Kinect has problems - Peter Molyneux
- Thread starter Tinman
- Start date
TheAvenged87
Not Robin
I love my Xbox and all, but I can't see how this Kinect thing will last for very long (apart from the fact the MS is trying to punt it everyday into every single franchise). Don't get me wrong, the concept of Kinect is cool, but the practicality of it doesn't quite make sense to me just yet.
matt
Local caffeine junky
I think not having a controller is kind of cool, but at the same time, limiting. What I would like to see is developers using a combination of controller/kinect controls. Maybe in a shooter, you can hide behind a wall, then actually lean to peek around it. That would work much better than the normal cover systems and make controls easier and more intuative to use, and it seems like a fairly easy thing to implement.
TheAvenged87
Not Robin
LoL that actually sounds pretty cool!
matt
Local caffeine junky
I reckon it could work nicely. They are on a mission to completely do away with controllers, but that takes away from the more hard-core games because it's more of a casual game type interface. Why not use it to augment the controller rather than replace it??? Maybe it's not in line with the vision that MS has for the Kinect, but I think there's possibilities there.
TheAvenged87
Not Robin
You should be head of development, dude. You make a good point, augmenting your general gameplay control with both controller and kinect should be pretty awesome. Guys don't want to be jumping around in their lounge holding the invisible salami of death.
matt
Local caffeine junky
LOL, cool, I'll send my CV to MS and see if I can get a job there. Seriously though, I'm surprised they haven't come up with the idea already. Surely market research would come up with something like that. It would be a more diverse market offering rather than just targeting the casual market.
It'll probably depend more on game developers than MS though, and how they want to use the Kinect... I think most of what's available now is more like concept games meant to show that they can do what the Wii does but better, and without a control. Maybe that's why the big no controller focus. They're just trying to out-do Nintendo rather than coming up with something that's awesome in it's own right
TheAvenged87
Not Robin
Yes. Market research and basically forums like these could help them out a lot. Sales figures too.
I have yet to see a seriously good Kinect game...but there is another thread on here saying that MS dropped a free Kinect dev kit so that people can play with it. I think some people will go: "Hey, I wonder what happens when I do this".
matt
Local caffeine junky
Ya, all the ones I've seen are Wii type games. I guess time will tell if either the big game developers do something with it in a AAA game, or some Indie developer makes something interesting. Otherwise I think it may be a fad in the casual games market and fade away after a while. That would be a pity though because it's such a cool bit of hardware
Kinect on it's own is the epitome of suck.
They need some kind of wireless puck or wand or something. Something with a few buttons on it. Something with possibly Sixaxis like motion sensing for character movement forward/back etc.
Just that on it's own, it does not work as expected.
They need some kind of wireless puck or wand or something. Something with a few buttons on it. Something with possibly Sixaxis like motion sensing for character movement forward/back etc.
Just that on it's own, it does not work as expected.
TheAvenged87
Not Robin
I think you just hit the nail on the head with a good example to add to what matt said. Mass Effect 2 had an awesome "cover" combat system. If you could use the controller to move and shoot while the Kinect picks up your cover movements, it can become an amazing experience.
matt
Local caffeine junky
That would be a great one if they can pull that off.
Here's another thought. Have you ever seen how they can simulate 3D with head tracking? It's fantastic. I've seen a proof of concept using a wii remote and there's one on iPad as well. head tracking should be a piece of cake with the Kinect. I'm sure they can already do that. They have facial recognition, and they already track you.
Check this out
More of that dude's projects here http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/
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TheAvenged87
Not Robin
That's awesome. Watching some more of this guy's stuff. Shot for the cool linkage.
matt
Local caffeine junky
Nice hey! And he did that years ago.
Now there's an exciting idea for development isn't it? Everyone's all eager on 3D again now, and although this would only work for a single person at a time, it would mean you can do nice 3D on a normal TV, without glasses. All they need to know is where your head is. Combine that with the cool kinect cover system idea and a normal controller for running around and shooting and whatever. How cool does that sound?
TheAvenged87
Not Robin
Overdose of coolness. People will leave their jobs to play games. But it does set in motion a train of thought about what gaming can still achieve. There are so many cool new concepts doing the rounds at the moment. Augmented reality, 3D, Kinect (if used in the way we have been discussing), etc. If someone can sit down and work through all of these things to make sense of them, a new era of gaming will come into existence.
matt
Local caffeine junky
Very true. Games have kind of reached a plateua in general, aside from hardware advances, but if they can manage something like this, it could change the face of gaming. I remember trying out VR goggles at a computer fare in the 90's sometime (about the time when the Lawnmower Man movie came out). In those days VR was going to be the next big thing, but it never caught on. I think in the same way, all the fads of motion control and kinect and stuff might just fade away (not likely though), but the potential is there for some fantastic things that might change the world as we know it
TheAvenged87
Not Robin
Yup. I think motion control with specific controllers like the Wii might fade away, but as soon as Kinect is used properly, the concept will not be going anywhere. The device itself might, though.
Motion control...
How much exactly do you remember of the VR helmet system?
It actually had motion control, btw (By use of the puck controller - very awesome!)
I tried about 2 years ago to get my hands on one of those controllers, but no luck...
matt
Local caffeine junky
Motion control...
How much exactly do you remember of the VR helmet system?
It actually had motion control, btw (By use of the puck controller - very awesome!)
I tried about 2 years ago to get my hands on one of those controllers, but no luck...
I recall it having a whole helmet thing, not just goggles, and it was motion controlled because it picked up when you turned your head or looked up and down, and they also had a gun type device that might also have had it's own motion control. It was awesome. I don't know what the game was that they had on, but it was sort of Doom 1 type graphics (about the same time).
I also remember seeing someone there who had a cell phone. That was pretty amazing too in those days.