Tag: xbox 360

Thoughts on my Kinect for Xbox 360

I got what I wanted for Christmas! Santa, aka Sharon, gave me a Kinect for Xbox 360. It’s one of the hottest gadgets out there right now, and Microsoft expected to sell 5 million units by the end of 2010 (we might hear actual sales figures at CES this week). We’ve had fun playing with it over the last week, and it has proven to be a hit with friends and family too.

We have three games – Kinect Adventures, which came with the Kinect, Kinect Joy Ride, and Dance Central. I like different things about each, but I guess my favorite at the moment is Joy Ride. It’s really fun to steer, drift, boost, and stunt the car around the track! The interface seems to be the most touchy of the games, however. Adventures is also fun, but the downside is that it requires a lot of space in order for two players to play together. We have just enough space in our condo after we slide the couch out of the way. Dance Central is probably the most well-known Kinect game, and it is more or less what you’d expect from the makers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It’s fun, as long as you’re not afraid to look ridiculous! It also has a really attractive interface, with Minority Report-style swiping, rather than holding your hand stationary to select as in the other two games.

I have to admit, the Kinect is much more of a workout than I anticipated. There is no sitting down! If you play long enough, the Xbox actually pops up a notification asking if you need to take a break.

Kinect Joy Ride

One of the best parts about Adventures, Joy Ride, and Kinect Sports (which we don’t have), is that each game takes photos as you play. Some of them are just embarrassing! But they are fun to look at, and you can upload the photos to KinectShare.com, where you can download them or share them on Facebook. It looks as though that was built specifically for Microsoft’s games, but it would be fun to see it extended Kinect-wide (or better yet, just let me upload straight to Facebook or Flickr).

The picture above is pretty low quality, but I am guessing that is just to save space/bandwidth, because the quality of video using the chat feature is impressive. Sharon and I did a video chat on the Kinect with my parents who used a normal computer with Windows Live Messenger, and it worked flawlessly. Made me wish for Skype support on the Xbox (as that is where the majority of my webcam contacts are).

Another interesting feature of Kinect is the voice recognition. So far it seems to listen to Sharon better than it does to me, but either way it does a decent job of interpreting commands even with background noise. The downside is that it is limited to the “Kinect Hub” – a kind of mini-dashboard within the Xbox 360 dashboard. I look forward to broader voice support, so that I can tell my console to turn off, or launch Netflix.

I love the Kinect, so far! It’s hard to believe that the device I stood in line for over five years ago has changed so dramatically, but it has. And I can’t help but think that this is just the beginning. There’s so much you can do with a Kinect-style interface, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Thanks Santa!

Canadians celebrate new Xbox 360 dashboard, long for Netflix-like partnership

xbox 360Xbox 360 owners should be excited about the announcements Microsoft made today at E3! A number of new games were shown, including Fable 2, Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, and Resident Evil 5 (interesting that the most anticipated games are all sequels). They announced a bunch of new downloadable games, and will finally make community-designed games available in the next update. They’re enabling “play from hard drive” functionality, and have added a few new display support options.

Other new features include the ability to browse Xbox Live Marketplace content on the web, and the Xbox Live Party System which enables up to eight friends to connect to watch a movie, play a game, or share photos. Related to that feature are the new avatars, an extension to gamertags akin to Nintendo’s Mii.

And then there’s the two biggest announcements of all: the dashboard is getting a makeover, and Live Gold members will soon have access to Netflix streaming. When I heard about the dashboard update I thought, “finally”:

“When people turn on their Xbox 360s this fall, they’ll get an entirely new interface and Dashboard, an entirely new Xbox through the magic of software,” said John Schappert, head of Live services.

Microsoft is a software company after all, it’s about time they take advantage of that to do some cool new things with the console.

When I heard about the Netflix streaming feature, I thought “cool”. I agreed right away with MG Siegler:

With one fell swoop, Microsoft may have dealt its strongest blow in the consumer market to Apple in years.

Then I realized I live in Canada.

Netflix only serves U.S. customers at the moment, and as far as I know plans to expand to Canada and the UK were shelved a long time ago. The amount of content on Xbox Live for Canadians is already far behind our American counterparts, and this announcement just means we’re even further behind. As Mathew Ingram says:

If what you like is anything made by the CBC and the occasional CTV show like Little Mosque on the Prairie, then you are probably going to be in heaven. Otherwise, you are out of luck.

Sad, but true. I’m excited for the new dashboard and other features, but once again disappointed that as a Canadian my access to media via the Internet is severely limited.

