Kinect Playable at Microsoft Store

god i hope the scottsdale store demos something other than dance central.

i mean i'll do it.

but srsly. adventures or something, please.

i'll be headed there in 15 minutes.
 
Can not wait to hear your impression. So jealous. Kind of a nice move of MS letting the public get hands on an unfinished prodcut.
 
Feep said:
Still, though the tech worked...it just...I don't know, it just didn't seem to matter. I didn't have any more fun playing those games without a controller than I would have with one. It really *is* like playing the Wii, except now you don't have to hold something in your hand. I really didn't mind holding something in my hand, I was kind of used to it.

I left and someone asked me how it was and I shrugged. It was Kinect.

Whatever.
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That's crazy!

It's almost like they designed it with people who aren't attracted to playing games with a controller in mind :o
 
mujun said:
That's crazy!

It's almost like they designed it with people who aren't attracted to playing games with a controller in mind :o
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Don't even bother. GAF-ers will forever attack the Kinect because it's not aimed at them, ridicule any attempts to make games which appeal to them and then post remorseful "what has happened to gaming oh noes" posts in NPD threads. Just like Wii-Fit.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyT2uoSwtpI
Holy fuck they're demoing Dance Central. How much are flights to Scotsdale?
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Man oh man wish there was a store around my part of the country. They are getting into it haha.

Oh yea and kudos to MS to putting the best core title on there to test. Now just be smart about it and use it as a pack-in. Needs some Child of Eden love up in there as well.
 
jim-jam bongs said:
Don't even bother. GAF-ers will forever attack the Kinect because it's not aimed at them, ridicule any attempts to make games which appeal to them and then post remorseful "what has happened to gaming oh noes" posts in NPD threads. Just like Wii-Fit.
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But Kinect is targeted toward Gaffers. So what are you talking about?
 
Wow, I just looked at the hotel I'll be staying at and its 1 mile away from the Fashion Valley Mall. I'm definitely going to try to make it out there, but I'll feel awkward going there alone, haha. I don't care though, I'll try to get it recorded.
 
derFeef said:
Can not wait to hear your impression. So jealous. Kind of a nice move of MS letting the public get hands on an unfinished prodcut.
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so just got home, would've stayed longer if i didn't have other plans. i will preface this post by saying i'm pretty high on the kinect thing, so i might make it sound more awesome than it is.

some quick tidbits about the demo itself:
-they're demoing adventures, joyride, dance central, sports, and kinectimals
-these are the e3 demo builds
-the demos are on a dev kit hard drive (saw the boot up screen for camera calibration and launching the games)
-when the system is powered-on, it still says "Natal Device Recognized"
-store is currently taking pre-orders for $20 with a $150 final price, the reps there demoing the thing rattled that off as the price, not a maybe price
-facial and voice recognition are not currently enabled; i asked about kinectimals and the guy said the demo was still playable since the animal will still interact with you.
-i did not try to sit down in front of it.

kinect adventure
played kinect adventures with a small boy (maybe 6); at first it was having a problem seeing me and him. the rep "recalibrated" the kinect by holding his hand in front of it for a few seconds and then moved it away. i asked him if thats how you "reset" the camera and he laughed saying "thats just what they told us to do if it starts acting weird". afterwards it worked totally fine, even with two people of wildly different heights/body shapes. i went through the river-rafting, platform cart obstacle course, dodgeball sequence.

river-rafting was fun; actually required some coordination for the jumps and steering. the photos of us afterward showed me jumping so high my head was cut off, so i guess it can still find you okay if you go off screen.

platform cart obstacle course; pretty fun, it was weird getting used to the fact that you actually have to step left/right to dodge some of the panels. at first i was just leaning in place. body tracking seemed pretty good, i did a spread eagle through the last collection of medals and my avatar pretty much did the same thing.

dodgeball; stupid. i tried playing "legit" and the kid basically spazzed out the entire time. kid won. at least the other games required SOME coordination.

kinect sports: bowling
played a round of bowling; basically wii bowling with no remote. this is kind of cool since you don't have to worry about throwing anything, and its neat that it recognizes your movements. recognized left and right handed throws automatically, you just reach out the corresponding arm to grab the ball.

using kinect itself
-the camera seemed to have problems tracking anything behind your body (i.e. - curving my arm too far behind me in bowling caused my throw to go wild right across the next lane. i tried windmilling my arms in adventures, but my avatar would get as far as holding their arms straight up and would then snap/spaz to down at my sides.
-input seemed minimal at best, noticeable at worst. i managed to get my avatar lagged about a movement behind in bowling by leaning left/right fast. the avatar was leaned left when i was leaning way right and vice versa. overall it didn't seem to be a problem unless i purposely tried to 'break' it.
-the weirdest thing for me and for everyone else who tried it seemed to be the interface itself. using your left hand to gesture over icons (a reticule displays to show where your hand is tracking) and "unzip" the title screen for adventures, you could tell people didn't quite understand what to do at first. playing the actual games that require known skills like jumping/ducking/stepping etc people figured out pretty easily.
-the camera itself is calibrated via software; they showed this briefly just before i left. you control things like tilt, angle, and some other parameters i didn't get a good look at. on screen is basically a 'heat sensor" like read out with corresponding wireframe skeletons and then an avatar mapped to that skeleton. adjusting the camera didn't seem to move the actual body of the kinect, so perhaps the lens inside is controlled separately from the actual body. ex: the kinect device looked as if it were pointed at the floor, but it was showing from floor to ceiling in the calibration screen.
-even though avatar/profiles weren't involved, it was possible for someone to take another's place during the same game. ex: two guys only did the white water rafting, but two kids came on after them to do the platform cart event, and it continued to read their movements.

