Kinect a tale of two reviews

[welshbloke]

Kinect is now starting to get some serious time with both end users and the media. I was just trawling around for recent contact and came across these two reviews. I think what is interesting here is that they sit on both sides of the Kinect argument. If you want a Pro Kinect article then go for the TechTree preview if you want something a little more negative then you can always quote the Bit Tech article.

Anyway have fun and pick your favourite, I am personally waiting for the Gadget shows review of both Move and Kinect tomorrow night (UK show).

Bit tech

On a sheer fun-factor front it doesn’t really look all that good for Kinect, to be honest. The lag that plagued the time we spent with it is reason alone for most consumers to be sceptical and consider the alternatives – latency isn’t a complaint that can be levelled at the Wii or PlayStation Move quite so easily.

Mind you, on one level it’s impressive that Kinect functions at all and, while it may be a bit slow to respond, there’s no denying that it’s reliable at sensing player movement. It’s occasionally over-sensitive and prone to error like any system, but if used in the intended way then it’s remarkably accurate.

Tech Tree

Even though we spent just a couple of hours with the Kinect it was a very satisfying experience. I'm more of a hardcore gamer and swear by first person shooters, so even when the Kinect was finally announced I wasn't jumping up and down. But that's not to say I don't like these types of games. It's always a refreshing break from the serious and gritty action games that we are so used to. The main problem with the Nintendo Wii was that you were stuck with only a certain type of games that does get old after a while and loses its novelty.

The Kinect on the other hand introduces an entirely different concept in motion gaming where you don't need to hold or be physically plugged into any form of device; all you need is your body. Right now in v1 of Kinect we are only seeing the gaming part but think about it, if the camera is tracking your every gesture, the only limit is your imagination or in this case the developer's imagination.