Sony rejected Kinect before Move
The battle between Kinect and Move is soon to become a reality, and it’ll be interesting to see which system consumers plump for. Especially when Sony almost made Move hands-free in the same way Kinect is.
There are distinct differences between the two systems, mainly due to the fact that Move on the PS3 employs a wand controller that looks vaguely phallus while Kinect on the Xbox 360 does away with the controller altogether in favor of gamers using their bodies to control the on-screen action.
But it almost wasn’t like that, with Sony’s senior researcher Richard Marks telling VideoGamer:
We did as much as we could with just a camera: that was my focus. But we kept running into problems, you couldn’t do all the experiences we wanted to do and also around that time DualShock was coming out for PlayStation 3, it had built-in censors and gyros that gave different kinds of information about rotation, whereas the camera could give a lot of position information.
So combining the two made a lot of sense. And also the big other factor that we were realising at the time was that it feels good to have something in your hand for a lot of games. It’s not just that it gives you more input capability, which it does. But also it just feels right. Like if you have a tennis racket it feels better to have a controller in your hand. If you have a magic wand, a sword, a gun, it all feels better.
We were very interested [in losing the remote] in 2004. But then we just decided it wasn’t a viable product in our minds. EyeToy can already do a lot of that already. We hit a lot of the same limits with the 3D camera that we had hit with EyeToy so it didn’t seem like it added enough value. I had demonstrations with the 3D camera where you’re just casting spells or drawing. Doing it with your fingers is kind of neat but in the end it feels awkward. I would often just pick up a stick and it felt better.
[The controller] was easy to use, you could get all the benefits of having buttons. But we could also have all the benefits of tracking the controller with a camera, and that’s when we basically started the production of Move.
There’s a huge chance someone is going to end up with egg on their face here. If Move fails then Sony will regret rejecting a camera-only system, and if Kinect fails then Microsoft’s big gamble is going to make the company look spectacularly stupid.
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July 27th, 2010
LMAO That’s better.
July 27th, 2010
They should have bought the tech and applied both. Kinetic with a move wand would be more ideal. Kinetic is more accurate than ps eye alone, but adding the move controller is the best of both.
Sony may and up with egg on their face as far as sales are concerned as kinetic has a better “wow” factor but as a gamer i’d go with the better tech for games altogether and that is easily the more functionable out of the two.
July 27th, 2010
I have a feeling that it wouldn’t take much for Sony to add facial recognition to move or the OS if you have an eyetoy. That is basic shit that has been out for years already.
But MS is innovative right CAD?
July 27th, 2010
*Playing Starcraft II, totally awesome
July 27th, 2010
will you people stop confusing the PS-EYE with the eyetoy,
eyetoy: silly little (kinect like) toy camera for the PS2.
PlaystationEye: Cool PS3 camera.
capeche?
July 27th, 2010
Lmao what does it do that the eyetoy doesn’t?
July 27th, 2010
It Only Does Everything.
July 27th, 2010
Dave
Not sure why you reckon this is such a “huge chance someone is going to end up with egg on their face here”, situation for either of them.
The simple fact is Wii has pointed the way and both Sony & Microsoft want a piece of that pie and are prepared to see if they can develop their own flavour to it.
The fanboy mentality is really ridiculous, either we get companies basically pushing the same game tarted up every 12mths, with a titivated console every 5yrs doing much the same thing as before or they try and innovate.
I’m all for them innovating…..and I’m happy to await the results – even the results after a decent length of time for the devs to get to grips with the system – rather than make silly overblown & grandiose statements about what commercial success means or otherwise.
Frankly I’d be willing to bet that although both Sony & Microsoft would love their systems to be commercial winners each could easily take the hit of their system failing with barely a “meh”.
July 27th, 2010
Isn’t this old news? Anyway it looks like Rare was playing around with a wand to with the old Vision Camera but then Kinect happened.
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/110/1108520p1.html
July 27th, 2010
Personally I’m not going to put it past Microsoft to add a Wii-like Controller to Kinect. There was the Gametrak Freedom controller that never came out and they said they could work with Microsoft to add it along side Kinect. Well see what the future holds.
July 27th, 2010
Hop on rdr everyone.
July 27th, 2010
@CAD
you know Kinect by itself won’t go too far.
July 28th, 2010
Great, here we go again, as if we didn’t have enough crap peripherals in gamestores with wii… thank Move:
http://www.amazon.com/MOVE-Champions-Pack-Playstation-3/dp/B003UF08LS/ref=sr_1_14?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1280289749&sr=1-14
July 28th, 2010
http://www.amazon.com/Arc-Blaster-Playstation-3/dp/B003UF24SI/ref=sr_1_15?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1280289749&sr=1-15
July 28th, 2010
http://www.amazon.com/GT-Racing-Wheel-Base-Playstation-3/dp/B003UF5OKI/ref=sr_1_21?s=STORE&ie=UTF8&qid=1280289804&sr=1-21
July 28th, 2010
it’s funny watching ppl whine about the smallest (and most insignificant) thing about a product – sometimes they’ll even go as far as to post 3 times in a row to make a [troll] point…
July 28th, 2010
3 posts? No need really, we got the idea with the 1st one. They seem pretty cool though.
