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Kinect Sports Rivals |OT| Preseasons over, its time to take sides
- Thread starter EBE
- Start date
Our review is up!
http://press-start.com.au/2014/04/08/review-kinect-sports-rivals/
This game just proved to me that Kinect hasn't changed a whole lot. It still wouldn't work properly even though I rearranged my whole lounge room.
http://press-start.com.au/2014/04/08/review-kinect-sports-rivals/
This game just proved to me that Kinect hasn't changed a whole lot. It still wouldn't work properly even though I rearranged my whole lounge room.
hooo boy.. those reviews
IGN
Polygon
Destructoid
more to follow. will add to OT
Hey, Shannon. Thanks for the review. strange that you should have to rearrange your lounge area to play. i havent seen other reviews be quite so drastic but then scores for the game are a bit of a mixed bad. not in terms of the actual numbers, mind you, but in their experience with the kinect itself.
some people like rock climbing, others say it doesnt work. some people had a hard time with this, others didnt..
i think the game will find itself firmly in the high 60s low 70s scores of its predecessors. most reviews make the game out to be a lot of fun, so im entirely okay with that. but then, kinect already has an unfavorable image in the public perception, so im not too sure many other people will see things the same way
IGN
Polygon
Destructoid
more to follow. will add to OT
Hey, Shannon. Thanks for the review. strange that you should have to rearrange your lounge area to play. i havent seen other reviews be quite so drastic but then scores for the game are a bit of a mixed bad. not in terms of the actual numbers, mind you, but in their experience with the kinect itself.
some people like rock climbing, others say it doesnt work. some people had a hard time with this, others didnt..
i think the game will find itself firmly in the high 60s low 70s scores of its predecessors. most reviews make the game out to be a lot of fun, so im entirely okay with that. but then, kinect already has an unfavorable image in the public perception, so im not too sure many other people will see things the same way
my review at IGN Italy, 5.9
http://it.ign.com/recensione/12849/la-recensione-di-kinect-sports-rivals/
(it's in Italian, i warn you
)
I'll add a little thing i found in the review press kit:
there was a pic in the official document with this image
New Battletoads, what do you say?
I know the uniform was a preorder bonus at some retailer, yet this background seems more suspicious to me... did they create that art (that kinda look 3dish) just for the sake of it? Or might it be an asset taken from an upcoming, unnanounced title?
http://it.ign.com/recensione/12849/la-recensione-di-kinect-sports-rivals/
(it's in Italian, i warn you
)I'll add a little thing i found in the review press kit:
there was a pic in the official document with this image
New Battletoads, what do you say?
I know the uniform was a preorder bonus at some retailer, yet this background seems more suspicious to me... did they create that art (that kinda look 3dish) just for the sake of it? Or might it be an asset taken from an upcoming, unnanounced title?
I think Kinect in general can have wildly different experiences for people, both in how it reacts and how people expect it to react. Even the threads about Kinect voice commands on X1 seem to be quite different, for some it works 90% of the time and others it seems barely half.
I am looking forward to KSR, but I don't expect it to be perfect or to enjoy all the sports. I with they had chosen different sports than tennis or target shooting but I still think I will enjoy the game and I hope they will continue to make them.
Redshirt
Banned
Downloaded it this morning and made my avatar but haven't played yet. I've always been surprise at how well the KSR Pre-Season worked in my very small home office, but the avatar creation process was very finicky. I got it to work, but it was a bit of a pain.
There were ~5 different outfits, titles and wave racer skins you could earn individually, and then there was a community challenge in the last month of pre-season that gave everyone who participated an additional ~5 outfits. I'm not sure about a link.
There were ~5 different outfits, titles and wave racer skins you could earn individually, and then there was a community challenge in the last month of pre-season that gave everyone who participated an additional ~5 outfits. I'm not sure about a link.
IOnEI Falcon
Member
Downloading now!
Alcoholikaust
Member
I couldn't control it for shit-yet my niece was a goddamn pro and hit the number 2 spot on the leaderboards after doing it twice :/
How were you steering? My son had problems at first when he was trying to steer like a car, but that's not how a jet ski works. Once I got him to do it like he was on a bike, he did fine.
Redshirt
Banned
Wake racing feels fine to me, a bit tighter than pre-season actually. It'll still lose my legs if I forget to put the dog gate up and one of them saunters in.
