Gaming: Do we need to get Kinect-ed?

Four years ago the Nintendo Wii broadened gamers’ horizons, getting them up off the sofa and waving their arms around to interact with games with its revolutionary motion-sensitive controls.

 

Last month Microsoft took the gaming experience a step further with the release of Kinect, an add-on to the incredibly successful Xbox 360 which lets players jump into games in a way they never have before. With a combination of an conventional RGB camera and two motion-tracking sensors, Kinect scans you into the game so every move you make is reflected on screen by your character.

The system, which is compatible with all existing Xbox 360s, was released on 10 November and sold a million units worldwide in the first 10 days after launch. Microsoft is confident to have it in five million homes worldwide by the end of the year. But with so much technology already hanging around widescreen TVs across the land, do people need another device?

There’s plenty of shiny futuristic features to the technology: voice control, hand control of the menus, as well as ‘scanning’, which means that the sensor can be shown a colour, analyse it and then use it in the game, such as the colour of your car in happy-go-lucky racer Kinect Joyride (which is obviously not a copy of any Kart-based franchise on Nintendo’s consoles…).

The camera also works as a normal webcam, allowing video chats via Xbox LIVE, but with webcams as standard for most laptops and Skype facilitating video chatting it’s hardly a unique selling point.

What Microsoft have failed to realise is that it’s the strength of the games which will sell Kinect to the masses, especially their current fanbase, and unfortunately it’s a fairly mixed bag. If things had gone according to plan we might have seen Kinect-enabled Fable III as well as Gears of War 3 but alas it was not to be. Perhaps Microsoft should invest in coming up with an IP which really lends itself to showcasing the technology…?

On top of it all it’s not cheap either – despite claims originally that it would retail around the price of a standard game – Kinect currently RRPs at £129.99 on its own, though it does come with the physically challenging Kinect Adventures, or you can pay £249.99 for a bundle with the new slim Xbox 360 console included as well.

The smart thing to do though is to wait for an established franchise to take the plunge and embrace the technology to show the world what Kinect can really achieve. In the meantime relax, gaming is supposed to be recreation after all. If you want a work out though, there is a certain console from Japan which you can flail your arms at to your hearts content, if you need a clue its name rhymes with ‘money’.

Gaming: E3 Special - Nintendo Press Conference explained

A company which began its life making dominoes has come a long way to giving the most user-friendly games consoles ever, but Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo of America, is keen to stress that "technology is only a tool, what matters is the experience."


After a disappointingly samey E3 last year, Nintendo had a lot to do prove they haven't run out of ideas, and sure enough they don't disappoint. The biggest announcement is new hardware the 3DS (which looks very shiny, look up), boasting 3D gaming without the need for pesky 3D glasses.

Before that though, we are graced with the return of one of Nintendo's best-loved characters - the first of many as it turns out - as Shigeru Miyamoto introduces us to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, with enhanced Wii Motion Plus controls.

At first he tries to explain things from a video screen, but soon this becomes too complicated so he slashes his way through the back wall to enter the stage, to an uproar from the crowd. Skyward Sword boasts new weapons, with a lot of the mechanics from the ever-popular Wii Sports such as rolling Link's bombs out like a bowling ball.

Despite some technical mishaps on stage when trying to demonstrate the title, which Miyamoto clearly has a lot of love for, it receives a warm reception from the crowd, particularly for the new control style which sees the Wiimote become Link's sword and the Nunchuck his shield.

After Reggie tells us that some of us like realistic games and some of us like cartoony ones (duh...) he goes on to show Mario Sports Mix. In the mix are volleyball, basketball, hockey and ice hockey for now, but since the game won't ship until Christmas they'll probably throw in tiddlywinks or something too.

Next Reggie dispels some myths about Wii gamers, assuring us they aren't people who just play Wii Sports and Wii Fit occasionally and then get bored *shifts eyes uneasily*, in fact, according to Mr Nintendo, many so-called 'casual' gamers are "channelled along their gaming journey" by games such as Mario Kart Wii and New Super Mario Bros.

