Official Xbox One Thread

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  • killgod
    OHHHH WHEN THE REDSSSSS
    • Oct 2008
    • 4714



    I am a little bit worried about Kinect.

    I’ve just spent 10 minutes being scanned into Kinect Sports Rivals. I’m not sure if it’s working correctly. The only feedback I am being given is from a Microsoft rep to my right. He’s politely giving me instructions when the Kinect (for some reason) stops the scan.

    “Take a step forward.”

    “Take a step back.”

    “Maybe just tilt your head a little bit left.”

    After this laborious effort (which I’m assured will be streamlined before launch) Kinect Sports Rivals goes through the process of translating the information into a virtual representation of me. As it does its calculations I ask myself, ‘if this is difficult with a Microsoft representative guiding me step by step, how difficult will it be for a ten year old in the comfort of his or her own home, or parents who’ve never used a console before?’

    Then my avatar pops up. It looks vaguely like me. Vaguely. That’s being generous. The 3DS did a similar job of creating my Mii with a single low-resolution photograph. Was it really worth all that effort?


    Now to play Kinect Sports Rivals itself. The rep sets up a two player game. Rock climbing. As someone obsessed with rock climbing (I climb three times a week) I’m super excited. I stand side by side with the Microsoft rep. Immediately I notice there is something wrong. My avatar’s limbs are contorted like some screwed up Lovecraftian marionette, my arms twitch incessantly, clearly not responding to any of my movements.


    Yesterday I spent a fair amount of time with the Xbox One’s new Kinect, and it seemed like a significant chunk of that time was spent trying to get things to work when (two months from the launch of Xbox One) they should simply work.

    We were supposed to be forgiving, and we were. After two player Rock Climbing on Kinect Sports Rivals clearly wasn’t working, I was happy to simply try out the single player, despite Microsoft making a big fuss of the fact Kinect allows multiple players on-screen simultaneously. Single player climbing worked more fluidly but, regardless, I never really felt like I was in control of my actions. My movements weren’t being replicated accurately. I felt as though I was fumbling my way to the top with no real in-game feedback; no real sense that Kinect was working as advertised.

    ‘The lag has been reduced massively’: that’s what we’re constantly being told in conferences, in communications with Microsoft, in interviews, in previews. I have no doubt there are figures to back those statements up, but the disconnect between my movements in real life as replicated on screen is obvious. I feel it, instantly, and it makes playing any game with Kinect a frustrating experience. The next game I play is Wakeboarding, it feels a little better than climbing, but it’s nowhere near responsive enough. The delay is obvious to anyone who plays it, to the point where I can’t imagine anyone investing in it to any great extent.

    I find myself asking another question: three years after the release of Kinect, how many video games have really worked well with Kinect? I come up with two names. Two. Dance Central and Child of Eden. In three years. Is it possible that Kinect just isn’t suited for video games?

    I’m worried about Kinect. Mere months from launch it feels imprecise, temperamental and clumsy. On more than one occasion its voice recognition, being demonstrated by a Microsoft rep from the US with an American accent, needed three or four repeats of ‘Xbox Home’ to do what a single button press could have done in half a second. If Microsoft reps who have been briefed and have lived with the Xbox One for months are struggling to make everything work seamlessly, what chance does the average punter have?

    And make no mistake, a device like Kinect — the device Microsoft is hellbent on shoehorning into our living space — must be seamless if the Xbox One is to capture the mainstream audience Microsoft is lusting after. In short: I have very little confidence in Kinect’s ability to respond quickly, efficiently or consistently and that’s an issue.

    But the major issue is this: if you want to purchase an Xbox One, Kinect is being forced upon you. You are paying extra for a device that, two months from launch, feels like a rough, unfinished product. You don’t have a choice and that’s problematic.

    When Kinect was first announced — as Project Natal — it felt monumental, as if Microsoft had captured some sort of rare lightning. Don Mattrick looked and talked like a strange time traveller, with a device he had somehow stolen from a distant, brilliant future. Our minds were alive with possibility. Since that day those possibilities have faded and declined, yet Microsoft still seems driven by that squandered potential — by the future that Project Natal promised but couldn’t deliver upon. Stop trying to make fetch happen, it isn’t going to happen.

    I want to be positive about Kinect, but it’s difficult. Some aspects work well: facial recognition, although slow, is a great idea. I love that it recognises who is holding which controller and responds accordingly. This is a useful, future facing feature and it’s the result of great innovative thinking. Easier than passing switch controllers? Maybe not, but it has benefits, particularly in tandem with Xbox One’s customisable homepage. Watching the console adjust preferences on the fly based on who was holding which controller was quite breathtaking. ‘This is what Kinect should be used for,’ I thought.

    But that was the 10%. During the remaining 90%, Kinect felt like it was a hindrance, forcing users to swim against the giant leaps Microsoft made with Xbox One’s user friendly UI, which looks fantastic. Sure, I can turn Kinect off — that’s my choice. But I still have to pay for it. I don’t have a choice there.

    So, yes. I think there are issues there — not with the Xbox One, with Kinect specifically. Forza Motorsport looks incredible, Ryse seems to have made strides in the combat department and I walked away genuinely blown away by the scale and ambition of Dead Rising 3.

    But Kinect? I’m a little bit worried about Kinect.

    Comment

    • jms493
      Junior Member
      • Feb 2009
      • 11248

      Kinect Still sucks? Go figure!

      Back to Forza 5.

      Comment

      • dope
        Allons-y!
        • Feb 2009
        • 2096

        thanked for the mean girls reference in the article!

