Kinect - The Future

The motion sensor device Kinect has been in stores for a good few months now and has slowly been encouraging people around the world to part with their hard earned cash. The concept is simple – play games with the movements of your body – pushing the boundaries of fun for the whole family.

I’m probably going to sound like a cynic here but the Kinect hasn’t really achieved enough so far to grab my attention. The potential is there and the ideas are starting to head in a direction where the hardware may become more appetising in the future.

The set of games currently heading the Kinect range have their focus in one of three groups. The first is the health and fitness market which allows games to show exactly what the system can achieve and how exercise at home is both fun and productive like the hugely popular Zumba Fitness. The second major group includes many varieties of games that compete for the whole family - mainly offering the quick pick up and play options. Finally the third group is still a newbie to the system and focuses on sports games that can be played from the comfort of your lounge like the recently released Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13.

These broad groups show the main targets that Kinect has focused on since its release and as you can see the hardware mainly caters to the causal gamer. It’s a hard market to break and one that Microsoft obviously looked at as an opportunity missed.

Nintendo’s Wii console has been one of the greatest examples of a casual video game success and its release in 2006 was only assisted by the global war on laziness. At the time it was a regular occurrence to see campaigns and newspapers deliver negative publicity towards what was dubbed as the ‘lazy video game population’. We were constantly being bombarded with stories about kids being fat due to excessive gaming and that their social standing suffered as well as their education. Call me an arse but I’m sure that is more the fault of their parents than a piece of entertainment. Either way the publicity didn’t hurt the volume of Wii consoles sold. As families become more health concerned the greater the market becomes for fitness based products, especially those that can be enjoyed in short doses.

In steps Kinect - Microsoft’s answer to the critics.

As much as I love the concept of an electronic fitness centre at home the fact that I can go running for free and in the sunshine means that the Kinect isn’t as appetising as it might otherwise have been. I can see why families find it useful though as it can be used at any time and can plug a game in an otherwise busy day. It works with you and the time you can personally invest into it.

Now is the time for Microsoft to expand their Kinect horizons. Hardcore gamers would love to be able to use their Kinect for more than a short burst of time and want it to be incorporated into their favourite games and this is looking like more of a possibility everyday.

With Kinect reaching a large volume of the casual market and the Xbox 360 hitting the hardcore gamers it’s fast becoming the time to merge the two together. Microsoft needs to make the Kinect more of a must-have peripheral and the only way to do this is to ensure that everyone who has an Xbox 360 has a Kinect.

We are starting to see the use of Kinect functionality filter down to the more hardcore game series of course Mass Effect 3 being the most notable release so far. Yesterday though also heralded that another of our console favourites will be introducing Kinect functions into their current gameplay. The role-playing game The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will be getting voice input support within the next month.

Support for Microsoft’s motion sensing devise will come via a free title update that will include over 200 voice commands for everything from Dragon Shouts to Follower Commands. It doesn’t end there though as these commands can also create and load saves, access menus and manage inventories.

It’s in these small but inventive ideas that Microsoft are starting to see the potential of their motion hardware. With games like Blackwater and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier headed our way this year it’ll soon be time to get fully functioning heavy duty Kinect Games.

Imagine running around a fantasy world swinging your sword with the movement of your arms or overtaking Lewis Hamilton on your favourite F1 track – all without the use of a controller.

If the concept ideas (easily found online) are anything to go by then this whole system is shaping up to put a completely different perspective on the video game landscape. Many people have said that Kinect is the future of entertainment and judging by it’s resounding approval you would be stupid to bet against it.

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Bioware DLC Update

In a response to the huge fan feedback BioWare have decided to extend the ending of their ever popular Mass Effect franchise but the problems didn’t stop there. It’s safe to imply that this article will include several major storyline spoilers for those that haven’t finished the game and will touch on many aspects that cause controversy with the final instalment.

The ending of course disappointed many fans due to the lack of impact the players ‘decisions’ had on the final sequence. Many of the initial promises made by BioWare and it’s spokespersons about the branching endings were not entirely truthful; this left many people disappointed by the outcome that they’d spent 5 years affecting.

The ending of the game came down to a fairly standard 3 option decision that didn’t in any way take into account your alignment, your friendships or the characters choices you had made along the way. Without delving too far into the story it’s safe to say that the outcomes are fairly similar and full of plot holes which aren’t regular BioWare problems. In fact they are known for creating deep and fulfilling worlds.

