Kinect...gaming without a controller or games..... you know for Kidz and Kazualz

They arrive November 4th 2010....................

What is that I hear you say "Kinect me " ok  hold on and I will:


The Kinect is  one kooky piece of hardware , probably conceived at at time when Microsoft feared everything would turn the original toilet white colour of the Nintendo Wii. The hoodied and faux Google t-shirted  scooter piloting masters of the Redmond leviathan must have panicked and thought the whole games market was about to go Kazual Kidz , and they needed something to Kinect to the Kazual Kidz .Before Nintendo`s toilet white coloured upstart finished flushing all their profits away. 


But the Kinect won't ....., as  THERE ARE NO GAMES , correction there are casual Wii style party games , animal petting games , dance and fitness games , and erhh Sonic .


But there are no core games , now consider this is not by choice , who would not want to launch with core games ? It is because perhaps the Kinect can barely handle the party games , let alone the likes of Halo , Gears ,Call of Duty or any other staple core release . 


And I am sure the shareholders thank the gaming Gods that Molyneux's playing  with a small virtual boy simulator got cancelled...mysteriously....


With it's bizarre choice of child simulation as a AAA launch/mascot title now cancelled , Kinect is thus left  to aim for a casual market share , one that is already saturated by said toilet white dust gathering Nintendo Wii.And there are millions of them. Millions of them.....Millions of them.....


Unless and until Kinect gets a core title release , it will leave the Xbox Live Motion Massive ,  confused and happily waving their Playstation Moves in core games like Res Evil ,Heavy Rain,M.A.G , and their Wiimote plusses in hundreds of casual Wii games  .NONE OF WHICH INVOLVE SMALL CHILDREN SIMULATION!

N00BM0nk3y000 channelling the righteous anger felt by all core Xbox Livers

How will the likes of  animal petting game a   , Dance game x , Fitness game y , and errh Sonic face off against that lot ? In a time of Western Austerity? The Kidz and Kazuals have far less spending capability than they did just one video games season  ago. 


Are any of the Xbox live Call of Duty/Halo/Gears hardened vets going to meet on line to play animal petting dance fitness marsupial chasing games? The same gaming talk poets you find on an average Xbox live session? To this the part of  gaming demographic, willing to go hungry but continue to buy games , that merry band of brothers and sisters that keep the coffers of many near to failing games publishers full in the hardest of recessions, Kinect is a virtual slap in the face , an icepick in the back , and  in actual reality  it will largely be a kool way to navigate the ever more bloated Xbox dashboard..




What the great ones have missed in their office , sorry skat3park cappuccino skinny latte yak/soy milk meetings is that the gaming audience is not fixed to one fad , yes there was a great casual surge in games playing following the release of the Nintendo Wii,  but the fad is over , and Kinect is mistimed to arrive at the point it is over ,ignoring the fact that  it's key markets are in recession. Even Nintendo outside first party releases , find it difficult to shift games and hardware , and they are the masters of motion .


Microsoft missed  the change in gaming to Social Network gaming and TOUCH , and it is touch and social network gaming  NOT motion gaming , where the Kazuals and Kidz that Microsoft were aiming for have turned to for their entertainment. 


This fact has also been missed by Sony , and Nintendo , all of whom have seen sales and demand decline in the  largely unopposed rise  of Facebook,  iOS and Android as gaming platforms.


Take Kinectimals where for £40 you wave at your pet , on the iPad you can actually touch,stroke  your Tom Cat for free! Ask the millions who have downloaded that app to their millions of iOS devices if they can  live without Kinectimals and the hassle it will take to get Kinect working.


The sad thing is it is the core that Microsoft is ignoring that would knock down walls to make room for Kinect if it ran Halo , but they are not the target audience . This would be like Gabe and the Valve guys at Steam , suddenly turning to the Steam community and saying all we are releasing is casual games , thanks for your money now play your cheap puzzle games ... wait no .. that could never happen ...


