Kinect - Gen. Info & Discussion

[quote name='thrustbucket']Does gunstringer ever go on sale?[/QUOTE]

I think your best bet is picking up a Gunstringer/Fruit Ninja Kinect DL code on eBay from all those holiday bundles. That's a steal at $10.
 
Double Fine Happy Action Theater is out. I queued up the trial. Hopefully this will be fun with my kids.

I also queued up the trial of Konami's new Kinect rhythm game, Rhythm Party. Their game Dance Masters wasn't too good, but this game seems to simplify the concept which might work out. Definitely giving the trial a shot.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']Double Fine Happy Action Theater is out. I queued up the trial. Hopefully this will be fun with my kids.

I also queued up the trial of Konami's new Kinect rhythm game, Rhythm Party. Their game Dance Masters wasn't too good, but this game seems to simplify the concept which might work out. Definitely giving the trial a shot.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for post...
Just looked it up now.
Might buy when I get off work.

http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/121/1217687p1.html
 
[quote name='nasum']http://www.ea.com/tiger-woods/1/kinect-integration

New Tiger will let you use Kinect. Oddly, the guy is still facing towards the TV as opposed to going sideways. Wonder what that's all about? Maybe it tracks better that way? Oh well, if it works pretty well I'm getting this so my dad and I can fake golf together during the winter.[/QUOTE]

Waiting for review before I picking it up.
But might make a good Fathers day gift.
 
Yeah, facing toward the TV is just weird and must be because Kinect can't see your swing well enough if you are sideways to it. Even then, I can't believe it can tell if you have hooked the shot or not if you facing toward the sensor. I suspect you aim ahead of time and it evaluates the strength of your swing and little else, but I guess we'll find out once the reviews hit. I suspect Wii Motion Plus (and Move) win for this. Too bad the two techs couldn't be merged. Kinect + WM+ would be killer.
 
Just bought a Kinect (holiday bundle with gunstringer and fruit ninja) for my fiancé as an early valentines day gift. Now what games do I absolutely have to own?
 
[quote name='HydroX']Just bought a Kinect (holiday bundle with gunstringer and fruit ninja) for my fiancé as an early valentines day gift. Now what games do I absolutely have to own?[/QUOTE]

Kinect Sports 1 and Just Dance 3...IMO.
 
What about Kinect Sports 2? Does it not live up to the first one?

Reading across several customer reviews on multiple websites state that Dance Central 2 basically trumps Just Dance 3 by a huge margin. Tempted to grab DC2 at Hastings for $21 used.
 
[quote name='HydroX']What about Kinect Sports 2? Does it not live up to the first one?

Reading across several customer reviews on multiple websites state that Dance Central 2 basically trumps Just Dance 3 by a huge margin. Tempted to grab DC2 at Hastings for $21 used.[/QUOTE]
Yes Sports 1 is the better game.
As far as DC 2 vs JD3 it just depends on what you like.
Both good games, both with high reviews on amazon, but different.
I would try the Demo's out and see what fits you best.
I like JD3 because its more a party game with up to 4 people at once and I like the music better.
Or get both!! :)
 
[quote name='HydroX']Just bought a Kinect (holiday bundle with gunstringer and fruit ninja) for my fiancé as an early valentines day gift. Now what games do I absolutely have to own?[/QUOTE]

The first thing you need to do is sell me that fruit ninja code.
 
Very quick review of Happy Action Theater.
my 7,5, 3 enjoyed playing the game greatly. My 3 and 5 year old can have a hard time with other Kinect games. But not this one.

Its nice they don't need to navigate menus. It has about 18 different "games" that jump from one to another. I would say after 25-30 minutes it restarts back. Kids played two rounds and wanted more. I believe you can skip games with the controller if you want or go to the menu if you want to change it up.
Most of the games are neat, different. Some meh... Kids didn't hate any... but didn't love them all

For 800 points. Worth it, that's the right price point ...

But I must add..while making dinner. I came out to see my three kids mooning the Kinect :booty:
 
[quote name='HydroX']What about Kinect Sports 2? Does it not live up to the first one?