In order to continue these gamers development, Nintendo have handily come up with Wii Party, Mario Party 10,000 in disguise with a couple of other game modes attached. The game is centred around the 177,000,000 'Miis' that have been created around the world and encourages social development, despite the console not having online capabilities strong enough to support interfacing with people worldwide easily.

The first third party title to be announced this year is Harmonix's Just Dance 2. The sequel to the first game (obviously) it adds more tracks, more players and dance-offs to make making a fool of yourself more fun than it ever has been before (until Kinect comes out of course).

The announcement of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn has been a long time coming and offered little surprise but it was Goldeneye returning to Nintendo that had everyone in the room salivating. A remake? A re-imagining? Does it matter? The game features Daniel Craig as the man in tux this time and appears to have retained many locations from Rare's classic.

Unfortunately the graphics don't look much more advanced than it's N64 (grand)father and despite a few small but brutal touches there is nothing here that will ever live up to people's understandably unreasonable expectations, since the original meant so much to so many people and it will always have that magic because it's in the past.

An unusual entry from Disney next as they present Disney Epic Mickey, an adventure through 80 years of the company's history with familiar characters and locations along the way, as well as things which have sunk into the vaults at Disney. It features three play modes, simple free roam exploration, traditional quests, and travel. The latter looks the most interesting as the game transforms into a sides-crolling actioner akin to Mario's early days with an impressive visual style as the game takes you within a cartoon, very Viewtiful.

The first of two unexpected returning protagonists for Nintendo is Kirby, who stars in his own game for the first time in seven years - Kirby's Epic Yarn. The visual style is stylised so everything is made of wool and Kirby himself is simply an outline. This leads to an easily manipulatable game environment, pulling land closer so you can reach it etc. and the presentation is stunning.

Dragon Quest 9's porting to US shores fails to spark much interest despite its incredible popularity in the East, but what does get people shouting is the latest footage of Metroid: Other M, which looks impressive without revealing very much at all.

If there's one underrated Nintendo character, it would have to be Donkey Kong - if not least for his spelling-mistake name - since DK never seems to get the limelight to himself...still this won't be changing, but Donkey and Diddy will be back with Donkey Kong Country Returns. Environments are a lot more interactive since the original, and the relics of his Super Smash Brothers outings are on show, along with all the staples like bananas, lots and lots of bananas.

For their grand finale Nintendo saved the best till last, with the unveiling of super-cool handheld the 3DS, which boasts not only increased graphics capability, a widescreen top screen and  funky 3D technology which allows you to see games in immersive 3D without the need for polarising glasses, but two cameras on the back which allow you to take digital 3D pictures.

Developers seem very excited, a video shows many big names singing the 3DS' praises for its potential, and the platform has attracted more third party launch support than any console Nintendo has launched before, promising - on release - titles like Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts and Assassins Creed.

The 3DS also gives an old Nintendo IP to have a new adventure, namely Pitt (the annoying one in Smash Brothers Wii with that endless sword spinning attack) and Kid Icarus Uprising. The graphics for the game look particularly impressive for handheld, edging ever closer to the Wii's capabilities.

As Reggie welcomes out a horde of attractive women to demonstrate the 3DS for the audience, you get the feeling that Nintendo have had fun at this event, their presentation has a sense of humour, they don't take themselves too seriously and they produce some fantastically entertaining games, as well as pushing the boundaries wherever they can. They might not be as 'hardcore' as they used to be, but if you were having a gaming marathon at your place tomorrow night, they're the company you'd like to invite.


James Michael Parry

This Is Entertainment's comprehensive E3 Summary: Part 2 - Nintendo

Nintendo is a name which has been synonymous with video gaming for the past 30 years. Now in its 120th year, having spent it's early years making cards and dominoes, the company is beginning to feel the pressures of the ever-increasing competition in the sector.