July 28th, 2010
“you know Kinect by itself won’t go too far.”
Roca
Personally no one can make that statement because no one really knows if this is going to fly or not. Everything shown say it can and of all the motion controls Kinect has the most appeal. In my honest humble opinion I truly believe that the reason Sony did not go with a camera only approach is because they don’t have the imagination or vigor to pull of a camera only controller. Besides their camera was limited and they probably did not want to introduce another camera. That single tech demo Microsoft showed at the E3 2009 blew people’s minds away at the possibilities of Kinect. The video was awesome and the possibilities and imagination and functions put forth in that video were amazing. Celebrity after celebrity testified how great it felt and functioned. I truly believe Sony sat in that conference with their jaws on the floor. This was obvious because everyone said that Sony’s conference looked like that ran in the back and pulled out their motion control ideas and threw something together last minute. The dude on stage looked so nervous but he gained his composure after a while. We’ll see in November but I can guarantee that no matter what happens Kinect will sell like crazy and will have a bigger footprint then Move will ever achieve. What ever Move can do the Wii-mote can do so there is nothing new to the imagination of what that type of controller can do. Kinect on the other hand is an open field of possibilities.
July 28th, 2010
Carl B
LOL Is it far fetched to say that we should have seen this coming? Like I just said there is nothing new with the Move. I do like the gun perpetual though. LOL
July 28th, 2010
Oh I did not see the steering wheel LOL. Is the Blue orb suppose to be the horn LOL. If I can get cruise control, Bluetooth and radio functions on the multifunction steering wheel i’m sold LOL
July 28th, 2010
It better come with an indicator and wiper controls too LOL. This is such a Wii-too situation.
July 28th, 2010
@CAD
“In my honest humble opinion I truly believe that the reason Sony did not go with a camera only approach is because they don’t have the imagination or vigor to pull of a camera only controller.”
You seem to keep forgetting eye toy.
and
Honesty, enough about E3 anything. E3 2009 was bullshit followed by E3 2010 which was even more bullshit. You’re talking about “on stage” presentations which we already confirmed were fake as hell. Who cares if the presenter was nervous…at least he was actually using the product.
July 28th, 2010
Uses of 2 Move Controllers:
1) a single player can use 1 or 2 Move Controllers at the same time depending on the game
2) two players can use 1 Move controller each
at the same time
…. so practically, getting 2 Move controllers is a valuable purchase for the long haul
PSEye owns Kinect – July 28th, 2010 at 3:37 am UTC it can do everything Kinect promises
augmented reality
full body and legs tracking
head tracking
face detection
voice recognition
voice command gameplay
voice recognition
noise cancellation
and more…..
motion capture technology
gender, age and emotion detection
60-120fps animation
and yes including the limitations…
but that is where the Move controller comes in
LED light for motion capture
manetometer
gyroscope
accelerometer
analog buttons
gameplay distance from camera is: 1 cm to 4 meters
multi-touch controls
force feedback
can be played like the Dual Shock 3 while sitting, lying down or just about any position possible aside from standing up
can be played as kids’ toy or adult toy
July 28th, 2010
“it can do everything Kinect promises”
If it could have it would have by now gunstar, instead the Eye failed because of it’s limitations, and Sony thought they had done “as much as they could with just a camera” (i.e. their own 2D, only works in certain light conditions one), thinking they needed magic vibrating wands for it to work well (and with Eye they probably do), and then Microsoft showed so much more could be done w/Kinect.
As for move, if Amazon is any indication, people seem to be losing interest, as it isn’t even in the top 100 list any longer.
Roca, I agree, it is funny watching you whine about practically every little thing with Kinect.
July 28th, 2010
” it had built-in censors”
wow how does that work? does the controller turn off when something dubious happens on screen, or does it start vibrating if the player is cursing too much? ;p
July 28th, 2010
a voice recording of KB says “pew,pew,pew!” every time a curse word is used instead of the traditional bleep, then for the naughty bits onscreen an image of a vibrating move wand covers them instead of a black bar or blur. They figured censoring combined with advertising was killing two birds with one stone.
July 28th, 2010
^ Acting childish won’t change the fact that the Move is way more accurate & precice than Kinect, not to mentioned its superior lineup and it cover almost all kinds of genres….Move does it all while Kinect is limited to wii-like shovelware.
July 28th, 2010
“Personally no one can make that statement because no one really knows if this is going to fly or not. ”
LOL I know. And I would bet that is is going to be shit games only.
July 28th, 2010
“Sony rejected Kinect before Move”
How is this possible? They had the Eyetoy on the PS2 which is the exact same shit. Didn’t work then wont work now CAD.
