Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures!

First let me say, YES, there is a lag BUT it does not take away from the fun of this thing. Also I did have a difficult time calibrating it to me. It doesn't see dark clothing or dark skin too well and halogen light stands are an issue... with that being said, how can I not give this thing 5 Stars. I am sure, as time goes on, more titles will launch and Microsoft XBOX 360 people have always been pretty good of sending out updates to your machine. So I am not really worried about stuff like that. What I will say is that there is so much potential for this thing. VOICE COMMANDS: The Voice Commands are A MAJOR PLUS! I use it with Zune and in a Zune pass, when I am playing music, all I have to do is say XBOX Pause, or XBOX Play (and next or previous). And when I am playing a movie or TV show through Zune, I just tell it to (all commands are preceded by XBOX) to stop, pause, play. Plus you just tell it to go to the Kinect Hub or Dashboard. The only thing missing is the Netflix add-in with the Kinect. Hopefully that update is around the corner. Oh and the ESPN add-in for the Kinect is great. You can watch live games as they are playing, or check out highlights through Sportscenter and even watch a game from the previous day. This is very cool. I watch a little of the Clippers game. Of course, the games must be carried by ESPN, but since they are a subsidiary of ABC, I am hoping that I can get some ABC carried sports. AS FOR THE GAMES: I have been playing Kinect Adventures and I live in a Condo, 2nd floor, and trust me, the game wants you to jump and not just make the motion as if you are jumping. This could be a problem for people who live under you or for people with any joint discomforts. But the games are fun, Rally ball don't require you to jump, but I like the one game where it ask you to flap your arms and you avatar float around trying to complete the task. By the way, it doesn't seem to use the avatar you created, well maybe it does, because last night it couldn't calibrate me, but this morning it did. I have to give that a shot and see. YOU THE CONTROLLER: This takes a little getting use to, but I am getting better at maneuvering the screen ala Tom Cruise. It is not as fast as a physical controller, but that's not the point. The point is that it works well as you being the controller. VIDEO IMAGES @ Voice Messaging: With the invent of HD Video and Mega-pixel of photos, this part is a bit underwhelming. When it takes a photo of you playing the games, it looks like a photo from the JFK assassination.. really graining, but viewable. But with that being said, it takes a photo of EVERYTHING around you, so you may want to clean house or put away anything you don't want seen... like that 12 pack, or that person you have tied up in the background (QUIET you!). Just kidding around. The cool thing about it, you don't have to share the photos if you don't want to and you can delete them. But what is there fun in that, not sharing. Of course, you want to share your embarrassing photo of you looking like an idiot playing this game. The voice messaging is a heck of a lot better than the microphone on the headset. Screw typing, I can now just send my friends a clear voice message through Kinect. OVERALL: This system makes me feel like I am actually here in the future. Kinect and the XBOX360 seems to be more than just about gaming. The Kinect has no hard-core gaming connection and that isn't the reason for it and even if it offers that, i don't think I could put down the controller because I want things to happen when I push a button. I am a big first person shooter person, but this Kinect device makes it fun and interesting to do other stuff. I love using the voice commands and have it actually do the thing that you ask. Way fricking cool.