Not a big deal, but now KSR throws up a warning and dims the screen. The message box wants you to press Y to clear it, which is annoying when playing without a controller. Is there a voice command to dismiss it?
Not a big deal, but now KSR throws up a warning and dims the screen. The message box wants you to press Y to clear it, which is annoying when playing without a controller. Is there a voice command to dismiss it?
How is it guys? Mostly looking for how the game controls? Is it smooth for the most part or do you need to fight with the game to make it work?
I am probably picking this up, I wish there was 3 games I wanted for the Target deal, only 2 I can think of are this and Donkey Kong, I already do not have enough time for the games I have
I am probably picking this up, I wish there was 3 games I wanted for the Target deal, only 2 I can think of are this and Donkey Kong, I already do not have enough time for the games I have
So far it has been smooth for the most part. The only sport I haven't done yet is tennis. In soccer i struggled a bit to aim my kicks and in bowling I was having a hard time with the spin, but I've only played each once and I might just need to get the hang of it. So far (and I've only played around an hour, so this might change) my favorites are rock climbing and wake racing, but I've at least liked every one I've tried.
abracadaver
Member
How big is the download ? Not out here until friday
I got the disc copy, but it shows that it takes up 9.9 gigs.
Not exactly a screenshot, but here's my champion. Maybe I'll try a youtube video a little later.
https://ksrgalleryshared.blob.core.windows.net/sharedvapics/1efb046a33d44120afa3a545a41bc54e.jpg
does the bowling feel similar to the first one? I thought that controlled pretty well
Download is 9.xxGB.
I had a lot of fun with this game this morning. Agree with bessy67, all the sports are fun. Aiming in soccer takes a bit of practice, as does spin in bowling. Tennis is pretty similar to what we've seen before.
Climbing is really fun. Surprised how well it translated. Shooting is better than I expected. really impressed that the finger cursor does not jump or jitter at all.
Worth the purchase for me so far. No disappointments with the tracking or anything.
I never played the first one, so no idea.
soul creator
Member
The wonderful world of Kinect gaming and expectations, lol. It's always fascinating to read reviews of Kinect games for precisely this reason.
I kinda feel that the reason why Dance Central got mostly positive reviews is that it does just enough to hide any flaws Kinect may have, but also shows enough to give the feeling of control and feedback. Since you're not controlling a character directly in that game, it's much easier to forgive when it "breaks", since you may not even notice it happening. But other Kinect games that involve some degree of real-time tracking mapped onto a visible character are much more susceptible to people noticing if it "breaks".
And then if you happen to be someone who has the expectations of "everything must be as perfectly responsive as a controller or else it's shit", then almost by definition, almost everything Kinect related will be considered broken, lol.
And then you take into account things like space considerations, body sizes, subjective interpretations of motions, that's probably why you get such a huge disparity in reviews on Kinect games.
First day with the game and I gotta say that I'm.. disappointed. Wave racing is the best and most responsive one out of the six, followed by the soccer. But I've had a lot of issues with the rest, especially the bowling and rock climbing.
However, when it works, it's hella fun. And it looks gorgeous! Took a few screenshots:
However, when it works, it's hella fun. And it looks gorgeous! Took a few screenshots:
okay, so ive had a bit of time to check the game out. played for 2 hours and these are my impressions:
CREATING A CHAMPION IS SUPER COOL, GUYS.
https://ksrgalleryshared.blob.core.windows.net/sharedvapics/1dc880ac0cbf4090b39887c6fd369771.jpg
it totally picked up my skin color, glasses (tried twice with different glasses), undercut haircut, and general facial structure. im naturally very baby faced so the "embellishments" the champions process does were weird at first (more angular jawline) but it really did nail down my visage.
CONTROLS ARE RESPONSIVE/ SPORTS ARE FUN
i dont have a very large play space. i stand/sit maybe 6 feet from my sensor (which is wall mounted) but have a limited area to move around to both my left and right. soccer was problematic because of this, as the goal post is rather wide and you have to make a lot of "diving" saves. other than that though, things felt good. the "push to accept" input is so much easier than the previous games' "hover for a few seconds to accept"
the sports themselves were pretty damn fun as well. target shooting surprised me the most as i went in thinking it would be garbage. the pointing was responsive (not jittery at all) and between the dynamics of stealing points from your opponent, needing to shoot certain targets in a specific order, and activating a gun that attacks your opponent (you need to dodge its shots), i think it could hold up reasonably well at higher levels of play.