It is a been there done that thing.
July 28th, 2010
“Oh I did not see the steering wheel LOL. Is the Blue orb suppose to be the horn LOL.”
Better than using your nose you clown.
July 28th, 2010
“Wii-too ”
It’s Mii-too.
July 28th, 2010
“and then Microsoft showed so much more could be done w/Kinect.”
LMFAO Wrong, It’s a pipe dream.
July 28th, 2010
“As for move, if Amazon is any indication, people seem to be losing interest, as it isn’t even in the top 100 list any longer.”
Pre-orders are no indication for casual games moron.
And I hope they both fail and teach those mother fuckers a lesson.
July 28th, 2010
you’re on a roll ncaissie
July 28th, 2010
Lets see how Kinetic handles Resident Evil 5 OK? oh wait…my bad. They haven’t figured that out yet.
July 28th, 2010
@Phranc
its because it’s laggy and not as precise as they thought…not to mentioned all its limitations.
Move is so precise that surgeons are thinking about
using surgery simulators to reduce cost – their current simulator equipment cost about 100K.
sad Kinect is barely being used for “real” games..
videogamer.com/news/ps_move_is_like_100k_surgery_simulator.html
“So accurate is the tracking of Sony’s PlayStation
Move motion controller that surgeons have
likened the technology to $100,000 simulators
used to carry out laparoscopic surgery.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com at a PS Move
technology showcase last week, Sony’s senior
researcher Richard Marks said: “I was talking to
some surgeons. They were talking about
laparoscopic surgery simulators. They were
saying this feels very much like their $100,000
simulators do for surgeons and they’d much
rather do something at a lower cost.”
July 28th, 2010
Move Trauma Center incoming.
joking aside. That’s pretty damn cool it’s that accurate.
July 28th, 2010
kinect is gay as fuck. . .did you hear those new games announced for kinect? “masterbate the MS employee” “how to finger a 65yr old man” and CAD’s fave “play with bill gates’ balls” . . .disgusting. . . .
July 28th, 2010
LMFAO ^
July 28th, 2010
A wise man once said “pew, pew, pew”.
July 28th, 2010
I could see move taped to the end of a toy gun and used in training for the Army or something.
July 28th, 2010
@Phranc
It will make Dismembering shits alot more easier in Dead Space 2
July 28th, 2010
“Personally no one can make that statement because no
one really knows if this is going to fly or not.”
5 lines later…
“Kinect will sell like crazy”
Hot damn, CAD is awesome.
Oh its also nice to see un-medicated Carlb back too (on at least two threads).
Finally, move sucks, kinect sucks, motion controllers suck. Good day to you all
July 28th, 2010
LMFAO ^^
CAD always makes himself look stupid.
July 28th, 2010
“You seem to keep forgetting eye toy.”
Exactly my point Phranctoast. All of you have admitted that Sony hardly supported the Eye Toy.
July 28th, 2010
Roca Said:
“you know Kinect by itself won’t go too far.”
CAD Said:
“Personally no one can make that statement because no
one really knows if this is going to fly or not.””
@SW
Let me clear up my statement. That means that no one really knows the applications that Kinect can be used for. We’ve only seen a vary small fraction and there will be more to see as developers make games for Kinect.
And Yes Kinect will sell like crazy this holiday season.
July 28th, 2010
“Exactly my point Phranctoast. All of you have admitted that Sony hardly supported the Eye Toy.”
That hardly constitutes lack of imagination or vigor.
eyetoy was decently supported. PS eye on the other hand………….
July 28th, 2010
Phranctoast
Well proof is in the pudding and the pudding only came in one flavour.
July 28th, 2010
OK I see Eye Toy is PS2 and Eye is PS3. It’s all the same to me.
July 28th, 2010
I really don’t know if I would be too overly proud if I were you CAD.
They generally took someone elses idea and marketed better.
If Sony did prove one thing, it was how shallow and short lived those games are and how little can be done with just a camera.
As I said before. Enjoy that CAD. While you’re in your Rapids raft I’ll be playing real games with Move.
July 28th, 2010
I dunno Phranc. I suspect most of the ‘real’ games you’ll be playing with be with your DS3
July 28th, 2010
@SW
Likely true as they can’t possibly cover all the genres decently with Move.
You’ve listed Okami and RE4 as two of the best Wii games. I agree as I know how great the PS2 games were.
I’m all for having games that support the Move that make sense. Okami makes sense. RE4, makes sense.
July 28th, 2010
“That means that no one really knows the applications that Kinect can be used for”
@CAD
someone at Microsoft apperantly knows something as he claims hardcore games for Kinect will start rolling out in 18 months….in other words, in 2012 (close to 2013).
MS has been working on for about 3 years and all they have done is a bunch of Mii-too shovelware and nothing to show off what they promised.
