Kinect...

[Animalor]

I haz it...

Looking forward to plugging the thing in today at the office to try it out with my co-workers.

[Fairweather Pure]

Launch game reviews are all over the map so choose your purchases wisely!

[Animalor]

Kinectimals (xmas present for my 6yo) and Dance Central =)

I'm leaning towards getting the Ubi Fitness Game but I'm waiting for a more fleshed out Metacritic rating.

[Funkmasterr]

It's going to take something just shy of a miracle for me to do anything other than laugh at the idea of paying $150 for this.

[Winnow]

I may pick up a new 360 with this kinect thingy so I have a non hacked console again. I need to read some more reviews though as the previous videos of this in action haven't inspired me yet. I can see the potential and superiority over the Wii and PS3's motion gimmicks though.

[Aslanna]

Dance Central! What more needs to be said.

[Sylvus]

I may pick up a new 360 with this kinect thingy so I have a non hacked console again. I need to read some more reviews though as the previous videos of this in action haven't inspired me yet. I can see the potential and superiority over the Wii and PS3's motion gimmicks though.

But what if you end up liking it? Do you really have the time in your day for another crusade?

[Siji]

I wanted to get one of these. But nothing convinced me I should. The technology is cool, but there's not a single title out for it that I have any desire for or don't already have on the Wii. Kinectimals would be cool for the kids, but Nintendogs works just fine.

[masteen]

It's going to take something just shy of a miracle for me to do anything other than laugh at the idea of paying $150 for this.

Especially when you consider that adding another $50 gets you a brand new Wii with Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, and one of the new improved controllers.

[Winnow]

But what if you end up liking it? Do you really have the time in your day for another crusade?

There's always room for another crusade if a product is worthy but this one doesn't jump out at me as being worthy of my services so far.

[Fairweather Pure]

If you don't end up liking it, I'll do a straight up trade for my Move set-up.

2 Move controllers, 2 Nunchuks, 1 charger, and 2 games: Move Sports and Start The Party

Everything is in mint condition!

[Funkmasterr]

It's going to take something just shy of a miracle for me to do anything other than laugh at the idea of paying $150 for this.

Especially when you consider that adding another $50 gets you a brand new Wii with Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, and one of the new improved controllers.

Right. And I already have a Wii with a bunch of games that I rarely play. I am trying to stay open to the possibility that they will incorporate this crap into a mainstream game that I really like in a way that will be fun, and not make me fucking duck behind my couch to take cover, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Dregor Thule]

Not for me.

[Animalor]

Hooked it up and played an hours worth of Kinect Adventures with my boss. This thing works GREAT. The tracking is fantastic, the dashboard tracking and voice rec are great. The auto-signin facial recognition works great too.

All in all I'm extremely satisfied by Kinect. (And I haven't even put in Dance Central yet).

If devs can come up with innovative gameplay mechanics or even meld some of the Kinect stuff mixed in with traditional controls it would be fantastic.

[Siji]

Since the facial recognition is so great, I'll be waiting for a game that comes out that lets you perform oral sex on hot anime chicks with pigtails by sticking out your tongue, or any number of other sex acts that you perform with your body for the tracker.

Then I'll buy one.

[Animalor]

Since the facial recognition is so great, I'll be waiting for a game that comes out that lets you perform oral sex on hot anime chicks with pigtails by sticking out your tongue, or any number of other sex acts that you perform with your body for the tracker.

Then I'll buy one.

What's what I would call innovation.

[Winnow]

I picked up the 299.00 4GB 360/Kinect Package at lunch.

I figure 150.00 for new Xbox not bad with the Kinect being the other 150.00 at retail.

Had to buy HDMI cable for 14.99 (microsoft brand was 39.00!)

Kinda happy to have legit xbox again, especially with wireless n built in. I can always use it for Netflix if nothing else!

[Winnow]

Not sure wtf I was thinking with the 4GB Xbox. I need space for demos and stuff. Exchanged it for the 250GB Kinect/360 on way home. Haven't set it up yet...which means I could probably already give a review but will hold off until I've used it for at least 30 seconds minutes.

[Animalor]

I thought it was odd that you got the 4GB version. At best you can get 16GB of space with a big enough USB stick but there are things out there that require the HDD that you would've been unable to do.

Good call on the exchange.

Played some Dance Central last night with my wife. She's a lot more coordinated than I am.

