If you are one of the fortunate ones who have a few hundred
bucks to spend on a Christmas present and are still looking to have something
unique and fun for the entire family, consider an Xbox Kinect as a potential
solution to your gift ing problem.
The Kinect add-on component was released for the Xbox last year a month before
Christmas and it immediately made the wildly popular WII obsolete. Its
advantage is that it needs no controllers for players to become active
participants in video games that are presented through your home television
monitor. The Kinect camera and laser system tracks player movements while they are
acting out sports or adventure games and puts an avatar s that represent them directly into the video. As
a lifetime, computer analyst, developer and architect I was stunned by the
precision of the software system in tracking and displaying player movements as
well as analyzing their playing ability and techniques.
The Kinect and Xbox sell for roughly $150 a piece or $300
for the set. That includes Microsoft Adventures which is actually four games in
one. Players duck, jump or move a move a step left or right, to go on
adventures such as negotiating an obstacle course or navigating a river raft.
Kinect Sports has games such as Bowling, Boxing, Soccer, Beach Volleyball,
Table Tennis and Track & Field. Golfing, skiing, tennis, football and
baseball are new in "Season 2" this year. Kinect also levels the playing
field well so that children can compete more successfully with adults
regardless of their size.
As a volleyball and table tennis player, I was fascinated to
find that the software recognizes top spin or English in table tennis and bump,
set , spike and block
techniques in volleyball. The Track and Field game even increases the level of
your competition as you improve your performance. Most games allow players to
compete against each other or as a team against the computer. The games also
take pictures of the players while they are playing and then insert them into
the awards ceremony when the game is over. There is even an option to complete
with other players through the internet .
There are a variety of additional third party sports and
activities for Kinect too. There are workout videos such as the Latin oriented
Zumba and a variety of dancing games for all ages including the newer Michael
Jackson Experience that was released this year. On most of these games, your
avatar turns red, green or yellow depending upon how well you mimic the dance
or workout moves. Many activities
allow two players to compete against each other at the same time.
Younger children will enjoy the new Disneyland adventure that lets them control
their journey throughout a
virtual Disneyland Park, going on rides and meeting the Disney characters.
The system can be found almost anywhere and plugs into your TV in a
matter of minutes . You should
immediately get some great exercise with it and have years of fun too. You get into better
shape after a couple of winter months without ever going outside. But beware,
you might find yourself becoming much more tired or sore than usual and
wondering why.
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