Let me first say I never was a fan of motion controls, never got into the Wii, or the recently released PS Move. I've played both but neither interested me much...not enough to warrant a purchase at least. I should probably also mention I purchased Kinect strictly for the voice commands, and navigating with gestures. The above statement was short lived after receiving the unit today. After I took the sensor out and set it up (it was bigger and heavier than I thought, not a bad thing just a pleasant surprise) I mounted it under my LED TV, with the Xbox 360 Kinect Wall Mount . Installation and setup is a breeze, I'm using an Xbox 360 S, so one single cable is all you need. I mounted the sensor, plugged it in and powered up the console. Long story short a few screens with tips and positioning graphics, a quick little tutorial and you're on the way. My very favorite feature, the one that blew me away is the voice recognition. I cant wait to see what Microsoft does with this down the road, after seeing it in action...it can only get better and better. Next up was a few games of Kinect Adventures, online with a friend. I must say I have never been so impressed with motion control gaming until today! The obstacle course levels and rafting are simple concepts that turn out to be just an absolute blast! When you get a couple 27 year old men laughing and giggling like school girls, that's a good time! A side note, this is one heck of a workout, absolutely hard to believe you can feel the burn and excitement of a workout with a video game, and alot of laughs! Not holding a controller is hands down the main selling point for Kinect, and Microsoft has marketed it that way (You are the controller) The way the camera reads and displays your every move is something out of a sci-fi film. Ducking, jumping, dodging, striking poses to collect coins, everything is fluid and responsive. Alot of people ask about lag, but surprisingly the two games I've played (Kinect Adventures & Kinect Sports, more on that later) show minimal to no lag whatsoever. You duck, your avatar ducks, you throw your hands up in celebration, your avatar reflects it perfectly...amazing. Now onto Kinect Sports, this game is a down right good time, bowling, boxing, table tennis, track and field, all just so much fun! All in all, I'm just downright blown away. The lack of controllers to charge, store, wave around, etc, makes Kinect the absolute best motion controller(free) experience around. I have nothing against Move or Wii, I own a PS3, and enjoy it the alot, however when it comes down to motion games Xbox wins my praises. I cant explain the fun to be had with a Kinect with just words, you literally just have to hook one up in your home and have a blast. Kids and adults alike will enjoy hours of fun and entertainment, just be ready for a good workout! *One more thing, Netflix voice/motion controls are not available yet, but it should be coming soon, that should really take Kinect over the top.

There was a lot of confusion and skepticism about this when it was first announced, but I have it in my home alongside a brand new copy of Dance Central, and was pleased to find out for myself that for what it attempts, it works spectacularly. Information on my general setup: I set up my Kinect in my bedroom, which is where my TV is. This room is located in the lower-level of my house. I have a window, which I'm able to keep the sunlight from coming in pretty well. My TV is on my computer desk (I use it as a second monitor for Photoshop), and the furniture has been arranged so there's a nice 7-foot-by-9-foot space in front of it, as long as I roll my computer chair out of the way. I believe these are ideal situations for Kinect play. The setup process took five to ten minutes, and before I knew it, I was up and running. "Wave to engage" brought me straight to the Kinect Hub; I played a bit of the pack-in (Kinect Adventures) and the demos that come on KA's disc. The sensor didn't miss a beat, and I was jumping around, breaking a sweat, and having fun for the rest of the evening. If there were "hiccups" in the motion capture, they must have been fleeting enough that I didn't bother to remember them. Everything is super-intuitive, and moving around to control your body is really fun. So, it worked fantastically for me! I just have two pieces of advice: 1) Make sure you have enough space for this. Microsoft recommends between 6 and 10 feet of empty space between you and Kinect; this is because the motion capture is camera based, and your body has to be in frame in order for your sensor to track it. If you have to press your heels up against your couch to stand 6 feet away from where you think you'd put your Kinect sensor, you should either move some furniture or consider putting Kinect in another room, if you're dead-set on getting it. If you'd be willing to do this for aerobics, this is no different. 2) Beware the launch lineup! As with the launch of any system, there are some standout titles (Adventures, Kinect Sports, Dance Central, Joy Ride, Kinectimals, Your Shape) and some reportedly awful ones (MotionSports, Fighters Uncaged, Adrenalin Misfits, Dance Masters). Treat game purchases like you'd treat movie purchases: only buy it if you're confident it's going to work for you. Other than that, I absolutely recommend it! I'm willing to believe that the amount of possibilities with this are endless -- but even if you're looking at just getting this for fitness, sports, dance, and party games, it's cheap enough to justify getting just for that as well. There's a ton of fun to be had here; you just need to open your mind to it. :)