*Milo was just alot of smoke and mirros and will never be Kinect title
*Minority Report UI turned out to be a ‘slower’ Wii-Channel UI (CarlB must be pissed)
*Voice recognition turned out to be “voice control” as Kinect wont recognize your voice and only support one speaker at a time
*Object Scanning was fake
I’ll will wait for some “real” good games on Kinect before I even think about getting one
July 28th, 2010
‘and then Microsoft showed so much more could be done w/Kinect.’
what’s that Carl-san?
July 28th, 2010
Roca
Hey the current games for Kinect arn’t all that bad. Forza, Fable 3, Child of Eden all look good we just have not seen Fable 3 use of Kinect yet. As for the Wii like games hey they might be casual but you can’t deny they won’t be fun. Even the Wii Mini games are fun to play. I guess I’m just older then you and I have a family so it appeals to me a bit more then it would for you.
July 28th, 2010
“Hey the current games for Kinect arn’t all that bad”
that’s not what they critics are saying..why don’t you look past those blinder and maybe then you will notice the crappy lunch lineup for Kinect.
July 28th, 2010
Roca
Let me guess the critic happes to be you. LOL
July 28th, 2010
Remember only 6 of the 15 launch games were announced.
July 28th, 2010
Dance Central: a dancing game from Rock Band developer Harmonix;
Kinect Sports: a game that offers soccer, bowling, track, and more;
Kinect Joy Ride: a racing game;
Kinect Adventures: a game for navigating down rivers and railroad tracks while trying to hit targets;
Your Shape: an exercise game
Kinectimals, a playing-with-animals game for kids.
July 28th, 2010
@CAD
wrong…here are some quotes for you to enjoy:
“I was left a little disappointed. The games of Kinect were lacking in the impressiveness department”
========================================
“The Kinect software shown at the conference was as impressive as a pillow fort. None of the new casual games seemed to click with me like how Nintendo pulled it off with Wii Sports.”
========================================
“To delve further into Kinect, the games left me pondering how well the immersion will go. Many of the games showcased were far worse than a 1:1 ratio other consoles are touting with motion controls. While watching the racing games, I was left thinking ‘how would a person be able to control acceleration and braking’, which unanswered, leaves me with the impression the games will dictate much of the game play, leaving the user with nothing more than a few simple actions to control. While watching the river rafting segment, the players had little control over the direction of their raft, but rather jumped and tilted their bodies for simple responses in game. In my opinion, Kinect is not immersing the player in a game like Microsoft is trying to make us believe, but rather taking the player out of the game and running simple simulations where you have a tinge of control.”
======================================
“Is Kinect changing the game, or delivering more of the same?
USA Today’s story on the newly renamed Kinect highlights several of the titles we’ll be seeing for the eagerly anticipated device when it launches later this year.
Unfortunately, it’s a pretty disappointing list”
July 28th, 2010
@CAD
you list is full of Wii-too titles:
*Dance Central = Just Dance
*Kinetic Sports = Wii Sports Resorts
*Joy Ride = Excite Truck
*Kinectimals = Nintendogs
*Your Shape = already exist on the Wii.
*Kinectic Adventure = contains river rafting and an obstacle course. They probably should have included this with Kinect Sports and called it “Kinect Sports Resort”
July 28th, 2010
“you list is full of Wii-too titles”
It’s Mii-Too LOL
July 28th, 2010
Also the Wii games were/are cheaper. The retail price for new Wii games is $49.99. Most of those titles have come down a bit.
Moves casual titles are going to be priced at $39.99.
Yet MS has the nerve to try and charge $59.99 for the exact same games that came out years ago.
That’s one of my biggest issues with Kinect. Its games are WAY overpriced.
July 28th, 2010
Roca
Hey nice try but all you did was quote a bunch of people’s opinion who have not tried the game LOL. Here is some Hands on Opinions.
I have jumped in front of an Xbox 360 and tried Microsoft’s Kinect motion control system (formerly known as Project Natal) with Kinect Sports, Driving and Dancing Central. I do “ok” at bowling, but I’m clearly a lame dancer… meh. Anyway, the goal of this exercise is to report on how good Kinect is as a game controller, and the results are quite good – with a few caveats.
Kinect does a great job at detecting the player’s presence (one or more) and at responding to user interface commands like selection and confirmation. depending on the game, you might have to “hover to select” or “swipe to select”, but either way, it is fairly easy and intuitive. There was no setup, I just showed up and played.
Kinect works, no player setup required
Kinect did very well with all the games mentioned earlier. It is my understanding that many titles have been worked on for about a year and each team still has a little more time to make final tweaks. The first batch of games that we tried were all using full body motion – the real strength of Kinect. The car driving was easy and the fun sinks in quickly: after one race, you master the basics and learn from there. As I said, my favorite was the bowling, mainly because I scored (yay!) but Dance Central was a real killer: I think that it will be a hit, like Dance Dance Revolution was. check out the video below, it shows the team that worked on the choreographies. Kinect also does extremely well in games like sports and fitness where -again- the full body motion is required.