Two Years of Xbox 360, Five Years of Xbox Live

Post Image It was two years ago today that I lined up at Best Buy very early in the morning to be among the first to snag the Xbox 360 gaming console. So, happy birthday Xbox 360! Kind of hard to believe it has been that long.

Last Thursday was another anniversary – the fifth for Xbox Live! It’s even harder to believe the service has been around that long – it launched exactly a year after the original Xbox console. My latest article at last100 examines Xbox Live:

Xbox Live started out as a multiplayer gaming network, but today the 8 million users with Live accounts do much more than just play games. Users can download movies and television shows, chat with friends, and more. Even Microsoft now describes the service as a “comprehensive unified online entertainment network”. Marketing-speak at its finest, but it’s true – Xbox Live is a key component of Microsoft’s connected entertainment vision. In this post we look at the state of Xbox Live today, and explore some of the ways Microsoft will likely enhance it in the future.

Give it a read, and let me know what you think!

Read: last100

Bring on personalized Xbox manufacturing!

halo3xboxTuesday is going to be a big day for Microsoft. September 25th is the release date for Halo 3, the much anticipated third installment in the Halo video game series. If you thought Halo 2 was a big deal (it sold more in the first 24 hours after release than most movies generate during their entire box office run) you’d be right – but Halo 3 is an even bigger deal.

Everything about Halo 3 is bigger and better than before, but especially the marketing. Heck, there’s a page at Wikipedia dedicated solely to marketing for Halo 3. Microsoft seems to have figured out that blogs like Engadget are important too. Look at what they sent to Engadget editor Ryan Block:

Listen up kids — the holidays have come way early. We’ve got our hands on the special edition Xbox 360 all done up in Halo 3 fashion… but that’s not all. The boys from Redmond sent a massive, massive package our way, including a giant, custom army bag, custom dog tags, two army meal rations, a first aid kit, the Xbox itself, two Halo 3 controllers and a headset, plus some other stuff hidden in the nooks and crannies.

The photo gallery is pretty darn cool, even if you’re not a Halo fan. One photo in particular caught my eye. Not only did Ryan receive a Halo 3 themed console, but it has his name engraved on the side! How cool is that? The bag and dog tags also have his name on them.

That got me thinking. What if Microsoft offered this package for sale, instead of just sending it to the press? I am sure people would happily pay more for a personalized Halo 3 kit. In fact, they could cut out the middleman altogether. Imagine pre-ordering Halo 3 online from Microsoft, with the ability to fully customize the package – colors, your name, etc. I’d pay for that, and I don’t think I’m the only one who would.

The Halo 3 themed console isn’t the first special edition Microsoft has launched – there was also the yellow edition for The Simpsons Movie. So it seems that personalization can be done, they probably just need to perfect the process. Microsoft made a big deal out of software themes and the faceplates for the Xbox 360, but maybe the next version of the Xbox will be truly customizable? Fully personalized manufacturing?

It could happen!

Read: Engadget

Team Fortress 2 Release Date: October 9th

Post ImageOne of the most delayed and over-hyped games of all time has finally been given a release date: Team Fortress 2 (TF2) will ship on October 9th, 2007 along with Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Portal, according to a report at Shacknews. Regarding the platforms:

Valve is handling development of the games on PC and Xbox 360, with EA UK’s Chertsey, Surrey office bringing the titles to PlayStation 3.

Today’s news follows rumors originating last month that the PlayStation 3 versions of the games would be delayed into 2008. Valve’s Doug Lombardi noted to Shacknews that development has been progressing well on all three platforms.

I used to be a Team Fortress Classic (TFC) addict so I am definitely interested in giving TF2 a try. I am really excited that the game will be available for the Xbox 360 too!

I really hope TF2 doesn’t suck. Since being announced way back in 1999, the game has undergone a number of design changes, with co-designer Robin Walker admitting that Valve built “probably three to four different games” before settling on a design. Let’s hope they picked the right one!

Read: Shacknews

Build the next Tetris for Xbox Live Arcade

Post ImageSmart move Microsoft! It’s no secret that one of the biggest selling points for the Xbox 360 is the Xbox Live service, and specifically the Arcade which contains relatively simple games. Now Microsoft is making moves to further increase the importance of XBLA:

Microsoft plans to announce a contest akin to the television show “Project Greenlight” that will award a cash prize and a potential slot on Xbox Live Arcade to the best new game created with XNA tools. The company intends to announce the winner of the contest, called “Dream-Build-Play,” in August.

That’s pretty cool! Imagine seeing your game in the Xbox Live Arcade…that would be sweet. You can learn more about Microsoft’s XNA tools here.

