XBOX Kinect: First Impressions

So this morning I picked up what could very well be the last available Kinect in Dublin. According to their sites, Gamestop, Game, HMV and PC World are all sold out of the Kinect at time of writing, as are almost all Argos outlets in the city. Luckily for me, there was ONE left in Argos in Nutgrove when I checked at 9am. I reserved it online and went about my morning errands. Around 12:30pm, I hopped on my bike and swung by Nutgrove. 


When I gave my reservation number, the guy at the counter laughed and told me that 9 people had already been in looking for them and had asked at the counter even though the order terminals said it was out of stock. As he told me this, a lady a few people behind me in the queue swore and left the store. I grabbed the rare bit of kit and cycled home with it balanced precariously on the handlebars.


What follows is a breakdown of the next 40 minutes or so.


13:02 - Box is unusually hard to dismantle. There are two separate cartons within the main box, both holding connected (ahem) parts of the Kinect. It took a few minutes for me to figure that out, but once I did it only took another 2 minutes to get the unit and cables out of the box.


13:07 - Wow, the Kinect is a lot bigger than it looked in pictures. About 10-12 inches I'd say. This means it draws a lot of attention to itself if placed on top of the TV, which by the way can't be achieved without the special TV mount kit which isn't out in Europe yet. 


13:09 - I have an old 360 so the special Kinect cable won't work, I'll have to use the provided USB adaptor. Now my 360 has an ugly black cable sticking out the front of it.


13:10 - Kinect fully installed (below TV), 360 powered on


13:11 - Dashboard update is required


13:13 - Kinect software needs to be downloaded


13:14 - Kinect interface opens, performs sound checks for about 2 minutes to determine ambient noise levels and measure output from surround sound system. I don't have surround sound, so all channels are outputted from the TV speakers. Why can't I just specify Stereo?


13:16 - 6-8 FEET OF SPACE REQUIRED??? Who has that much room in front of their TV? Kinect has me standing where I would expect to stand for it. That's too close. I take a step back, now I'm in the 'GOOD' position. I take another step back and I'm in the 'BEST' zone. Unfortunately, I'm also pressed against the sofa, which is pressed against the wall. 'GOOD' it will have to be.


13:19 - 'GOOD' is only suitable for single player apparently, I'll need another 2 feet of space if I want to play with another person. Balls.


13:20 - Ok, the Kinect is installed, configured and set up, I'm ready to play. 360 needs another restart.


13:21 - I pop Kinect Adventures into the tray and launch the game. Adventures is the only Kinect game I have at the moment, Everything except the dancing game looked boring and my budget doesn't stretch another 50 euro at the moment.


13:23 - I like the mode of selecting options, you hold your hand out and guide the icon on screen to the option you want and hold for two seconds. It's a little clunky but I soon get the hang of it.


13:25 - Adventures launches me into the Rafting mini game straight away. This is the game which made me want a Kinect, and it's as good now as I remember. Unfortunately, standing in the 'GOOD' zone has placed me right under the lamp in my living room, so possible brain damage occurs seconds into the game when I jump. I take a step forward. The game yells at me for being too close. I take a few steps back and find the magic area where I have enough room to move without breaking something or hurting myself.


13:28 - Raft minigame complete, I'm taken to the main menu and I get to pick a game to play. I try the leaky window game.


13:29 - Apparently all I have to do is hold my hands over the leaks for a second and they're repaired. I'm sick of this after repairing 2 leaks, so I quit.


13:31 - Let's try the Rallyball game. Apparently all I have to do is block incoming balls with my body and limbs.


13:33 - This is more like it. The Kinect tracks my body really well. At the start of the level I'm standing with my arms folded across my body, and Kinect displays my avatar this way from the off. It detects when my knees are bent, my arms are hanging and if I tilt my head in either direction the whole screen leans a little with me. Very impressive. Rallyball is quick to pick up and for the first time since opening the box I'm actual smiling. In fact, I have a big shit eating grin. plastered across my face.


13:38 - Working up a bit of a sweat now, off comes the hoody.


13:42 - The mountain of work waiting for me is calling, so I reluctantly power off the machine. I can see getting a reasonably good work out if I kept up Rallyball for more than 15 mins.


My initial impressions of the Kinect? Pretty good. It's hard to tell how long the collection of mini games in Adventures will keep me occupied alone, but I'd imagine the novelty will wear off after a few hours. Hopefully there'll be more decent titles out soon. The hardware itself is pretty cool, I like being able to control things with gestures and voice commands. Microsoft really crippled the device my requiring such a large play area but that's something that probably won't affect most people's experience so it's possibly not fair to knock it on that point. I'm having friends over tomorrow so I'd say that will be the Kinect's opportunity to shine; a few beers will perfectly set the group up for arm waving hilarity (provided the thing will track more than one person in the 'GOOD' zone). Trip report to follow.