overall
i am impressed that it seems to work (mostly) as advertised. the games are "motion" games in that their depth seems fairly shallow (although i did not get to see dance central, perhaps tomorrow). the reps there didn't know if a game would be included with the final release (they didn't even know about this demo event until 2 days ago, spur of the moment idea on msft's part?). i had a fun time and the games seemed perfectly suited for children and/or a party environment. i'm going back tomorrow to see if i can try other sports events or dance central.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyT2uoSwtpI
Holy fuck they're demoing Dance Central. How much are flights to Scotsdale?
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not as nice as the Ubisoft girl, but hey, it seems Kinect sure brings out DatAss
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Rabbitwork said:
impresions
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Thanks for the honest and thorough impressions. I'm certainly impressed by the launch line-up and understand it is still a work in progress. MS has always done a good job on improving the experience. If anyone remembers the first days of XBLA, Xbox Live, and even the dashboard; you'll agree.

I got kids at home and they liked playing Just Dance on the Wii, so I imagine this is a day one purchase for me... even at $150 (although I'll probably end up buying the package deal with a new 360 too)
 
jim-jam bongs said:
Microsoft doesn't think so. That may change as the article suggests, but for the meantime they're very firmly aiming the product at new-gamers (or whatever we're calling them today).
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Then this thing will fail very very hard. They need existing customers to want to buy it too.
 
Thanks for the impressions Rabbitwork.

Sounds like the Wii to me, you need to play within the guidelines to get it to work as it's supposed to.

Sure, I wish it could map your entire body in 3d and then translate that into the game lag free but that tech is years off it would seem.

As long as games that come out for it are designed with the systems limitations in mind, and they are of course, fun then there is going to be fun there for some people.

I don't think I'm going to get into it much but there is definitely a chance my wife or kid would enjoy some of the games.

Move seems totally different. Seems like it's going to offer mouse/kb level accuracy which would be wasted on more casual type stuff. What that means for Move sales vs Kinect sales is anyone's guess.
 
jedimike said:
Don't ever give up the Sony cheerleading dude! Read the article again...
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It's not Sony cheerleading. Just giving my opinion. And from that article even they say that. I was responding to the poster that said they weren't targeting GAF.
 
mujun said:
Thanks for the impressions Rabbitwork.

Sounds like the Wii to me, you need to play within the guidelines to get it to work as it's supposed to.

Sure, I wish it could map your entire body in 3d and then translate that into the game lag free but that tech is years off it would seem.

As long as games that come out for it are designed with the systems limitations in mind, and they are of course, fun then there is going to be fun there for some people.

I don't think I'm going to get into it much but there is definitely a chance my wife or kid would enjoy some of the games.

Move seems totally different. Seems like it's going to offer mouse/kb level accuracy which would be wasted on more casual type stuff. What that means for Move sales vs Kinect sales is anyone's guess.
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Well you have to consider that the Kinect device still has about 4 months or so of work to be done and alot can be done in those 4 months. It is actually 5 months, but games have to be gold in about 4 months for them to have the time to mass produce the games. We all have to remember that the final 2 months of a games development is the "fine tuning" stage where alot happens to a game in the final months.

Likewise, the software that runs Kinect will also see some changes/improvement in the next 4 months. With Live, the can upgrade the drivers and firmware of the device as they continue to improve it. I think what is impressive based on E3 and some the impressions here is that the tech works and it seems to work pretty good even though it is a full 5 months away from being released.

I am sure that the builds of the software is probably a few months old since they had to have it ready for E3 etc...so we are really seeing/trying out games that have already had some advancements since the E3 builds.

While some of the GAF'rs will cry about the device and perhaps what I am saying, but it is GAF after all and like ANY software, there are some DRASTIC changes that happens with software in the last few months of development and we are still 2 months away from them hitting that "last 2 months" tuning point. So, while I am not sure if this thing is for me or not, I am interested in the tech....for me I would use it for the dashboard stuff and marketplace/netflix's....for company I would have some of the games....but I WILL NOT BUY THIS IF I CANNOT NAVIGATE ALA MINORITY REPORT IF I CANNOT SIT ON MY FAT ASS ON MY COUCH AND USE IT. Yeah, for some games I know I need to stand, but if my ass needs to be standing to navigate the dashboard, sorry I am not buying it.

