After calling the Playstation Move controller a Wii remote look-alike, I had a sense of apprehension picking up a Playstation eye-alike from my games store. Cries of ‘Traitor’ ‘Turn coat’ and even ‘Defector’ awaited me as I picked up the Xbox Kinect system.
Whilst these words might seem a little strong and perhaps a little un-warranted, everybody knows my devotion for the Playstation 3 Console. I’ll put myself out on a limb and say what most games players know – that on paper at least – the PS3 is the most powerful console. No one can deny that; the Playstation Systems for each step of the way have rejuvenated gaming and given new meaning to the term ‘Home entertainment system’. First redefining the CD, then DVD, then the Blu-ray HD gaming medium. Who can forget that prior to that we had games cartridges and then the awful loading times of Sega Mega CD and 3DO. But I am a techie, and word on the street is that the Kinect System not only rocks but takes it to the next level. So despite devotion I just couldn’t resist booking myself a room at the Xbox hotel.
Given my love for the PS3 I soooo badly wanted to report back that the Kinect System is rubbish, that it contains crap technology and is a waste of money. The truth is whilst I found that it certainly has its faults it is a remarkable effort and offers a taste of something promising to come through its hardware.
Out of the box the Kinect System looks like a sausage squeezed Playstation eye and there are two other cameras which are reminiscent of the earlier surround sound systems of the 90’s that you arrange on either side. They work together to build up a 3D picture of the room and your position within it. The idea is that Kinect knows how close you are and that sense of depth allows it to judge things like whether your hands are behind your back, or whether you’re kicking your legs out in front or behind, for instance.
Kinect comes with its own menu system, accessible from the Xbox 360’s dashboard. Inside this menu, you are able to access all of the Kinect-compatible entertainment features that are available to you. Microsoft wanted user interactivity from the get go and it is surprising how quick and intuitive it is. The Kinect experience begins as soon as you switch on your 360 allowing you to browse even the basic features of the Xbox 360 without a controller. Holding your hand out in front of you creates a hand icon on the screen. Moving your hand the onscreen icon moves with you to select the option you desire, then to select and you hold it there for a couple of seconds until it activates it.
Another innovative use of technology lies in the Kinect’s voice control command system. Using the onboard microphone you can control your Xbox using your voice alone.
Saying “Xbox” alone is all you need to get the Xbox’s attention and its there like an eager puppy. Once said a list of commands then pops up from the top of the screen. These commands are context sensitive so for example if you’re playing music or watching a video, these commands include play, stop, or rewind. A well nice touch.
his is much the way you interact with many of the games; either by using hand gestures, voice commands or body movements to make your on-screen character move or to interact with objects, animals or characters on the screen.
So on to performance and playability. There’s no denying that there’s some fantastic technology inside Kinect. Yet as incredible as it is, shortcomings soon arise in terms of limitations. If you’re expecting to play a game and have your on-screen character do exactly as you do with your body, quickly, and completely in-time with you – you’re going to be sorely disappointed. You just can’t do that in most games. I blame the marketing for this, because in every advert I have seen it appears as if the people playing the game and their on screen characters are moving synchronously with them. The reality of this just isn’t so; in every game I have played there is lag and copious amounts of it.
Take a game such as Fighters for example. It’s a 3D Beat ’em up game where you control your fighter by performing fighting moves in real life. Now this was the game I was looking forward to the most as what it bodes for future fighting games such as Street Fighter and the like could be incredible. However I soon realized that this was a delusion of grandeur as such was the significant delay between me unleashing my punches, and them being mirrored on screen that often I completed my move in real life well before the character did so. Not good.
To be completely fair though this delay is dependent on how fast you move. A slow movement, for example those in dance games rather than shoot-em-ups, has almost no noticeable lag at all. The faster you move, the more pronounced the lag is. A real question to this lag lies in what types of games will we be expected to play. It remains to be seen if and how shooting games will emerge on this platform. As I doubt most gamers will want slow moving titles or cuddly little animal games.
Talking of games there were a whopping 12 different titles available at launch – two words: triple wow. Compare that against the paltry 6 or so games offered at the launch of the Playstation Move. Indeed Sony should be ashamed.
Another area of concern for me is with the sensor. In the marketing campaign it said that the Kinect is capable of working out up to six players movements at the same time. The reality is far less – it didn’t take much effort for me and just four of my friends to ‘confuse’ it and during our games session, we also noticed a few glitches and moments of weirdness when the sensor had lost our position or just wasn’t registering our actions. Tut-tut. This is something that should have been ironed out long before release because if this had happened in the middle of a frantic game it would have added to our frustration.
Another issue is space – fortunately for one of my friends two thirds of his ground floor is a front room, but for some on affordable housing (like me) (also known as housing bunker options) will quickly find themselves in problems. Kinect requires plenty of playing space. The instruction manual recommends having 6 feet of clear space in front of the sensor for single-player games, and a whopping 8 feet of clear space if you’re playing with two people. Yep – it’s time to move your granny out of the way at Christmas, oops and the tree, and the in-laws, oh yes and the sofa. With all honesty I cannot see the average UK bedroom being big enough to accommodate Kinect. This removes the bedroom games players out of the equation and could see people relocating the Xbox to the garden.
The last area worth covering is cost; The Kinect Sensor isn’t cheap, costing £125 on launch. It comes with a free copy of Kinect Adventures – a title with lots of mini sub-games designed to showcase the various capabilities of the Kinect system. Tut-tut Sony for just including a demo disc with your Playstation Move – Shame on you.
However, if you think of it like this – Kinect can detect up to six people in a room, and supports two active players at a time. So that £125 brings with it two-player gaming from the get go. That compares favorably to the £127 you’d have to pay for the equivalent PS Move setup (with PlayStation Eye, two Move controllers and two navigation controllers). With that in mind in a weird way it does represent value for money.
So my final verdict?
It is really hard not to like or to appreciate the Kinect system, yes there are lag issues with some games and dealing with aforementioned space issues as well which could relegate some gamers. However it is impossible to deny Microsoft really did their homework with this and have delivered a solid piece of hardware which equates to a real swift kick to the shins of Sony’s mighty Playstation console. It is sad because in my opinion without the likes of Halo and a couple of exclusives the Playstation still had the higher ground and was still the technically superior machine. However, the hardware that Kinect brings changes the game. Like it or not, faults or not, Kinect holds futuristic possibilities. My verdict is that it is an ‘innovative’ rather than an altogether ‘intuitive’ piece of technology. Keep that in mind and keep your eyes open for future games and lets see what happens. I get the feeling you won’t be disappointed.