There are other issues


Size Matters : the 10 ft distance , the requirement to change hairstyles/hats/turbans , and clothes , and placement problems , and as yet untested lighting, head rugs,  face rugs and carpet rugs,  flooring problems are nothing compared to the greatest problem that kinect faces :the size of its target users , the average Xbox 360 owner does not look , feel , act  or importantly weigh anything like the average Kinect demo person . And anyone who does seriously already has a life and will not be hooked to a console jumping around in front of a camera  , unless they are being handsomely paid to as an actor.


Kinect has about as much chance of improving user health and fitness as the your dust covered Wii had of granting  you a Fonda/Governator physique.

I say.... could you chaps in the back stop dilly dallying ..righty ho!...one is trying to Kinect 

No time is  Kinect time : The problem with kinect is that it requires time and  whole body movement. And there are nicer things in life that require those things now aren't there? Video games are played to avoid whole body movement and consider when people play games ,  when people come back from , dinner , work, the school , club,match, movie ,the gym, swimming , Polo , or Prime Ministers Question time ,4 am in the morning,  they want  to avoid body movement that is why they game , one touch screen swipe or console pad button push should save or annihilate an entire planet or tribe of green pigs, whilst the only other part of them moving is their other hand , or straw strapping lips allowing them to  gently partake from the beverage of their choice. Your brain what`s left of it should be resting. Where then ,does kinect fit into your day? , will you be upchucking after breakfast, dinner , or 10 pints of Mountain Dew, or would sir madam like to stress themselves out during their limited game time by not keeping up with the dancing fitness queen on the screen as they tell you to stand on the spot for the 20th time before you start your Michael Jackson yoga dance medley frenzy? 






Wouldn`t you rather be following Lara, pondering why Snake loves cardboard , turning planets to Glass ,in fact I will wager this gaming season you will in fact be in the virtual jungles of Nam , Vanquishing Russian robots , Kratosing with the Belmonts , battling the "opposing forces " in Medal of Honour ,partying on your Wii , celebrating Marios 25th ,  feeling every bump in the road whilst steering with a force feedback wheel on some grand racing game , I forget its name oh yes Gran Turismo 5 , saving up for the always too good Steam sale , and checking out the 1000s of freebies and cheap games on iOS and Android . Where in that limited game time will you have time to kinect with your kinectimal.


Let me ask you this ,do you see yourself  in any of the Kinect videos , released to date ?


Some of the core will buy it , I want to be in Minority report , however  the kidz and kazuals will turn away by January , bored of their new kinectimal pet.  At least the Kinect will  save many an unwanted puppy from abandonment this Christmas.


Hope for the old boy yet :After strong first day sales , which the resellers will claim sold out , Kinects will gather dust , until someone manages to bring a new series of core titles .But I suspect that neither the present Xbox 360 or the Kinect hardware can handle this.But imagine what you could do with this connected to a l33t pc ,,,,


One thing Nintendo got perfect with the launch of the Wii was having several AAA core launch titles . But to do that they had to understand the limits of their hardware , and their users  ,something Microsoft needs to throw more money at seems . 


And another thing does the idea of your console watching you not freak you out I mean how long before this happens .....

"Sarah Con........"

See you in the trenches .....

Check  Amazon.com for kinect 

                                                                           

get your kinect in the UK  FROM THEGAMEVEDA EBAY STORE  OR from Zavvi or Game or AMAZON UK


checkout  2001 ,   v , and of course  Terminator if you missed the riffs....

Kinect riding high on pre release demands ... of its users that is!

Yes we all know it will sell out but it`s a demanding beast as you can see from the pic I got in my email below:

Daddy what is that man doing to that lady??????????????????

As you can see this official un-doctored tip  , which seems to demonstrate one of the many Kinect Kama Sutra poses , is actually better than the stuff I was making up in my last kinect post. Wow effortless humour . And come on does this not make you want to try playing kinect in a deep sea diving suit ,I can just see the You Tube videos now dispelling the absolutely ridiculous myth that you cannot kinect in a diving suit.

Any way time to take a looksee  at the release strategy , watch a few demo videos and well you cannot help but be left with a feeling that more effort was expent on applying the correct tight fitting Lycra to the hyper , wait till you see them , models , most of whom are young tween females, all of whom cohabit in the most spacious apartments ....... I mean that is so the demographic of Xbox live now ?  What happens when the hackers start taking control of the tweens Kinect cameras and sharing videos? 

