Originally posted by Smasandian
That's about 50 bucks off. So it's a good deal.As for the size of the HDD, well, its the arcade version of the console. The previous ones didn't even have an HDD if I remeber correcly.
seems useless to me. They're essentially giving away a cheap game in hopes that everyone that buys this will drop a $100 on a proper hard drive once they realize the one that came with the console can't hold didly
Originally posted by jinXed by JaNx
seems useless to me. They're essentially giving away a cheap game in hopes that everyone that buys this will drop a $100 on a proper hard drive once they realize the one that came with the console can't hold didly
I don't see it.
It's their Arcade SKU which has been around for quite some time.
If people are stupid enough to buy the Arcade and then buy an HDD, then that's there own problem but the the Arcade version is clearly marketed towards people who don't care about the HDD.
Originally posted by Smasandian
I don't see it.It's their Arcade SKU which has been around for quite some time.
If people are stupid enough to buy the Arcade and then buy an HDD, then that's there own problem but the the Arcade version is clearly marketed towards people who don't care about the HDD.
It's just cheap, shitty marketing. Of course no one is stupid enough to fall for this cheap trick (other than new comers or a select few) That's why it's a horrible marketing strategy.
What cheap trick?
It's clearly marketed towards a certain clientale. The casual clientale.
MS has the arcade version so it can compete with the Wii. The Wii only has 512MB of internal storage while the Arcade has 4 GB's. If the casual market can survive on 512MB then they can surely survive 4 GB's. They don't have the HDD because the casual market might not need the huge HDD. I don't understand what the problem is. One is marketed to the casual, the other to the hardcore/regular gamers. Both are clearly different in marketing terms.
The Kinect bundle is the bundle for casual gamers because the Kinect is trying to get into the Wii market also. Combining both seems to make the most amount of sense.
Can Kinect Compete?
We see how Microsoft's motion controller shapes up against the opposition.
Now that Microsoft has finally planted its flag in the sand by releasing the pricing of Kinect, we were keen to find out what it had to offer for £129.99. This coming festive season will be a keenly fought battle of the motion sensors, but how does Kinect compare to Move and Wii?With a hint of festive anachronism, Microsoft held its Christmas Showcase at the Saatchi Gallery on a stifling mid-July morning to show off its new product range that's designed to get parents parting with their hard-earned cash this coming Yuletide.
Traditionally the show is held to show off their products to buyers, gift-guide writers, and parenting groups, but this year Microsoft wanted to let the unlucky few who didn't make it to E3 the chance to have a play with Kinect.
After first being introduced to the new Kinect-enabled Xbox Live interface which allows you to control online content with voice commands, we were ushered through into a much larger room dominated by a stage with Dance Central being demoed by a trio of lithe dancers bopping away to Lady Gaga.
Volunteers to step up onto the stage to have a go at Dance Central were thin on the ground, but everyone else was keen to have a go at the four other games on offer – Kinect Sports, Kinect Adventures, Joy Ride and Kinectimals – to finally get a chance to see whether Kinect can justify its £130 price tag.
Joy Ride – a cartoony kart-racer - was surprisingly difficult to control, and most of the seasoned gaming journos spent half the time spinning off the track. Waving your limbs around in front of a screen, regardless of how simplified the game is, isn't an intuitive control system.
The system's responsiveness also seemed a little off balance and only time will tell whether this gets easier with practice. You can see the potential for Kinect, but it feels like Microsoft was still either keeping its cards close to its chest, or had over-promised with the initial reveal.
Kinect Sports and Adventures seemed a better fit for the new interface, but for most of the time trying the ball-dodging mini-game in Adventures was spent flailing around at random. Whether this was caused by the infamous 'lag' that seemed to plague early demos was difficult to tell, but when you have to resort to waving your arms like a semaphore enthusiast at a rave whilst you're trying to do something as simple as bat a ball back at the screen it can get frustrating.
Our final demo was with Kinectimals, which was shown to us in a curtained off area of the showfloor, seemingly to enable voice commands to be heard by Kinect. The system really struggled in the darkened area, with the sounds of Lady Gaga still heard through the thick curtains, and the on-screen lion cub responded to the demonstrator's commands only sporadically.
It seems silence and solitude are needed by Kinect for optimum performance - conditions seldom found in homes with young children – Kinectimal's target audience.
From what we were shown, there is little that Kinect has to offer for the hardcore gamer from its opening titles, with the casual gamer clearly their number one target.
