Not a bad review.

Joystiq: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/04/kinect-review/

I'm so shocked it barely works.............


Not really

The reviews from Kotaku and IGN are generally positive.

I haven't checked Kotaku yet but the IGN hardware review doesn't sound good at all. Hard to set up, requiring a huge amount of space, big ugly camera and noticeable lag that might not bother non-gamers much, but potential to be useful in future games and cool navigation of menus. That's hardly a ringing endorsement

Check out their Joy Ride review. Bad steering controls and no ability to control acceleration or braking. Otherwise a pretty good racing game.

The final rating for the hardware ends up being a 7.5 though and there were a lot of positives, albeit a lot of it is based on potential. Dance Central is also getting positive reviews all around, from what I can see.

Hard to set up? Um, I un-boxed it and plugged it in. Took all of 5 minutes to get it working properly.

Huge amount of what space? The camera is not even noticeable sitting in front of the bottom of my TV. Most Tv's are black, the camera is black, no problem.

I also have not experienced much lag on any games. Sure there is a bit here and there, but there kind of has to be some forgiveness for this type of gaming.

Overall the thing works extremely well, and I can't wait to see some hardcore games come out for it.

Amazon Warehouse Deals just had a Kinect in damaged packaging for $89.99 and a 250GB Kinect Slim bundle for $240. Grabbed one of each.

That's cheap enough for me to try it out and if I don't like it, sell it to a crazy gotta have it Craigslister for no loss.

I think the huge amount of space criticism is directed at needing a large gaming space to move around in. My living room for example just isn't arranged properly for the amount of space Kinect needs.

I believe chuckd21 is right, the space issue is in regards to the floor space required when using the camera. Microsoft recommends being 6 ft. away for single player, and 8 ft. away for two players not to mention the side to side room needed to flail about.

Well from the reviews I have read, it doesn't look like my family room will support this thing. I can get 6 feet from the TV for the single player, but 8 feet for 2 players won't work without doing some major furniture rearrangement. This sucks, I was looking forward to this thing. I will still pick my preorder up, but I will sell it during the holidays. Hopefully I will make some money off of it.

I just can't see the majority of homes being able to support this thing. People in small apartments are definitely screwed.

Having played with this for a few months, I can say the only real problem I experienced was needing a little more space, but I was able to rearrange things easily to use it, and that was only when there was a second player. I didn't have any lighting issues, in fact I was impressed with how well it seemed to work in low light.

I was also impressed with how well the voice commands worked for me. I was afraid you'd need near silence to get them to work, which isn't the case. They seem to work well with regular room noise.

The only complaints I had were with menus such as in the hub and other places. I thought it took just a little too long to select things. The cursor was responsive on them but seemed a little to floaty, I'm wondering if this is part of why some people are complaining about lag. I also hope they allow games to use a different gesture to pause, since I can see that becoming a problem especially with a lefty.

I can't talk about the game I've tried, since none of them were final builds, I do have some on the way that'll hopefully be here tomorrow. Waiting on my copy of Adventures, and from Target I ordered Kinect Sports, Joyride, and Kinectimals (which is probably getting put away as a Christmas gift).

I will say this though, earlier in the summer I had no intention of buying the Kinect, since I also have the wii, but after a week of use I put in a preorder for it. It's not perfect, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of updates, especially with MS buying Canesta. It is a hell of a lot better than I was expecting.

how much width do you need? also if my 10 pound dog runs through my "play zone" will that screw it up?

I went to my Target store (2 of them) this morning and neither had Dance Central. The guy told me it had been coded in their system as "return to vendor". Did anyone get DC?

How do you expect to make money off it?

Single player I'd guess about 4-5 feet width and that's only if the game requires lateral movement, I have about 6 feet without moving anything and that's more than enough for single player. As for the dog, if it runs through that shouldn't be a problem I had kids run in front of me and it wasn't really a problem, it might screw up the shot or whatever you are currently doing but that's it, it was extremely fast to re-lock in on me. Of course there would be issues if the kid just stopped in front of me but for the most part I don't think even that would be an issue with a dog that size.

Glad you like it. It sounds like a fun device. But hardcore games? How exactly will that work? Their featured launch racing game doesn't allow for control of acceleration, braking or reverse! I've no doubt that the steering could have been refined, but the inability to do something as simple as control speed in a racing game is pretty concerning. And lest you think it's just because the game was rushed out, check out this hands-on Joy Ride preview dated June 12, 2009.
I expressed concerns in this thread months ago about the limitations the system would have with the absence of buttons and none of the reviews of the games have done anything to allay my concerns.
Will better games come out for the Kinect? Sure. Will there be anything appealing to the hardcore gamer? Not unless it integrates the standard controller as well.

ummmm, if it is a hot xmas item and it can't be found in stores --- ebay = $$$. I remember quite well people paying a whole lot for a wii.

another question, if I have a piece of furniture that may be touching "the zone", will that screw you up?

I read somewhere earlier in the week there was an issue where it was recalled due to something in the manual, but it was supposed to be available today.

Joystiq link

Just glance at Amazon already. Price ranges from $250-$1000. A couple of hours ago the lowest was around $190.

wow

It shouldn't I have a chair that is probably considered "in the zone" that I only, same with part of my couch and end table. The only time any of that should come into play is if you have to go behind it. Which by the looks of the current games probably won't be an issue. Also, I have a chair probably about 15 feet straight behind the TV and I have had no issues with people sitting there while games were being played.

I imagine taller folk will need even more space, or doesn't that matter?

What about shorties mixed with tallies?