First things first, the main reason I got this was because my girlfriend was understandably tired of watching me play video games most nights. I will include the caveat that we have two tv's next to each other, so that my playing of NBA 2k11 or Fifa does not get in the way of her ability to watch dumb shows like Private Practice or Bethany Getting Married. In fact I thought we could consider this "together time" and everybody would win. But I digress... I figured that with the Kinect it would be much more likely that she would enjoy playing together and that was a remarkable success. We live in a 1 bedroom apartment in NYC so space was a little bit of an issue. With our couch pushed back we have about 7 feet from the TV. This is just enough for it to work although it does get a little bit tight at times, especially when trying to both play at the same time. I would strongly recommend that anyone considering purchase measures out how much space they have. You really cannot do anything with less than 6 feet and it is extremely frustrating. That being said, the motion-detection is awesome and it is hilarious to watch your avatar mimic your moves. The pictures/videos at the end are also incredible. Many people have laughed at me when I post them to facebook. Kinect adventures is really better that the reviews are giving it credit for. I saw it got a 6.5 or something like that on IGN which is simply absurd. It is a good time. I am not saying that it will have addictive gameplay like Halo or sports games, but for multi-player it is thoroughly acceptable. I don't think I would enjoy it too much playing by myself but the rafting and dodgeball type mini-games are legit. In general my biggest problem with the Kinect is that similar to Wii (which I don't like), it is not really for serious video game playing. At least not yet, I think eventually there will be some awesome games even for single player. Right now it is much more Niche type stuff. I enjoy Kinect Sports, which is great for having people over and boozing all day. Or not boozing if that's not your thing. Dance Central is too much work. You need to do the practice for each song before you can even attempt to perform it. I am terrible dancer, but each dance has very distinctive moves which you simply couldn't get unless you've done the practice mode. That annoyed me. Anyway, I can't wait til the video game creators really use this product to its full extent and for that I will give it 5 stars. If no true game has come out in 6 months or so, I will downgrade this rating (unless I forget), but for now all the fun mini games are just that. Buy it if you can afford it and have other people to play with.

I preordered the Kinect this past July and just received it yesterday, on release day. I have not been disappointed! My wife and I both have had a blast playing four of the release games: Dance Central, Joy Ride, Sports, and Adventures (which is packed in with the Kinect sensor). The sensor itself is shy of a foot wide, 3 inches tall, and about 3 inches deep (I'm guesstimating on this). It fit nicely on the stand of my LG TV without blocking it. The sensor looks like a monstrosity when you first remove it from the box, but it blends in well. I've considered mounting it above the TV which seems like an ideal spot, but since there are no commercial third-party stands yet, I'll wait. Be sure to place the sensor in a spot that maximizes the workable play space. For those with small living rooms, you may be out of luck on using any of the games with 2 people. The distance from the Kinect to our coffee table is 6 feet almost on the dot. While the kinect had no REAL issue detecting a single player at this range, two players was a different story. Up close, the Kinect has a limited range side-to-side, so it would often not read us if we were at extremes. Connecting to the Xbox 360 is a breeze. I own the older style Xbox 360 which doesn't feature the special port for the Kinect. The box comes with the AC adapter required for this connection, so whether or not you have an older or newer Xbox, the Kinect will plug right it. After plugging in the AC adapter and connecting the USB connector to the back of the Xbox 360 (right next to the ethernet RJ45 connector), it detected the Kinect and stepped me through the process of calibrating for the first time. The Quick Start guide walks through these early connections with a good amount of detail, but strangely cuts off afterwards. This can be a little confusing at first, but luckily it's fairly intuitive. The manual at the bottom of the box is useless, so you might as well throw it away. You're left to figure out how to calibrate, create Kinect IDs, and navigate the hub. After this, you can jump straight into games. Most require a quick calibration, but this is minimal is greatly helps to eliminate most errors in position tracking. I would suggest doing this every time it suggests, and tune often in different lighting conditions depending on your room (morning, day, night). The games are all pretty mindless, which is just fine with me. There aren't any complicated instructions and they are relatively easy to get into. Joyride responds decently well while mimicking holding a steering wheel. Adventures has some awesome minigames (the 20,000 Leaks game is a good showcase for Kinect), and is overall one of the best games so far. Sports is a better version of Wii Sports with better motion tracking and less opportunity to game the system (making for more challenge and more fun!). However, none has been played more since yesterday than Dance Central. If you get a Kinect and you like dancing at all, you need to get this game. It teaches you the moves you'll need to play, and tracks exceptionally well. Right now, it's definitely the killer app. Pick it up! So, in all, despite some small issues (such as requiring a large amount of playspace), the Kinect is absolutely wonderful. I have no doubt that we'll be playing it for quite some time as long as Microsoft keeps supporting it!

