XBOX Kinect

I finally made a decision and bought a Kinect, after over a week of debating whether to get a Sony Move, a Kinect, or a Wii.

I was really attracted to the Move, but I don't have a PS3 console and $399.00 for the whole package was out of my price range.

The Wii had the best price, only $209.00 for either the red Wii with Wii Sports an a Mario title, or a Black Wii with Wii Sports and Wii Sports resort.  It also had the best selection of titles, but only if I stayed with the basic Wii.  I only wanted a motion sensing game in the first place so I can lose weight, so I would have had to add the Wii balance board andWii fit. That brought the price up to over 300 dollars, and for that price, I figured I may as well get the newer product.

The Xbox and Kinect, bundled with Adventures, was $299.00; and I also paid an extra 50 for the Your Shape Fitness Evolved game.  The Xbox only  has 4 GB of storage, though, which sucks, but then again, I plan to only use Kinect games with Xbox...I have so many PC games that it would be silly to switch to a console for my regular gaming.  Not that I'm a hardcore gamer...I like the Sims 2 and the Sims 3, Adventure Games, and Oblivion.

Now, before buying Kinect, I was worried that I may not like playing without a controller.  I mean, I like my mouse; it's very  handy, lol.  So I downloaded some webcam games that seemed similar to Kinect (although without the technology). Webcam Mania is a set of cam games that can be downloaded at this site:   http://mika.tanninen.net/Ohjelmat_Webcam_10_en.shtml
To be honest, I didn't think I'd enjoy them, but they were a lot of fun.  I decide that I would like the fancier version of these games so that cemented my decision to go with Kinect.

I had a workout getting my room ready for the Kinect, before even playing it.  I have a small house, and my livingroom is long and narrow.  It's also very cluttered, and in my research I read somewhere that Kinect doesn't like clutter.  So I had to move a lot of stuff to another room (and can now barely move in my office, but that is another story, lol).

Once the livingroom was ready, I set up the game.  It was soooo simple to do; Xbox explained ever step.
Soon the Xbox was telling me to put the controller down.  I did.  It told me where to stand.  I did.  It ran a series of calibrations (audio, visual), had me wave, showed me how to pause, and then we were ready to play.

Adventures was first, and I, a confirmed couch potato, was soon leaping, laughing, and leaning my way around corners, over ramps, frantically trying to collect rewards and avoid obstacles as I went.

My standard poodle Mac decided to join in the fun, and Kinect "saw" him as a child and gave him a child avatar and named him player two, lol.  Player two, the dog, is more energetic than I am and his antics made the raft jump waaay up, lol.  I laughed so hard that I had to pause the game and take my asthma meds.

The next game was a soccer bop sort of game, where you stand in front of a net and hit balls at a target, which then hurls balls back at you.  You have to keep these balls out of the net...I think.
I was doing well at this game, surprisingly, when Mac came back and again the Kinect saw him as player two.  I stopped moving to laugh, but Mac didn't and Kinect said "Player two now has control of the game".  Tooooo funny!  The Kinect snapped some pictures...I hope it got pics of the dog, lol.

I won a trophy...or maybe Mac did...a fat hamster statue, which I animated with a silly song.

I was hot and sweaty and sore and shocked to find that it was way after midnight...1:30 AM. I'd been moving for over an hour, and hadn't realized.  

I am so glad that I bought this game.  I'm looking forward to trying the fitness game tomorrow.  I can't wait to play this with my friend and my goddaughter.