There's been a fair bit of cynicism regarding Microsoft's Kinect for the Xbox 360, but let me put your mind at rest: the tech works- brilliantly. From the moment you open the Minority Report-style dashboard with a swish of your hand, it'll be clear that the £130 peripheral means business, and there's just about no way to describe how quickly it could change the console forever. Some calibration is as ever required to set it up, and as worried you will need to clear some space to play (though not nearly as much as many cynics have claimed), but once these are out of the way all that's left is a revolutionary gaming experience where you really are the controller. Voice control has even been implemented into menu screens, and as with any other element of Kinect it works superbly (so somewhat disturbingly too), indicating an exciting step forward for entertainment and the way we make use of it. So, why hasn't it got full marks? Tiny niggles may hamper your experience very occassionally. For example, when the sun shone in on the room I was playing in at one point, its reflection on me meant the device couldn't see me properly, and thus the game I was playing couldn't respond to what I was doing, so I had to close the curtains and keep the room darker. This can be remedied by using Kinect ID in different levels of light to get a better grasp of what you look like, but it is a potential shortcoming. In addition, the launch software is lacking any hardcore titles that I'd really recommend to COD and Halo fans, but that's not to say that there aren't games which make great use of the hardware (see my Kinect launch reviews later), and we already know 2011 will see loads of hardcore games for the peripheral, but until then depending on whether you mind a lack of major releases, have a think before dishing out the cash (yet bear in mind if you don't you will be delaying trying the best motion gaming controller- yourself- yet on a console).
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Monday 3 January 2011
Kinect Review (9/10)
There's been a fair bit of cynicism regarding Microsoft's Kinect for the Xbox 360, but let me put your mind at rest: the tech works- brilliantly. From the moment you open the Minority Report-style dashboard with a swish of your hand, it'll be clear that the £130 peripheral means business, and there's just about no way to describe how quickly it could change the console forever. Some calibration is as ever required to set it up, and as worried you will need to clear some space to play (though not nearly as much as many cynics have claimed), but once these are out of the way all that's left is a revolutionary gaming experience where you really are the controller. Voice control has even been implemented into menu screens, and as with any other element of Kinect it works superbly (so somewhat disturbingly too), indicating an exciting step forward for entertainment and the way we make use of it. So, why hasn't it got full marks? Tiny niggles may hamper your experience very occassionally. For example, when the sun shone in on the room I was playing in at one point, its reflection on me meant the device couldn't see me properly, and thus the game I was playing couldn't respond to what I was doing, so I had to close the curtains and keep the room darker. This can be remedied by using Kinect ID in different levels of light to get a better grasp of what you look like, but it is a potential shortcoming. In addition, the launch software is lacking any hardcore titles that I'd really recommend to COD and Halo fans, but that's not to say that there aren't games which make great use of the hardware (see my Kinect launch reviews later), and we already know 2011 will see loads of hardcore games for the peripheral, but until then depending on whether you mind a lack of major releases, have a think before dishing out the cash (yet bear in mind if you don't you will be delaying trying the best motion gaming controller- yourself- yet on a console).
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