Kinect Adventures Explore the World!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011


Adventure is enjoy for adventurer. It make us feel that we are the hero, whether it is to find the treasure. Or to explore the mysteries that still exist on Earth. This is a digital game that will make you feel like a real adventure by Kinect Sensor digital devices from Microsoft with a camera monitoring all body in real-time.

The reason behind this automatic enrollment is because Kinect comes with the mini-game compilation Kinect Adventures, a title designed for parents and their kids. This pack-in puts players in the shoes of a fun-loving adventurer that travels the world searching for challenges... but it's much less exciting than it sounds. The "adventurer" of Kinect Adventures is actually just someone that plays the same five, simple mini-games over and over again. And while these games are entertaining at first -- and serve to show off the technology -- the charm of Kinect Adventures will fizzle out very quickly.

For a pack-in title, Kinect Adventures has a lot of pizzazz. The adventuring theme, cute music and family-friendly interface make the game a perfect fit for Microsoft's latest device. Players can engage in sets of mini-games in the adventure mode, which gives those participating different goals to complete, or players can opt to play a specific mini-game of their liking. There's also a time trial mode available, as well as online multiplayer, and an option to share photos of yourself that are taken during play.



Each game (20,000 Leaks, River Rush, Rallyball, Reflex Ridge and Space Pop) copies the player's movement and projects it onto the in-game avatar. You need plenty of space to play and an equal amount of energy to go with it.

These mini-games are very easy to learn and they're fun at first, but they'll wear out quickly. 20,000 Leaks, for example, puts players in an underwater glass case where fish are mischievously attacking the case and causing leaks. Players must move their hands and feet around to plug the leaks. River Rush, on the other hand, is a simple rafting game where players lean from side to side to pass through gates as their raft travels down river rapids.

As you try all these mini-games, you'll unlock "living statues," which are trophies that you can animate with your own body movements. These are really fun, if only because you can hear your own voice coming out of a ridiculous cartoon creature.

The most fun I had with Kinect Adventures is with Rallyball and Reflex Ridge. The other mini-games are entertaining for a short amount of time but they get old. This is actually the case with the entire Kinect Adventures experience, as each mini-game has a very limited appeal outside of the initial "wow factor." You'll be racing the same races, popping the same bubbles, and doing frustratingly simple activities. The problem is that the gameplay of Kinect Adventures just doesn't change over time. Once I played River Rush once or twice, every subsequent round felt identical.




Kinect Adventures is the type of game that will be fun for the first hour or two after opening up the Kinect box, but not long after that. This is not because the motion-tracking technology doesn't work well here -- far from it. I'm fairly impressed with how accurate Kinect is at reading my body's movements, barring a few exceptions like during a 20,000 Leaks game where Kinect can't always read my feet properly.

This game will be an absolute blast for families. Parents might get annoyed with the repetition soon after starting, but it's a great start to learn how to use Kinect and show off the tech to your friends. And considering how well the motion-tracking actually works, it's a suitable demo for 360 owners. I should note, however, that Kinect Adventures requires a lot of calibration and I also had some problems selecting my avatar. These were minor concerns, but still annoyances.


Kinect Xbox , 4.5 stars, I am very pleased

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

First off, I have a hard and fast rule - never buy first generation equipment, especially from Microsoft, and especially when it's brand new technology. However, rules are made to be broken, right? :)


My boyfriend's birthday is today, and he really wanted the Kinect for his birthday - it was a sign that it was released the day before his birthday, right? :) So, like a good girlfriend (and fellow gadget addict), I ordered it from Amazon for him and it was waiting for us yesterday when we got home from work. Props to Amazon for flawless release date delivery!

He had it set up before I got home and reported that the setup was very simple. What took the most time was re-configuring the furniture and figuring out the best place to put the sensor. We have the 360S, so the device was plug and play.

We tried the Kinect Sports and Your Shape games, we also have the Adventures game that came with, and I plan on getting the Dance Central game as well.

So far we're very pleased with how the unit works. It definitely takes a little bit of getting used to, but that's the case for any new technology. I know there were reviews about how this isn't good for hardcore gaming - and for us that's fine. He's a gamer (MW2, excited for BlackOps), but if he's going to play those games he's going to use the controller. I am not a big fan of the controller gaming, I am a Rock Band fan - much happier with a mic :)

We bought the Kinect so we could burn some energy and not be such couch potatoes. The shape-up program is really great so far, but I suppose I should take my review for that over to the game.