A certain group of particularly aggravated fans launched a campaign shortly after the launch to get the ending change entirely. Their project call ‘Retake Mass Effect’ raised over $29,000 for the Child’s Play charity. Their mission statement read "We would like to dispel the perception that we are angry or entitled. We simply wish to express our hope that there could be a different direction for a series we have all grown to love."

Obviously BioWare have now taken steps to expand on their otherwise disappointing ending by introducing a free piece of DLC coming this summer. Set to include new cinematics and narrative they are hoping to clear up the issues and make the whole experience more complete.

The first batch of downloadable content for Mass Effect 3 also caused its fair share of controversy following the global launch. The From Ashes DLC was free to those whom purchased the N7 Collectors Edition but was 800 Microsoft Point to everyone else.

The probably was with the fact that this was released on day one and contained important story elements and an important squad member  when this could have been include in the standard release package. In fact EA added further problems but outlining that the characters likeness was already on the disk.

Another failed area on BioWare’s part came in the form of a rekindle romance and a lover’s photograph. Continuing to pursue Tali in Mass Effect 3 was for some fans their most anticipated endeavours pre launch and was always going to be a heavily adopted choice by many of the players.

The problem here was that if the romance was rekindled fully then a photo of her would be given to you for your captain’s quarters, sensible enough you may say. Not however if the photo was of a Human Female and not a Quarian as Tali is supposed to be. Granted we’ve never seen her face before so what do we know but many fans were outraged by the lack of attention put into the whole thing.

In fact looking for "getty images hammasa royalty" pops the photo right up on Google.

Shortly after the games worldwide release a behind the scenes video about  its development sparked further fan confusion. This showed back in 2010 BioWare were actually creating a multiplayer FPS to support the Mass Effect universe. The game was being dubbed Mass Effect Team assault and was expected to be released as a downloadable game.

The game was worked on for four months and took much of it’s inspiration from the Batlefield series and Unreal Tournament. In fact as the game progressed it developed into the Galaxy at War section of Mass Effect 3 that we are able to play today.

There have always been many issues with any of the bigger game releases but Mass Effect 3’s post launched was littered with them. Whether this was because of the absolutely enormous hype or bad game design remains to be seen but I can tell you that from what I’ve played the third instalment lives up to my anticipation.

Next time a developer fires games into space though please make sure you are a little more careful if you are going to try and chase one….

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Skyrim DLC Update Due

Skyrim has been floating along over the last 6 monhs and many people are still plugging hundreds of hours into their playthroughs. In fact the average playtime of all games on all platforms is now up to 85 hours; with 30% of all games being played exceeding the 100 hours mark.

We can therefore safely assume that this has become one of the most popular RPG of the current generation but what is around the corner to keep people playing?

Although there have not yet been any concrete downloadable content plans released we are being handed a handful of helpful hints about what Bethesda have been working towards.

On 30^th March 2012, Pete Hines tweeted, “Some things coming down the road in April for all you Rage and Skyrim fans. April is gonna have some cool news and surprises. Stay tuned."

This has basically reopened the debate on what content is heading out way.

Bethesda’s parent company Zenimax Media has apparently submitted a trademark application for  new downloadable game content. The project has been named ‘Dawnguard’ and is specifically being referred to as "computer game software for use with computers and video game consoles" and "downloadable computer game software offered via the internet and wireless devices."

Apart from this the specifics are fairly scarce and we don’t know if this will mean a new area, a new quest line or something completely different. In fact we don’t even really know if this is what it says it is.

To further add sauce to our content speculation, Todd Howard at the 2012 DICE convention said that his team had been working on a number of exciting ideas. Some of these even made it into a video package that can be found online and opened up a whole selection o ideas that could be used in the future.

The ideas shown included:

■Spears

■Kill cams for magic

■Water arrows

■Giant mud crabs

■Paralysis runes

■Seasonal foliage

■Speedy water currents

■Dragon mounts

■Dark dungeons

■Adoption of children

■Advanced home building

■Epic new mounts

■Fast travel portals

■Kinect dragon shouts

■Enhanced water visuals

■Ice and fire arrows

■Lycanthrope perk tree

■Vampire imp minions

■Goblins

Overall we still have no concrete ideas on DLC but this new news is sure to put most fans of Skyrim on the alert… watch this space!

Is there anything you would love to see in the future? Are there any areas of Tamriel that you would love to explore? Sound off in the comment section below.

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