Anyways, that is my take on this thing...seems very cool, has some glitches from reports, but I know as a 20+ year gamer that alot changes in software when it still has 5 months to go before release.
 
Hawk269 said:
I WILL NOT BUY THIS IF I CANNOT NAVIGATE ALA MINORITY REPORT IF I CANNOT SIT ON MY FAT ASS ON MY COUCH AND USE IT. Yeah, for some games I know I need to stand, but if my ass needs to be standing to navigate the dashboard, sorry I am not buying it.
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This FUD was already dispelled. Of course you can sit on the couch to navigate. Turn 10 even did their Forza demo with a guy sitting down and it worked just fine.


mckmas8808 said:
It's not Sony cheerleading. Just giving my opinion. And from that article even they say that. I was responding to the poster that said they weren't targeting GAF.
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Initially, they clearly aren't targeting GAF. That's what the article is pointing out. They want you to say, "hey, my little sister would love that game." I guarantee you, Kinect sales will be significantly higher than Move.

Regarding core gaming on Kinect, he elaborated, "Core gamers will say to me, 'What is Kinect going to do for me?' Well, you probably have a girlfriend, or you have a sister, or a brother, or a niece, or a nephew, or a wife, or a mom, or an aunt who you’ve probably wanted to have experience, you know, the kind of stuff that you enjoy. And oh, by the way, we're doing some really cool stuff with dash navigation and the people who experience it really get a kick out of the sort of virtual reality/Minority Report style. And oh by the way, we just launched the thing. At no point have we ever said, 'I don’t have any interest in having core games come out on Kinect.' We wanted to come out and make a statement that said, 'We want to try and do something different than the Wii, different than wands and hands, something that’s magical, that takes away the abstraction, and I want a bunch of new types of games created.'
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PopcornMegaphone said:
I don't think any game developer should target gaf.
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Ummmm.....dude we buy the most games.

jedimike said:
Initially, they clearly aren't targeting GAF. That's what the article is pointing out. They want you to say, "hey, my little sister would love that game." I guarantee you, Kinect sales will be significantly higher than Move.
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I don't know which one will sell more. But MS better hope that casuals only (for the first year) thing works for them.
 
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
So did they hire actors to play this thing the whole working day?
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i hear ya. that's the only possible explanation. I mean, surely "normal" people couldn't possibly be enjoying this thing...

could they?
 
This thread is really not delivering...

One poster who demoed it says Kinect first party games are "amazing" yet cant say why when asked politely.
The next says he's impressed not by the fact that the tech works as advertised but rather "mostly" works as advertised.
Then we have posters making excuses based on it having 4 months till launch

I get this honest impression that demoers are trying to show enthusiasm but finding none. If something works you wont need to make excuses for it yet excuses are being made left right and center and that is rather worrying
 
SeaOfMadness said:
i hear ya. that's the only possible explanation. I mean, surely "normal" people couldn't possibly be enjoying this thing...

could they?
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Enjoyment has nothing to do with it. Going of their E3 Conference demonstrations they don't trust any unrehearsed people to play with it.
 
Vizion28 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EWn9IbwslY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdA9V8ZAdx0

Found some videos of people playing Kinect at the Microsoft store.

They seemed to have enjoyed it and got really into it. I'm fairly confident Kinect will be big. Even at $150.

Remember the majority of gamers out there don't value the same things as the "nerdcore" when it comes to gaming.
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only saw the first video but what makes you think they enjoyed and really got into it?
 
Vizion28 said:
Their body language and um they had big kool aid smiles.
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considering the environment and their age, im not seeing any solid indicators. there's a difference between liking the product and liking the novelty. if they were really into it and expect more expressive movement and a happier reaction when the game was over
 
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
Enjoyment has nothing to do with it. Going of their E3 Conference demonstrations they don't trust any unrehearsed people to play with it.
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no it's cool. don't worry i get it.

can't trust the E3 demos because they are rehearsed
can't trust the press who played it at E3 because they get paid to try this stuff out
can't trust YouTube videos of people playing in the MS store because they're all actors
can only trust... uh.. i got nothin'

edit: ah! i got it! can only trust people who don't like it. ok there now i feel better
 
Calamachino said:
They were working together and cheering at their scores. WTF do you want? Screaming and dancing?
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ya pretty much. maybe im looking at it the wrong way because im convinced there's no way this could really be fun, but ill just say that i dont see anything there that confirms or denies that it's a fun product. it's kind of hard to tell for anything when youre put on the spot and youre trying something new.
 
Razgreez said:
I get this honest impression that demoers are trying to show enthusiasm but finding none. If something works you wont need to make excuses for it yet excuses are being made left right and center and that is rather worrying
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They're impressions, not excuses. Besides, MS has put this thing in front of hundreds of people and you can find hundreds of hands-on impressions; most are overwhelmingly positive.

The fact that MS put this in their stores 4 months before launch for the public to demo shows how confident they are in consumer response.

Despite the collective reaction of GAF, the general consumer loves Kinect. MS still has to nail the price point and marketing to make this the must-have toy this Christmas, but all other signs are pointing in MS's favor.
 
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