Kinect

I don't own it, but the one I tried out at Best Buy had really horrible latency. If that experience is representative of most games for Kinect, then I can't see it having a future as the primary interface for any serious game. Maybe as a supplement, like for body position and head tracking, but not ever as a "trigger".

I'd love to be proven wrong, but until that happens I'm keeping my wallet shut.

Wait about a year for them to perfect it before buying it. Right now its pretty buggy and there's absolutely no support for it game-wise.

Dance Central is great, almost makes it worth the purchase of the Kinect. Harmonix outdid themselves with the responsiveness, soundtrack, and tutorial systems.

Add Kinect Sports and you start considering selling your Wii - not having to hold a controller to play the minigames is a revelation of sorts. And if you have to justify the purchase to a significant other just show them Your Shape Fitness, which has some good workout programs and mini-games.

Software support is pretty limp right now. The rest of the launch crop is crap.

Our family digs it, but it's a pretty steep investment for only 3 good games (4 if you have younger ones that will enjoy Kinectimals). Also, you will want a large free space in your house/apartment to measure the intended playspace before buying.

So Susan Orlean had some thoughts, at the New Yorker, on the Kinect. I eagerly wait for the sequel to Adaptation where Charlie Kaufman inadvertently writes his own rendition of Tron.

Actual article.

That was great.

I got to play this for a couple of hours at a friend's place last month. It was pretty fun. About as fun as trying the Wii for the first time. I didn't come away from the experience wanting it for myself though.

Same here. A friend is checking them out for use as video installation triggers and whatnot. I saw no problems with responsiveness or tracking. The area we used wasn't super huge either.

There's no doubt it's an impressive little device and no doubt is the forerunner of the sorts of devices that will be bugging us individually, by name, at airports, shops and our jobs. It easily recognized which of us was associated with what avatar.

At CES they announced 8 million Kinects have been shipped to retailers with most of those sold.  Holy crap, that is an amazing add on sales rate.  I bought one as I needed a Slim anyway and bought the bundle.  All in all, it's impressive but I have concerns on the gaming front.  Other than Dance Central most games are either wii-knockoffs or utter crap.  Unless they get a steady state of good games, it may die as yet another fad.  But, the controls thing (the more I use it) is pretty awesome.  Being able to FF through ESPN3 and/or Live.fm using hands and voice is very impressive.  I've showed it to some non-gamers and they were all very, very impressed. 

That's the thing- it's really fun, Dance Central is a blast, but there's absolutely nothing on the slate that looks worth it. Nothing. Later on in this year a couple of games from Microsoft and Sega hit but unless they've got something hiding up their sleeves that they unleash at 3D, it's going to be a slim year for the sensor.

 

Although You Don't Know Jack will be compatible...

I think the key is going to be how well they can integrate the tech with the more popular games out there, like FPS shooters, etc.

 

I'm actually kind of looking forward to try out the Move integratation on Killzone, so far it looks like it's great specially with this attachment (which is a lot more functional than the Wii plastic stuff that doesn't do anything) ...

 

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/17/playstation-moves-sharp-shooter-rifle-shell-blasts-away-in-ki/