Tag // "Kinect" »

Yep, we're going to have to get used to calling ourselves 'One' gamers, as Microsoft has announced it's next-gen console with the name Xbox One and a worldwide release date of 2013. There were no real shocks and a lot of things not discussed (always-on, second-hand etc) but at least MS managed to squeeze a few games in among all the TV talk and get us just a little bit enthused.

It’s a bit like Wii Sports only with full body Kinect controls. There, we’ve said it, and before the hardcore Nintendo fans start whinnying about a lack of originality and Microsoft and Rare following the market leader they should riddle us this: what gaming genre do you think would best suit a new motion control peripheral? Exactly, though that’s a hard angle to push once you see your Avatar in motion. Comparisons are going to be made, but there is a fundamental difference. Kinect Sports isn’t about casually waving a wand and you can’t play it while sat down eating instant noodles. It wants your entire body to get involved, your ceiling to be high and for participants to not mind that much if they accidentally kick each other in the shins. Despite some slight finesse issues, the results are exhaustingly excellent.

We’re training our children to see man-eating animals as cute little playthings now, are we? Apparently so, and very engaging and happy the results are too – even though you can use your own voice to make your Bengal tiger respond to the name ‘Hitler’. We’re probably not Kinectimals’ target audience, clearly, but even so there’s no denying its quality is so high that it offers far more than many of the other launch titles. It’s not just about tending to a virtual creature; it’s about showing what Kinect can do more than any current title can.

ture the scene. It’s Christmas day, snow is falling all around, Cliff Richard has just left, his aftershave still hanging in the air as flakes fill his footprints, and so the kids’ attention goes to those presents lying suggestively under the tree. After an ecstasy of fumbling – ‘wow, a Kinect! Thanks Santa!’ And what’s this? It comes with a game? Good job, because it seems Santa forgot to provide any more.

People who spend much of their time sitting on their bums playing games aren’t usually the fittest of human specimens, especially if we’re talking about the same sorts who spend their working day sat on their bums, writing about games. You know, us. Sure, we’ve played and even enjoyed the likes of Dance Dance Revolution and can stamp on buttons with expert timing that’s a little bit frightening. We’ve just never been asked to dance properly while not obscured by gloom and numbed by drink before, and the results were concerning. At least for this reviewer since his muscles are still begging for some Deep Heat. For Harmonix’s first foray outside the world of Rock Band in three years is surprisingly pleasing, invigorating, and commendable. Step up Dance Central, it seems that you are one of Kinect’s few must-have titles.

If Kinect were a person, it would not be asked to pop around for tea very often. Why would it? When it first dropped by it gave our living space 4/10 and wasn’t at all happy until furniture had been rearranged as if it were our collective mother-in-law, constantly and vocally judging the way we live our lives. Now it’s having a prod at our bellies, and suggests that we really should dress in the most skin-tight of garments so it can have a proper look at us and make us work up a sweat that it plays back in real-time. Charming, but still, as far as ‘fitness products’ go, Your Shape is pretty damned effective, even though it lets itself down in a few key areas.

Originally conceived as a free XBLA game but now, thanks to the Kinect prefix, available for a penny less than forty quid, Joy Ride would like you to relax because you don’t even have to worry about braking or accelerating. How very generous of it, but then it kind of also wants you to forget about steering.