Read: NYTimes.com

Xbox 360 V2

Post ImageThink Microsoft has been resting on their laurels with the launches of the Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3? Think again. According to Engadget they are working on a new version of the Xbox 360:

Ever wonder why Microsoft hasn’t released an HDMI cable for the Xbox 360, or whether the AV port was really capable of digital out? Well, here’s your answer: we landed pictures of what appears to be the second Xbox 360 — the Xbox 360 v2, if you will — codenamed Zephyr.

The new version apparently has a cooler 65nm processor, an HDMI port for 1080p, and a 120 GB hard drive. They might as well include an integrated HD-DVD player while they’re at it!

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little perturbed when I first read this, but I realize that I sealed my own fate by purchasing my 360 the day it was released. And I don’t regret it. It makes perfect sense to update components as they improve (and it becomes cost effective to do so). The HDMI port would be nice to have, but I’d need a TV capable of 1080p for it to really make a difference. And I doubt I’ll be getting one of those anytime soon.

Bottom line: Zephyr (if it turns out to be real) is a minor update. Games on Zephyr will be identical to games on today’s Xbox 360, and that’s all that really matters.

UPDATE: Engadget links to some pictures and a video of the HDMI port and HANA scaler.

Read: Engadget

LEGO Video Games

Post ImageMy brother bought me LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy for my birthday (which was Dec. 28) and we spent quite a bit of time playing it over the last couple days before he went back to Red Deer. I think I am hooked! I never played the original LEGO Star Wars game, but I almost want to go and buy it now. The concept always sounded kinda funny to me, but now that I’ve played the game, my laughter has been replaced with awe. The game is simple yet incredibly fun to play!

I was browsing around Wikipedia today, looking for information on the LEGO games, and I found this:

LEGO Batman is an adventure video game developed by Traveller’s Tales. It will be similar to the LEGO Star Wars series, in that it will both be a game based on a licensed property and have environments, objects and creatures made out of LEGO.

Awesome! That was the first thing I thought of while playing LEGO Star Wars – I thought, “they should make lots of LEGO games!” It’s such a wonderful environment for fun, light gaming.

Seems they are way ahead of me:

Upon being contacted, developer Jonathan Smith (games programmer) stated that they will definitely be developing more LEGO games in the future.

I don’t know what they have in mind, but I can think of some LEGO games I’d like to see! Here’s the movies/franchises I’d like to see turned into LEGO video games:

  • The Matrix
  • Lord of the Rings
  • Harry Potter (LEGO already has the rights to this one…)
  • Spider-Man

One of my favorite toys as a kid was LEGO. My brother, sister and I played with it all the time! It’s almost too perfect that LEGO is now playable on my new favorite toy, my Xbox 360.

Read: LEGO

Xbox 360 to offer movies and television via Live

Post ImageMicrosoft has announced that starting November 22nd, which just happens to be the one year anniversary of the Xbox 360, users will be able to download standard and high definition TV shows and movies. This is a big deal, make no mistake about it. Engadget has some more details on the service, dubbed Xbox Live Video. Pricing has not yet been announced, but we do know payment will be made in Microsoft points.

Here are some choice quotes from around the web. From Microsoft Monitor:

Rental is something Microsoft offers that Apple doesn’t. And Microsoft will offer HD content, too, which is really smart. It’s not just differentiating from iTunes or other services, but preserving the user experience. Xbox 360 is very much about the HD experience.

From Don Dodge:

Stay tuned for more Live services. It is going to be tough to keep up with all the announcements coming from Microsoft over the next few months. It just gets better every day.

And not as positive, from GigaOM:

With just 20 gigs in the consoles standard hard drive set-up, youre talking about 10 high definition TV episodes or five HD movies. Most gamers can churn through that content in days.

I would not be surprised if Microsoft announced a larger hard drive in the near future.

All of a sudden, owning an Xbox 360 is about more than being a gamer. It’s great news for people like me, a fairly casual gamer. I knew the 360 would be big on media when I bought it, but I had no idea this was coming. I can’t wait to see what they launch next!

Read: Xbox.com

Xbox 360 Dashboard Update

Post ImageMake sure you’ve got your 360 turned on tomorrow fellow Xboxers, because there’s a big update on the way. Here are some of the most interesting new features (via Engadget):

  • Xbox 360™ HD DVD Player support.
  • Set up automatic downloads of newly released Xbox Live Arcade trial games. (I am such an Arcade junkie…)
  • Support for upcoming release of XNA Game Studio Express. (w00t for developers!)
  • Stream music, pictures and video from a Zune device.

There’s a ton of other stuff coming too. Check out the full list of features here. The update will be available starting tomorrow morning.

Read: Xbox News