Reading across several customer reviews on multiple websites state that Dance Central 2 basically trumps Just Dance 3 by a huge margin. Tempted to grab DC2 at Hastings for $21 used.[/QUOTE]

Kinect Sports 2 is good but it's not spectacular like Kinect Sports 1. The skiing is very fast and cool in KS2 as well as the golf and darts. KS2 wasn't great until the free DLC was released. The football would be cool if there was more plays and if it let you play defense.

It has online play like KS1 but KS2 has the advantage in that you can send challenges to people so let's say you score 50 seconds in an event and then send a challenge to your friend to beat it. Your friend does not have to play at the same time. This is a boon if you and your friend cannot schedule time together to play at the same time. It's like an interactive leaderboard and it's much more direct.

As a multiplayer experience, I think KS1 is more fun because more people can play at the same time rather than turn-based (though of course bowling is turn-based). I loved the volleyball. The soccer is good. The bowling is fun. It really depends on what events resonate with you.

I have Dance Central 2 and imported my Dance Central 1 songs into it so it's a 1-stop dancing machine. I also have Dance Paradise, Just Dance 3, and The Black Eyed Peas Experience. So yeah, I'm a dancing nut.

Dance Central 2 has a great soundtrack and the moves are cool. You also have a tutorial mode so you can learn the dancing. The body tracking is accurate so that when you do it wrong, you really do know you did it wrong and when you did it right, it feels oh so right. DC2 also supports 2 player gaming and multiple gamertag profiles. So people can drop in and out at a party and have scores attributed to their gamertag. In the old DC1 days, all you had was dance battles (turn-based dancing) and for parties, everyone basically played under the same profile. But DC2 tries hard to be cool.

Whereas Just Dance 3 is silly fun. The body tracking isn't that great but JD3 is not about scoring. JD3 is more about bopping around with your friends. It has some really corny music but some really poppy music as well that will not go down as classics but are fun in a party. It also has 4-player choreography which is by far the best aspect! The 4 players actually dance together with unique moves. Like you could slide to face one person and then slide to face the next person. So if you play it single player, you can pick any of the 4 players and play that person's moves. If you were able to get 4 people together and watch them do it, it would look like something out of Glee (but of course, getting 4 people dancing together would require tons of space).
 
Rhythm Party is a surprisingly good game! I was so not expecting a good time but it's got a pretty cool game mechanic. You can totally improvise as long as you hit the targets at the right time, which makes for some interesting dancing. It records your dancing so you see some cool videos. One is you inside the virtual music video. The other is the actual video recording of you in your family room/living room. It also has some neat effects like seeing your body become a robot and then seeing yourself as a robot dancing.

Apologies for saying this seemed like a dumber Dance Masters. I hated Dance Masters but I really thought this was fun.

At $10 for 10 songs, it's reasonably priced. Hopefully there's DLC because I would buy songs for this game. Check out the demo!!!

The only thing holding me back from buying it yet is I don't know if it has the full song version like for the Lady Gaga song.
 
I downloaded the demo of Rhythm Party the other day but haven't had a chance to try it. I thought Dance Masters was basically a good idea, just poorly executed/flawed. I felt like there was a good game hidden in there, and maybe Rhythm Party is it. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it out tonight.
 
I was totally lost in Dance Masters after playing the demo. So much going on. The graphics were pretty ugly too.

But something about Rhythm Party got me. I ended up paying the full 800 points for it. It has 10 songs so that works out to be $1/song. It's the most impulse buy I've had in a long time. I really don't pay full price for XBLA games but I had a lot of fun with Rhythm Party.

I really like the rewarding for creative dancing in RP. It makes you think of what move you can throw into it. Like you start to think in your head, can I fit in a spin move between this circle and that circle? And the more crazy moves you put in, the more special effects happen. I sprouted angel wings attached to my body when I started doing a lot of jumps when dancing!

Giant Bomb has their quick look video up. It's only a small sample and doesn't really cover what I consider the game's strengths. But it's good enough for a sample since the demo is pretty limited...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V52bw1PiR3Q&feature=player_embedded#!
 
