Kinected

This week, I’m looking at Kinect.  Kinect is the new motion control device from Microsoft, and their answer to the Nintendo Wii.  The big difference is that no controllers are requires, with the device showering your living room with thousands of tiny pin prick lasers designed to measure depth, and movement. 

Technologically speaking the Kinect is miles ahead of both the Wii and Sonys Move.  As well as picking up motion, Kinect can be used with voice control as well.  Basically, Kinect remembers your face (after you assign yourself with a Kinect Id) and “listens” to the area around your mouth to hear your voice only.  This means you can actually navigate the menu using simple voice commands (unless you’re in Australia, at least for a little while), which is heaps cool.

Warning. You won't look like Tom Cruise using Kinect

So how does it play?

At the moment the selection of games types is a little limited.  Your left with the choices of either dance games, fitness games or mini game…games.  This has put a lot of gamers off the idea of Kinect, those who consider their console a halobox. Still, the potential for the system is huge.  Here are some of my ideas for hard core games that can be worked with Kinect.

1)  RPG’s.  A game such as Mass Effect, which could use a combination of controller for running around and shooting things, but using the Kinect for voice selection of conversations with NPC’s. Imagine reading out the option and having the NPC react to your voice.

2)  FPS. This would HAVE to be used in conjunction with a controller, due to pretty much every FPS fan hating the idea of a shooter on rails.  Kinect could be used for aiming your weapon at enemies, as well as actions such as tossing grenades.  Expect a gun peripheral to be released with initial titles.

      3)  RTS. These could use full Kinect integration.  Imagine standing before your battlefield, deploying troops with a wave of your hand, and sending them into battle by simply telling them to attack.  I believe this could be the first style of hardcore game to push it as something more than a party device.

So overall, Kinect has some big potential.  If you like dancing like a tool in front of your television, and jumping all around like a rabid monkey, then pick yourself up a Kinect now. If not, wait….and watch. Sooner or later someone is going to release a title that will fully realize the jaw dropping potential of the system, and change the way we game.

As a side note, one of the downsides of this system is out of shape people like me really struggle to play for extended periods.  Which is a real shame cos I want to keep playing it, but my body doesn’t have much steam left in it. Still, maybe one more crack at funky town before I keel over.

Next Week: Assassins Creed:Brotherhood