The acid test for the unit will be tomorrow - birthday party for the boyfriend and we're going to have a bunch of friends over to play games with the Kinect. Kinect Sports has a party setting that should be perfect, but with that many people in the room and players of varying sizes and shapes, I will be very curious to see how it goes.

Pros: Easy setup, recognition is cool, actually burning calories while playing games, chance to get in better shape with a video game (the personal trainer feedback so far is really cool), fun party toy, voice navigation of the Xbox unit.

Cons: Had to re-arrange the living room, and in a small apartment it's kind of difficult to do that. Only two players at once. Interface takes some getting used to.

So, all in all, I'm delighted with the purchase and can't wait to see what other cool things this can do. I'm really looking forward to the video chat aspect. I'm also looking forward to the future of video gaming. Using the unit last night I really couldn't help but to think that this is really going to change the video game playing landscape.

My Kinect, One Year Later

First off, I'd like to say that I'm a motion gaming addict. Microsoft offers this package, which is their best package to date. If you plan on just buying this package, and a couple other Microsoft games, I'd say go for it. Gunstringer, in my opinion, shows off what the Kinect can do, as well as Fruit Ninja Kinect. Most people who have played Kinect Adventures get bored after a week, although when I first played it, it was fascinating.


In Gunstringer, you raise your left arm out and navigate your character. Your right arm is your trigger arm, and when you roll over characters, you raise your arm to shoot. It's a lot of fun, as I have to say that it's a good choice for this package, although there is an adult theme that one must be aware of. Fruit Ninja Kinect is a downloadable title, and has high replayability value. It's lots of fun to swipe your arm across the picture to chop fruits in half.

Now, for my gripes. I've always thought that boxing and tennis would be the hottest selling games, and games that wouldn't require much space. Exercise games are awesome also, but until the Kinect can allow you to play in a smaller space, there is a problem a lot of people will have. Many users claim you only need 6 feet, but I find this untrue. 6 feet only will work with a lot of games(the games in this package work great with only 6 feet), but I've found that when other developers games all of a sudden require me to step back, the whole formula doesn't work.

Most of the other developers games are by Ubisoft and THQ. Ubisoft is better of the two, but in my opinion, neither can compete with a game developed by Microsoft, which really takes limited space into account.

Kinect is still based off of hope for the future:
A year ago, many high reviews based this off of HOPE. A year later, and I'd say there are only a handful Microsoft exclusives, and a lot is still based off of hope. I'd say the best of the bunch are the Kinect Sports 1 and 2, but I'd prefer to see each sport focused on more, in a stand alone title like a Grand Slam Tennis, for instance. Star Wars Kinect seems to be promising, but as of today the release date is December 31. 2012.

In conclusion, I feel this is a generous deal by Microsoft for the 2011 holiday season, and is a bargain with the included games worth fifty dollars. Who knows? In a few months, you may end up like me, always checking to see if there are any new releases for the Kinect. Have a good one. Peace out!

Xbox Kinect The Next Level Of Gaming?

Monday, December 26, 2011

There have been so many advances in the video game controller through time that it is almost ridiculous. We all remember the first Nintendo controller that was a square box with some buttons on it.

Then the controller started morphing to fit the players hand. Eventually we got rid of cord connecting the controller to the game system and this was huge!

Recently Nintendo did a "on up" on the other guys buy bringing a realistic motion based control system to the gaming world and now we all love the Wii for that. But the next step has been taken by good old Microsoft who has thrown the controller right out the window! Now you can control your favorite video games with nothing more than moving your body.

The Xbox Kinect system uses a group of sensors to tell what the players are doing in real time, if you want to drive a car, just put your hands up in the air like you are holding a steering wheel. If you need to jump in the game all you have to do is jump an it happens.  No more pads, wands controller, You Are The Game!

Which you probably will be asked to do at one point or another, it is NOT asking you to elaborate on your experience with your seller. Instead, it is asking you what you think about the item you have just bought. Here are some examples to show you what I mean...

Dance Central for Kinect.
"This is by far the best game for Xbox Kinect! Me and my family play this for hours on end!! With so many songs and so many dance steps to learn...it's crazy how much replay this game has. The graphics are also perfect; looking like real people doing real dance moves! Highly recommended for teens and young adults."
or even
*
Dance Dance Dance Central, Kinect for xbox 360.
"Wow...this game was stupid! The moves are WAY too complicated and I haven't met anyone who can finish a song perfectly. How am I supposed to remember so much! A game shouldn't make me have to memorize so much stuff...I would not recommend this game to anyone. I'll be selling it soon."