—————————————————–
The overall verdict from the handful of games we see is, by and large, positive. These are not core games for traditional gamers – indeed, the only game we’ve seen that could make that claim is the Star Wars title glimpsed at the Project Natal Experience (and sadly missing from this event). But the impression you get from the best of the games is that they are infectious family fun: they’re genuinely entertaining and you want to get involved.
This need to participate is the magical ingredient that made the Wii such a hit, and Microsoft has definitely tapped into that same rich vein, but provided its own unique appeal that provides a sense of involvement that goes well beyond the fun offered by the Wiimote waggle controls.
Whether that sense of entertainment can endure, and whether developers will overcome the many and varied technical challenges of the system remains to be seen, but based on this initial playtest the signs are looking good.
—————————————————
Having had a few opportunities to play around with Microsoft’s Kinect camera peripheral over the past year (then it was still called Project Natal), we were eager to try the seemingly finalized version displayed at E3 (see the video below for highlights from our hands-on session).
The first thing we noticed was that the Kinect hardware was visually very close (as far as we could tell) to the demo devices seen as far back as E3 2009, despite rumblings from Microsoft reps during the year that the design was subject to change. It’s a physically large device, and not as easy to blend into a home entertainment center as a thin Wii sensor bar.
In our previous hands-on experiences with the then-Natal, we thought it recognized human forms well, but there was typically a slight delay in translating movement to the screen, and occasionally, the entire skeletal structure of your onscreen avatar could get twisted around. The current Kinect camera/software package at once seems more responsive and stable, although it still felt a hair away from direct one-to-one movement.
We were particularly interested in trying out the Xbox Live media functions of the Kinect system. While several parts of Xbox Live will purportedly work with the device, the only one we could demo in person was the Zune library. There, we were able to start and stop a video file, as well as jog forward and back, just by using hand gestures. The experience had a learning curve, but a small one; we managed not to trigger many false positive inputs.
To their credit, the Microsoft reps let us take the voice control part of the system for a spin–easily the part of the Kinect ecosystem that could most easily fail in a live-fire demo session. The basic voice commands, starting with the word “Xbox,” then adding an instruction such as “pause,” or “play,” worked perfectly, even in a noisy group environment, and despite the fact that we had not calibrated the system with our voice.
We got to see the ESPN app in action briefly, but couldn’t operate it ourselves. Other apps, from Facebook to Last.fm are still under development, and only appeared as placeholder icons.
Possibly the most buzzworthy Kinect game was Kinectimals, a collection of virtual pets. We also got to take one of these jungle cats for a test drive, and ran through an obstacle course, using our body language to control the animal.
Again, the system worked very well, even in a dimly lit, noisy room. But, the only parts of the Kinectimals game we’ve seen so far has been some basic interaction with the animals and this obstacle course. Unless there’s a lot more to it, it feels more like a tech demo than something we’d play on a regular basis.
It’s been exactly one year since we first saw the Xbox Natal/Kinect hardware. In that time, we’ve gone from simple block-busting demos (although that breakout-style game is still around, packed into one of the Kinect titles) to more advanced games, as well as adding the first steps of remote-control-free home theater control. Our overall impression based on this brief hands-on encounter is that the hardware itself seems ready for prime time, and it’s up to the software to follow.
—————————————————
After more than a year spent waiting I finally got to try Microsoft’s new motion control system, which was given the official name Kinect at last week’s E3 video game conference in Los Angeles. Microsoft brought the device—a sleek, motorized black bar consisting of infrared and RGB cameras as well as a microphone—to Toronto to let local journalists get…well, not hands-on time since one doesn’t actually touch it, but perhaps face time.
First impression: This technology works, and it works well.
The infrared camera found and recognized my body almost instantly, and it was difficult to trick it into losing track of me. I was told it looks for objects that look like people and then assigns them a wireframe with joints at hips, knees, ankles, shoulders, elbows, and wrists (you don’t see a wireframe in-game—I was shown it as part of a demonstration explaining the technology). The only significant recognition error I saw Kinect make was when it briefly interpreted a swinging jacket on the back of a chair as a torso, but that’s less a slight and more a testament to its acute sensitivity.
And sensitivity is just what players want.
My movements were translated to game inputs with a high level of accuracy. I shuffled my avatar around on a raft to tip it left and right as I steered it down a raging river. I ducked, sidestepped, and jumped to make my avatar avoid obstacles in a gauntlet. I pretended my hands were holding a steering wheel to maneuver a car around a small racing track, making subtle movements to correct direction. I reached out and stroked a virtual baby cheetah’s head, ear, and chin with my hand.
I did all of these things intuitively and without frustration. The camera rarely missed a movement, and the delay between my actions and those of my avatar was so slight that I’d guess most casual players wouldn’t even notice it.
