My First try at Kinect

So I was at the state fair yesterday and was able to test out Microsoft's new Kinect camera. While I have to say that the idea of this technology is amazing, I cannot say that it works to anyones expectations.

Now I will admit that I did not get a long chance to play. and I only played one game. It is a roller coaster obstacle course, one of the games that will come with the new system. This is a game they they showed at the E3 conference and you can find videos of it on YouTube amongst other places. It started off a little oddly, first it was me and my wife playing and it did not pick her up at first. we had to move around a bit in the room for it to finally see her. But the big issue is we could not tell who it was seeing and who it was not. so we walked around like idiots for a second trying to figure it out. Since the girl explaining it to us could not figure it out either. But then it finally picked us up and we were able to start the game.

It starts out by having you put your hands out and pretending like your grabbing a pole. Then it counts down and you pull back as fast as you can to get yourself moving forward. you move back and forth and jump up and down dodging the obstacles. This seemed to work great at a slow speed. But then you can speed it up by doing little jumps. This is where the issues start. my first jump over something my character just hovered in the hair for a few seconds extra. This would not have been a big problem except for the fact that I hit the next two obstacles. of course by then I had to jump again and had the same issue. By then I was getting frustrated and was trying to move as fast as I could up and down and side to side and kept hitting everything. The lag was just killing me. Basically they just need to slow down the game so the camera can keep up. We finished up and found my wife had beat me by 2 coins and walked out.

We were met right at the door by a lady that explained to us about the system. I know most of the information from watching the E3 conference a few months ago when they officially announced it. My wife had not heard that much about it so I sat quietly and let the lady explain it. My wife really liked that it is voice activated. The fact that you can say "Xbox, Play movie" Is something that both of us admit is really cool. She also really liked the idea that you do not have to have the controller to play the games, even though she had the same complaints about the lag that I had.

So my conclusion is that I think somewhere the Kinect needs to fix it's code so that it will be appealing to more people than just the very casual player. I do not see a hard core player tolerating this for more than 5 min. I could see my nieces and nephews enjoying this because they do not care as much about how correct the game controls are. They just enjoy that the characters would do something when they moved in front of the camera.

Fat Princess Demo

I know this is a little late. But better than never right? I downloaded the Demo for this a week ago and had not played it until yesterday. I was not sure what I would think about the game at first but I continued playing it allot more that I thought I would.

This is a fun little game. Something that I want from a something I would Call a multi player mini game. The graphics are fun and smooth. The concept is simple and basic. Something that everyone can pick up and play. I have to face facts as possibly many others do. Not everyone is an avid gamer. So this is a big plus to have a game that your parents could pick up and play if they wanted.

The controls seem quick and responsive. although at first I was dieing off like crazy. I got a hang of some of the basics and got together a strategy that worked for me rather quickly. The basics of the game is you run around capturing areas and trying to get to the opponents castle, at least in the demo anyway. You have a variety of different characters. a Warrior, Ranger, Priest, and Worker that help you get threw the game. You can switch threw these characters at about any time, you just go back to your castle or in many cases die and you re spawn there. They all have different things they can do. The Warrior has more health and is a great fighter. The Ranger is a distance fighter with a little less health. the Priest is an ok fighter but can also heal their own teammates, and the Worker gathers wood and minerals to help upgrade everyone else and the castle.

This is a game that I would recommend buying for anyone interested in either an online battle or something for your friends and family to join you in a little game.

Graphics = 9

Game play = 9.5

Story = n/a

Presentation = 9.5

Overall score = 9.33

Trine Demo

Trine is a basic platformer game similar to that of Super Mario Brothers or the Original Sonic the hedgehog games. But as most games recently it is built in a 3D world. It is very much Story based and has a narrator threw most of the demo. This is what made the game interesting for me. It told the story in a fun story book way. The basics is you switch between 3 different characters on command during the game. The demo I actually felt like I could get threw the whole game with just one character if I wanted to. But some characters allow for faster access or just a way to take a different rout.

The game is based around 3 characters. The Thief, The Wizard, and the Warrior. All of them have a back story of why they are there. all of them wanting something different. But all of them now wanting the same thing, to be set free of one another.

The game play was interesting. But nothing really new. The controls did feel solid and easy to use. although I found myself switching from character to character on accident allot because of using magic or other abilities being up with the switch character buttons in the trigger button area. Not really a complaint. But personally gave me issues while playing.

Graphics were nice and smooth. I was not expecting anything spectacular, but they gave me what I was looking for.

This game looks interesting to me. But I do not see myself playing it multiple times. I do not think this game is really got the staying capacity for me to justify buying it. The Demo was fun and interesting. But from what I saw in the Demo. I do not see myself playing this more than one time threw. For some that is just fine. For the budget minded this does not seem like a great investment. I would say this would be a great rental. But it is a PSN title only. So no way you can rent it. I would like to see it do well and the developers maybe bring out some more games like this but with maybe more depth.

Garphics = 9

Gameplay = 8

Story = 9

Presentation =9

Overall score = 8.75

Uncharted 2 Demo

OK. I know the game it's self is out today. But I do not have it yet. I was also really upset that the demo expired yesterday. But here is my review.

Now I normally do not like online games. But this is one of the funnest multi-player games I have ever played. The ability to climb quickly, the variety of weapons, the perks that you can use, and the variety of game types and characters make this worth it. This demo just by its self is worth a small fee just for it's self. But to have it as part of the game makes it a wonderful package deal.

The graphics are top notch, although you don't have much time to look at them as you are running around trying not to get killed.

The game play is wonderful although I do find myself posting up against a wall when I am trying to dive out of the way. The ability to grab people and pull them over a ledge, or counter by kicking them off the ledge is quite fun and found myself doing that once in a while when the opportunity presented it's self. throwing grenades is much faster now too and something completely welcomed. I never minded the sixaxis control for aiming although I know how it could bother some. So them moving away from it does not bother me.

The Co-op was also fun. But I never played it with people I know which would have made it even better for me. And the Co-op treasure hunter mode was also fun with 3 people. But the need for communication between the 3 players would be very helpful once you get into the harder stages.

For a demo this is perfect and above what I ever expected. If the demo was just a game as it is. It would still deserve a high ranking.

Graphics = 10

Game play = 9.5

Story = n/a

Presentation = 9.5

Overall score = 9.67