Okay, this week will be a bit of a departure for me, as I am planning to discuss items previewed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon's "Game Week." Don't get me wrong, I'm hoping to provide plenty of pithy observations... along with sporadic use of the word "pithy."
So, day one of game week starts with a bang, previewing Microsoft's new controller-free gaming system, Kinect. From what I've seen, it looks fantastic, not just in practical gaming applications, but also the potential for future development. On tonight's show, two games were featured, Kinect Adventures, and Kinect Sports. The sports game looks to be the more fun of these two, but both looked enjoyable. We need to see more of "Adventures," because as of now we've really only seen the "jumping in a raft" aspect of that game and don't know if it has more variety than that. Sports will definitely have a selection of sports to choose, which automatically makes it look more interesting. Compare this to similar games on the Wii like Wii Sports Resort.
Really, I'm hoping not to do a disservice to the system by making the inevitable comparison between the Wii and Kinect, because the systems are remarkably dissimilar. The Wii has players essentially shackled to the system with a remote. With Kinect, you have no such restriction, playing games and even watching movies or otherwise controlling the system with movement of your entire body, and with voice control, through the system's motion-capture, voice rcognition, and even facial and body recognition.
Imagine if someone told you that, as much as you love your current TV remote, they have now developed a technology which allows you to control your entire entertainment system through voice commands and... interpretive dance. That's how the Wii compares to Kinect.
The games look to suffer from the usual "first time" issues. Imagine the first Nintendo, Sega, or Atari games. They seemed great in the beginning, but as programmers grew familiar with the technology, the quality of the applications increased almost exponentially. Now, I'm not saying don't get this system right away, because I'll probably get one on launch, and it will be fun. But, be expecting vast improvements on the games in the year following Kinect's release.
To give you an example, I remember playing Wave Race 64 when the Nintendo 64 came out. It looked great, and made the best use of the technology as programmers were able at the time. But things only got better from there. That's the same feeling I got from Kinect Adventures - looks good, but things will get even more impressive. And given the quality of today's next-gen systems, I believe the improvement will take place much more quickly than it did under older-generation equipment.
Kinect is slated for a November 4th launch, side-by-side with 15 games designed specifically for Kinect, but the system will also be used by other games developed to take advantage of the new hardware. There is no official Microsoft-stated price point as of yet, but rumors abound regarding a $149.99 price (which seems to be loosely validated by a pre-order page on Gamestop's website listing that price.) Kinect will work with all xbox 360s, new and old. The only difference is, the newest 360 SKU (gloss black and chrome, with a 250 GB hard drive) is "Kinect-ready," which reportedly means the Kinect device will be powered by an on-board power supply, while older systems will require a separate power supply for the Kinect hardware (supplied with the device.) No word yet as to what the extra power requirement may do for the internal heat situation on the new box.
More to come tomorrow!
WRITER'S NOTE, JUNE 23: The $149 price point now appears to be confirmed by multiple retailers, and even MS themselves.
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