Maybe Microsoft want to help the guys out , you know get them out of their Halo/COD clans/shells and sat behind nearest Lycra clad tween gyrating at 200 fps in real life! The guy in the pic seems pretty keen , it is most impressive that Kinect allows 2 people to get so close and can still distinguish them. One wonders how extensive the testing was though ...

Let me show you what I mean this is the video for Zumba a release title for Kinect 

now raise your jaw please and lets continue this is Ubisoft`s your shape fitness evolved

Do you notice a scantily clad Lycra motif yet . More significantly have you ever seen any one that hyper about exercise or who carrys off Lycra like that ever go near a video game ? If you met her you would go out of your way to NOT mention your 300 hour a week gaming obsession ....let alone give yourself a coronary Zumba dancing , if  by some miracle she decided that to kinect round your abode was vital to her personal growth and development. Whilst most of us ubermenchen have no problem with such romantic escapades, me thinks the majority of Xbox fans are being built up for a fall , and i mean literally through their hard earned recently 3d plasma.


Wait  Neo  , maybe there is NO GIRL , maybe the Kinect is projecting a hologram , and we ...we are all Duracells?


I could play you more , but you got Google and You Tube for that , suffice to say to counter the lack of REAL games , Microsoft is using the promise of  Geek  Nirvana . i.e a world populated with scantily clad , tightly clothed hyper gyrating  females to sell  . Oh there are a few guys in there too , to demonstrate to the largely male Xbox Live demographic  how instantly your life will transformed by kinect.  


The You Tube videos  featuring "girlfriends " that will surface in the coming months will be insane compared to the dodgy Wii ones that were de rigeur not so long ago .... Imagine what certain enthusiastic Xbox Livers will get up to with the Black Ops RV camera ,combined with gyrating kinect-i-femmes doing their Zumba routines.


Which as you have gathered should sell more Kinects and Call of Duty Black Ops ! Damn I am doing their dirty work for them.... Viva Capitalism!

You lookin at me? You lookin ?

BUY KINECT NOW FROM THEGAMEVEDA EBAY STORE 

   

Could a casual Kinect led gaming tsunami wipe out core gaming and ultimately doom the industry?

Fleeing the Casual tyranny Admiral Apple led a rag tag fleet of...or is that Leading the Casual Tryanny? Bungie come back.. 

It began with the Wii, nay it actually began with the Sony PlayStation , the birth of casual gaming , when [jilted] mass brand managers Sony , sought to apply their business models to the video game industry . In a twirl of a CD drive , Sony swept away the uber kudos of  the era of core gamers with their  Snes/Genesis , Arcade Games [ that required an Arcade!] and the self monickered l33t PC /Mac/ computer geek gaming generation .

It has continued with the Xbox  ,360 , Wii ,PS2 and  PS3. The casuals now walk amongst us indistinguishable from the normal gamer...They are the normal gamer........They...are us ....

It has continued with iOS and Android mobile touch , and Social Network facebook gaming swiping aside the core PSP and even shaking the knees of the Nintendo  DS execs....

The Casual gaming tsunami is now coming to its conclusion with Move and more significantly Kinect.

By your command :

Long after the last core game has finished spinning in your machine , or been played through in 5 hours on its hardest setting THIS year you will be hopping around your TV in your finest Lycra  , or you will be turning down the lights to see which wonderful colour your PlayStation move light sabre decides to change into next... you may even ...even get out the old Wii weighing thing .. or just opt for swiping away at your iOS and or Android device of choice

You too have been swept under the Casual  gaming Tsunami .... this is the Future .... Tom Cruise foresaw it in Minority  report , though its less grey and morbid! 

There is no escape you see because our coding heroes , the ones responsible for the core games that have fuelled the gaming industry and core gamers for almost 30 years, well they are all going to be jumping around their living rooms too , but not because they have been swept under the Casual  Kinect/Move/iOS/ Android gaming Tsunami , no , because their code houses are about to go under , when casual dancing in lycra  game X outsells EVERY core game release put together , you know where the money will be going next year , and it wont be to fund a 200 strong group of elite coders to churn out the bloated sequel to last years underselling bloated sequel to last years underselling bloated sequel ....