[masteen]

I'm fully convinced that dance rhythm lives in only three places in the human body: the gay gene, the black gene, and the tits.

[Canelek]

Don't forget the fratboigene.

[Winnow]

Couple things.

I was only able to set up the new 360 and play one Kinect Rafting game last night.

First, the new slim 360's rock. Speedy and super quiet. Even when loaded it stays quiet unlike the PS3 which gets loud. I'm impressed with the new design.

I picked up a year of Live Gold and setup my Netflix, LastFM, ESPN, etc apps. Netflix looks like it's going to be something I'll use on the 360. I setup a completely new gamertag to avoid any potential issues with my old tag which shows I own several hundred games.

Kinect:

-works great. The setup was easy and the hand/voice commands easy to pick up and execute. I'm able to have my 46" LCD close to me for PC/Gaming and then I just rotate it to the side where it lines up with the Kinect on the corner of my desk, giving me all the room I need to look like a spaz while playing motion games.

-I need more time to comment on the games but i got a 97 (I don't think that's out of 100 but still was good) on my first River Raft run so getting the hang of Kinect is easy. Leaning forward/back, stepping side to aide or leaning to right/left, jumping...all intuitive and worked well.

-for the love of god, don't play Kinect in your boxers like I did. Kinect games take pictures of you while you play and then present them to you at the end of the game. Somehow, I think those pictures of people at Wal Mart aren't going to look so bad after some Kinect pictures start getting out in the wild.

-sitting down, the Kinect seems to work ok as well. In the right corner of the screen there's a sort of polarized image of what Kinec sees and if your hands, etc are glowing, it means Kinect "sees" you and you can issue commands. Voice always works. To use kinect, you just wave your hand side to side to activate it.

Hacks:

Even better news is that Kinect/New Dashboard games work in hacked 360's...the older the model the better and my 360 is ancient. I can just switch the Kinect Cable over to my original 360 and try out all the Kinect games I want or test whatever. I'll try this out later to confirm.

So far, I'm satisfied with my new 360/Kinect. I definitely see the potential and picking up a kinect 150.00 would be worth it at any time for people that have the space to use it. I can't get over how quiet the new 360 is.

Also, it's nice to have 1080p on my 360. The component HD looks good on my old 360 but HDMI/1080P is where it's at.

[Winnow]

Oops nix the swapping Kinect back and forth. For old 360s, a power supply is needed so I'll have to get the stand alone Kinect thingy if I want to play on the old console...That's like...three games!

The dashboard update and Dance Central backup work fine though. (dashboard update included on disk)

[Dregor Thule]

and the tits.

Shit, I should be able to dance then.

[Fairweather Pure]

Post your new gamer tag, Winnow. I'll add you.

[Funkmasterr]

and the tits.

Shit, I should be able to dance then.

Fucking awesome.

[Winnow]

It's randomly generated one atm: SupineRain4


I just tried Dance Central demo.

One word review: Sweaty


Hmmm, if peeps liked the Wii for exercise, they'll be all over the connect. Once again, I need to find out how to turn camera off because those picks taken during game play are scary!

I wonder if Kinect warns you if you're going to be broadcast during multiplayer.

[Gonzoie - Luclin]

Kinect is racist.

While testing out the Kinect, two dark-skinned GameSpot employees experienced problems with the system's facial recognition abilities. The system recognized one employee inconsistently, while it was never able to properly identify the other despite repeated calibration attempts. However, Kinect had no problems identifying a third dark-skinned GameSpot employee, recognizing his face after a single calibration. Lighter-skinned employees were also consistently picked up on the first try.

[Boogahz]

Apparently it is only one-third racist.

[Animalor]

Debunked. Turn on some effing lights - http://consumerist.com/2010/11/no-the-k ... acist.html

[Fairweather Pure]

All facial recognition software is racist!

[Animalor]

All facial recognition software is racist!

I laughed that that one.


/ashamed

[Soreali]

All facial recognition software is racist!

I laughed that that one.


/ashamed

Ditto

[Soreali]

Double posts ftw!

[Animalor]

Dance Central is a hell of a workout for an out of shape, uncoordinated white guy.

Just sayin'... Hella fun though

[Winnow]

I picked up a second Kinect sensor so I could use my old 360 and play all of the new Kinect games. Basically I paid 150.00 for the power adapter. The actual Kinect stayed in the box so I can just switch the cable between consoles.