        Comment

        • padman59
          Slayer of Demons
          • Mar 2009
          • 5709

          Originally posted by jms493
          Kinect Still sucks? Go figure!

          Back to Forza 5.

          At least you don't have to buy it.

          Comment

          • jms493
            Junior Member
            • Feb 2009
            • 11248

            Originally posted by padman59
            At least you don't have to buy it.
            I dont get it.

            Comment

            • MrBill
              Billy Brewer Sucks Penis
              • Feb 2009
              • 0

              So what is the deal with people that have an Xbox 360 and an Xbox One as far as gamertags....do you have to transfer it back and forth or can you just boot up each console and log into Live without having to go through those extra steps each time?

              Comment

              • jms493
                Junior Member
                • Feb 2009
                • 11248

                Originally posted by MrBill
                So what is the deal with people that have an Xbox 360 and an Xbox One as far as gamertags....do you have to transfer it back and forth or can you just boot up each console and log into Live without having to go through those extra steps each time?
                what do you think?

                Comment

                • MrBill
                  Billy Brewer Sucks Penis
                  • Feb 2009
                  • 0

                  Originally posted by jms493
                  what do you think?
                  Well, what I think and what MS actually does could be two different things. For the Xbox to Xbox 360, your gamertag was not transferable. Once you went to the 360, that is what you stayed with going forward. I would like to see them be able to recognize logins from multiple devices so long as they were not simultaneous. The cloud technology they tout would allow for that. The more tedious option is to transfer it back and forth each time you wanted to play a game that required the console switch.

                  Comment

                  • jms493
                    Junior Member
                    • Feb 2009
                    • 11248

                    Originally posted by MrBill
                    Well, what I think and what MS actually does could be two different things. For the Xbox to Xbox 360, your gamertag was not transferable. Once you went to the 360, that is what you stayed with going forward. I would like to see them be able to recognize logins from multiple devices so long as they were not simultaneous. The cloud technology they tout would allow for that. The more tedious option is to transfer it back and forth each time you wanted to play a game that required the console switch.
                    You gamertag is good on both machines.

                    Comment

                    • CCBrink
                      Awkward Swag
                      • May 2009
                      • 4261


                      Was hoping we could get games like this that were shown when the kinect was first announced.




                      Comment

                      • Handleit_44
                        Posts a lot
                        • Jun 2009
                        • 3330

                        Battlefield 4 - Xbox One Impressions + Bonus XB1 Controller Impressions & Vid


                        BF4 XBO
                        - I played it on the business day of Igromir ("Game World" on English) in Moscow.
                        - The resolution was definitely 720p, running mostly 60fps.
                        - The game looks slightly better than Xbox 360 version of BF3 (I would say 50% better, no where near those videos of Paracel Storm gamescom build). Though textures are a lot better than on X360, some god rays, lots of foliage on the map.

                        - It was a new build with Domination on Zavod 311. No vehicles. Though everything is unlocked.
                        - For some strange reason player movement speed is VERY limited. It's like the sprint speed is somehow similar to the walking speed in BF3. I think it was this particular build fault. Cause on X360 the speed is ok.

                        - The controller is SO SHITTY I couldn't even aim properly (and got 55 eagle in X360 version and 20th level in PS3 version). EDIT: added my small gamepads comparision.
                        - The game ran on Xbox One debug kits. I saw one, it was black and I couldn't make any photo. There wasn't any local network mode, they used Windows server for the 26 machines.

                        - The game supports kinect for voice commands, leaning with your head behind the corners and some other stuff. You can choose the language of voice commands.

                        - The controller is very, very, very unergonomical compared to X360. It's smaller, the feeling is kind of like you are using a DualShock3.
                        - The move distance of sticks is a little bit smaller, than the one in X360. I really thought about PS Vita sticks while playing.
                        - Bumpers are totally connected to triggers. There isn't any piece of plastic (like in DS4) in-between trigger and bumper (clearly seen on video I edited in) so in 30-40% maybe you would miss the trigger and hit the bumper.

                        - The vibration is a lot less than on X360.
                        - The D-Pad is deepened into controller and it's really awkward. As in X360, DS3, DS4 it's slightly above the surface of controller. So while you try to press it on XBO gamepad moving your left thumb down from left stick you hit nothing, then you have to spend a second to find d-pad and actually press it. Really strange.

                        - In order for you to not think that I am biased - I was the biggest basher of DS3 ever and also a huge fun of X360 gamepad

                        Some impressions of BF4 from our very own Timurse. BF4 XBO I played it on the business day of Igromir ("Game World" on English) in Moscow. The resolution was definitely 720p, running mostly 60fps. The game looks slightly better than Xbox 360 version of BF3 (I would say 50% better, no...

                        Comment

                        • SethMode
                          Master of Mysticism
                          • Feb 2009
                          • 5754

                          It's always shocking to find that Handle has posted something negative about MS or an MS product in an MS related thread.

                          Comment

                          • jms493
                            Junior Member
                            • Feb 2009
                            • 11248

                            Comment

                            • Point Blank
                              Needs a hobby
                              • Oct 2008
                              • 14184

                              About time they release more dashboard stuff.

                              Comment

                              • jms493
                                Junior Member
                                • Feb 2009
                                • 11248

                                All Xbox One Games Will Have Dedicated Servers

                                Microsoft's Albert Penello revealed on Twitter recently that all Xbox One games that have a multiplayer component will be using dedicated servers. Very good news as I'm sure it will improve the multiplayer experience significantly on the next-gen console.

                                Comment

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