tennis, bowling, and wake racing are more standard affairs but are no less fun or interesting. tennis in particular is much improved, as you can now add back/top spin and the motion tracking is more accurate. rock climbing works well and pulling opponents off the rock face is greatly satisfying. much fun.
overall, i think the game is a lot fun. its definitely not the buggy, unplayable mess some people are wanting it to be. im not going to lie, i may get bored of it. maybe it wont hold my attention as much as i think it will. i did find a fair deal of enjoyment out of the first two kinect sports games, and if Rare update the game with new events or minigames i think KSR could have some pretty decent legs.
great screens, nbnt. the game is very good looking indeed. THAT WATER
CREATING A CHAMPION IS SUPER COOL, GUYS.
https://ksrgalleryshared.blob.core.windows.net/sharedvapics/1dc880ac0cbf4090b39887c6fd369771.jpg
it totally picked up my skin color, glasses (tried twice with different glasses), undercut haircut, and general facial structure. im naturally very baby faced so the "embellishments" the champions process does were weird at first (more angular jawline) but it really did nail down my visage.
CONTROLS ARE RESPONSIVE/ SPORTS ARE FUN
i dont have a very large play space. i stand/sit maybe 6 feet from my sensor (which is wall mounted) but have a limited area to move around to both my left and right. soccer was problematic because of this, as the goal post is rather wide and you have to make a lot of "diving" saves. other than that though, things felt good. the "push to accept" input is so much easier than the previous games' "hover for a few seconds to accept"
the sports themselves were pretty damn fun as well. target shooting surprised me the most as i went in thinking it would be garbage. the pointing was responsive (not jittery at all) and between the dynamics of stealing points from your opponent, needing to shoot certain targets in a specific order, and activating a gun that attacks your opponent (you need to dodge its shots), i think it could hold up reasonably well at higher levels of play.
tennis, bowling, and wake racing are more standard affairs but are no less fun or interesting. tennis in particular is much improved, as you can now add back/top spin and the motion tracking is more accurate. rock climbing works well and pulling opponents off the rock face is greatly satisfying. much fun.
overall, i think the game is a lot fun. its definitely not the buggy, unplayable mess some people are wanting it to be. im not going to lie, i may get bored of it. maybe it wont hold my attention as much as i think it will. i did find a fair deal of enjoyment out of the first two kinect sports games, and if Rare update the game with new events or minigames i think KSR could have some pretty decent legs.
great screens, nbnt. the game is very good looking indeed. THAT WATER
IOnEI Falcon
Member
Game is awesome! I am really liking it and enjoying the story mode for what it is. I think I am close to picking a team to work with. So far I think wake racing is my favorite with climbing a close second. With racing I totally forget it is a motion game. The other sports are still really good though. The shooting is way more fun than I thought it would be. I love stealing points from my opponent, haha!
Stormwatch
Member
I got the game today and I unlocked half of the modes so far. My gamertag is DredPirateStorm if people wanna share scores on the leaderboard.
plasmawave
Banned
Hey at least the game looks pretty and the music seems nice.
Caayn
Member
Played only Wake Racing, Climbing and range shooting so far. Wake Racing is still my favorite, and has the best controls.
Climbing is funny but I think I need to get used to the controls a bit more as I'm currently playing it Wii style.
Range shooting is fun but the crosshair is off with where I'm point my finger. This differs per game, one match it's higher to the left and the next one it's lower. Wish that you could align it by pushing the crosshair in one of the corner/edges.
The face modeling is impressive although for some reason my avatar is suddenly 10~15 years older than I am.
Climbing is funny but I think I need to get used to the controls a bit more as I'm currently playing it Wii style.
Range shooting is fun but the crosshair is off with where I'm point my finger. This differs per game, one match it's higher to the left and the next one it's lower. Wish that you could align it by pushing the crosshair in one of the corner/edges.
The face modeling is impressive although for some reason my avatar is suddenly 10~15 years older than I am.
Redshirt
Banned
Unsurprisingly, microtransactions are a non-story.
Everything works great in my living room. Soccer is surprisingly fun.
In my office, I have a lot of trouble with rock climbing because I have the Kinect angled toward the floor. I can change it for that event, but that's annoying for story mode, which cycles through the various events.
Otherwise, I like it a lot. It won't win over the skeptics, but if you think you might like it, you probably will.
Everything works great in my living room. Soccer is surprisingly fun.