This year's E3 was a mixture of the company's "Everyone is a gamer" philosophy and it's traditional strong points, namely that over-enthusiastic, red-hatted plumber Mario.

While it's important to put effort into franchises which consumers associate with the brand, Nintendo's press conference, which lasted just over an hour (nearly an hour shorter than the other two big names), spent around five minutes showcasing only three third party Wii titles: The Conduit, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Dead Space: Extraction.

While all three games look interesting and offer a "harder edge", according to Reggie Fils-Aime, President and CEO of Nintendo of America, only The Conduit is an entirely original IP (Intellectual Property).

It certainly looks like Sega have done a good job with it, and it will give people a reason to think again before dismissing Wii as a "kiddie console", but all signs point to it going against the grain of the norm on Nintendo platforms.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is the natural sequel to The Umbrella Chronicles, an on-the-rails shooter which made the most of the Wii Zapper, and follows Leon S Kennedy and Claire Redfield as they play through the events of Resident Evil 2, offering a new perspective for the player. If it's predecessor is anything to go by this will be an excellent and addictive title.

Dead Space: Extraction is a prequel of the edgy psycological horror which impressed critics across the world last year when it was released on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. It's obvious that this will be a different type of game in the same universe, but should still offer an exciting gaming experience for Wii players.

With the non-Nintendo developed announcements hidden away at the end of the conference, it was difficult to ignore the BIG announcements:


Wii

• Super Mario Galaxy 2 announced
• Wii Fit Plus announced
• New Super Mario Brothers Wii announced
• Wii Vitality Sensor announced
• Metroid: Other M announced
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
  
• Wii Sports Resort re-announced
• Wii Motion Plus re-announced
  

DS/DSi

• Mario and Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story announced
• Golden Sun DS announced
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks announced
• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box announced
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Prisoners of the Sky announced
  
• Facebook photo sharing announced

Chances are if you just skimmed that you're thinking something along the lines of "same old, same old" or possibly "what on EARTH is a 'Vitality Sensor' when it's at home?!".

Allow me to explain. The Vitality Sensor works in a similar way to the thing you wear on your finger when you're in hospital, and it does the same thing: measures your pulse. According to Nintendo the sensor will " initially sense the user’s pulse and a number of other signals being transmitted by their bodies, and will then provide information to the users about the body’s inner world. "

Concrete details about how exactly it will be used in games are scarce, but essentially the plan is to detect stress levels and other things from your pulsebeat. I'd really like to see it used in a psychological horror, upping the weirdness as your pulse increases perhaps?

The big game releases come as no surprise, with Mario abound, but the prospect of a straight sequel in Super Mario Galaxy 2 seems like a lazy cash-in and risks cheapening the frankly astounding brilliance of the original. Then again, riding Yoshi should be good fun.

As for the DS release, the name Bowser's Inside Story sounded exciting and original, a chance to find a little more about the growling nemesis of that plucky plumber and unleash some of his power, but sadly that potential is denied when the name is taken literally and the Mario brothers go on a journey through Bowser's insides instead.

The latest Samus project, Project M, sounds more promising, if mysterious, but the focus on back story to add depth to the character is undoubtedly a positive step. Making the character progressively more than just a super suit.

Embracing social media, albeit in a small way, with the integration of Facebook photo sharing on the DSi, is definitely another step in the right direction, but a far cry from the bold partnerships Microsoft have announced (full MS round up coming soon).

In the end Nintendo seem to have taken their "Games are for everyone and everyone's a gamer" ethos a little to far and a little too literally. It's all well and good making games which appeal to the masses, and work as tools rather than games in the case of things like the blatantly obvious Wii Fit Plus, but it has to remember that games for everyone aren't really for everyone.

Sometimes people want something a bit more specific, tailored for people like them. Nintendo may argue that it fulfils this by letting players tailor games to suit their own tastes, but sometimes it's nice to have things done for you. Rather than being able to adapt games to your needs, it's a nice feeling when you switch on a title and think "This game was made for me".