We got Kinect on Friday. My two kids and many friends coming to our house have had a ton of fun with it. I am so happy about this investment because the boys no longer sits there still for hours - they had to work hard. I played a few games with them. Wow, it was a great workout with a lot more fun than on a treadmill. Microsoft has produced a wonderful product and they definitely got it right. I have no doubt this thing is going to be a hit for the holiday season coming. The only thing is there is some lag time between a hand move and the actual reaction on screen. You can get used to it in a few minutes. Overall, it it worth the money. I think the price is about right as well. == after a few weeks == My wife insists she wants to quite her GYM memebership because she loves kinect so much better. She NEVER played ANY video games in the past and now she plays Bowling 3 times a day:). She even told her friends to get one so they can play on xBOX LIVE. I don't know if the games we have support LIVE or not but I think this is a device to help build good family life, and keep Amaerican healthier. Microsoft did a great job this time. Very great invention to bring holiday spirits back. The price is also reasonable. My elderly parents (dad 76, Mom 74) actually spent (the first time ever playing a computer game) 2 hours bowling with Kinect Sports game another day. Without having to use a controller, it lowerd the burden for elderly folks. They can easily participate. I go so far as saying that Microsoft has done some incredible this time around besides their Windows s/w that made PCs so popular and computing ease of use for many others. Kinect/xBOX is the second big thing coming from Microsoft in last 20+ years. This can compare with other industry good stuff like Google's Search, iPhone and Facebook. We should celebrate another Amazon successful story and is a meaningful contribution to the society! I still have some bad attitude toward things like phones and Facebook. They seem to be cool but they didn't improve my quality of life and distracted our children - why do I need to know "you are in a nice shopping center"? However, Kinect encourages people to work out. You just cannot say this is a bad thing.

First off, I would like to give a brief summary of where I am coming from to allow anyone in a similiar position to appreciate this incredible machine. I am 27 years old, married to a 24 year old, and we have 3 little girls. And by little, i mean a 3 1/2 yr old, a 19 month old, and a 6 month old. Also, I am proud to say that I am a gamer. I started with a used atari and then went through the Nintendo years... First a NES, then Gameboy, SNES, and N64. I finally broke the mold and got a PS2 and XBox. I currently have a XBox 360 and a Nintendo DSi. In short, gaming has always been a large part of my life. I say all of that to say I would consider myself a "core" gamer. You know, the type of guy that would not be interested in the Kinect. Of course, how can you play the serious games like COD or Gears without a controller? Well, don't believe everything you hear. THE KINECT IS AMAZING!!! Is it perfect? Nope. But I went in knowing that the experience to be had was not the same as if I had just picked up the next best game. The Kinect isn't here to replace a controller. I have no idea why people have that in their heads. The kinect is yet another way to immerse yourself in a video game and, ultimately, have fun. I received my Kinect on release day and the whole family has been loving it. While the 2 youngest girls aren't quite ready to play, my 3 yr old is having a blast. My wife, who will NEVER play a game with me, is fighting with me over getting to play it. So, unless you are extremely out of shape or some uneducated fanboyish moron that considers the Kinect a cheap Wii-rip-off, GO OUT AND GET THIS THING!! You will be up off of your feet and having an absolute blast. Beyond the games themselves, it is amazing technology you get to play with here. There is the dashboard motion controls, the voice commands, the video chat, and the rumors on what else is coming is truly fantastic. Will also add that while you are in party chat or just in a game with someone online, you do not need a headset to talk. You just talk like the other person is there and you can chat away, no headphones needed. As long as you don't go in thinking this will be 100% precise and perfect, and you are open to just HAVING FUN, you will not be disappointed. One last thing I would like to touch on is the better-than-advertised feature regarding photo uploads. Going in, I knew that when I played Kinect Adventures, it would take my picture and I could throw it on Facebook or whatever. What I didn't realize is that it can not only take photos, but actually record video of whoever is playing. While, for the time being, this is only available to three games: Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, and Kinect Joy Ride, it was rather suprising when we played our first game on Kinect Sports and had a highlight reel video to watch and upload afterwards. It is truly amazing. This is far beyond being a Wii-rip off because it truly raises the bar of video gaming technology when it comes to interacting with the player. All in all, I had very high expectations for the Kinect and even I have been blown away. My wife and I are always looking for ways to play with our girls together, and this is the new center of entertainment for our household. She stays at home with all 3 girls and, just maybe, she even has a way to let them exert all that energy without tearing up the house!

