You look like you've seen a ghost.
Take up arms
Earlier this week Microsoft held its Christmas showcase in the UK, demonstrating all the exciting Kinect titles that'll be making their way to your homes later this year. Our guest writer Ian Higton of Platform32 went to check out the latest titles including Kinect Sports: Season Two, Kinect Star Wars and Ubisoft's big hardcore shooter for next year, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Here Ian gives his first impressions of one of Kinect's most anticipated games of 2012.
I started my tour with a demo of the Gunsmith feature, which was one of the most impressive E3 Kinect demos. I clearly remember the gasps from the press in the crowd as the chap on stage spread his arms and the rifle on the screen split apart into its component pieces. Excitement rippled around the auditorium as he chose new attachments and tested his weaponry using a mixture of Minority Report style movements and voice controls. It was a eureka moment — finally developers had managed to create a Kinect experience that would appeal to appeal to the hardcore! It seemed too good to be true, but the best part is it really does work.
Customise your guns with Kinect. Cool!
The developer demonstrating the game flicked back and forth between weapon customisation and the Kinect controlled shooting range by throwing his arms above his head, reloaded his weapon by pulling one of them from behind his back and fired by opening and closing a clenched fist. Obviously he had months of practice to do this, and there's no doubt much to learn, but the end effect was very impressive. For once Kinect functionality actually makes you look COOL while playing it!
The fun didn't stop there, and once we were back at the Gunsmith menu the developer began showing off the voice commands. Shouting "randomise" prompted the on-screen weapon to explode, then slam back together an instant later completely re-specced with different attachments and firing mechanisms. "Optimise for range" he barked at the screen, and again the gun burst into pieces and was quickly replaced with a sniper rifle fitted with the highest quality scope available. Seriously smooth.
The whole demo sent a shiver of gamer geek excitement down my spine and almost single-handedly restored my faith in Kinect. Even though Gunsmith is basically just a flashy way to customise your weapons, the boundaries were suddenly pushed beyond the numerous fitness and dance games that have already cluttered the system, and the experiences that were promised in Microsoft's 2010 E3 press conference finally seemed a step closer to reality.
Nice work, Ubisoft.
Check back tomorrow for our impressions of Kinect Sports: Season Two.
User Comments
1. Gizmo2k
09 Jul 2011, 09:14 BST
Man alive, the more I hear, the more I hope it's as good as it sounds. Dubious of games that, seemingly, require Kinect and a controller, but hopefully Ubisoft have put a lot of thought into how this'll all snap together (see what I did there) and if we do have to swap mid-missions, it's done well. I'd hope that during missions it'd be voice commands only though, or a quick head flick to get people moving in silent times
2. SilentJ
09 Jul 2011, 22:13 BST
The E3 demo was pretty cool.
3. userwords
11 Jul 2011, 16:33 BST
but what you do in option menus is not the game
where is the real game review
the game was absurd shotting opening your hand instead of making the real move with your fingers.
4. ifell41
11 Jul 2011, 22:51 BST
Everything must have a beginning somewhere. If this is the beginning for fps-kinect, then I can only applaud whatever effort they've made to get it to work. I love games like MW2 & BF2, and if this game right here is the start to kinect integration into shooters; then maybe somewhere down the line the "big" shooters will learn and improve on it, and also mix it into their games. Maybe small things; like moving your "imaginary" nightvision goggles from your forehead to your eyes, yelling for a medic, stuff like that...