Kinect certainly has its work cut out: the Playstation Move (7/10) and of course the Wii (needs no score- a great console) are already out and popular with their intended family audiences, with the former even attempting to breach the hardcore gaming world with remakes of Resident Evil 5 and Heavy Rain. It's clear that Microsoft's motion sensor for Xbox 360 needs to be something of a revolution to make a stand- does it deliver? Upon booting up the 360 with one of these large cameras attached, you'll see a very different Dashboard that allows for hand and even voice controls to access games, achievements and saves, designed in a manner that will prove Marmite with owners due to its clearly family-orientated colour scheme. Head into any launch game and that feeling of casual-orientation will carry through, but not to worry as we've already seem games like Rise of Nightmares and Child of Eden will shift the balance to long-term fans of Xbox also! Moving around menus feels as seamless as you might have anticipated, yet infinitely more so if you weren't expecting much (in many ways I fell into the latter category, so was overwhelmed). Calibration issues do sometimes rear their heads, I'll admit, but navigating the new Dashboard felt simple and accessible to a relative newcomer to motion gaming. Put simply, while I wasn't expecting too much from Kinect, I should have: it truly has the potential to move the industry of gaming (and easily global industry) forward in the foreseeable future, and once a 'killer app' is released (the launch line-up leaves a fair bit to be desired) I would advise you take a leap of faith with the £130 investment. This is amazing stuff, stepping up the motion game forever more...
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