The games being shown were clearly just designed to demonstrate the peripheral's capability at a very basic level, but until Microsoft begins to utilise some of Kinect's more exciting features in a – dare we say it – cooler way, then it may struggle to convince even its most fervent fans to part with £130 when it finally becomes available later this year.
As it stands, PlayStation's Move looks a much more accessible piece of hardware and the tech demos we've seen blew Kinect's flailing displays out of the water. Nintendo is still ahead of the game when it comes to motion sensing, and both Sony and Microsoft still have a long way to go to catch up, but so far Kinect seems like the lame donkey in the race.
Kinect will ultimately be a failure. I'm calling it now. Once people realize that the only games that will be worth playing on the thing are the Kinect exclusive titles i believe the core gamers will simply stop supporting the thing. It will end up being used as an overpriced camera and scanner. I'm sure the, Kinect will find a home with the Niche gamers who will actually want to play the glorified, niche, wii titles but i really don't see the core gamers buying into this. I could be wrong. Shit, i havent even played it but i highly doubt that this thing is going to work fluidly with, shooters,racers, Sports titles, action adventures and rpgs ( You know, all of the video games that people like to play). Yeah, i'm sure you'll be able to play these games with the kinect but i doubt they will give you the type of full control that a controller does. This is just an attempt for microsoft to cash in on the Wii demographic. The only games that will probably shine on, Kinect will be the games that are designed to be played on the, Kinect.
Nintendo has all kinds of great game developers and they are all currently making games designed to be played on a motion sensing system and with the exception of a slight few titles, none of the games are worth playing or appeal to non-casual gamers. So, in other words, i think the kinects popularity is going to boil down to how many casual gamers enjoy the Kinect games because other than for experimentation i don't see gamers trading in their controllers for air gaming.
I could be wrong though, it might be the best thing since Beer, but if i were a gambling man i would bet against it.
Originally posted by Smasandian
What cheap trick?It's clearly marketed towards a certain clientale. The casual clientale.
MS has the arcade version so it can compete with the Wii. The Wii only has 512MB of internal storage while the Arcade has 4 GB's. If the casual market can survive on 512MB then they can surely survive 4 GB's. They don't have the HDD because the casual market might not need the huge HDD. I don't understand what the problem is. One is marketed to the casual, the other to the hardcore/regular gamers. Both are clearly different in marketing terms.
The Kinect bundle is the bundle for casual gamers because the Kinect is trying to get into the Wii market also. Combining both seems to make the most amount of sense.
I don't consider a 20gb hard drive a hardcore memory unit. I'm just saying...,i believe that most of the people who make the investment to buy an xbox, 4gb or not has made the decision to become a gamer. Now, whether or not they're casual or 50 hour a week hardcore gamers they are going to need to upgrade from a cheap 4gb hard drive, not long after their investment. Why 4gb? Do you even know how little space that is in todays standards of gaming? 20gb may be overkill for a, 10 hour a week gamer but why 4gb..,why not 10? Surely, the majority of the people who are going to buy this bundle won't be casual gamers. Most likely, they will be established gamers looking to get into playing the box or parents thinking their getting a deal. To me, this was a brazenly cheap marketing tactic.
Not even half-naked Asian girls make Kinect look good
You could blame it on the flash photography. You could blame it on the players not knowing what they're doing. Alternatively, you could blame it on Kinect being a load of crap that's more concept than substance. Your humble writer isn't stating that one or any of these things can be blamed. Just watch the video.As you can see, Microsoft thought it would be a good idea to have some half-naked Asian girls play Kinect's version of Wii Sports and Kinect's version of Dance Dance Revolution. On paper, it is a good idea. In practice, it makes Kinect look like it simply doesn't work.
This won't convince those of us still skeptical of Kinect. Even if the problem was with the flashing lights and atmosphere, does that mean Kinect will only work in a quiet, well-lit, perfectly conditioned room? So much for use as a party piece. And if it's the girls not knowing what they're doing? Well, so much for Kinect being user-friendly and more intuitive than buttons. It seems with each failed PR stunt, Kinect's original promise is being systematically stripped away.
We went from 2009's terrifyingly ambitious Project Milo demo to this ... two confused young girls who can't even make a casual racing game work. This is the future of gaming.
don't know whether it is funny or simply sad 😐
what they should do with kinect is incorporate it into regular games. like, off the top of my head, if you are playing a motorcycle game, and you turn with the analog stick, and you lean with your body (as a lot of people do anyway) the person riding the motorcycle will lean too, making the turn that much better. Just an idea. Though, that seems too much like a REALLY expensive six axis controller