybody since not everyone can use it.
  • Quidam67 - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    Not that I want to come across all negative, but given how long ms have been working on this complex project (I assume as a means to stretch the 360's lifespan and to invade the Wii's market at the expense of snubbing their existing one) I have to say this is just a big non-event for me. Honestly, I wish they had put their resources into putting out an "evolutionary" upgrade.

    I mean, this idea that the next gen of console has to be based on completely new hardware, with incompatible development tools, so everyone is starting froom zero is a paradigm I challenge. Why couldn't they treat it like a PC upgrade? Release a new xbox 540 that is fully software compatible with all the old 360 games I own now (without resorting to buggy and expensive software emulation) but has at least twice the memory, perhaps an extra couple of cores, a more powerful gpu. eg true 1080p gaming support.

    Then they could start transitioning over to the new machine by releasing a game that will run on both machines, but will allow better graphic settings if you are running it on the new rig. I don't know, maybe I'm just bummed out that this gen of consoles is really starting to show its technological age, and I don't see how tacking on an impractical new control device prolongs the lifespan of such dated hardware. To say nothing of what this means for PC games, which are now largely driven by the console market.

    Disappointed
  • mcnabney - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    I thought the purpose of the console is to 100% compatibility for all owners with all games?

    What you are describing is more like a PC with incrementle improvements to the system from year to year.
  • Quidam67 - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    In a sense, yes, but the hardware is still far more controlled. It's not like you can buy a GPU and swap it out with the old one. I'm just suggesting a more evolutionary approach, and one that offers better compatibility with the technology that preceeded it.

    The game console industry has never worked that way, but I don't think that is in itself a reason why this is not a good idea. I know for a fact some high profile developers abandoned the console industry precicely because all their assets were rendered redundant every time a new round of consoles came out.

    It doesn't have to be that way.
  • dustcrusher - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    Almost every incremental console upgrade attempted thus far has been a huge failure. Atari 5200, Sega CD, Sega 32X- need I go on? Coleco had a couple of minor successes in the Expansion Module 1 and the ADAM but neither were money makers- in fact, the ADAM was one of the first consoles with cheap and easy piracy, so Coleco lost a ton on it.

    The cost in time and money would be better spent on the Xbox 720, or whatever the next system will be.

    And for a Springer-esque Final Thought, it's the fun that counts. The latest and greatest tech means nothing if the games aren't fun, and the majority of new games that tout bleeding edge graphics engines seem to be derivatives of the same tired formulas. Honestly, with a couple of exceptions I've gotten the most mileage from my 360 out of Live Arcade, because the games there focus on being fun first.
  • Quidam67 - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    With all due respect, those consoles are hardly comparable to the sort of market-share and brand recognition that that the Xbox 360 now enjoys.

    You say the time would be better spent developing the 720,which I assume entails the same as all the other new gen consoles, ie. no legitimate backwards compatibility, and an architecture designed to reduce manufacturing costs at the expense of requiring a whole new set of development tools -an extremely complex and expensive re-enineering task just to get you back to where you were before.

    I can only speak for myself, and yes maybe I do think differently from the masses, but if ms had launched a xbox 540 with say a Gears of War 3 enhanced version that ran in 1080p on the new console, I'd be all over it. The Kinnect, on the other hand is not something I'd want on my machine even if they offered to me for free. All it would do is gather dust.
  • gvaley - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    "...267 ms is seriously laggy, but right now it doesn’t matter too much. Maybe when we get FPS titles that’ll change."

    The way businesses work, I expect to see a ton of intentionally crippled AI in upcoming Kinect FPS games so you can have enough time to shoot the target.

    Not that this will be a one off. Every time something goes hip the technology bends back to cash in on it, pushing back progress with years in some cases. (Think of the iPhone/Android and the way smartphones are built today. For us people who were used to their high-end pre-smartphone era Sony Ericssons or Nokias, smartphones are a huge setback in terms of usability. [The volume rockers regulate ringer volume? Really? That's the dumbest idea ever. Not only it's not helpful, it's actually dangerous 'cause you can incidentally turn silent mode off and miss that important call.])

    Having said that, I'm eager on Kinect 2 in several years when the technology (and price) would allow for most kinks to be ironed out.
  • Aloonatic - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    I come from the UK, where we have very expensive homes that somehow still have average room sizes that are so small that Guantánamo Bay residents would think that their lodgings were spacious loft apartments in comparison, so I was wandering if anyone has tried tinkering with the placement of Kinect?

