Flailing about at Macy's with Kinect for Xbox 360

The Kinect Booth.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to get some "hands-on" time with Kinect. I dragged my wife to Macy's with the intent to see what all the hype was about and I did just that.

The line was not that long but I felt like this was due to improper advertising (or I was just lucky). I felt like a television or newspaper advertisement could have helped more people get out to play with Kinect.

I got my shot after only waiting for about 15 minutes. The game was Kinect Adventures.

I stepped into Microsoft's version of a living room with a random teenager to race against and immediately started moving around to see how Kinect read my movements. It seemed stuttered and laggy but I was not going to pass judgment that quickly. The on screen prompts told us what to do as the event staff also reiterated those points. Did I mention that before I walked into that room, I had no intention of jumping around like a fool?

The race started and as I had already seen the video demo from E3 I was jumping and dodging and all around acting like the damn fool I swore up and down that I would not be. Before I knew it the race was over and I wanted more. I won (am I going to let some teenage snot beat me?) 120 points to 114.

Quite some time after my demo I was still reeling at how much I loved my experience. If I had not had to be somewhere I would have gotten back in line.

ESPN Live and On Demand is FREE to Gold Members

This is also gesture and voice command based with Kinect.

There are trivia a live polls through games and you can also look at highlights and scores without leaving the game you are watching.

Again free for gold members and redefining the one box experience.

Additional Kinect Information

The most important thing to note is that the Kinect has not officially been given a price though the rumor is $150. As we all know Kinect needs to be bundled with a console and that the bundle needs to be reasonably priced. I do not see the bundle coming in at under $300 so Microsoft's ability to undercut Nintendo might be in vain. Speculation aside these are a few other things that we know about Natal Kinect.

There will be a new gesture based Kinect only menu also known as the Kinect Hub.

From here you can get to your music, your movies (which are also gesture controlled), and Video Kinect - a video chat function.

Video Kinect looks to have Bing integration where you can see the weather where you are located and where your friend is located. You can also watch movies together while being able to see each other.

The Kinect also tracks where you move so you are always in the viewfinder.

Video Kinect is coming to Live Messenger on the PC as well so who knows if you will be able to Kinect connect your Kinect (oh jeez) to the computer.

Also mentioned, but already known, is that Xbox Live will be coming to Window Phone 7.

Kinect Launching November 4 w/ 15 Launch Titles

A few of those titles will be:

• Kinectimals
• EA Sports Active 2.0
• Kinect Sports
• Your Shape
• Biggest Loser
• Kinect Joyride
• Kinect Adventures

All the Kinect games are full motion based and nothing that combines a controller and Kinect was mentioned - not even Fable III. Your Shape looked like the best of all the games experiences.

Initial KINECT games and partnerships announced

We all very clearly remember Nintendogs and Wii Sports, don't we? How about Playstation's upcoming EyePet? Well - and brace yourselves for this one - one of the first games announced by Microsoft for the KINECT AI camera is Kinectimals.

Kinectimals lets you play with 20 different pets including lions, tigers and cheetahs. Should it more appropriately Kinectikitty? Anyway this is not a product for those of us reading this and should occupy a five-year-old's time for at least a few minutes that is until they play...

...Kinect Sports. Oh come on! We just want these kids to just upgrade from their Wii and we can't do them any more credit than this? Guess not.

We can at least give these kids, the free-to-play (if that model still exists), Joyride back, right? Yes we can. The game has made the leap forward to become entirely gesture based and will likely be a launch game for Kinect.

Licenses that are infinitely more exciting than any off this: priceless. I mean Disney and LucasArts have showed their, perhaps exclusive, support for Microsoft's full body moving camera.

I just cannot wait to force push enemies using MY HAND.

[VIA USA Today]

Project Natal is aptly named KINECT

So there it is; looking relatively similar to the Natal prototype pictures, Kinect for Xbox 360 has officially been unveiled. This came a few short hours after both USA Today and an advertisement on an Italian website leaked the new slim 360 and the Kinect branding of Project Natal.

I like the name but I think, like everything else, people will have a problem with it. It fits what the camera is supposed to do - kinect connect people.

[Photos and articles pulled from Futurestiq Joystiq]