In my office, I have a lot of trouble with rock climbing because I have the Kinect angled toward the floor. I can change it for that event, but that's annoying for story mode, which cycles through the various events.
Otherwise, I like it a lot. It won't win over the skeptics, but if you think you might like it, you probably will.
yeah ive put in a couple more hours into the game now. things work as they should.
rock climbing sometimes requires me to tilt the sensor up as im fairly tall (6ft), but other than that and my troubles with soccer ive had no glaring problems with the game. i may just reposition the kinect so it gives me a bit more room to my left.
and yes, ads and microtransactions are non issues. "ads" take the form of in game sponsors (and theyre fairly well restrained) and the microtransactions are just optional accessory packs you can buy. theres no purchasing of in game currency or anything like that.
and about soccer, i almost feel like KS2s version of soccer was better. at least in that one you could block your opponents kicks before they even got to your net. made it feel more like an actual game of soccer as opposed to a game of foosball. still enjoyable, but a missed opportunity to take what had been done previously and improve it.
rock climbing sometimes requires me to tilt the sensor up as im fairly tall (6ft), but other than that and my troubles with soccer ive had no glaring problems with the game. i may just reposition the kinect so it gives me a bit more room to my left.
and yes, ads and microtransactions are non issues. "ads" take the form of in game sponsors (and theyre fairly well restrained) and the microtransactions are just optional accessory packs you can buy. theres no purchasing of in game currency or anything like that.
and about soccer, i almost feel like KS2s version of soccer was better. at least in that one you could block your opponents kicks before they even got to your net. made it feel more like an actual game of soccer as opposed to a game of foosball. still enjoyable, but a missed opportunity to take what had been done previously and improve it.
it returns largely unchanged. adding spin is now easier and there are now various powerups you can equip. ive only played with the Meteor Ball power up, though (when your ball hits the pins it makes a small explosion that assists in getting strikes). dont know what the others do but i imagine theyd add a bit of strategy when playing against other people. and the tracking of your arms and hands is much more accurate, of course.
as an aside, there are lots of cool Rare easter eggs in the game. ive seen Banjo, Kameo, and Joanna Dark in various backgrounds (usually on scoreboards and such). items are also named/modeled after old Rare games. im hoping its a hint of whats to come from Rare
added. if anyone wants a Rival, im EBEORIETEMETHHP
tempted, so tempted. never played the original, or wii sports for that matter, so all events would be fresh. i LOVED the jet ski demo - it worked flawlessly, and bowling and tennis seem like a natural fit.
my big question: will my 3 year old be able to have fun with it? she tries to play the jet ski demo but as you can imagine she doesnt have the coordination and understanding of how it should work. will bowling/rock climbing/shooting be more intuitive? does anyone have small children that can shed some light on their experiences?
my big question: will my 3 year old be able to have fun with it? she tries to play the jet ski demo but as you can imagine she doesnt have the coordination and understanding of how it should work. will bowling/rock climbing/shooting be more intuitive? does anyone have small children that can shed some light on their experiences?
Hey there,
I had to rearrange my furniture because I live in quite a small apartment. That wasn't the issue that I had though. The issue was that even though the Kinect had a FULL view of my body (as evident in the diagram and also my kinect settings), it was extremely finicky. I would get that constant dialogue coming up where my lower or top half of my body wasn't viewable which would mean that i'd have to pick up a controller to move it away. IT was THIS dialogue box that was so frustrating because as far as I could tell, my body was in full view and the game was working fine.
Weird that people had a hard time with rock climbing. I found that there was a certain skill to it but I didn't feel that it was the Kinects fault..
I've added you both, ElNino77 is my GT if anyone wants to add me.
The game wasn't delivered for me today, but tracking shows it should be here tomorrow.
miDnIghtEr20C
Banned
Ya I agree. The reviews are so back and forth. One site says this doesn't work, and another site says it does work, and it's good.
Not sure what's going on. Was there a couple versions of this game for reviewers?
edit.. also for those who've played.. will my 3 year old be picked up by Kinect you think for bowling? I want to see if he can give that game a try. Just the bowling. It picks his face up and signs him in, but wondering about the controls.
speculawyer
Member
Looks at metacritic . . . 64.
Wow. Microsoft, what have you done? This is why people should pay $100 more for your console? Oh man.
Wow. Microsoft, what have you done? This is why people should pay $100 more for your console? Oh man.