[quote name='eastx']Dirtyvu, how hard is it to earn high ratings on the songs? Difficulty would be the thing keeping me away...[/QUOTE]

I just got the game a few hours ago. I've played the Light and Standard difficulty levels on a few of the songs. Haven't tried the Extreme or Master difficulty levels. So far with light and standard, it's pretty easy. I've AAA the light on my first try. I've AA the standard on my first try.

The way I would think of the difficulties is like how Guitar Hero does it. At the light difficulty, there's wide spacing between the circles so you have a lot of time to get it right. and it's like guitar hero in that you can have your hand there way before the circles align. You don't have to wait until they're about to align before putting your hand there. And then at the higher difficulties, they're start throwing a lot more things for you to do.

Just like the old days of DDR where at the lower difficulty levels, you have a lot of room to improv (like at the DDR competitions). At the higher difficulties, it's more a recognition and speed thing.

But it's not hard like saying you have to have your arm at a certain angle or something like that. You can totally dance like an idiot as long as you hit your targets. And they did place the targets in a way that if you were to play the game conservatively, it would still look like dancing.

Just try the demo! That's the best part of XBLA! :D

*edit* just did some extreme difficulty. things come hot and heavy and all improv goes out the window. I don't know exactly what is needed to unlock Master, as getting an A in extreme difficulty isn't enough to unlock.
 
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[quote name='Matt Young']DC2 is great, and Kinect Sports is a pretty good game, though the first one is better.[/QUOTE]

I like the football in KS2 more than anything in KS1, but the overall package of KS1 is better.
 
Happy Action Theater is flippin' awesome. My kids love it and even I find myself amused with the randomness of the action. I guarantee you the next time I have ANYONE over this will be on.
 
I might get it, but it still seems kind of pricey given what it is. I haven't tried the demo yet, though. Maybe that sell me on the value of it.
 
Project Draco's official name is now Crimson Dragon. It's going to be an XBLA title, not retail. Here's a new screenshot:

crimson1024x576.jpg

http://playxbla.com/playxbla-exclusive-crimson-dragon-screenshots/
 
I remember Project Draco, Haunt, and Diabolical Pitch were announced as XBLA titles back in September of 2010 so that made me breathe a sigh of relief for my wallet.

Crimson Dragon is a game I can't wait for! I loved Child of Eden and had Panzer Dragoon Orta for the Xbox1.
 
[quote name='jza1218']I like the football in KS2 more than anything in KS1, but the overall package of KS1 is better.[/QUOTE]

Why? You don't actually do anything in the football game...
 
[quote name='nasum']Why? You don't actually do anything in the football game...[/QUOTE]

It never made sense to me to question why someone likes something. We're not all lemmings that have to think alike.

I like the football too. I just wish there was more to it! Give us more plays. And put some kind of defense in there too. Give us a manual juke option rather than the automated juking. What was in there was really good and makes us want more.
 
It's not cool to try to convince someone not to like something that they already like (with the exception of Twilight), but there's nothing wrong trying to understand why they feel the way they do.
 
[quote name='eastx']It's not cool to try to convince someone not to like something that they already like (with the exception of Twilight), but there's nothing wrong trying to understand why they feel the way they do.[/QUOTE]

LOLOLOLOLOL on the Twilight comment. an actual LMFAO.
 
Played some KS2 football yesterday. It's not that bad really, especially if you're out of shape like me and want something to motivate you to run in place, and hard. LOL. It's just annoying that you can't play defense and just have to stand there and watch the opponent randomly succeed or fail, and slowly. I also played the Football field goal kicking mini-game for the first time. I thought that was pretty fun. The field goals are the best part anyway IMHO.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']Played some KS2 football yesterday. It's not that bad really, especially if you're out of shape like me and want something to motivate you to run in place, and hard. LOL. It's just annoying that you can't play defense and just have to stand there and watch the opponent randomly succeed or fail, and slowly. I also played the Football field goal kicking mini-game for the first time. I thought that was pretty fun. The field goals are the best part anyway IMHO.[/QUOTE]

yes, the best part of football is the field goal Crazy Kicker minigame in the Kinect Sports: Season Two - Challenge Pack #1.

wondering when the free challenge pack 2 is out... they've already released a teaser trailer for it.
 