So Kinect works—and better than I’d have thought.
—————————————————–
We run, jump, and bowl in our first hands-on with Kinect Sports.
During Monday’s press conference, Microsoft showed off the first footage of its family sports game for the Kinect, the Xbox 360 motion-sensing camera due out this November. But it can be pretty difficult to get a handle on how well the Kinect registers your running and leaping ability just by watching footage of Kinect Sports on a big screen. Luckily, we got a chance to try out the game for ourselves at a special pre-E3 event, and though we came away a little bit winded, we were also impressed with how accurately it picked up our motions.
Running is the most natural thing in the world, so it seemed like as good a place as any to start things off. The included hurdle event requires you to run down an orange track as well as leap over hurdles during various points in the race. We started out slowly, getting a feel for running in place in a public area, but after slipping to fourth place, we picked things up in a hurry. With the perfect form even professional runners would envy, we moved our arms and legs so quickly that our onscreen avatar burst past the other racers. Taking no chances at the hurdles, we leaped high into the air, both legs dangling, to make sure we cleared them. In three separate races, we crashed into only one hurdle, so Kinect seems to register even crazy leaps accurately. After raising our arms in victory all three races, it was time to move on to the next event.
Bowling was the only other sport on offer, which was probably good considering the physical effort required to finish running. It’s a little strange to throw an imaginary ball at pins, but your motion is reflected accurately. Putting English on the ball is certainly something that must be learned, but just throwing it straight and true down the middle works well, as long as your aim is true. Like in real life, our ball frequently skirted the edges, though it never dipped into the dreaded gutter. The lack of a weighted object takes away a bit of the realism, but this seems like a safe indoor rendition of the popular pastime.
—————————————————
I had my doubts about the whole “holding your arms out like you’re holding a steering wheel” thing at first, but was actually pretty shocked at how responsive it was. I played some multiplayer against Big Park’s David Seymour, who assured me that “it’s a lot more responsive than you naturally give it credit for. You need to relax into it.” He was right. Once you loosen up and get into the rhythm of the game, the motion based controls are very intuitive – particularly the leaning sideways to power slide. That said, like all of the initial Kinect games, Joy Ride is another “standing up” game. You need to be moving around a fair bit to get the full effect of what the game is offering. I was particularly surprised by the stunt mode. Having watched other people play, it just looked like people leaning their upper bodies around like they were dancing to Madness in the 1980s. Once you get into it though, and loosen up with the controls, you actually learn that it recognizes a whole bunch of different motions that make the gameplay pretty rewarding. It’s not an advanced stunt title like SSX or Tony Hawk, but it’s a lot of fun if two of you are playing side by side.
July 28th, 2010
hey CAD, thanks for the fuckin book mate, really enjoyed scrolling passed it. why don’t you just cut the crap and tell us what YOU think of those games.
July 28th, 2010
You just got hit for 15,536 by wall-of-text.
July 28th, 2010
is CAD ivans opposite? jeez. . . .
July 28th, 2010
Lol yes he is.
July 29th, 2010
LOLZ at CAD!
Kinect games are way over priced! that’s another ‘do the maths’!
July 29th, 2010
Delete.
July 29th, 2010
“CarlB must be pissed” (about lack of “Minority Report controls”)…
not at all roca, no gay ass light up finger gloves (let alone vibrating light up faerie ball wands) required.
“what’s that Carl-san?”
3D not 2D, capable of almost any light conditions, better voice recognition, UI capabilities, 48 pt tracking, player recognition, etc.
Sensor
Colour and depth-sensing lenses
Tilt motor for sensor adjustment
Field of View
Horizontal field of view: 57 degrees
Vertical field of view: 43 degrees
Physical tilt range: ± 27 degrees
Depth sensor range: 1.2m – 3.5m
Data Streams
16-bit depth @ 30 frames/sec 320×240
32-bit colour@ 30 frames/sec 640×480
16-bit audio @ 16 kHz
Skeletal Tracking System
Tracks up to 6 people, including 2 active players
Tracks 20 joints per active player
Ability to map active players to Live Avatars
Audio System
Live party chat and in-game voice chat (requires Xbox Live Gold Membership)
Speech recognition in multiple
July 29th, 2010
@CarlB
voice recognition is all software based, same goes for the UI – which Move will fully support the XMB, too bad Kinect will forced you to use a Wii-Channel type of UI…after all the “minority report” praise you gave Kinect, it all turned out to be a major disappointment.
oh btw, you forgot to mention its limitations:
* 10 -15 percent of the overall 360′s computing power , not just the CPU
* Single speaker voice control
* Limited to 2 players
* no physical input
* no physical feedback
* 30fps (PS Eye = 60fps)
* 6ft of space required
* no buttons = hardcore games
* Laggy
* cannot track small movement due to slow refresh rate
July 29th, 2010
@CAD
“Remember only 6 of the 15 launch games were announced.”
http://i46.tinypic.com/2u8exlg.png
July 29th, 2010
lol roca, okay, so what your saying is if software update manages to overcome those “limitations” (i.e. gen 1 launch software) and you can use the 360 controller/mote you won’t have any problem with it?