Xbox LIVE: The Past, the Present and the Future

Online gaming is no longer just a novelty, it's a phenomenon, and in the console world if there's one platform that shines brighter than all others it's Microsoft's Xbox Live.

The service launched back in 2002 and had amassed 10 million users by February last year, but will its 'golden age' last? What makes it so successful? Where will Live go from here?

It's difficult to work out exactly how many people log on, since Microsoft keeps such information pretty close to the chest, but since it reported a rise from eight to 10 million users in only a few months, it's clear there’s potential for further success.

But what about the other side? There have been hacking issues, deleted accounts, glitches and cheaters who upset the online status quo for their own personal gains.

Totally360.com spoke to Gary Shaw, the Managing Director of unofficial troubleshooting site Xbox Live the Guide, who believes cheating is a serious issue:

“Cheating has been around since games were invented and it will never go away. I’m firmly from the ‘you’re only cheating yourself’ camp. If it’s not a genuine win when playing PES [Pro Evolution Soccer] or ‘winning’ COD [Call of Duty] with a rapid-fire mod... well... have you really won anything?”

The effect of cheating is that is creates more cheaters, since more people exploit the glitches in games that they see others doing. Colin Miller, a professional Games Journalist, believes that if cheating is allowed to continue it can cause other issues: “The main problem is that it leads to more ‘rage quitting’. I have quit quite a few games of COD: World at War myself after seeing cheaters shooting other players whilst hovering in thin air. It's annoying for players when you spend all that time waiting to join a decent match and then that happens.”

The introduction of the ‘New Xbox Experience’, or NXE, in November last year led to an increased focus on the social side of gaming, allowing gamers to form ‘parties’ and jump from game to game together.

These benefits were generally well-received, with some even going as far as saying it felt like playing a brand new console, but according to Helene Wilson, EMEA Xbox MVP and webmistress of Xboxliveaddicts.co.uk, there is a down side to relying on ‘party’ based gaming:

“Although [it’s] great to have it so we can chat whilst all playing different games and from wherever we are, it’s taking away to a certain extent the ability to make new friends. If you are in a Party Chat and someone comes into a lobby, how are you meant to hear them?

“It's a great feature for people who love to be in a small group, but not so good for new people to Xbox Live who may be looking to make friends.”

Despite this, Xbox Live remains significantly more developed than it’s equivalents on other consoles. The Playstation 3’s ‘Playstation Network’ (PSN) recently announced over 20million members, a significant amount in the two and a half years it’s been up and running.

The key difference between their successes is money. A silver subscription to Xbox Live is free to Xbox owners, but it requires a monthly fee of £4.99 in order to upgrade to a gold membership and access its best features, particularly multiplayer, while Sony’s PSN remains entirely free.

Talking to Edge magazine about the financial worth of Live in 2007, Aaron Greenberg, the group product manager for Xbox and Xbox Live, said “You’re creating your friends list, messaging…. instant messaging, you get a good 80% of the Live experience for free…we feel our multiplayer offering is good value at 50 bucks (£39.99) a year.”

The content of Xbox Live isn’t just limited to games though. Video on demand and other digital distribution has been increasingly utilised in the past year, with film studio Pathé being the latest to sign up only a few weeks ago. The studio, responsible for Oscar triumph Slumdog Millionaire, joins Universal Studios, MGM and Paramount, who are all already providing films for Live.

Video downloads still have some way to go to reach the popularity of DVDs, which had sold over a billion units in the UK by 2007, but Shaw believes attitudes differ between America and Europe: “I think if you live in the states it’s been great. Outside of the US though seems to have been forgotten about. Sure we’ve got a line up of movies but it’s not to the same extent as our cousins over the pond.”

Another major part of the success of Xbox Live is downloadable content (DLC) for games. Almost every week there are reports of download records being broken, the latest being for Xbox exclusive downloadable episode 'The Lost and the Damned' for Grand Theft Auto IV, which became the fastest opening day money-maker on Live, retailing at 1600 Microsoft points (around £14).