I grabbed the following games:

Dance Central
Dancemaster
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved
Biggest Loser
Kinectic Sports
Kinectimals
Fighters Uncaged

First, let me say that I'm fucking exhausted. There is no cheating the kinect. You either do what it says or you fail...that means getting your fat ass up off the ground when it says jump, etc.

I'm going to break down each game and also try to compare similar games (dance, fitness, etc) I'm also going to attempt to rate how well the game uses Kinect for its user interface, etc. I'll use an out of 10 scoring system. Take it with a grain of salt.

First up the Dance games:

Dance Central

Kinect UI: 8
Game Play: 9
Presentation: 8
Tutorial: 8

-Dance Central has a ton of great songs that everyone will recognize.

-The tutorial/break down before each dance is pretty good.

-You do not see yourself on the screen during the dancing (thank god, unlike Dancemasters).

-You do not see a silhouette of yourself on the screen, instead you see a stream of moves so you can see what's coming next to prepare.

I made it through the first basic "Poker Face" song and did OK. I chose a random song a little farther down the list and failed miserably. For those that plan on mastering the game, it's going to take time but will be rewarding. I'm not expert but the dance moves seem good and probably will actually help a lot of people learn to dance better. I can imagine seeing a lot of the same moves at clubs after being picked up from Dance Central...what really would be funny is if someone copies an entire routine and uses it at a club.

Verdict: No brainer if you like dancing games.

Dancemasters

Kinect UI: 6
Game Play: 8
Presentation: 7
Tutorial: 9

As opposed to Dance Central, Dancemasters has no big name songs but the songs have good beats and work for dancing.

-Kinect UI isn't as good. You raise your left or right hand above your head for yes/no selections and swipe your hand to switch selections on the menus. Raising your hand works fine and is the fastest way to select I've experience on the Kinect as the "hold until circle complete" selection goes fast. Their implementation for swiping side to side doesn't work as well for menu selection.

-Tutorial is very good. This game differs greatly from Dance Central. It's more arcadish. You have several different visual cues on that appear on teh screen while you dance:

-circles that you must touch with your hand or feet
-timed circles that you must keep your hand or feet in for a certain amount of time
-lines on the screen that you must trace with your hand or hands
-circles that have multiple dots in them which vanish one by one as you hit the circle to the beat
-silhouettes that you must post the same as in order to score the points (instant poses as part of the song, don't have to keep the pose)
-body part indicators...such as arrows pointing to your hips so you have to rock them back and forth to the rhythm to score points
-powerup indicator that takes you into a parallel universe if you fill it up

Dancemasters is more about managing to execute these visual cues than perfectly copying the dance...for this reason, I don't like that it puts your actaul image (not silhouette) on the screen because sometimes (all the time) you look like a spaz as you try to execute the visual cues while not really dancing in sync with the rest of the people on the screen. There may be a way to turn this off. It's not really a bad feature, just something you might not want to see!..probably funny for parties.

Dance Central vs Dancemasters

Dance Central has much better songs and you actually learn to dance while Dancemasters is more fun as a game if you're not worried about copying the dance moves exactly.

-----------------

After playing through these Kinect games, there's no doubt in my mind that Kinect will be a hit with the fitness crowd. It demolishes the Wii and PS3 for this purpose and I'll explain in more detail during the fitness reviews. In both fitness games, I found myself cursing at the screen/host because I was working my ass off and the set routines were kicking my ass.


Biggest Loser

Kinect UI: 5
Game Play: 8
Presentation: 7
Tutorial: 8

To quote from The Office
Dwight: There are no winners or losers.
Jim: Oh there are losers.

Ignore the title. This is a quality fitness game. I gave the UI low marks because the next game on this list's UI is so damn good. The UI also is challenging because in this game, you actually create your fat-ass toon and, I suppose, watch him/her lose weight while you do. It's great to customize your looks a bit but using the Kinect controls for detailed avatar choices isn't the best way to use Kinect. The choices also don't appear on screen to select, there's an awkward slider you move to see the different hair for example, instead of showing all the hair on screen and selecting the one you want which would be much easier.

The workouts themselves are very good. I was yelling at the screen, sweating my ass off and that was on light workout routines. There are four levels of workouts with extreme being the hardest.

