Kinect product reviews

A friend of mine had brought a wii so we went into the store to get one and instead walked out with an Xbox 360 with Kinect.

The main reason we decided to go with the Kinect was because you do not have to hold anything and the Kinect does it all for you, so was easier for my daughter. She is only three and we wanted her to play as well and since we were about to have our second child when we brought it figured this would stop any fights from occurring.

The Kinect is so easy to use. You just stand still it scans you and that is it it gives you all the instructions you need like wave or put your hands up in the air simple. My daughter can load the games all by herself so I don't need to stand over her and she is incredible to watch. It also understands voice commands (although not so much with my daughter) and it has to be said a HELL OF A LOT OF FUN!!!!

You can not help but get a major workout no sitting on the couch playing with controls you are up and about jumping and running and hitting or dancing its all up to you. By the end of the night you are huffing puffing and laughing and usually striped down a layer or two.

Its fantastic entertainment. We own the original xbox but this is so much more fun. I love watching the video clips after the game has finished and you realise how silly you really do look.

If you want a good workout and love your game time, then this is what you need.
We bought this mainly for my husband who loves his xbox, but needs more exercise. You get one free game with it, and I tell you, you may think it will be nice and easy, but it isn't. and you certainly feel it after a short half hour on it. When it came to setting it up it was amazingly easy. Just plug it in and stand back, no hard work at all. We loved the ability to control the menu with voiced instructions, while it is limited at the moment, and a bit frustrating that you have to say Xbox before every command, it's still fun.
The one thing you have to ensure is that you have enough space (we have to pull our couch out of the living room every time we play, but also that nothing gets caught on the edge of the sensors 'sight', even just a curtain blowing in the way can disrupt things.
The only thing we don't really like about the kinect is that at times, when we swap around, the sensor can take a while to re-calibrate and therefore we can end up loosing points in the game. However, I do love that we don't need to have anything else, no controllers etc.

I can't wait to get more games to try.

Many years ago, it was science-fiction to think that you could control a game using only your body as a controller. Stand -this way- and it will pause, wave your hands and it will trigger the game to start... that kind of thing. Sure, this is really basic stuff, but the technology is really only just getting started. There are already games underway that will use a 'high resolution' if you will - the ability to not just say "well, that wiggly bit on the end of that stick-like thing is a hand... I must may attention to the location of that hand..." but to say "that hand is not only in this location in 3d space, but the fingers are curled like this, and that gesture means 'draw and aim a gun'..." or "The user has their head pointed to the right, but they are looking at the screen out of the corner of their eyes, meaning I need to be a little less sneaky with how the bad guys sneak up, because this position indicates they are wary and thus more likely to see danger coming..."

So, though I wasn't hugely impressed with the level of control options available, it is easy to see how much better it's going to get... the basics are in place and working fairly well, now it's just a case of increasing the detail of the sensors, writing more complex game algorithms, and generating higher-polygon graphics... you have to start somewhere, and it's better that the bugs get worked out on simpler, faster-to-release games.

My biggest gripe about this device is the sheer amount of open floor space it demanded in order to operate successfully. Unless you have a spare lounge, you're going to find yourself shoving the couch back to the wall and sticking all the coffee tables in a stack in the corner... In the end we got our best results by waiting for an overcast day - because this device doesn't like harsh contrast lighting from one side or behind the player - and shifting it all outside into the parking lot. Boy, did we feel stupid jumping, dodging from side to side, waving our arms around, and stomping around out in full view of passers by. What would be a great idea is to either fit the sensors with some kind of fish-eye lens, and/or have the sensor project a laser 'floor map' to keep the player 'in the zone'. It's ability to relocate and reorient the sensor to map your moves is great, but it would be good if it had a 'command gesture' to FORCE it to remap... because it's all too easy to move out of optimum position and suddenly your character can't jump, or starts to twitch and thrash around at random.

Overall, though I think the technology has come a long way, and still has a long way to go before it become truly impressive, this is a fairly good start. The kids love it, the adults get a good workout - I did more exercise in the last 3 weeks than in the previous 6 months I think - and the cost is less than a 6 month subscription to the gym... and you don't run any risk of looking stupid in public - unless you have a tiny lounge. Personally, I am willing to wait until more advanced games come out, but the early offerings are certainly fun and engaging for young and old, and it's only going to get better from here! Forget about MOVEing and WII'ing in the lounge.

Amazing, is what the Xbox360 Kinect sensor is. It's a new accessory that allows you to be the controller and at the same time gets you up, moving around and active (great for losing weight I have found).

When it came to setting up the Kinect sensor it was easy as just plug it into the port on the back of the Xbox360 and turn the Xbox360 on, then it came up with a menu guide with a few easy steps to get you started. We loved how it calibrated by itself so much easier than other things we have used in the past like the eye toy for PS2. We also found that you only need to calibrate it once and not every time a new user wants to play as we found it moves on its own and recognizes a person height, this is a great feature with my husband being so much taller than I and with small children.

Not only does it have a camera as well as a motion sensor, it also has a microphone built into it which in setup mode asks you to be quite while it listens for background noises. This we have found is needed in games such as Kinectimals and then allows you to roar like a lion and the kids just love this game.

It is also great as you can use this via Xbox Live with Gold subscription to talk to other people who you play games with or even family members overseas if they too have the Xbox360 Kinect sensor.

We only have a few games for this at the moment but we are enjoying great family time together and having a laugh at the photos it takes while you are playing I can tell you it's real funny seeing yourself in an odd pose.

We would recommend this to everyone old and young even my mum gets rite into it and enjoys herself and we have found this is great for our two younger children who are three and two years old due to them not having to hold a controller and work out buttons so they too now can join in and play games with us.