Either way, the tech along with it’s games and applications will simply get better and better, whereas I see the wands going the way of the Samba de Amigo maraca controllers.
“oh btw, you forgot to mention its limitations”
oh btw, he only asked how it was superior, not everything you personally see as a “limitation”.
And if voice recognition is all software based as you say, then how come Sony doesn’t have superior voice recognition for it’s UI already with the Eye?
July 29th, 2010
“And if voice recognition is all software based as you say, then how come Sony doesn’t have superior voice recognition for it’s UI already with the Eye?”
How come Sony doesn’t do a lot of things…?
How come they didn’t support the Eye Toy more?
How come they allow MS to come in and do something they more or less did 6 years ago with a projected higher degree of success?
How come..How come..How come.
The fact of the matter is Voice control and Voice recognition are software based and there is a built in mic on every PS Eye.
July 29th, 2010
Voice command or not, Kinect’s UI will be alot convenient and faster with the Move – point & click – instead of waving you arms in the air, leaving it hanging for at least 3 seconds. Not the type of Minority Report experience you were talking about a few months back.
Voice control wow-factor will only last (and it’s only good for) about 5 mins as has been the case with phone’s voice call, sync and even in games such as Socom & End’s War those feature are good for a few minutes until you find yourself you using the controller to input those commands manually as a a simple press of a button on a controller is far more convenient than flailing your arms in front of a screen.
Voice command has been around for a long time and hasn’t gotten any better, hence “XBOX…..PAUSE”
July 29th, 2010
Imagine how much processing it takes for the 360 to listen for commands all the time.
July 29th, 2010
LOL RROD Phase 3
July 30th, 2010
“How come they didn’t support the Eye Toy more?”
Because it didn’t have any good games, it didn’t have dev support, and they were busy with PS3 development?
“How come they allow MS to come in and do something they more or less did 6 years ago?”
They didn’t do it six years ago, they thought a 2D camera was the limit six years ago, so they went with a wand that Rare had already been using and rejected instead.
“The fact of the matter is Voice control and Voice recognition are software based and there is a built in mic on every PS Eye.”
The fact of the matter is PS Eye still doesn’t have PS3 system UI control, and any games made for it to date have flopped miserably.
You seem stuck on three seconds roca, all without realizing the majority of PS3′s apps already take much longer than three seconds to load with traditional control, let alone you have only seen prototype software.
It’s okay. I understand. You have no point of reference, you feel threatened as a PS3 (and now Move) fanboi, and are only using your limited experience to predict the future of Kinect as being a complete failure.
For me, I don’t mind if both are, or if both are complete successes, and I can see the possibilities in each, though I think one is highly likely to stick around longer.
July 30th, 2010
^a bunch of assumptions and more of the same lame excuses. Thanks for nothing.
yet the fact remains that Move will cover almost every genre and will have something for everyone, including hardcore fans. It will also fully controll the PS3′s XMB.
while your precious “Minority Report” turned to be a Wii-Channel type of UI that would be more convenient and quicker to use with the Move, a simple press of a button is also more convenient & quicker than showing sign of insanity by talking to your TV.
all its limitations that is already proving to be a major obstacle to Kinect…
so far, promised feature were fake. demo events were all pre-recorded and most of the games are “on rails”. Buttons is a nice feature after all.
You said you were going to buy for its “Minority Report” experience instead you ended up with another Wii-like experience..you must be pissed huh, I dont blame you.
It’s okay. I understand. You have no point of reference, you feel threatened as a 360 (and now Kinect) fanboi, and are only using your your fanboi assumptions to predict the future of Kinect as being a complete success that will outsell Move while avoid to recognize all its limitations.
July 30th, 2010
LOL. He answers rhetorical questions with wrong answers. That’s friggin’ classic.
July 31st, 2010
I didn’t give answers that make Sony look good, therefore they are “wrong”. That’s hilarious.
“showing sign of insanity by talking to your TV.”
Voice control is now a “sign of insanity”?
Hello Luddite.
July 31st, 2010
Nope, They’re wrong because you honestly don’t know the answers to those questions. Don’t feel too bad though, they were never really there to be answered anyway.
August 1st, 2010
Nope, because unless you “know” the answers phranc, then they’re not “wrong”.
At the very least I gave some reasonable factors by what is known: EyeToy didn’t have any great games, it didn’t have a ton of dev support, and they were likely devoting many resources to PS3. You may not like the factors, but they exist all the same.
August 2nd, 2010
so, now that Kinect can’t compete against Move (software & accuracy) you comparing it to a 8-year PS2 camara? you just hit a new low
August 2nd, 2010
so, where did I compare it to eyeToy roca? Please read before you accuse. I compared it to eye (move’s camera) and answered phranc’s “rhetorical” questions about eyeToy.
