GDC-XII – Garfey Dot Com 2012

Welcome to “Garf’s Guide to..”  the first in hopefully a series of posts helping you make sense of various subjects using my vast knowledge of all things shiny… anyway.

Last week was a very good week, Sam (the misses) bought me a nice new Xbox 360 Slim, with Kinect – the new motion controller! So I thought I’d do you guys a favour and let you know what it’s all about and advise you if you should go out and buy one too.

What is it? – It’s a new way of controlling games, but you have nothing to hold onto or press so it makes life a bit more simple, although you still have to be quite co-ordinated on occasion. The kinect unit itself has 2 cameras in it which pick up where you are standing and then it films you moving which the Xbox then turns into your game / character moving on the screen, it’s very clever stuff! The kinect also has a built-in microphone and the idea is that you can control the xbox with your voice, which is a great idea.

Whats it like to use? – Mostly it’s very easy, on screen instructions appear frequently but you don’t really need them, move your hand and the hand on-screen moves too, hold it over an item to select it, done. The one downfall is in the voice control aspect, it’s not very clear or very comprehensive and certain commands don’t even work – but it’s early days yet and this will no doubt improve.

Is it fun? – Yes. Playing the included Kinect Adventures game is great fun, either on your own or with a friend after a few beers Some aspects are clearly just demonstrations of what the Kinect can do, but others are very fun party games with no danger of a controller going through your TV.

Is it worth getting now? – It depends, if you already have a Wii then probably not. If not, then do it. It won’t be coming down in price any time soon, and you have all the Christmas bundles in the shops now. Also, microsoft have invested too much money in this for it to fail, the games and applications will get better it will just take a bit of time. It will be fun on Christmas Day though.

What games should I get? – Well the free one, Kinect adventures is great but you’ll already have that. The next best one is… Dance Central, yep I know, a grown man dancing in front of the TV does not sound like fun, but actually it is and you’ll be amazed when it tells you you’re not moving your right arm or left foot correctly. Kinect sports are all good fun too! As usual there are also a fair amount of exercise games, these vary but the EA active game comes with a heart rate monitor and an exercise band – good if you don’t mind paying the extra for it. You can go to IGN for a full review of every kinect game (I haven’t played them all) http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/113/1132215p1.html



Enjoy!

Garf