UPDATE: Check out our full Kinect review
Project Natal is no more. From here on we all have the struggle of etching its new name into our brains. Do we like the name Microsoft Kinect? Not particularly. But the name of Microsoft's motion-sensing device is, however, the least of our worries.
Kinect works using an RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and a custom processor running proprietary software.
The camera looks for your body, locks onto it, measures the three-dimensional positioning of 48 key joints in your anatomy and ignores everything else. Simple.
So you can forget about the annoyances of poor lighting or furniture messing up the image calibration, which was perhaps the greatest disappointment with Sony's PlayStation Eye technology.
It also supports up to four players, so once you've bought it, you won't need to upgrade or buy multiple versions of the device.
We've been to multiple Project Natal/Microsoft Kinect demo sessions over the last year, but E3 2010 offered us the best chance yet to get some proper game time with the device.
So what do we think?
No sugar-coating here; we came away disappointed from what we saw at E3 this year. MS's line-up of games failed to counteract arguments that Kinect is aimed primarily at the casual audience and not for core gamers.
Rather, the more widely broadcasted titles for the device ranged from casual dancing games to Wii Sports-mimicking family titles. And with each game we played, the device showed us how, like the Wii Remote, its fun core design is offset by its tendency for misinterpretation of our movements, making regular mistakes.
Joy Ride is a Mario Kart-style cartoony racing game, with powerslides and boosts featuring heavily. You make fists in front of you as if you're in a car, and steer your pretend wheel left and right to steer while leaning your torso left or right to activate a powerslide.
In the most part it was fun, but there were occasions when steering beyond the 90 degree point would make Kinect misinterpret our actions and steer in the opposite direction.
Shoving both fists forward is supposed to activate a boost, but even this simple gesture proved a challenge to execute for most players in our demonstration, having to try multiple times before getting it to work.
We tried out a track racing event in Kinect Sports (which, even by the title, is clearly MS's repurposed shot at Wii Sports). Again, it was simple family fun, but the on-screen avatar's feet didn't replicate the speed of our steps, but instead increased in pace over time like a traditional button-controlled Track and Field game.
And jumping hurdles requires you to jump during a small window when the hurdle turns green – not just impulsively when your character reaches the hurdle. Essentially, your character doesn't mimic your movements. It was essentially like pressing buttons, only buttons that require large bodily movements to activate.
We also tried bowling, which will surely be a family favourite. Except we couldn't put a consistent amount of spin on the ball, no matter how hard we tried. We tested a subtle twist of the wrist, followed by over-exaggerated twists just to make sure. No luck.
Lacking a killer app, being rumoured to cost $150 and paling in comparison to the super-accurate motion tracking abilities of the PlayStation Move controller, Kinect has a lot to prove before we get excited about it.
Your comments (12) Click to add a new comment
stiliom
August 17th 2010
12. I just found this video. A very hot girl plays kinect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTYOZLP_tDQ
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sniffinpoprocks
July 18th 2010
11. I think your lack of bowling knowledge jaded your review of the bowling. No real bowler 'twists there wrist' to inpart spin. More likely in the game, ball speed is calculated by the downward speed of the arm before release(increased by a higher backswing) and spin is calculated by the speed of the follow through based on a predetermined release point. Unless of course, there's a specific gesture to signify release, which(along with follow speed) would provide an even better calculation of spin.
So, if you had adjusted your swing, not your wrist twist, you should have been able to make controllable adjustments.
In real bowling, spin is imparted by the fingers after 'release' as they drag/catch on the holes and the lift of the hand imparts spin on the ball. A lower release point(close to the ankles) allows the fingers more contact time to impart spin.
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irongiant
July 7th 2010
10. Well Ubisoft have, maybe inadvertantly, just admitted that you can't play Kinect sitting down.. what a joke this system is becoming.
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nicolasmerritt
June 25th 2010
9. @decanem
Well, we put this on every single review we publish:
http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/techradar-s-reviews-guarantee-622749?artc_pg=5
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meditatinghamster
June 18th 2010
8. I think Microsoft are going to shoot themselves in the foot here if they don't release some very very good games. Do we all really want to re-live all the boring ball games we were forced to play at school during PE? Are we going to get lots of Wii style games like "paint the fence as fast as you can" or "hoover the virtual house with a virtual hoover"? This has the potential to be what the eye toy should have been, and with VR thrown in 'could' be brilliant.
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decanem
June 15th 2010
7. its become apparent recently that techradar need to look at the definition of the word "review".
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mgillespie
June 15th 2010
6. I want to know about lag and recognition when people are wearing regular cloths in regular living rooms..
It ain't a pretty story from what I have heard on the grapevine...
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mobius
June 15th 2010
5. @killabee, I just wanted to point out that Kinect is not based on ZCam (despite the rumours and buying of assets). It is actually based on PrimeSense, a competitor to ZCam (as press released by MS themselves).
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killabee
February 27th 2010
4. @watcherzero the technology is based on the zcam so 'TV lighting' has nothing to do with it, it would work in the dark, since it uses infra red. Neither does it 'soak up' the processing power, it all runs in a single thread (look up the gamasutra article on it).
That said, I think it will be interesting enough for me to purchase. There will always be games that work better with direct input but that doesn't make those that work the Natal way any less fun to play.
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watcherzero
February 27th 2010
3. Well you would be illuminated by the TV, as long as theirs enough contrast that the camera can pick out your shape and movements against the background.
On Natal itself I call gimmick, people will fast get tired of having to make large gestures just to move a cursor and for proper games a controller is a fine evoloution allowing you access to 16 different persons and 2 or 3 directional controls at the same time without lag. Also since they moved it from hardware to software based now its going to be soaking up your boxs processing power, same problem as the ps2 Eye.
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madjedi
February 26th 2010
2. I am really looking forward to this coming out but does any one know if it can track you in a dark room with just the tv for light or do you need all the lights on?
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romi
February 26th 2010
1. What theworls needs is Wii functionality with PS4 graphics...now wii are talking a beast of a product. Only 2478 days left before the launch of PS4
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