Any one try the new Tigerwoods with the Kinect? Seemed to work OK for me. But the game had a hard time reading my 7 year old, normally the Kinect reads her just fine.
 
I'm a little disappointed they have you facing the way it does. It doesn't really look like you're mimicking a golf swing. Ah I'm predicting they'll get better with it with next year's release.
 
I think if I want to play Tiger Woods, I'll play it on Wii (or Move, but I don't have a PS3). That type of motion sensing makes a lot more sense for a golf game. Kinect doesn't seem well suited to it.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']I think if I want to play Tiger Woods, I'll play it on Wii (or Move, but I don't have a PS3). That type of motion sensing makes a lot more sense for a golf game. Kinect doesn't seem well suited to it.[/QUOTE]

if you want to hold a club in your hand (but don't mess up your family room), you can do so with the Kinect version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZqF1pR6mEk&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Do3Tjbd6Q&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYrqeFcCtj0&feature=player_embedded
 
And in addition to that I suspect it doesn't really detect twisting motion of your wrists, which is important for realistic swings. I have not tried the demo, but nothing in Kinect so far has been able to detect that kind of subtlety. Wii Motion Plus and Move can.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']And in addition to that I suspect it doesn't really detect twisting motion of your wrists, which is important for realistic swings. I have not tried the demo, but nothing in Kinect so far has been able to detect that kind of subtlety. Wii Motion Plus and Move can.[/QUOTE]

golf (and tennis for that matter) do not have wrist motion.

Golf swing basics are:
Grip
Stance
Position at address
Weight distribution
Backswing
Swing plane
Follow through

Too strong a grip may cause you to roll over the shot at impact creating a draw or a hook spin on the ball at impact. Too weak a grip may cause you to leave the clubface open at impact inducing a fade or a slice.

After a proper grip, the next key to the best golf swing begins with your stance. You are going to want to position yourself so that your arms are comfortable and you are not reaching for the ball, nor so close to it that you feel all jammed-up.

Your weight distribution will also be a good indicator as to whether or not you have properly addressed the ball. If you feel that you have a lot of your weight on your toes, then you are reaching for the ball and you are therefore too far away from the ball with your stance. If you feel that you have a lot of weight on your heels then the opposite problem is true, you are too close to the ball.

The start of the golf swing begins with the backswing. The backswing should not be rushed under any circumstances. A fast backswing will almost always ruin the timing of the golf swing causing a lot of energy dissipation that will cause the ball to travel a shorter distance or to be errant in direction. The backswing will also establish the golf swing plane that is important for hitting the ball long and straight.

A very important aspect of the golf swing is often overlooked – and that is the importance of the follow through of the swing after striking the ball. Focusing on a good follow through will actually do wonders for improving the actual impact made when striking the ball. A solid golf swing will have a solid follow through, one in which the hips are turned, the stomach or belt buckle is facing the target, and the club head is allowed to continue to wind up behind your back. Failure to focus on a good follow through, or finish to the swing, will often cause the ball to squirt off the clubface in directions unintended.

The downswing is where you give your shot power. This does not mean that you should try to impart extra power with your shoulders, biceps or wrists. Instead, the power will come automatically due to the speed at which the head of your club is moving. In fact, if you try to flick your wrists, you will actually hamper this speed and ruin your shot. For a perfect golf swing, you should ensure that your wrists remain cocked, weight switched from your right foot to your left and that you are square on with the ball at the time of impact.

simple-golf-swing.jpg


This is the disconnect problem between gamers and reality. Gamers reason out what they think is reality when it's not. That's why you can't emulate true sports in video games. For one thing, sports are really hard! So to expect someone to play tennis with real tennis strokes is not realistic because gamers expect results. We play video game tennis because we want a fantasy world where we're great at tennis. i actually play real tennis (USTA 4.0 rating). most of these gamers that talk about "realism" don't seem to know. it's like the 12 year old that swears Gran Turismo 5 is the most realistic thing ever. heck, there are people that incorrectly think the way you swing is the same between tennis, racquetball, and table tennis.