There have been numerous controversies and problems with DLC in the past, such as the infamous horse armour for Oblivion, which caused an uproar on release when developer Bethesda charged 200 Microsoft points (about £1) for something which most gamers agreed would have been an unlockable secret in days gone by.

This begs the question of what qualifies as ‘good’ downloadable content, just as ‘The Lost and the Damned’ made us wonder if there should be a limit on how much developers can charge for DLC.

Andrew Hemphill, a Freelance Entertainment Journalist and Sub Editor, believes the quality of DLC can often depend on the individual game: “It’s a very mixed bag, while some of it is priced correctly, there are far too many developers placing a massive tag on their DLC- I shouldn't have to pay £10 to download three maps for COD 4 for example- that's extortionate. It should be capped.”

Some would like to see DLC pushed even further though, Wilson said: “I would like to see in the future all games being downloadable to the hard drive or to some kind of server for consoles, the way they do for P.C. Not only does this eradicate the stack of boxes and reduce the need for storage, but it would also get rid of scratched discs and be much easier to find the game you are wanting to play.”

Another issue which had left the gaming community throwing their pads across the room is ‘pay-to-unlock’ content. This is content which is included on the retail disc and is merely unlocked by paying the Microsoft points.

A chief example of this comes from EA games who publish both Burnout Paradise and Skate 2, both of which have downloadable codes to unlock all the secrets in the game. For some gamers this has already started alarm bells ringing, since players are being offered a choice to pay for little more than a cheat code.

Recently action horror hit Resident Evil 5 released its Versus mode amid a wave of allegations due to the download’s filesize being a meagre 1.5megabytes (about half a song’s worth of music), since it was widely claimed the content was already on the disc. Capcom responded stating that the structure of the mode wasn’t on disc already, but brought together content from all over the disc and bundled it up with only a bit of new code.

The fact of the matter is that Xbox Live works, and with new releases on the horizon, both retail and DLC, there’s plenty of scope for the service to increase in popularity, but what else will change?

Miller believes Live will embrace the social element: “with the fact you can access your account from any computer, I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a bit more of a social network, like a gaming version of facebook.”

Hemphill sees it taking advantage of advances in web technology: “As high-speed internet connections become more popular, I can see an expansion in video and game downloads being forthcoming and possibly entire games being downloadable over the service.”

Wilson envisions a virtual world in your living room: “Touch, speech and movement sensitive controls and I would like to see an Xbox Live radio, web browser and perhaps a place to see how many lobbies are open on a game without having to put your disc in.”

Shaw thinks of the economics of the service: “People ask why Xbox Live isn’t free. I think it would ruin the service. It needs money to make sure it evolves. Although I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt to reduce the subscription price a bit or at least offer some sort of discount for gamer families who have to fork out a gold subscription for every child/parent in the house.”

The future economic and global success of Live will depend on the continued communication with its members and responding to their requests for their service, since without them, Live could not exist.

This piece can also be seen on Totally360.com here.

The first day of the rest of your life...

So I've had my first week in the land of 21 and already things seem very grown up from the outside looking in.

I've been spending my days at Nintendo Wii magazine NGamer, and compared to the week before it's got a very different atmosphere, more casual and communal.

Here in Bath there's a whole different feel to things, with upwards of 40 magazines (or so, I haven't exactly counted) in the building there's plenty of people around all the time.

Guitar Hero controllers litter the floor all around, interspersed with giant flat-screen televisions and ancient issues of Future (Publishing) mags like Powerstation and Official Playstation 2 Magazine.

There's been plenty to do and get involved in, and I even managed to get my hands on the brand new issue before subscribers and anyone else will see it! The most reassuring moment was when I thought up an idea for a feature, and then was told it was in the new issue, least it means I'm on track.

Come January it's time to head back to London for DVD and Blu-Ray Review, here's hoping it brings another different experience again.

Oh and, Merry Christmas all.