I got to see the Bengals vs. Cowboys NFL Hall of fame game Sunday.  Even though my Bengals lost, my love for gaming won!  I had the opportunity to try out the much talked about Kinect while I was there.  After standing in line for around an hour to hour and a half I had a chance to play my choice of 2 games.  The first game I tried was Dance Central and the second was Kinect Adventures.  Both were really fun to play and the the menus to get started were fairly simple and strait forward.  

I enjoyed both games more than I thought I would but I had the most fun with Dance Central.  That game is going to be so much fun at parties.  My cousin and I both had drank a few and all our inhibitions were gone by this point.  I am certain we both looked like bafoons bet we really did get a kick out of the game.  Dance Central didn't seem like it had any lag at all, but there was a little bit for Kinect Adventures a few times.  From a few of the negative reviews I had seen lately I had my doubts, but from what I witnessed the thing simply works.  My cousin has some pictures of us getting our groove on and I will post them later if I can get him to send them to me.  No matter what people are saying about Kinect, I had fun and thats what gaming is ment to make you do.

Cheers, and I still have faith in my BENGALS!!

Nice. I can't wait till I can my hands on a kinect, sounds fun and interesting.

Sorry, Kinect is strictly hands off...

IMHO People wanting to buy a Kinect should wait a little before doing it. Just to see how the next games will be.

BTW : It's normal that you get no lag with Dance Central, as the characters on screen do not replicate your actions, it's you that have to replicate theirs... 

While personally I am not at all interested in Kinect,as all my personal gaming needs and my family's gaming needs are more than covered by the Wii, I think this sort of hands on illustrates that (as I thought it would) Kinect is going to be very successful, at least initially, and if no serious problems appear after the initial onslought, then in the long run as well.

The target audience doesn't really care what the reason is for there being no lag in Dance Central or some slight lag here and there as long as these things don't prevent them from having fun (and imo they are right to think this way).

I'm sure most people are indeed having great fun when they try Kinect on such events, just like you. I just wonder how representative that experience is in regard to the real, overall and long run experience people will be having at home.

For example, nobody's will be exhausted when he plays Kinect for like 10 minutes. But at home you don't play that short, and exhaustion will very very soon stop people from having fun with a game. Playing a fun racer standing up and with your arms in the air is not going to seem like a problem if you only play one or two races, but if you played longer it would soon get the fun out the fun racer.

On such promo events having sufficient space is no problem. This is however going to be a serious problem many people will be facing at home.

Everybody loves "Dance Central", it seems to be a very good and funny game. But will one great game really justify spending an additional 150$ only for having the required hardware? As much talk there is about Dance Central, there is hardly any talk about other Kinect games at all. Except for Kinect adventures because it's bundled with Kinect and seems to be quite okay.

In the end I think Kinect will indeed be great fun when you play it with others and maybe you're even drunk. But I cannot see people having much fun with Kinect playing alone. So I fear that Kinect will soon end up being considered "a funny but very expensive gadget for parties", or, even worse "that expensive gadget you need to play Dance Central at parties". I think Kinect may face a fate similar to that of the Wii: Great for parties, but apart from that hardly being used at all. But the Wii has a lot more good games...

Kinect has potential to grow out further than what you would assume... just like the recent patent that it can do ASL... it's 4 array mics would allow direction play calling in Madden and there are tons of other useful things

Of course the Wii has a lot more "good" games, its been out years before Kinect.  Given time Kinect will have its own list of good games coming (I have no doubts).    My cousin who owns a Wii and 360 had little to no interest in the Kinect he is now going to pick one up just by playing it from the demo we were at.  And from the buzz that was going on while we waited, it would seem to me like Microsoft is missing 1 hell of a chance to sell systems right now.  Honest to goodness, I never heard anyone who outright thought it sucked.  Most were impressed and a lot of those said they were going to pick one up.

From my understanding you will be able to use Kinect sitting down on a couch so you should be able to play as many racing games as you like without having to worry about exhaustion.  Even if you do get tired playing a few games, that is a GOOD thing.  I remember when I was a kid, I actually went outside and did things and when I came home at night I was one tired kid.  So the more we can get our children up and off the couch the better.  Thats why we have such a horrid obesity rate here in the states and nearly every other industrialized country.

While there will be a problem in some living rooms in terms of size needed, I would imagine most will be fine.  The lady that was showing off the demo said that it didn't need as much room as you would think (whatever that means).  But if you don't have a midsize room then maybe Kinect isn't for you (sadly).

Just judging from the long wait times and the satisfied people that played the demo, I would be willing to bet Kinect is going to be a very very big success.  If Microsoft could sell these things for $99, I have no doubts about it outselling the Wii this Christmas.  But I would imagine Microsoft will want to remain profitable and they will probably go the $150 route.  If so Kinect will have a slightly harder way to go, but I think it will still sell well.  But not the gang buststers that a $99 device would do.  Either way I think we are in store for a price cut on the Wii sometime soon.

Pictures!

Dance Central seems to be a lead software for Kinect's launch...maybe it might even shock us and sell out...now that would be something.  As I've said before, I'm getting 3 Kinect bundles on launch, and 3 copies of Dance Central, The Yoga game for my wife, and probably something else ofr myself.  That video chat is probably the driving reason for my decision to get three bundles to connect with my family which will be seriously geographically dispersed.