#watchthis
Azo was skeptical about Kinect. Then he got it, and found out he liked it. Know what else he likes? Swinging his Xbox 360 Controller around like a freakin' badass. More »
Microsoft announced the inevitable sequel to Kinect Sports during its press event at E3 this year. Kinect Sports: Season 2 features a slate of new sports, including tennis, darts, skiing and, American football and golf. I was able to try out the latter two games. One of the two didn't seem to have much substance, and the other one was golf.
#whoops
The E3 news conference demonstration for Fable: The Journey, the Kinect-enabled next entry in the role-playing franchise, was objectively speaking a flop. The series' creator himself says so, because The Journey left the impression this was a rail-shooter spinoff, and now everyone's in damage control. More »
#e3
For Microsoft, the E3 2011 recipe read much like E3 2010's—Kinect, and lots of it. The head of Microsoft's Game Studios noted the company's focus on the device and said at some time in the future, all first-party games from the Xbox 360 maker will include Kinect support. More »
... is the new game coming from Take-Two's 2K Play label. The publisher just announced the new Xbox-exclusive, motion-controlled game Let's Cheer!, designed to simulate the "entertainment, rivalry, fitness, precise moves, jumps and impressive routines" of the sport of cheerleading. It'll be out this holiday.
In addition to simulating real cheerleading moves like the High V, Broken T and Right Punch (we're basically trusting Take-Two on these) with motion controls, it also features voice recognition to "make certain [players] stay on count vocally." Multiplayer is also available, but the announcement doesn't make it clear whether it's simultaneous. Having two players in a living room doing the Toe Touch and the Herkle doesn't quite sound safe, depending on what those things are.
#kinect
There's not much to say about Nyko's wide-angle lens attachment for the Kinect—which widens and shortens the Kinect sensor's point of view, allowing you (and a friend) to play way closer to the sensor—except that it works. More »
#deconstructabuddy
I should never have used my cat, Rande, as a test subject in Kinect Fun Labs' Build-A-Buddy. I had a buddy already. Now all I have is the horror. Oh god the horror. More »
Binary Domain, Sega's upcoming third-person shooter set in Japan in 2080, relies heavily on voice commands to coordinate actions with your squad. While demoing the functionality on a PS3 dev kit with a headset, we asked if the Xbox 360 version would support Kinect for these voice commands. "We plan on supporting Kinect," Sega's Jun Yoshinoro confirmed with Joystiq.
You can look for our preview direct from E3 later. Binary Domain is currently slated to launch in "early 2012."
#impressions
Though the game only recognized one player's moves, whenever someone broke out Dance Central at a party, invariably someone else joined the fun. Multiplayer, therefore, was priority No. 1 for Dance Central 2, and is the most notable feature of a game that still gets the best of the Kinect. More »
Shortly after Fable 3 was first announced, Peter Molyneux announced that it would include support for what was then called Project Natal. Of course, the final game abandoned that ambition with Molyneux explaining that in order to do right by both Kinect and Fable, his team at Lionhead simply needed more development time. So when Microsoft announced a Kinect-exclusive Fable game during yesterday's press conference - titled Fable: The Journey - it might seem obvious that some of that jettisoned Fable 3 content had been repackaged as a standalone Kinect title ... except it hasn't. "Whilst we thought about doing a gimmick or two for Fable 3, it was always in the back of my mind that it would be great to do a Fable for Kinect," Molyneux explained in his second demo ever for the new title.
In fact, the team working on The Journey isn't even the same as the team that made Fable 3. When he explained that the Journey team had two years worth of experience developing for Kinect, we had to ask you know what. "A lot of the team were working on Milo," Peter admitted after getting a nod from the game's marketing manager in the back of the room. "A lot of the Milo tech we're not showing off. This is the first outing of this so we're keeping some of our big stuff safe behind. A lot of the stuff you can do in Fable: The Journey is some of the stuff that was originally found in Milo."
Dance Central was undoubtedly one of the best and most successful launch titles for Microsoft's Kinect. Keeping that in mind, Dance Central 2 has some pretty big shoes to fill or, at the very least, another pair of shoes. The marquee new feature is definitely simultaneous two-player dance battles, which I was able to try out at Microsoft's expansive E3 booth.
Having something of history of making an ass of myself for journalism, I was sure to capture the momentous occasion on video. Find it -- and a few more details about Dance Central 2 -- after the break.
#watchthis
Kotaku's Stephen Totilo checked out Kinect title Hulk Hogan's Main Event earlier today and got wrestling advice from the Hulkster himself. More »
While you won't see any Kinect-enabled spells casted in this pre-rendered trailer for Fable: The Journey, there may be a few morsels of info in here. The trailer stars the series longtime prognosticator and narrator, Theresa, as she flees from a very The Nothing-like cloud of evil. Dare we say it, she looks a little younger than her previous iterations. Do we smell a prequel? Check it out after the break.