    As every inch counts (no sniggering at the back) has anyone tried placing this on a wall mounting above and behind a TV? I'm guessing that there might be issues with the TV itself obscuring the device's field of view, but it might just work if moved high enough?

    Love the idea of Kinect, and could just about find the space as recommended on the box, but I am not sure that I have the room that Anand recommends. :(

    Oh, and will Kinect be used on the next generation xBox too? Might have to wait for Kinect 2, which will hopefully work in smaller rooms, if there ever is such a device.
  • DesktopMan - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    Original release Wiimote only had a 3-axis accelerometer. Motion plus didn't add a three-axis gyro until 2009. Even calling it six-axis with the gyro is stretching the definition of six-axis as it can't detect motion with constant speed unless the IR camera is pointing towards the motion bar. (Same is true for the PS3 "6-axis" controller of course. It's not six axis, it's 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyro.)
  • DesktopMan - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    Motion bar should of course have been sensor bar. Why is there no edit button ;)
  • gvaley - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    There are all in all 3 (three) axes in a three dimensional world and this is exactly what we are existing in. Everything else is marketing nonsense.
  • DesktopMan - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    Quite. Though this is what they're actually somewhat referring to:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_freedo...

    But neither wiimote with motion plus nor ps3 6-axis actually allows you to track all types of motion in 3 dimensions. So it's false either way :)
  • gvaley - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    Imagine if marketers actually respected the principals of the language, "do not use a random expression in lieu of another expression just because it's shorter" for one. "Degrees of freedom" is quite different from "axes." All robots boo.
  • landerf - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    Is the lag due to processing or camera frame rate? As i understand it the 360 does the processing with a cap of 10% cpu usage. So I'd then assume on the pc it could have better response time. Also can it be powered by usb 3 and or 2 on the pc? Without the need for the power plug.
  • brundleflyguy - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    I notice in the review it says "On the other hand, there's no possible way that Kinect would ever work in the average dorm room - you really do need 9' - 12' behind the TV to play with two people." Do you mean "in front of the TV"?

    I'm wondering because I'm using a projector. The projector is about five feet behind me on the ceiling, and the Xbox would be about four feet behind me. The wall on which I projected is about 10 feet in front of me. Would this setup work for the Kinect?

    Thanks,

    Jim
  • Gonemad - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    My guess is, if you are using a projector, you should put Kinect in front of you... if there is enough cable length.
    Those applications that take a picture of your face would be taking a picture of your... haircut?
    Good point! Inquiring minds...

    Now, from what I could understand... Kinect will fit right in places that have pool tables, basketball courts, large mess halls... places with plenty of room. My condo has a gym, it wouldn't be misplaced there. So much for enjoying private gaming at home. This thing would fit right in old style arcades!

    On another note, kids jumping in apartments... think about that.
    Well, the Wii had lanyards, to prevent damage to your TV. Can you attach lanyards to your limbs?

    Trolling possibilities / funny ideas:
    1- Your pedantic little brother rushes behind you, just to throw Kinetic off.
    2- Your mom learns learns how to shutdown your Xbox by talking to it, if she ever reads this article.
    3- Trash talking... with your hips. Girls know that pretty well. Do the chicken dance!
    4- Not only air guitar and air drums... air orchestra. Air violin. FTW.

    Scary thoughts:
    1a. Hackers find a way into Kinect and can record you at home.
    1b. You hack into your own Kinect and turn it into a full fledged PTZ surveillance camera.
    1c. You find out that you can build your own Kinect with industrial cameras, and it will work 20 times better... at 200 times the cost.
    1d. You find out that you can use Kinect outside a Xbox360, cutting costs in special cameras for industrial inspection (that cost above $20k easily).
    1e. You find out you could have done everything Kinect does with a regular webcam, and a range finder pulled from a parking sensor, costing you just 10 bucks.
    1f. Fighting games? Judo? Karate? Jiu-Jitsu? Tae-kwon-do? Be sure your boots are strapped tight. Roundhouse-kick your sofa's gotta hurt. Street Fighter 7?
  • SlyNine - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    "Your pedantic little brother " are you sure you know what that word means ? Seems to me little brothers would be less then pedantic, unless your little brother is an egg head.
  • brundleflyguy - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    "My guess is, if you are using a projector, you should put Kinect in front of you... if there is enough cable length."

    Yeah, I know. :)

    My current set up is:

    Wall<--4ft-->WiiBar<---6ft--->Me<---4ft--->Wii<--1ft-->Projector.