Here are my first impressions with the Kinect. When I booted up the Kinect, it brought me up to the intro screen and walked me through some basic things to know and then went to the calibration screen (area, noise and voice). I have found the voice commands to work almost flawlessly, noticing the only delay being the confirmation time, where I have to say yes or no to confirm a command. If you have not been auto recognized by the Kinect, a simple back and forth of one of your hands is all that is needed to activate it, and if you see your hands glowing in the lower right hand corner box, you know that you're good to go. I placed the Kinect on top of my DLP TV to keep it away from my center speaker that is below the TV, which places it on bout my eye level when I stand up. I have a 360 slim so the set up was very easy as I didn't need to worry about another power connection. In case your confused, the `calibration disk is the Adventures disk'. When I ordered the Kinect, I also purchased the following games: Kinect Adventures (which comes with the Kinect), Dance Central, Motion Sports, Kinect Joy Ride, Kinect Sports, Kinectimals, Your Shape Fitness Evolved, Sonic Free Riders - so I have had the chance to play a good sampling of various games. I would state that even without using the Fitness games you can get a good workout, because you will be moving around... a lot. The first thing I tested out with the Kinect was the ESPN application, and after the update download, it came up and was able to scroll left and right to find the video that I wanted to watch. When I selected the video, the Kinect drew a circle to confirm my selection and then started. I was dying to try out the voice commands, so I said Xbox pause, and the microphone appeared on the bottom with a note asking me to confirm yes or no to which I responded and it worked. I said Xbox play and yes and the story started up again. I tried rewind and fast forward and confirmed that it worked (Note in order to speed up the rewind/fast forward you need to repeat the command again). The next thing I tried was the Video Kinect and to my surprise the update started, and then the software crashed (hung). I'm not sure if it was because this feature wasn't really available or if it was a just bad luck, but I restarted the Xbox and have not gone back to this feature. I will not cover up problems; I want this to be a honest review. Then I started Adventures and played a few of the games where you were in Zero Grav and had to float and move back and forth to pop the bubbles, if you wanted to rise you had to flap your arms and to sink you had to lower them. I had a lot of fun doing this, and think that Adventures is a great party game. Kinectimals was next and I was blown away by the graphics of this game. Wow is the first word that came to mind (at least in 1080P). I picked the young tiger as my pet and then went through some of the basic playing with it, and was floored with the response of the game to my actions. If you have young kids this game is going to be a big hit. They also made it clear that this is an adventure to find a lost treasure. Even if you don't have kids, I think this is going to be fun to play and if you like cats (I have 4) you might really like this. Next up was Kinect Sports and I only played a few of the various sports but I loved the beach volley ball, and I think I could spend hours playing this. I also found the boxing to be fun. The bowling was very responsive; however the ball kept tracking to the right even when I was attempting to put spin on the ball. When I stepped to the left, I was able to bowl from the left part of the lane and corrected the slight drift. I can't say that the spin wasn't working, because I was clearly able to put some spin on the ball when I went to pick up some spares. I might have just been pushing the ball right myself, I honestly wasn't a 200+ bowler when I bowled, so my form might be wrong. This program will be a great party game, I would recommend purchasing it. I only played 3 Motion Sports, the boxing which was fun (I thought it was better than Kinect Sports boxing, but I did have a problem of it not picking up my uppercuts, however I had no problem with jabs or hooks be it lefts or rights. The snow skiing was very responsive, if anything, it might have been too responsive, when I made left and right turns. I destroyed my right knee running a few years ago, so staying bent in a tuck for me was difficult and noticed if I stood up, so did my skier. There are no Live features, so this could be a problem for people who want to compete on line (I didn't try this, but have read it from other reviews and wanted to comment on this). Your Shape Fitness is crazy good, I was really impressed with this program, and the features, my only complaint is that this game requires more distance than the other games, so if you don't have 8 feet or more, you might want to consider one of the other fitness games. I loved the calorie burning tracking and the scan of your body into the program, and the dissolving of your body if you step outside the area of game play. Kinect Joy Ride is fun, but you can only steer and power up (pull back, push forward), and I can see someone getting bored with this. I wouldn't spend more than $20 on this game, and I clearly paid too much. It is a fun game, but not worth the price. Sonic Free Riders is impressive with it's graphics and the game does a nice job teaching you how to play, but due to my right knee I have some problems jumping (I wasn't a great jumper when I had a good knee and was 175 pounds, and I'm worse now), so I had problems once they jumps and stunts were added, but I would recommend this game to anyone who likes skateboarding/snowboarding. Dance Central is probably going to get the best reviews of any of the original release games for the Kinect, and it will deserve them. They teach you how to do the various moves, and even have a slow down set up to help you if you're still not getting it. The graphics are sharp, and clearly MTV and Harmonics know music. They have about 5 to 6 different male and female characters so you can get one to your liking. My only complaint is that I really didn't know any of the music that came with the game with the single exception of "Funky Town". I would have like some more Rock and Pop mixed in with the original list. I like this game, but I will have to admit, I just stink at dancing. I really didn't pick up on any lag, but then again I was playing and not watching. I would highly recommend this, and I think it will be a great party game. I've have Harry Potter, Game Party In Motion, and Decca Sports Freedom (I love Amazon pre-order credits, I've saved a ton of money with them on these Kinect games)and will comment on them after I receive and play them. Other than running out of some space with Your Shape (until I move my couch), I did not have any tracking issues with the Kinect. The only complaint I have with Kinect, is after playing a game or if I stopped to get a drink I had to wave my hand to reactivate my dashboard control, I could understand if I was gone for a half hour, but 2-3 minutes shouldn't have caused this. I'm assuming that patches will be coming in the future to fix this and the Video Kinect as well. Anyway, I do own a PS3 and the PS3 move (and I reviewed it), but I will state for the record, I like the Kinect a whole lot better. Ken

