First Impression: Kinect and Kinect Adventures

With style, I'm going to give you a run down on both the Kinect sensor and Kinect Adventures. Starting, obviously, with the former.

Kinect Sensor

Here we have a REVOLUTIONARY device. I've been fortunate enough to have play quiet a bit of Wii, and I must say: Thank you Nintendo for getting everyone elses' ass in gear!

Let's talk about the facts. Fact is, Nintendo created a motion controlled console when Microsoft and Sony were both set on the DVD Format Wars. Fact is, Nintendo cornered the market on motion control for a few years. Microsoft and Sony had no choice but to react. Now we have the PS Move and Kinect. My opinion will be bias because I have not yet used the Move. But, I do know how it works and it appears to be a glorified Wiimote. Sorry Sony.

Kinect. The sensor is about as wide as your Xbox is laying on it's side. It tilts up and down automatically. You must place it between 2 and 6 feet from the floor. You have a play area that ranges from 6 to 10 feet from the sensor. It has the ability to learn facial recognition. You have to perform more than 1 setup of this, preferably with different lighting conditions. It also has voice command.

Connecting Kinect: Setup time approx. 30 minutes

A minor update is the first thing you do. It's fairly quick. Then you enter the setup guide. This helps calibrate the Kinect microphone and other various essentials so your experiance isn't hindered by background noises and whatnot. After the calibrations and other ins-and-outs, I recommend going straight into the Kinect ID and setting it up. This is where the sensor will learn your face. A single setup process is sufficent to play Kinect Adventures.

Kinect Hub: aka Kinect version of Xbox Dashboard

The Kinect Hub is where your interface to you Xbox through Kinect takes place. It does not have all the features of the dashboard. Sadly, Netflix hasn't made it into the Hub yet :( You do have the ability to check achievements, look at friend's status, basically anything on the My Xbox tab. You have access to LastFM, Zune, and a few other promo videos. So far, all parts of the Hub are accessable by hand movements or voice.

Gameplay:

This is where it senor either succeeds or fails. Kinect has full body motion capture. In an unexpected turn, I learned it also has depth perception. It takes photos of you while you jump, duck, dodge, spin, flap your arms, so on and so on. The device warns you if you step too far out of the bounds of it's sight. I haven't experianced any lag in single player or multiplayer yet. THAT is a very good sign.

All in all, Kinect has succeeded.

Recommendation: At $150, try it before you buy it. You absolutely cannot play Kinect games without getting your ass worn out.

Will I buy it? Got it, love it, going to perform mating rituatals with it...when it gets an update to do so :)

Kinect Adventures:

I classify this game as a party game. You perform mini games and attempt to collect Adventure Pins. This has you jumping, crouching, waving your arms, and lots of other things that make you feel silly. Of course, that's the point, right?

I've not had any lag or bugs with this game. The only fault (and it's on my behalf) is when I get too far out of bounds from the sensor's line of sight. No big deal, it takes a bit getting used to. The game itself is best enjoyed with two players.

The concept is to get gold medals on all your mini games. This requires a certain number of Adventure pins to be collected per level. The levels vary in fun ways. There's rafting, rally ball, an obsticale course, and even plugging leaky holes in a submerged glass box. I know, it sounds silly, but dammit, IT'S FUN! You have pictures taken of you as you perform the more outragous acts, and of course, those will either entertain or embarass you to no end. You get to act in Living Statues, that are rather hilarious when they're played back.

The game is rather basic and obviously family oriented. For a launch title, it helps you experiance the way Kinect works. Since technology makes me nerdgasm anyway, this has got to be the most fun I've had since Halo 2 introduced matchmaking.

Recommendation: Bundled with Kinect senor

Overall Excitement and Adventure: 9 out of 10

Onward to the wildnerness!