    I can't get much closer to the wall or my shadow blocks the projected image. My question is: If I replace the WiiBar and the Wii with the Kinect and XBox360 (respectively) would that work? Or would I be too close/far away from some component? I know I can get an active USB cable to reach from the XBox360 to the Kinect.
  • JonathanYoung - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    I think I used up my quota for seeing the word "itself" in an article.
  • brshoemak - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    Totally OT, but I loved the pictures last.fm showed for Xzibit - we just need active content to rotate 'yo dawg' taglines over it.
  • GTVic - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    I shall now title all of my comments with my name.
  • melgross - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    I don't have an XBox and aren't interested in getting one, so I'm no XBox fanboy. But, for all those complaining about various problems, just remember that this is a 1st generation product. It's the first device of its type in the consumer market. It's got its problems, but it does a credible job. A year or two from now, either MS, or Sony, or Nintendo, or Apple will come out with a new one that works much better, as always happens. But this seems pretty good for what it is in this timespace.
  • Portablenuke - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    Forget the Kinect, where can I get wafer mask coasters!?
  • trip1ex - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    I think the reviewer was a little too generous.

    First he's too hung up on the fact you can cheat on the Wii. SEems to be his basis for liking Kinect.

    I don't think he called out Kinect enough on its drawbacks or the quality of some of the games.

    See what the reviewer failed to mention is how sloppy many of the games are.

    Take Kinect Adventures.

    YOu have to jump way before you think you have to in one of the games. Pretty darn laggy. And there's jaggedy jumping animation as well.

    Waving your arms to hit balls in another game was just so un precise. You basically swing in the ballpark and you connect. It doesn't leave you with a solid precise feeling. You don't feel connected to what is happening on the screen. There's something missing between your actions and what happens on the screen.

    It's the same with plugging wiki-leaks in Kinect Adventures. You see where the leak is and even though KInect tracks your hand/arm fairly accurately you're still just reaching in the dark to plug the Wiki-leak. There is no preciseness or feedback to the gameplay. OH this leak is down here somewhere I will just move my hand down there in the general vicinity until the screen shows the hole is plugged.

    The only thing I found Kinect did really well in Kinect Adventures was track me as I moved left and right to avoid obstacles in the "moving platform" game. That was the only solid part.

    Overall I found the KA and the integration of Kinect into the dashboard along with the voice commands and hand gestures to be pretty sloppy. I think that after the xmas gold rush wears off this device is going to die out pretty quickly unless someone comes out with a killer app.
  • DanaG - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    Is there any way to put the XBox 360 in a sort of "kiosk" mode, where the only way to exit games would be to push a button somewhere? I see online that there's some "kiosk mode" disk, but I have no idea what other features it would disable, and that kiosk mode is supposedly irreversible.
  • DanaG - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link

    I'd be interested to see how much of that latency is caused by the receiver and the TV. I've seen some TVs where even a computer mouse is laggy enough to notice even with game mode (that disabled itself every time you turned off the TV); I had to switch back from HDMI to VGA on that device.

    Please try connecting the 360's HDMI to a known low-latency monitor that can do 720 or 1080.
  • clasam - Saturday, December 11, 2010 - link

    Could we get an update about the lag WITHOUT the Onkyo ? Thx!
  • docmbm - Sunday, December 12, 2010 - link

    Or is it?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWbLOFGSEDo

    Well try it and give us an update.

    --
    Docmbm
  • Hrel - Sunday, December 12, 2010 - link

    I REALLY hope new consoles are at least announced at this coming E3. Even if they don't come out till summer 2012; I wanna know developers have them and can finally move past DX9. I mean seriously, it's been out for what, 10 years now? Time to move forward. DX 11 all the way.
  • nikon133 - Sunday, December 12, 2010 - link

    Some time ago I would say the same, but...

    I was playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on PS3 for long time - more than six months on and off - mostly enjoying online play after I finished campaign. Recently I got new ATI 6870 graphics for my PC and, having now whole PC more than decent enough, borrowed PC version of Bad Company 2 from my friend.

    My box is now capable of running this game in full HD with all the bells and whistles (I think I've got only AA disabled as I'm finding native 1920x1080 on 23" monitor perfectly adequate) so I was expecting to be blown away with difference between those two versions. I wasn't. While PC version does look better, I honestly expected much more for 2 generations of DirectX hardware difference, not to mention all the other resources my PC has over PS3. Higher resolution, smoother shadows, a bit more effects (smoke, fog, sandstorm...) are visible for pixel-peepers, but once I get immersed in the game, I really didn't feel PS3 version inferior, even if I was playing same levels on both platforms one after another.

    Later on I tried Dirt 2, Burnout Paradise... and to the same conclusion. PC versions, to my eyes, were not better enough to make PS3 experience inferior.

    I have a feeling PC programmers are getting a bit lazy and spoiled with all the hardware power they have, they are not putting much effort to optimise their code to the last bit of power. Surely Quad Core with 8GB of RAM, X-Fi Gamer audio and latest DX11 graphics with 1GB of DDR5 should be able to smoke DX9 graphics with 256MB of RAM and 256MB of system RAM much more than this..?

    Back to the topic - while I'm not much into jumping and waving games - part to my humble 42 years of age - I see potential in them, especially that modern consoles should be offering fun for the whole family. I actually got PS Move and am throwing Frisbee and doing other Sports Champions games with my lady often enough to justify this purchase. Games are not BC2 grade, but they are quick fun in their own game.

    Are you guys planning to review PS Move system as well? I enjoyed your Kinect review and would like to see your opinion on other comparable gear.
  • CptTripps - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link

    Bad example on BC2 as it uses DX11 to simply speed up the shader performance, it adds nothing visually (from what I have read).

    I am suprised on the Dirt2 conclusion as I found the PC version far superior.

    You are right though, the dx9 console versions look and play fine.

    I played the move a little and it's not for me, a high res wii basically. I thought the hardware worked very well though.

    I may pick up Kinect as the wife and daughters want it (plus they will finally let me sell that POS called the Wii).
  • m3kw - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link

    They should make a video capture of what you during the game play, and when you are done, you can select a option that says "This is how stupid you looked, select to watch", and another option to send to youtube and facebook. The video will be split screen one showing the game and the other showing you. LOL! Is actually will spread like a viral video.
  • Todd33 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link

    Was the author starring at a big MS check the whole time? So many errors (sports being 1:1), Adventures being great, that's why is is averaging 60% and being called shallow mini games with no depth. Where are some test on the resolution, does a wrist motion in bowling or TT do anything or is it all exaggerated arm motions?

    How does the $150 cheaper than Sony's $99 bundle? Not to mention with the wii you get a whole console for $199, not just an add-on with 3-4 decent games and 12 more shovelware. What about the future of Kinect, can it do anything other than shallow mini-games and dance crap?

    This article just exaggerated all the good and then downright ignored any negatives. I guess I will stick to arstech for more realistic reviews.
  • CptTripps - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link

    You can get a Wii for $200 and play single player games at 480i.... awesome.

    With the 99$ Move bundle you get a camera and one motion controller, add another $50 per motion controller plus another $30 per navigation controller, times that by 3 and your 99$ price point just flew out the window.

    At $150 being able to handle up to four inputs make any price point arguments stupid as you would easily spend that on extra controllers.

    The 360s with kinect for $300 is a great deal and will support 4 players right out of the box. If you think that is a horrible deal that's your problem, but try to be realistic and not throw out BS arguments.
  • medi01 - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link

    Last article on PS3 dated 5/16/2005, eh?
    I wonder, how does this "press" thingy work.
    Who decides what gets reviewed and what not.
    Is it pure 'patriotism" in revieweing only what "US company" does (let's forget the fact, that we talk about transnational companies that manufacture in China), or something else?
  • Tuvok86 - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link

    I tried Kinect adventures at a friend's place and I've found the lag very irritating the arkanoid-like game with the balls was almost unplayable
  • ma2ree - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link

    I find your article very impressive and informative. Your a bright and funny young man. Thanks for the article.
  • Akenin - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link

    This is the most in-depth review of Kinect. This is some ingenious piece of hardware that is being used by MIT students and universities across the country on robotics and related stuff. I don't think you can compare it to the Move or Wii. It's in a league of its own. I know there are many MS haters out there but it seems they've done this one right. It has an skeleton structure of your body and maps it in real time, just like a 3D Motion Capture device would (It has way less points in the skeleton structure, obviously to keep costs down, it is a video game after all).

    I didn't expect to have that much fun playing Dance Central but I did. My wife loves the zen lessons in Your Shape: Fitness Evolved.

    I would love to see a Kinect Mech Warrrior based game and a new customized controller (that would come for free with the game) with buttons at the tip of your fingers and may be a scrolling wheel... I envision something like a glove. That would be nice!

    I have nothing to say against it, for what it is and what it does and how it does it, it is perfect.
  • hooflung - Saturday, December 25, 2010 - link

    The Kinect rgb camera is limited to 320x240 res because of the USB bandwidth. It doesn't do 640x480 when in game mode. Kapable yes, Komplete, no.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now