Your goal with your reviews, much like persuasive essays, are supposed to attract others to or warn people away from an item or experience. The first review talks about how much that imaginary person loved to play the game with his family. The second, which sounds like a grumpy, old, imaginary person, talks about how awful the experience of playing the game was. Both are trying to convince you of something; the first to buy the game, and the second wants you to burn all copies (or simply refrain yourself from purchasing it.)

Kinect Sensor With Kinect Adventures are Brilliant!

I only found out about Kinect a couple of weeks ago. After reading some of the preliminary reviews, I was intrigued enough that I pre-ordered it almost immediately. Since first finding out about it, I have read as many reviews as I have had time to read.


Unfortunately, the more I read the more leery I got about my pre-order. Most of the reviews complained about lag, or the space requirement, or that the games were nothing more than regurgitated Wii games, and how every game title ever developed wasn't re-developed for Kinect on launch day. WTF?

Setting up Kinect was a breeze. Plug and play. A few setup items and you're ready to go. We moved the coffee table out of the way and moved the couch back a couple of feet to get the 6-8 foot distance recommeded in the documentation. But I don't think you need that much space, honestly. For some of the games, we were as close as 3-4 feet from the Kinect and it worked just fine. I think the space " is="" non-issue.

We played Kinect Adventures first, the game that comes in the box. Wii-like? Yes. Fun? Soooooo much more fun than any Wii game I've played. That Kinect can track your every move -- your hands, head, arms, feet, hips, EVERYTHING -- is just amazing. No controller can detect whether you're moving side-to-side, or backwards and forwards, or squatting or jumping while at the same time moving your arms and feet. It's just brilliant how well Kinect works.

One game in particular really shows the potential of this thing. You're in an underwater tank and crazy fish keep poking holes in the glass. You have to plug these holes to keep the water from coming in. In some cases I had to use both hands, both feet, and my head to plug all of the holes...yes, all at the same time. The girlfriend and I had a blast with it. The other games were just as fun.

I think Your Shape best highlighted what Kinect is capable of. You are an infrared replication of yourself on the screen. The shape of my body was precise (unfortunately) and it even picked up the logo on the t-shirt I was wearing. There are numerous exercises you can do and you follow along with an instructor. You have to stay in sync with the intructor to earn points and advance to higher levels and the Kinect does an amazing job of following your every movement and comparing it to the instructor. Not spreading your feet far enough apart? It'll tell you. Not keeping the right rhythm? It'll tell you. It is so much more immersive than anything I've played on the Wii and I can now actually see myself doing Your Shape instead of going to the gym. It's really fantastic.

A lot of the reviews complained about lag, meaning it takes a bit for the Kinect to detect your movements and get them on the screen. Is there lag? Yes, as measured in fractions of a second. Is it noticeable? Only if you're specifically focusing on it. But it's not noticeable during actual game play because you're focusing on the game. And just like with the Wii, you quickly learn to compensate for that fraction of a second difference. It's an absolute non-issue!!!!!

All-in-all, having played three titles (Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, and Your Shape) over a span of a couple of hours, the girlfriend and I were exhausted, exhillarated, and amazed at the experience. My girlfriend, being a typical girl, whose life isn't defined by gadgets, even posted on FB that the Kinect really is AMAZING! It more than exceeded our expectations and I couldn't be happier with the purchase. And I am absolutely ecstatic about what Kinect means for the future of gaming. Fully immersive Call of Duty? Yeah, it's coming!

Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures and Gunstringer Token Code


Kinect™ for Xbox 360® has games you can really get into. Now includes Fruit Ninja Kinect, The Gunstringer, and Kinect Adventures for a limited time, so you can experience gaming like never before.

A fully immersive experience with nothing between you and the game, now you can serve up justice one bullet at a time with The Gunstringer and join the epic battle against the world’s most delicious produce in Fruit Ninja Kinect. With the Kinect for Xbox 360, there are no limits to the way you can play.

   -  Easily hook up with friends with Video Kinect, no headset required
   - Sign into your profile by just stepping in front of the sensor
   -  Kinect games give you the freedom to jump, duck, and spin your way through a unique adventure.
   - Kinect uses cutting-edge technology to provide a whole new way to play
   -  Incudes "Kinect Adventures!" and token codes for downloadable versions of "Gunstringer" and "Fruit Ninja Kinect"