I am very leery of ordering from amazon sellers, and even more so ordering anything used, but it's been a long time since Kinect was new so I had to try or give up on wanting to use my 360 Kinect games, especially the workouts. Current options don't exist for some reason! The Kinect I got was shipped quickly and is in excellent working condition. I'm once again back to using "Your Shape Fitness Evolved".

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Having owned the PlayStation Move for a year, I thought that I would give the Kinect a try. While the tracking is a lot more precise on the Move, it is still very accurate on the Kinect. The technology is absolutely amazing! I think that if you told someone in the 90's that this technology was going to exist soon, they would have laughed at you. Yet, here we are today. The fact that you do not need a controller is great. However, I think that the sensor is over-priced. Also, you need a lot of space to play comfortably. I have an average sized basement and it still wasn't big enough. Overall, despite its flaws, the Kinect is great! You should definitely try it out if you can. Look at the points below for more details. Positives: - Great technology - No controller - A lot of fun Negatives: - Very expensive - Need a big room - Menu interactions are awful - Separate AC adapter

I ordered this product and when it was delivered it was it good condition. I plugged it in and it works perfectly. Only problem was that they didn’t send me the game that comes with it and that is the reason I’m giving this product 3 stars

Product arrived as described with sensor, aux power, and game. Power adapter is bulky and extends down or up from out on power bar, does not block other outlets beside it. Had to rearrange living room to be the best distance from sensor. quick easy setup on Xbox 360.