This casual gaming tsunami  ends an era where core gaming drove the market  ,  the last time gaming got this mainstream was at the height of Atari's reign , right before the industry collapsed and they say to this day you can still find console games buried in USA deserts ...so core games fans don't be frightened all of this has happened before and all this will happen again ..... just have to go with the lycra for a while .... 

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

Kinect dealt a shellacking due to sofa party radicals?

Around the web there is a new gaming movement , the sofa party movement , made up of gaming traditionalists  , proudly hoisting their "Do not tread ...at all"  and "We will not be moved or kinected " placards , and spreading extreme core gaming fear and insanity with every review . 

The Kinect as one motion gaming and  Diwali dancing Nobel Laureate might say is getting a shellacking in reviews , but look closer and you will see that most of these reviews are by people who are not the target audience , can't do lycra , and or are reviewers faced with 7 days of time to learn motor skills they managed to do without since birth..The same reviewers who initially had soooo many problems playing Nintendo Wii games .... remember? 

Read reviews where the target audience is involved and it is a different story , kids in love with Kinectimals , fitness addicts remodelling their homes in anticipation , and the general casual public who will give a Sonics whisker about lag , gameplay , depth , when the point of the thing is to have fun , and in a group.

Kinect is a new form factor , it will require a new set of skills quite different to what has gone before , and many core gamer egos are about to implode as 30 years of carefully honed skillz are shuryiukened. Kinect doesn't just mean a change in the shape of gaming it also means a change in the shape of gamers ! Girls ,kids ,energetic fitness types , and inevitably the odd household pet will all be displaying ninja gaming skills leaving core gamers to retreat to the safety of their plush cushioned sofas...

With Kinect  the  big Redmond M has wisened up to the  power of the casual gamer , and the saturation of the core market , I mean what do you buy after Halo Reach, Call of Duty Black Ops , and GT5 are over ? This year it will be Kinect and its casual tsunami of games that will outsell all these AAA franchises..


Really nobody buying into Kinect expects the games to outdo AAA traditional franchises , what they are buying into is change, and this change is much needed in an industry currently locked into falling annual sales of annual sequels of so called AAA core games , without this change , and the change that iOS ,Android,and Facebook have caused ,we could predict next years entire line up of games , Call Of Duty Yawn , Halo Yawn Yawn , Metal Gear SnooZe, Super Mario Rerererelease and of course GTA Yo' Money  .... etc ...etc....all with 2/3rds of the game not on the disk and  to be bought at additional cost as DLC! with zombies!

So when 5 million Kinects sell by the end of the year , maybe coders will be forced to move video game design away from the stagnant predictable and ultimately doomed state it has become. 


When this happens they should remember that we bought into Kinect because we are so bored out of our minds with the limited edition , gimped game dlc purchase obligating , virtually identical to last years model of what they think are core games .


If you missed the riff read about a certain historical shellacking given to the Brits  here... wow they even had cos play in those days!  

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

KINECT for £109.98 today only

Get your Kinect for £109.98 today only 

other Game deals 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: (Multi Format) From £14.98

Halo Reach: (360) £22.98









FIFA 11: (Multi Format) From £15.98

GAME Sale: Best Of The Rest From £2.98

Kinect for £109.98 from Amazon

If you missed the Game offer then checkout this

Kinect Sonic Free Riders Dance Evolution Joyride Fighters uncaged for £17.95

Again at Zavvi till Monday


this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Is 2011 the year we Kinect to Microsoft? With Child of Eden`s arm wrecking gaming perfection and the Kinect SDK beta for Windows 7

10 million Kinect units are out there , as of last week only thousands were actually in use on consoles , if that ... mine own has sat gathering dust since launch week , and I have two ,  two to link to my PC and go all Count Zero one day... and that day is getting nearer ...


