Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
Published on January 23, 2012 By Draginol In Console Games

Penny Arcade today:

Efficacy

So who has a Kinect? What do you think of it?


Comments
on Jan 23, 2012

I thinks it's just another fadtech that I have no interest in, doesn't make games better in any way, and will only work occasionally.  Might as well strap a  gameboy to my face and induce seizures, a la Virtual Boy.  Either way it's just another gimmick and will pass.  

on Jan 23, 2012

It's really a gimick in Microsoft's attempt to make themselves look like good innovators much like Nintendo. Sony is trying to do the same.

Nintendo seems to be the really only true innoventor when it comes to tech of its consoles atm. Everybody else is playing catchup in my opinion.

The Wii is still the best selling console in the entire world with 95 million consoles sold. Thats 30 million more than the PS3 or Xbox 360. If the vgchartz are correct. Despite the "hate" the Wii seems to get.

3DS apparently has 15 million sold compared to the Sony Vita's measly 0.5 milllion sold.

 

on Jan 24, 2012

I have one.  Mostly utilized for party games when folks come over.  Would I want to play games with it on a regular basis?  Hell no.   The coolest thing about the kinect is its integration into the 360, though.  They have more than a few cool features that you think you'd never use, but you often do and marvel at the convenience.  The voice recognition is surprisingly good.  As in I can't think of a single time its ever failed to recognize me AND not confuse my voice with a DVD or show I might be watching through the 360.  ESPN built an app with an interface designed for the Kinect and its fun to navigate (imo anyway) and provides a good value add.  The camera is good enough, though the one coming out for windows is apparently a bit better from what I've heard.  It can log you and your pals in when you walk up in front of the screen using visual recognition, so that's, while unnecessary, a neat feature.  Games designed specifically for kinect work well enough.  I don't really have any complaints about slow reaction time of the recognition or anything - it all works as it should. 

I also like the little offerings that some companies have been making for partial kinect integration - eg its not a kinect game but you can use your kinect to do X if you want.  Hopefully this will be a more common trend.

I like the idea of Kinect on PC ALOT is some cool development potential.  After playing Skyrim, I really wish I could have used speech reco to select weapons or navigate the UI.  I posted a video in the Skyrim megathread showing someone having fully modded skyrim to work with the kinect.  And while I have no desire to control full movement with the kinect, all of the voice reco programming he added would be awesome to use and really enhance and deepen the experience imo.

on Apr 26, 2012

Out of the 3 console implementations of motion controllers, I find that Kinect has the most room for new undiscovered potential, where as Wii and PS have pretty much reached their potential and would simply be getting better at the same things they do now.

MS also has a biz dev competition to move Kinect technology forward called "Kinect Accelerator" so hopefully something new and exciting comes out of it.

For certain, as it is, Kinect simply isn't good enough. It needs to be better at everything it does by at least 200%, and it needs to also be able to do the stuff Sony and Nintendo motion controllers can do that it can't.

So I'd say it can't get any traction yet, even though there seems to be multiple campaigns to get it into everyone's home. (eg: switch your cell phone provider, get an Xbox and Kinect)

On the plus side for Kinect,
-Wii U blows and I am pretty sure this is the end of Nintendo making hardware once that financial disaster is realized
-Sony is dropping out of hardware too?

On the negative side
-Apple is coming sooner or later to home gaming, this means consoles become niche markets. (me too Steam it also going to try and fail heh)

So...
Will MS be able to realize Kinect's ultimate potential before Apple cometh? I wouldn't bet money on it.

My bet is that Apple reigns supreme with 99 cent causal apps on your TV, and neo-Kinect is marginalized as too weird / expensive for normal people.

Can you see it now? iPod touch and iPhone motion controllers for your cheap TV games.

edit: Oh yeah, my Kinect only gets Dance Central going at any given time when friends are over... despite having other games for it.

on Apr 26, 2012

A gimmick of limited use. The major reason I play video games is to avoid physical activity...