August 2nd, 2010
too bad your “Minority Report” dreams went down the drain…not to mention all its “potential” and the crappy gaming lineup.
are you still buying day 1?
August 2nd, 2010
“Nope, because unless you “know” the answers phranc, then they’re not “wrong”.
At the very least I gave some reasonable factors by what is known: EyeToy didn’t have any great games, it didn’t have a ton of dev support, and they were likely devoting many resources to PS3. You may not like the factors, but they exist all the same.”
First and Foremost, Assumptions aren’t facts or even reasonable factors.
“How come they didn’t support the Eye Toy more?”
How does your answers to this question even begin to be accurate. Other than your speculation of Ps3 development hurting Eye Toy development everything else said has absolutely no bearing on being on why it wasn’t supported more.
I can try and answer the question. I heard the reason Eye failed was internal issues between Sony of Japan and Sony of Europe. Sony of Japan refused to support the Eye Toy. Whether these are speculations or I misheard or interpreted that wrong is still up in the air. One thing I do know is “because it’s games suck” was an answer akin to the maturity of CAD or kev.
August 3rd, 2010
Wow roca, you sound like you’ve been taking the DeLorean into the future again lol. Sorry, I never had any “dreams”, though many in the press have been comparing it to scenes from Minority Report.
Yes, I preordered Kinect, mainly for system UI without a remote. If I can bypass the remote I now use for movies and system nav completely, then I would like to have and experience that, albeit expensive initially. If it doesn’t work as advertised I’ll simply return it, no sweat. If Move turns out to have some killer games and apps, I’m not opposed to buying it either, as I tend to keep a fairly open mind about these things.
Did you preorder Move? The patches for existing and future PS3 games look okay, but not enough for me to ditch the ds3 I already own.
Other than that, both the primary peripheral software lineups (i.e. not games that were designed for traditional controls) look equally crappy so far.
Phranc, there you go “assuming” that they aren’t facts. Are you going to argue now the opposite of those factors? That EyeToy had a ton of great games and excellent dev support? Thanks for at least admitting dev of PS3 was a factor.
I guess we’ll just have to disagree, as I think lack of dev support and good games (I never said they “suck”, but the majority of the reviews did) does have bearing on whether a peripheral gets supported more in the future. Certainly if devs cannot make any good games for Kinect or Move, and devs start to pull away from either, that will be a factor in their lack of success as well (communication/control/other apps could alleviate it slightly, although perhaps not definitively).
August 3rd, 2010
“Thanks for at least admitting dev of PS3 was a factor.”
I never said it was a factor. It was the only thing you said that actually could have been a factor. All the other stuff were your opinions and at no point were they answers to the question.
It’s a chicken and egg scenario. If people don’t make games how can their games be no good on the device.
It was poorly supported, that’s the truth, but those reasons sound ridiculous. I also never really asked those questions.
August 3rd, 2010
Okay, you already admit one could have been a factor (i.e. PS3 dev, personally I don’t see how it could not have been at the very least “a factor”), and now two (lack of dev support)… care to go for three (lack of good games)? How are these reasons “ridiculous”? They existed, and you did ask the question, “rhetorical” or not.
August 3rd, 2010
The overall point I was making was you don’t know the answers to any of those questions at all. Only Sony knows. Thats the point I was making and I find it odd that you’re being this thick about it.
-There could have been poor development software for 1st and third party games. This would make it a chore to create games that were more than just a snapshot camera add on (what most games utilize eye toy for)
-Lack of Marketing. We know lack of decent marketing was a factor with Sony. This could be another good example of that.
-They could have realized the limitations of a camera only based system.
-Inner turmoil between different heads in Japan and Europe divisions (Yes, I heard this)
Now your answers barely make sense.
-PS3 development.
That hardly stopped people from making PS2 games after the PS3 came out. These are game developers. Not hardware developers.
-Lack of dev support and good games.
While I don’t argue that either one of these occurred you must realize that when the question was
“How come they didn’t support the Eye Toy more?”
Neither one of those should factor into why Sony did not support it more. They were the developer of those games. Get it?
August 3rd, 2010
“Neither one of those should factor into why Sony did not support it more.”
Sony already tried and failed several times, why continue down the path of failure?
Sony was devoting resources to PS3 dev at the time and getting ready for it’s launch, why pour more resources down that EyeToy path of failure? Get it?
August 4th, 2010
I never said Sony wasn’t at fault, but your “reasons” are asinine at best.
Enjoy the conversation by yourself. Mr Last Word.
August 4th, 2010
How are the factors I mentioned “asinine” phranc? They seem fairly reasonable and well recognized, so what is the problem?
August 4th, 2010
failure= 10.5M in sales?
August 5th, 2010
which software developed specifically for EyeToy are you speaking of?