#lordofthedance
Now that Ubisoft's Just Dance series has dominated the Nintendo Wii, dance fever goes airborne with Microsoft's Kinect and glowing lollipop-borne on the PlayStation 3 with Just Dance 3. More »
Blacklight: Tango Down and Blacklight: Retribution developer Zombie Studios continues its series of shooters with the word "black" in the title with Blackwater, a First Person eXperience (no, really ... that's what it says) shipping for Kinect this fall.
Named after the controversial private security company, Blackwater gives players the option of ditching the controller in favor of a hands-free experience. The game was developed "in conjunction with former members of the Blackwater team" to make sure all the moves and gestures are authentic. If using a controller feels more authentic to you (hey, Joystiq reader!) then you'll be glad to learn that the game is "also playable with a standard controller." We'll track it down at E3 this week to get our hands (and not hands) on it.
A pair of lenses that clip onto your Kinect, Nyko's Zoom reduces the distance you need to play Kinect by up to 40 percent. If it works, it sounds terribly useful, especially in New York City (trust me).… [Gizmodo]
More »
#imgoingtothelivingroom
Frontier Developments is giving parents around the world an amazing gift this holiday season: The ability to take their children to Disneyland for the price of the Xbox 360, Kinect, and Kinect: Disneyland Adventures. More »
#letsdance
Harmonix took the stage during Microsoft's 2011 E3 press conference today to lift the curtain on Dance Central 2, detailing some of the new features coming in the follow-up to the popular Kinect-powered body mover. It's time for a dance off! More »
#experimentalfun
Microsoft has shown us Kinect Fun Labs, describing it as "the place to check out the best innovations for Kinect." The Fun Labs are set to be a permanent addition to the Xbox Dashboard, and you'll be able to check out various indie and user generated additions to the Kinect library. More »
With Kinect Fun Labs already detailed by Major's Minute on Xbox Live, Microsoft offered some more details during its E3 2011 press conference. The mini-game collection will be freely available via the Kinect Hub and allows players to participate in various activities, including scanning objects into the game world and creating Avatars using the Kinect camera. The creations made in Kinect Fun Labs can then be shared online with friends.
Additionally, Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda noted that more apps will be added to Kinect Fun Labs over time. Also, Major Nelson has tweeted that each app within Fun Labs will include their own Achievements. Finally, Kinect Fun Labs is available on Xbox Live ... right now. Go get it!
Surprise! There's a Kinect Sports: Season 2. This one features new voice controls and new gestures -- and also some new sports, like skiing and tennis. There's also some team football, which looks incredibly awkward if you're the guys Microsoft got on stage to play it. But you're not those guys, right?
Peter Molyneux has just announced Fable: the Journey for Xbox 360.
The first-person Fable experience features Kinect integration, allowing the player to draw shapes in the air to cast spells. It also appears to be on-rails -- shades of Dead Space: Extraction?
The Fall 360 update doesn't just give you access to every video thing anyone's ever made -- it also gives you a new method to search for that content. The new Kinect-centric dashboard allows you to search for content across all Xbox Live marketplaces using a modified Bing engine with a single spoken phrase, returning videos, games, demos and movies relating to your search terms. You know, in case you're too lazy to use your fingers to Google.
And the leaks keep on coming! Joining potential announcements for Halo 4 and a bevy of Kinect games is the image above revealing Kinect voice search on Xbox Live. "Hey, Xbox, find me that demo of Too Human!" Can you imagine?
The image originates from a leaked E3 page prematurely posted by Microsoft. NowGamer spotted the page, which Microsoft has since removed. Compelling evidence, to say the least -- but hardly confirmation. Stay tuned for Microsoft's keynote at 10am PT, where we'll be on-hand to transport the hot scoops right from the Galen Center directly to your brain basket.
With no hints of new hardware on the horizon, what exactly will Microsoft be hanging its considerable hat on? Will we see new applications for Kinect? Will there be new Xbox Live features? Will J. Allard make a Jordan-esque return from retirement? Bookmark this spot and find out at the company's E3 keynote, straight from the Galen Center!
It all begins Monday at 1 p.m. EDT, 10 a.m. PDT! See you there, with your bingo cards in hand, we hope!
9:06 a.m. PDT: We're lining up now, we'll see you inside!
If families are opting to stay at home and spend time with their elaborate home entertainment systems, rather than venturing outside into a miasma of humanity and cotton candy, Disney might as well beam Disneyland right into their homes. According to new domain registrations (spotted by Superannuation), Disney has a couple of potential titles in mind for what appears to be a new park-themed Kinect game.
Possible titles include: Kinect Disney World, Kinect Disneyland Adventures, Kinect Disneyland, Kinect Magic Kingdom, and Disneyland Kinect. We'd have preferred "Disney's Magic Kinect Kingdom," but we're not in charge of these things, are we?
Beyond the potential titles, Disney hasn't doled out a fast pass to any more information. If the purveyor of magic pulls this off, expect to hear this a lot: "Daddy, I liked going to Disneyland in the living room ... but can't we go to the real thing this weekend?"
#e32011
Going live on the Xbox 360's Kinect hub later this morning, Kinect Fun Labs is a series of gadgets that deliver enhanced functionality to Microsoft's magical camera peripheral, including scanning in your face to create realistic avatars and unrealistic bobbleheads. More »