Post a very disappointing E3 2011 ( even the booth babes could not distract from the lack of actual innovation this year) , we have major developments for Minority report fans , the release of Child of Eden and the Kinect SDK beta for Windows 7 ... 


thegameveda has been playing Child of Eden non stop now for 48 hours give or take a few minutes , and boy do your arms feel like falling off . I never knew being a conductor was this tiring or required this level of fitness .


Mizuguchi San`s team has created the perfect emotional electric light symphony that you conduct with your hands and without realising it your body ,mind and soul...


The first thing that will happen when  you when you boot up this game is that you will fall head over heels in lurve with Lumi , and YOU WILL rescue her.You will not stop until your arms fall off , and the game will often warn you to take a rest!  Fascinating on a day when half the gaming world is rescuing Zelda , the other half will be rescuing Lumi . Gotta dig those Japanese game memes as the hip blogs like to say... Zelda can wait ... my heart belongs to Lumi ...and seriously aren`t virtual dames so high maintenance ... always making with the "rescue me " ....

Perfect? exactly my thoughts.....hold on Lumi ... I will save you.....as long as my arms don`t fall off 

I get so emotional baby!  : Taking a totally stereotypical gander at the evolution of the games industry  ... our Japanese cousins developed games famous for eliciting emotion , whilst Western  developed games are famous for  frags, loot gathering , subscription fees ... and Peter Molyneux.......


Child of Eden continues  that noble tradition , with a caveat of hats off to Ubisoft for having the guts to publish it ! ( where are you now Sega?) . And the single most important fact that Mizaguchi san, delivers what he promised .. something Mr Molyneux* should contemplate...


*we love you really Mr Molyneux ..now how about some more Syndicate and less Fable/Milo????

With Child Of Eden we have a game that elicits emotions you never knew you had , this is a perfect game . It`s evolved to a point where it is beyond your every day game or movie experience . With Kinect you simply get lost in this world , but more on that later . 


Aint it shocking what luv can do : Rez fans will remember a weird strap on vibrating add on that came with the game on the Dreamcast , the PS2 and Xbox Live version had the feedback in the controller , and with Child of Eden you can feel the beat and shocks by setting your xbox 360 controller to vibrate ... now if you bother to strap this on to yourself or put it in your pocket (!) you get maximum Synesthesia .. with your brain drowning in the visuals , your ears in the sound , and your body feeling the beat through the xbox 360 controller ....which is seriously heavy after 48 hours by the way....and will likely shatter your ribs , spine or whatever part of your anatomy you place it in the vicinity of...


Or you could just play with the pad in your hands ... but that would be like driving a Ferrari with a remote control , no , Kinect is THE way .. until we get the Move version on the PS3 later this year..


Child of Eden is the perfection  of decades of Japanese arcade games , from Taito shooters with Zuntata soundtracks to the beautiful Sega and Namco racers to games that later became labled as synesthesia games like Rez , but actually core gamers call zone games . 


The zone for casuals is the point where you are so skilled you are surfing the game , you are playing without realising you are playing , at this level of skill you can be thinking of something completely different , going through something else in your head and then the level ends , but with a perfect score . You play with skill , and instinct , very few games manage this , Rez of course does , Frequency and Amplitude to a lesser degree , and also the great Wipeout series , and the finest arcade racers all have this special ability to draw out core gamer skills . 


If you have ever had this feeling when playing a game , then you are in great company , the late great Ayrton Senna used to talk about something like the zone when explaining how he won so many races.. You could also equate it to learning to play an instrument , and getting to the point where you can play without thinking ....


They say you can play through Child of Eden  in 90 minutes , or you can PLAY the game in 90 minutes , with all your decades of core game skills , conducting and directing the game so it leaves you with a feeling like few others. Brevity is true for many great arcade experiences , whether it is 3 laps round a Ridge Racer circuit , 2 rounds of Tekken or Streetfighter. What seperates these games from other genres is the skill and perfection you strive for whilst playing those few minutes ... its not how long you play arcade games .. it`s how you play them...