You can select from 3 or 4 trainers and they do a good job of telling you if you're doing well or not.

The use of Kinect is also excellent. You see a silhouette of yourself on the right, the trainer in the middle, and your fat ass toon on the left. Your silhouette turns green if you're doing the exercise correctly and red if you start getting out of whack. The trainers tell you sometimes what to do to ge back in sync.

There seems to be a bunch of individual workouts. You can workout to a preplanned one. You can build your own workout, or just pick the individual workouts you want. There are four or so "games" that you play against other PC toons. I'd say they are pretty good but after playing the ones from the next fitness game reviewed here, pale in comparison. The biggest difference is Biggest Loser games are like Carnival games that you squirt water in a clowns mouth to make a balloon pop (doing one thing to make another thing happen). Fitness Evolved games you actively participate in.

The game keeps track of how many calories you burn during your workout and has several locations you can workout ...poolside, gym, etc. It's a solid fitness game that's a little weak in the user interface but that's it.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved

Kinect UI: 10
Game Play: 10
Presentation: 10
Tutorial: 10

Best game out for Kinect. (well for fitness but best overall as well) I know this game is also on Wii but you'll find Kinect much better at how it's executed.

This game rocks. If you're serious about getting into shape, this is worth buying a Kinect or entire Kinect/360 bundle for. Your body will thank you.

Where to start....User Interface is excellent. The Kinect sizes you up, arm length etc, just in order to personalize the menu system for you. No swiping etc involved, you just hold your arm out to the side and lower or raise it to make selections. The game also has a cool way of letting you know if you're getting out of the visual "box".

The game goes into more detail for personal info, including age, etc to help start you off right. You have three main sections...Personal Training, Fitness classes (Zen-Yoga/Marshall Arts), and Gym Games.

The Personal Training looks good. This is one of the last games I played so was pooped. I was still going through the profiling for the personal trainer which has you do a series of exercises in various categories to see how you do.

Fitness Classes are great. I enjoyed the first 6 minute zen/yoga lesson and there are quite a few lessons/workouts. The shadow boxing also was good but I was too pooped to make it through the first lesson.

Gym Games are much better than in Biggest Loser. The boxing game is very satisfying and I also liked the balance game where hold a board above your head while blocks drop...you collect the blocks and then dump them on one side or the other depending on the visual cues. Raising the board higher slows the dropping blocks while lowering it speeds them up.

Each day you start the game, you see on the main screen how many calories you've burned for that day. (keeps running tally) It adds up the calories from the personal training, fitness classes and Gym Games so all count. There's also a five day chart based on 100% so you can see what percentage of your target calories you accomplished each of the past days.

Biggest Loser vs Your Shape: Fitness Evolved

If you're a fanatic, you might go for Biggest Loser. It has a little more scalability in individual workouts. After the initial Avatar setup, the UI becomes less of a negative. The trainers are more motivating and it's easy to stop a lesson with voice commands. Both Biggest Loser and Fitness evolved have excellent on screen silhouettes to help aid you. Fitness Evolves has the ability to highlight different body parts while BL only is all green or all red but both do a good job. That alone wouldn't make me select FE over BL. Fitness Evolved wins in the Fitness Classes (Yoga.Shadowboxing) and Games. I can see myself going back to some of the Zen/Yoga routines while with Biggest Loser, I'd probably end up eventually only using the trainer...although customizing your training in BL is kinda cool.

Fitness Evolved for most people would be the best choice while Biggest Loser might work for someone that needs some extra encouragement or wants more extreme workouts.

While I'm not an uber fat-ass, I'm not in shape and this has motivated me to at least give it a shot.
------------------

If any of you fat-asses out there ever want to at least try to lose a few pounds...this is your ticket. If this doesn't help, you may as well pre-order that over-sized coffin to at least save your surviving family members the hassle.

Kinectimals

Kinect UI: 9
Game Play: 9
Presentation: 9
Tutorial: 9

If you've got kids, this is the game to get. I could figure it out so you're kids should have no problem. The little animals are cute, the Kinect is used very well, this is no brainer entertainment for young kids. The visuals are very well done. Pretty to look at game. Tutorials integrate into the game very well so there's no waiting around.

Justify getting the Kinect for Xmas for your kids with this, and then get your fat ass in shape with a fitness game or punch some people with Fighters Uncaged.

Kinectic Sports

Kinect UI: 8
Game Play: 8
Presentation: 8
Tutorial: 8

soccer, beach volleyball, bowling, table tennis, track and field, and boxing

I'll break it down by sport:

Soccer:

Fun. I'm not sure about the staying power but I had fun with the game I played. Once you have the ball, lines are drawn and you can kick in several directions, there's usually a best option/pass. As you get closer to the goal, you can't pass anymore and have to shoot. On defense, right before the NPC player kicks the ball, a line is drawn where they are going to kick...if you step into the path, you can intercept the pass. Works well. There are opportunities to head a ball and as the goalie, a circle pops up on the screen and you have to get your hands or body into that circle to block the shot on goal. Cool game. By itself, might not be worth it but as a package, very fun.

Beach Volleyball:

Also fun and a little tiring as you jump a lot on spikes/blocks. If not spiking, a circle appears on screen and you need to get your hand there to either hit the ball over net or setup your partner. Overall, a fun game but the points can last a long time which means a bunch of jumping.

Bowling:

Not bad for a bowling game. You can put spin on the ball, line up on which arrow you want to throw on. Good enough for a party game but not sure on the staying power. I like how you reach to either side to grab your ball before throwing.

Table Tennis: Haven't played yet

Track and Field:

While I don't think most Kinect games would disturb your neighbors. If you live on second floor, this would be the game that causes a lot of pounding on the ceiling. There's a lot of running in place and jumping. Very tiring game. Not bad but also not one you'd probably play a lot except maybe when friend over as demonstration material.

Boxing:

Fun fun! Kinect works great for throwing punches and kicks. It's range ability is excellent for being able to use short medium and long attacks. Detects all the different punchs well, straight job, roundhouse, heymaker, over the top, head/body shots, etc. It's extremely satisfying playing a boxing game using Kinect. This is easy game to get handle on but I can see lots of strategy being used. I can also see someone getting clocked IRL when two people side by side.

-------
As a whole, I'd say Kinect Sports is a pretty good value although for re playability, Soccer and Boxing would be the ones played most outside of parties and showing people who havent played Kinect. Table Tennis may be good too, haven't played yet.

Fighters Uncaged

Kinect UI: 8
Game Play: 8
Presentation: 8
Tutorial: 9

This was surprisingly good. As mentioned above, the Kinect works great for punching/kicking. As opposed to the Boxing game in Sports above, this game has a lot of different moves and a lengthy tutorial to introduce you to them all.

The game mechanics "feel" good. I'm only on stage 1 and need to defeat six different style fighters to move on. The amount of different attacks/defense and variety of styles from your opponents should provide

---------------------------------------

Kinect as part of the Dashboard

You're going to get used to using voice commands quickly. It's an easy way to get around.

Overall:

Very pleased with Kinect. It's worth the 150.00 (or 600.00 for me!) if you like fighting or fitness games. There is a lot of potential for using the Kinect with other games as well in the future. The Star Wars game looks like fun that's scheduled for Dec 31 release.

[Fairweather Pure]

I was so close to picking this up today, you have no idea. My wife really wants Dance Central, so there's still a good chance I'll end up with a Kinect in my home.

[Fairweather Pure]

Aaaand she went out and picked one up after dinner. We were having company over and she talked amoungst the other women and they all wanted to play Dance Central, so that's what we all did!

Killer ap! I haven't had a party game make such an impression on me since the first time I played Rock Band. The women were all over it. Great fun and it has a lot of clever and hilarious little surprises in the game. The music was loud and there was nothing but laughter and dancing. The game was a huge hit!

[Leonaerd]

Table Tennis: Haven't played yet

awww

[Fairweather Pure]

Kinect is heads and shoulders above Move. It's not even a contest. It really does bring something completely unique to the table. It really does work great (and I wasn't expecting it to work that great). I am pleasantly surprised. Having said that, these waggle games are still a sidebar to controller based gaming for me personally. My kids like them, my wife likes them, and they'll be great fun at parties and family outings (Thanksgiving is going to be crazy at my house!).

The pros of Kinect over Move:

1. Price. For 190$ I own Kinect and 2 games. The same thing with Move cost me 300$ (2 games, 2 complete controllers, and a charging base).

2. Kids. I have very young children (3.5 and 2) that cannot grasp the whole Move thing. Having to hold specific buttons during different games is just a little too much for them to warp their little heads around. They can play, but I have to stand right next to them instructing the whole time.

3. No controllers. See #2 above. I just cannot turn a Move game on and say "Have fun!". I have to guard them the entire time so that they don't accidentally break a controller with their childish enthusiasm. I have no such fears with Kinect. Furthermore, I don't have to store a bunch more controllers. Just having 2 complete Move controllers meant I had to set up a new charging station and hide that crap somewhere. Another example is that I want to get some shooting gallery-type games to play with my wife and kids, but then I'd have to get two overpriced little plastic gun holders for my Move controllers and store them somewhere too. Ugh.

4. Calibration. I calibrated the Kinect once and it's been good to go with both the games we've played so far. I have to calibrate Move before every single mini game for both of the games I own. It's just 2-3 moves and button clicks, but doing it over and over again is a little ridiculous, especially getting my girls to go through the motions every time! I'm hoping the next wave of Move games fix this nagging issue.

5. Games. It's all waggleware so far, but Kinect comes through with about 5-6 launch titles I will be getting, including a "killer app". Move didn't really have anything I wanted. The best thing about Move is easily it's backwards compatibility with existing games. That is something it definitely has over Kinect. As a matter of fact, having Move support for RE5, Heavy Rain, and MAG is the absolute the best things about the device IMO. It made me wish I had RE5 for PS3 instead of the 360. It makes me want to pick up MAG just to try it out. (I think that's around 30$ now, so I'll keep my eye out for a better deal and grab it sometime).

Overall, Kinect looks like it's going to do well IMO. As Winnow stated, the fitness side is going to tap into the female market in a big way. The people playing Kinect last night were all "This thing is crazy", "How the hell does it do that?", and "I want one now. Where did you get this. How much did it cost?". In stark contrast, I handed people the Move controllers and they were like "Just lke the Wii, right?". Yup!

I look forward to 2nd gen games for both devices to see if developers learn and build upon the launch titles. The main issue with Move, besides lack of a killer app, is that the device gives off a "been there, done that" vibe. It really is Wii HD, which is totally not a bad thing (especially to someone like me that skipped the Wii entirely). In an age where Wii sales are starting to nosedive, one cannot help but feel like Sony was about 2 years late to the party on that one.

[Fairweather Pure]

A word of warning to anyone setting Kinect up for the first time:

This thing is mechanized! Not to sound like a total idiot, but I was not aware of that... This resulted in a panicked lurch on my part in front of a bunch of friends during the calibration portion because I thought it was slowly falling forward from my TV. It was simply adjusting itself. Everyone laughed at me and my face was a little red! To my credit, I moved like a goddamn ninja when I thought it was falling!

[Funkmasterr]

A word of warning to anyone setting Kinect up for the first time:

This thing is mechanized! Not to sound like a total idiot, but I was not aware of that... This resulted in a panicked lurch on my part in front of a bunch of friends during the calibration portion because I thought it was slowly falling forward from my TV. It was simply adjusting itself. Everyone laughed at me and my face was a little red! To my credit, I moved like a goddamn ninja when I thought it was falling!

I got a good laugh out of that, thank you sir!

[Sylvus]

Where do you need to set the Kinect up in relation to your TV? I'm thinking about getting one, but the room I'd probably put it in, I have a flatscreen mounted up pretty high above my fireplace. Do you think it would work setting the kinect up on the mantle and standing 5-7 feet back from it?

[Fairweather Pure]

I think that would work fine. It appears to calibrate itself to work in a wide variety of spaces.

[Winnow]

the range is 2-6 feet off floor from what I recall.

There is a TV mount you can purchase at best buy it's overprices at 39.00 but connects to the back of your TV...if you're TV already mounted, that may be a pain. It would be easy for free standing LCDs. Mine is below my TV atm and works great but I may eventually spring for the TV mount. One game advised that it's easier for the Kinect to recognize you if it's placed higher rather than lower. I've had zero issues with Kiect recognizing me. I have two profiles on my old xbox. I accidentally switched between the two and it didn't recognize me (as it should be) until I had it scan me for first time using that profile.

[Winnow]

Kinectic Sports

Kinect UI: 8
Game Play: 8
Presentation: 8
Tutorial: 8

soccer, beach volleyball, bowling, table tennis, track and field, and boxing

I'll break it down by sport:

Soccer:

Fun. I'm not sure about the staying power but I had fun with the game I played. Once you have the ball, lines are drawn and you can kick in several directions, there's usually a best option/pass. As you get closer to the goal, you can't pass anymore and have to shoot. On defense, right before the NPC player kicks the ball, a line is drawn where they are going to kick...if you step into the path, you can intercept the pass. Works well. There are opportunities to head a ball and as the goalie, a circle pops up on the screen and you have to get your hands or body into that circle to block the shot on goal. Cool game. By itself, might not be worth it but as a package, very fun.

Beach Volleyball:

Also fun and a little tiring as you jump a lot on spikes/blocks. If not spiking, a circle appears on screen and you need to get your hand there to either hit the ball over net or setup your partner. Overall, a fun game but the points can last a long time which means a bunch of jumping.

Bowling:

Not bad for a bowling game. You can put spin on the ball, line up on which arrow you want to throw on. Good enough for a party game but not sure on the staying power. I like how you reach to either side to grab your ball before throwing.

Table Tennis: Haven't played yet

Track and Field:

While I don't think most Kinect games would disturb your neighbors. If you live on second floor, this would be the game that causes a lot of pounding on the ceiling. There's a lot of running in place and jumping. Very tiring game. Not bad but also not one you'd probably play a lot except maybe when friend over as demonstration material.

Boxing:

Fun fun! Kinect works great for throwing punches and kicks. It's range ability is excellent for being able to use short medium and long attacks. Detects all the different punchs well, straight job, roundhouse, heymaker, over the top, head/body shots, etc. It's extremely satisfying playing a boxing game using Kinect. This is easy game to get handle on but I can see lots of strategy being used. I can also see someone getting clocked IRL when two people side by side.

-------
As a whole, I'd say Kinect Sports is a pretty good value although for re playability, Soccer and Boxing would be the ones played most outside of parties and showing people who havent played Kinect. Table Tennis may be good too, haven't played yet.

In an effort to be complete, I went back and played Table Tennis.

Table Tennis may be the most fun of any of the games. It's the best time you'll ever have slapping at balls with your hand.

The accuracy of Kinect is impressive with Table Tennis. You can put backspins, topspins, etc on the ball and it really has the feel of Table Tennis to it. You can be accurate enough to place the ball where you want with the spin you want, also with the finesse you want.

I also checked out the Mini Games, which I completely ignored the first time around. There's a ton of them and they add a lot to the re-playability of the game. I also haven't checked out the party mode. I'll check that out the next time a friend's over.

I bought a scale today. I'm so impressed with the Kinect Fitness offerings that I want to see if I actually lose some weight.

Kinect is good stuff. Be prepared to clear a lot of space if you're going to have two people side by side. Can't really blame Kinect for that. You've got two adults swinging, kicking, etc wildly in a boxing fighting game...need space!

[Animalor]

I've got a sore lower back this morning I'm blaming directly on Kinect. Very fun though. I might have to start doing warmups before playing...

[Siji]

The dashboard update and Dance Central backup work fine though. (dashboard update included on disk)

Just for clarification, the dash update isn't *required* to play Kinect games and use the Kinect *with those games*, right? It's just required if you want to use the Kinect with the menus and for voice commands? Last thing I want to do is put that new dash on my hacked 360.

And where are you guys "picking one up on my way home"? I've checked everywhere in a 100 mile radius and everyone online and nobody has them now. Ended up buying one from the MS store as that's the only place (aside from eBay) you can even put an order in for one.

Also, anyone have any experience yet with trying to get the Kinect to work with toddlers? Daughter is 3 and I'll have to measure, but not sure she's the recommended 40" height yet.

[Fairweather Pure]

Both my kids play it fine and they are 2 and 3.5.

It just appears my wife got lucky getting one Saturday afternoon of release week. Although, the first place she went (Target) was sold out if the Kinect stand alone, they did have a couple of xbox + kinect bundles still available. From there she went to Best Buy and got one.

I talked a friend into getting an xbox for Black Ops and he bought the Kinect bundle. He said the local Kmart had a couple left, but no stand alones remained.

[Siji]

Nearly everywhere I looked had the bundles, but the wife would crucify me if I said I wanted a 3rd 360.