And to be honest, if they made it too realistic, most people would hate it. beginners already hate tennis when they first step on a court because it's really hard. balls are always launching over fences. or hitting the bottom of the net. people always misjudge correct location of their body relative to the ball. people tend to swing very late (you should already be swinging with the ball about 5-6 feet in front of you). people also tend to stand so stiffly when they swing and not have a big enough knee-bend (you're supposed to hit from below the ball and come up/forward as you transition your weight into the ball).

So for a motion game, you have to balance the expectations of a gamer with reality. You need to make the controls such that gamers are not getting quadruple bogeys every hole but yet still have some semblance that you have to have a proper swing.

Same thing with the dance games. You may practice and score "flawless" but does your dancing look like real dancing? Like the dancers in the commercials? Those are professional dancers and they make the moves look hot. But at home, it usually looks awful and stiff.

The developers for Puss in Boots talked about it (check out the Gamasutra article). "We wanted the player to feel heroic, and this raised the next problem. Puss always looks great because he is posed by some of the world's best animators. Most players, on the other, hand do not exhibit the same flair. This is further compounded by the player's egocentric bias -- the perception that they look considerably cooler than they actually do."

"We quickly discovered this when we first hooked up the sword fighting. We initially used avateering -- the process of mapping a player's exact skeletal movements on to the on-screen character model. Puss would do exactly what the player did, but this simply highlighted the gulf between the two. It felt underwhelming rather than heroic (not to mention the fact that the on-screen character ceased to look and behave like Puss at all)."

As for Tiger Woods 13, the developers say they're tracking your shoulder, arm, and body positions which is what really matters in golf, not your wrist. They also said that they're detecting whether your motion is smooth and that you're not rushing your shot. They addressed the spin motion by letting you affect the ball after it's in the air. If you watch a professional golfer, their swing is buttery smooth. There are no hiccups. They don't look like a blur. Swinging faster doesn't produce a better shot.

I'm not a great golfer. If I was, I would be on tour. Like they say, it's much easier knowing what you're supposed to do than actually doing it. Even the great golfers shank the ball a number of times. That's why they do thousands of strokes a day every day.

The Wii has messed up a lot of gamers logic because with the Wii, there is waggle. In Wii tennis, if you play with real strokes, you'll lose. You win by whipping with your wrist as fast as possible.
 
Holy crap. LOL. I stand corrected. Still, it seems like it would be really weird that you face the screen. I have not tried the demo yet, though. Does the demo support Kinect?
 
I got Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure in a bit early (it comes out on Tuesday).

Some impressions (a full review should come within a week or two):
  • You have to navigate around a hub world sort of like Kinect Disneyland Adventures. But you actually wave your arms like you're running to move forward, not just hold them in place as with KDA. You turn by leaning your shoulders (rather than reaching with an arm), which is lame. You will wish for a controller.
  • Several of the minigames use the annoying running mechanic, but you also have to jump and do other crap too. Would be much better with a controller.
  • In the Cars minigames you pretend you're holding a steering wheel like Kinect Joyride. These are actually fun and intuitive.
  • Each of the five main minigames (Cars, Ratootie (sp), Toy Story, Incredibles, and Up) has three separate levels, all of which have different story scenes, visuals, etc. You have to earn points in the prior level (accumulative) to unlock new levels. These points also automatically unlock new moves, new optional goals, and art. It seems like there's a lot of content despite only having 5 movie properties.
  • The graphics are some of the best in a Kinect game.
  • In co-op, the game often forgot who we were and switched us to guests. Worse than even KDA, which was pretty bad on this front. Thankfully, you do still get Achievements as long as your Live profile is signed in. Both players get Achievements.
  • Oddly, there don't seem to be global Leaderboards - just Friends ones. I didn't know 360 games could do that.

The profile shenanigans and poor running controls so far are hampering my fun, but I was playing with my young daughter. I think it will be more fun to do solo.
 
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