As I said at the beginning I have been playing ..nay experiencing Child Of Eden now for 48 hours , and like it`s ancestors Rez and all the way back to Taito`s Space Invaders ( check out Infinity Gene for a real trip) thegameveda and generations core gamers will be playing these milestones for decades to come . 


Coming on strong......


Observers may have noticed the lack of Japanese games at E3 2011 , many even Japanese coders often lament about the death of Nihon coded games , but look closer and you see very few nations totally understand what makes a gamer tick like they do , the coders that are failing are those who foolishly Westernised their games or sold out to compete with iD ,and Cliffy B and Co. Many of our greatest games developer`s inspirational heroes are from Japan , and as you can see from  Space Invaders to Child of Eden via evolving game genres from sh`mups, platform , adventure , RPG to synethesia , the evolution of gaming is littered with milestones that would not be there without a Japanese influence . 


I cannot wait to see what Mizaguchi san does with the Move and Playstation 3  version, check out his blog here  , and if ... if there is a gaming Nirvana ... then imagine what could be done with a PC version of Rez, and Child of Eden now that we have the Kinect SDK beta released by Microsoft... 

Get Child of Eden now in the USA


In the UK get Child of Eden now from Game or Zavvi 


On the PC we may not have a Mizuguchi san game just yet but we do have The Polynomial , which sooner rather than later will be controlled through Kinect ... I would have done it myself but  hey I am too busy rescuing all these virtual dames , two in one week counting Lumi and Zelda... a heroes work is never done......

this ,PC, Rez and Child of Eden fans is Synesthesia done right on the PC running at 5120 by 1600 ..just needs a Kinect patch!

P.S. when attaching your Kinect to your PC , remember to use the USB adaptor and power cable dongle , that orange tipped lead coming out of your Kinect ,  may look like a USB lead , but it isn't as several USB 2 and a USB 3 ports on my laptop can attest......!

lastly for Synesthesia fans , thegamevedas favourite rare PSONE game , far rarer than Rez , and a decade older than Child of Eden ..... is Internal Section which will bounce along to the beat of any CD you put it in (assuming you still have a CD) 

 

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Calling all PC Dragonborn play Skryim with Kinect voice and full body game control !

Well at least in between crashes to desktop you can now do amazing stuff like voice control and use body movements to move and fight in what for many is the game of the year Skyrim , now imagine playing Star Wars the Old Republic this way , this is a dude you need to follow , cannot wait to hook a Sony HMZ T1 up to a PC controlled with Kinect .....just need to work on those neck muscles...

UK fans get Skyrim from Zavvi or Game , and USA fans still holding out can go all out for the collectors edition:



Free Shipping on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Collector's edition at GameStop.com     for the PC , Xbox 360 , and PS3 versions.

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

From tomorrow you save games to the cloud ,navigate movies with a wave,Bing with a word as Xbox Live updates

Beacons , Cloud saves , Voice and Search Controls and Facebook Posting are the updates hitting your dashboard tomorrow , but are they free or for Xbox Live subscribers?
Hooked up to a PC you can do all of this and more with Kinect already , but it is cool to see the living room remote being threatened in this way  , and what happens if your sister shouts "Xbox Bing My Little Pony " in the middle of your Call Of Duty session ? I mean has this been Beta tested or what?Of course to take full advantage of the update you need a Kinect , so way to go Microsoft , time to shift another 5 million Kinects!  Find out more here  and avoid the shortage of Kinects by getting one direct from the source :

Now that Microsoft have us  all talking to our Xboxes how long before they start talking back ? Imagine then  a near future where Microsoft targets your preferences and the Xbox shouts at you to play a game , or suggests a movie or online purchase ,  all Xbox users will of course be referred to as "Dave" ... and what if the thing goes AI ? Will Microsoft tailor each Xbox to each user ? A streetwise wisecrackin Xbox personality for the kidz and  , left wing right wing political leaning personas for politicians who have secret Call Of Duty addictions , or just your favourite Hollywood actor/Pop stars voice shouting out at you from your Xbox? Peter Molydeux would be proud....


But why tell me ... why is no one asking the most important of questions ?  Where is Star Wars Kinect Mr Kudo Tsunoda ?

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached