MotionGaming
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Kinect used to control Super Mario on a PC, redefine convergence (video)
If, like us, you've been waiting to see Kinect in control of a truly marquee game, your wait has now come to an end. The same fella that brought us the Kinect lightsaber has returned with a hack enabling eager nostalgics to enjoy a bout of Super Mario controlled only by their body contortions. OpenKinect was used to get the motion-sensing peripheral -- originally intended exclusively for use with an Xbox 360 -- to communicate with his PC, while a simple NES emulator took care of bringing the 25-year old plumber to life. The video awaits after the break.
Razer Sixense controller becomes virtual camera for your next machinima epic (video)
Fan of machinima? Then you're used to static shots in which a character walks into the scene, says his line, makes a silly joke, and then walks off again. Panning and smooth, flowing shots are not the forte of films created in a virtual world, but the repurposing of some Razer Sixense controllers could let the director really get into the scene thanks to researchers at Abertay University. They borrowed an idea from Avatar, in which James Cameron commissioned cameras with motion-tracking viewfinders so that he could see the virtual world through which the actors were moving. The team at Abertay uses Sixense controllers similarly to control a virtual camera, which would let gamers find dramatic, sweeping angles for their replays. Or, you know, just get a super closeup of that post-melee victory dance.
Kinect will use only a 'single-digit' percentage of Xbox 360 CPU power
What do you know, someone's been busy working in Microsoft's labs while we've been waiting for the company's Kinect motion control peripheral to launch itself into our living rooms. The highly sophisticated webcam has undergone some algorithmic optimizations and now Alex Kipman, lead software developer for what used to be known as Natal, tells us that its processing overhead for the Xbox 360 console will be no greater than a "single-digit" percentage. That contrasts very nicely with the last number Alex gave us, which indicated there'd be a 10 to 15 percent penalty for using Microsoft's new motion controller, and should mean your petting sessions with Kinectimals will be running smooth as butter when Kinect hits stores tomorrow. Great news, eh?
Microsoft to spend one billion dollars advertising Kinect and Windows Phone 7
Microsoft's serious about making Kinect a success. A $500 million kind of serious. That's the latest report, courtesy of the New York Post, on the change Steve Ballmer and company intend to drop to make sure that every living and breathing creature in the US knows about the controller-free controller this holiday season. That mirrors earlier analyst estimates placing the Windows Phone 7 marketing budget at a similar figure, which in total would amount to a cool billion dollars in advertising expenditure. We already know Microsoft's scooped the Old Spice Guy for WP7, but Kinect is getting the extra special carpet bombing treatment with Burger King, Pepsi, YouTube, Nickelodeon, Disney, Glee, Dancing with the Stars, People and InStyle magazines, and even Times Square all having a role to play in spreading the word. Yup, it's gonna be pretty hard to miss it.
MAG dev demonstrates Move support, it only does point and spray (video)
The PlayStation Move is out, and gamers everywhere are throwing away their DualShock controllers, spirits carried aloft by the liberating breeze of motion gaming. Okay not really, but if more traditional games had Move support baked-in that might be the case. 256-player MAG has recently been given a taste, and level designer Ben Jones is taking a moment to show off how motion gaming looks in this uber shooter. As you can see, the baton acts for aiming, turning, and shanking, while a nunchuck (or second controller) handles the moving duties. We're not entirely convinced of the accuracy playing in this mode, especially given how the video focuses almost entirely on close-range, full-auto carnage, but Mr. Jones says he believes this to be a "lateral transition from keyboard and mouse?" So, PC gamers, you buying it?
Xbox Kinect gets a new peripheral: a blow-up boat
And you thought the PlayStation Move third-party accessories were cheesy. One of Microsoft's highlight games for Kinect's debut demonstrations was Kinect Adventures! -- which includes a white water rafting "experience" -- so quite naturally someone somewhere came up with a fitting peripheral to the peripheral in the shape of... a boat. That's right, Atomic Accessories thinks that in order for you to be fully immersed in Microsoft's river slalom game, you need your feet firmly planted in an inflatable dinghy. For added value, we're told the Game Boat will accommodate two players (so long as neither is over the age of 10, by the look of it) and that aside from the Xbox 360, it'll also be compatible with your local pool or sea. Game changer!
Nintendo Wii Remote Plus with built-in 'Plus' tipped in FlingSmash bundle?
We've been expecting a Wiimote with built-in MotionPlus for a while now -- after all, Nyko already builds the Wand+ with those succulent MotionPlus gyros built-in. Still, Nintendo has seemed slow on the uptake, outside of a mysterious FCC berth in May, so we were surprised to see this upcoming first party, MotionPlus-required FlingSmash title arrive on a GameStop order page with "Wii Remote Plus inside!" emblazoned on the box. Interestingly, the product description still mentions attaching the MotionPlus "accessory" to your Wii Remote, but the Wiimote in the picture does look just slightly different than normal with a curved bit of text below the Wii logo, and when Eurogamer pinged Nintendo Europe about it, a spokesperson said the Wii Remote Plus "is real" but "We have nothing to announce on this at the moment." Hopefully this all clears up soon enough so that millions of Wii owners can have an excuse to buy a new game in the noble name of hardware procurement.
Kinect sales will 'Blow away' those of the iPad -- at least that's what Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda thinks
Microsoft Game Studios manager Kudo Tsunoda is usually known for his controversial choice of eyeware, but now it's what he's saying rather than wearing that is mixing things up. Kudo is so confident of his baby, the Kinect, that he thinks it will be the hot property this holiday season. He said this in an interview with Gamasutra: The preorders have been really strong. As far as what we're looking at for Holiday, this is going to be stuff that'll blow away any of the sales you've seen with iPad... The Xbox 360 is already selling better than the Wii and Sony right now. Kinect's really just going to boost that to a whole new level. For what it's worth we haven't been blown away by any of the launch titles for the thing, so we're not quite so confident of its impending breakout success. However, the Wii has certainly shown that people are willing to make frivolous gaming hardware purchases even when the software isn't there to back it up. We'll soon see if that mentality extends to pricey accessories, too.
Xbox 360 250GB plus Kinect bundle priced at $399 in US, £300 in UK
Microsoft has chosen the small hours of the night to announce pricing of its second Kinect bundle, which is set for launch along with the standalone and 4GB options on November 4 in the USA and November 10 across Europe. The new package throws in the 250GB slim version of the Xbox 360 to accompany the newfangled motion tracker, a spare conventional controller, and a copy of the utterly unmissable Kinect Adventures! (it has its own punctuation, it must be good). Pricing is a bit on the painful side, with Kotaku reporting a $399 figure for the US and Microsoft confirming to us a £300 sticker for this "special edition" bundle for the UK. Full press release follows after the break. [Thanks, Ravi]%Gallery-101662%
Microsoft Kinect starts making home deliveries to beta testers
As beta testing programs go, Microsoft's Kinect venture has been kind of... leaky. No surprises, therefore, that we've now received our first in-the-plastic pictures of the motion-tracking camera peripheral, replete with a few select shots of its packaging. Redmond's promise that hardware was en route to testers was clearly not a hollow one, and we can now probably expect a bunch more unauthorized disclosures about the user experience with what should be final retail units. The outside of the packaging includes a couple of teasers encouraging users to pick up some of those bodacious PDP stands and wall mounts for their Kinect -- presumably the start of a tidal wave of Kinect accessories. %Gallery-101257%
Screen Grabs: Turtle gets his Kinect on
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com. The producers of Entourage have already shown their tech savvy with a littering of BlackBerry, Jawbone and iPad use, but how about some unreleased hardware? Turtle was spotted doing a bit of cardio in last night's episode, nothing too shocking about that, but he did it using Microsoft's Kinect peripheral as a workout buddy. Last time we checked, that motion-controlled goodness wasn't supposed to be out for another two months -- we can only guess that good old Sal Assante managed to get his name on that top-secret beta tester list. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
UK gamers finally get a taste of overpriced immersion with the PS3 X-Dream Gyroxus motion chair (video)
Leaning in your chair while gaming? It's a natural thing -- we all do it. However, it's rare that the chair helps, doing its part to increase the thrill factor by tipping you even closer to the laminate flooring. That's exactly what the X-Dream Gyroxus Gaming Chair offers, motion gaming in a somewhat portable package rather more friendly for the living room than some alternatives we've seen. However, it's also rather more limited, working with either the Xbox 360 or PS3, courtesy of custom controllers, but having no room for a wheel and pedals, so Gran Turismo junkies will have to choose between this and their G27. Then there's the cost: a rather steep £399.95. If that doesn't sound bad, consider that this chair has been available to rumble American behinds for over two years now and is currently selling for $250 -- well less than half what UK gamers are being asked to pay. Worth the premium? Let the video after the break be your guide.
Project Natal to cost $149 by itself, $299 with 360 Arcade, according to latest rumors
Here we go with those trusted sources again. Edge has it on good authority that Microsoft's midlife rejuvenator for the Xbox 360, Project Natal, will cost a cool 149 bucks when purchased as a standalone accessory, or $100 when bundled together with the $199 Xbox 360 Arcade console. That's a mighty steep hill for early adopters to climb, but Microsoft did warn us that Natal will not be an impulse buy. An October 26 date is also proffered for the official launch, but that might shift, leaving us with the same window of expectation as before. Interestingly, the Natal name is expected to definitely change for the final retail product, which we should be learning a lot more about at E3 in a couple of weeks.
Microsoft gives us a look through Project Natal's eyes (video)
Ilan Spillinger, Microsoft's Xbox 360 VP, was on hand in Tel Aviv yesterday for a showcase of Project Natal. Although there wasn't much in the way of groundbreaking stuff, the resulting video does show off the motion control system's gender recognition (done through Natal's facial recognition ... you filthy child) and ability to track two players within the frame at the same time. A tipster from the audience tells us that earlier lag issues have been eradicated, although some jitter was indeed apparent when the second person stepped into Natal's field of vision. Either way, it's looking like Microsoft's Xbox 360 peripheral is progressing well toward its release near the end of this year. Go past the break to see for yourself. [Thanks, Roy]
Yoga Natal game appears on GAME retailer's Xbox 360 release schedule (update: Amazon UK too!)
Time for some more salacious prognostications about the future, courtesy of the wily folks over at vg247. The team there claims to have obtained internal documents from UK video game retailer GAME that lists the release dates for forthcoming Xbox 360 titles. The listing is headlined by new iterations of Crysis, Call of Duty and Metal Gear Solid, but the highlight for us gadget junkies is at the very end: Yoga Natal, scheduled for an October release. Now, even if this doc comes straight from the horse's mouth, game release dates are notoriously prone to fluctuation, so let's not read too much into that October date. What's intriguing is that Microsoft does indeed seem intent on creating specialist games for its Natal experience, and it may be that they'll all include Natal in their titles to make compatibility abundantly clear. Or this may be just a big bad April 1-related hoax, we'll live either way. [Thanks, Matt R.] Update: We've now also discovered a pulled Amazon listing for Yoga Natal, and we've stashed a screenshot of its Google Cache version just after the break [Thanks, Ian].
PlayStation Move will offer limited four player support
So you do your research, you read up on everything important about the PS3's new Move controller, and you consider yourself well prepared for a future of wild merrymaking and multiplayer gaming parties. And then you find out you can't use four full sets of controllers with your console. As it turns out, the PS3's Bluetooth module is only fit to address up to seven wireless devices at a time, which poses something of a puzzler when you consider that you need a pair of Move controllers (or a Move plus a sub-controller) to get your money's worth and four times two is, well, a number greater than seven. Perturbed by this, Gizmodo contacted Sony for an official response and the news gets even worse: "Four PlayStation Move controllers can connect to a PS3 at one time (or two PlayStation Move Controllers and 2 PlayStation Move sub-controllers)." That basically means you can have the full Move experience with only one friend, or you can share out the wands and have that tiny bit less fun with a quartet. Not a problem for the misanthropes out there -- or most people really -- but an important limitation to be aware of, nonetheless.
Project Natal coming in October, says Jonathan Ross (video)
As unexpected sources of tech news go, UK television presenter Jonathan Ross is pretty high up there. But lo and behold, the man's had a chance to spend some quality time with Microsoft's Project Natal setup and while he's not altogether impressed with the current state of it, his note on when it's coming out is the one thing nobody has known for sure yet. "Got until October" may mean an October release, or it may imply they can work on it through October in time for an early November release (something we heard earlier), but altogether we find this both credible and logical considering the natural urge to try and get the latest gaming tech in well before the holidays. Need more convincing? Skip past the break to see the Wossmeister having a whale of a time with that balloon-blocking game that's embarrassed many a journalist already.
Sony Ericsson F305 gets toyed with, previewed
Press / in the wild shots still not enough for you? Fret not, friends, as CNET had a chance to spend a few quality minutes with Sony Ericsson's F305 slider and write up a few paragraphs of impressions. For starters, they seemed to prefer the white motif versus the black, and while a trio of games will reportedly be available to take advantage of the Motion Gaming controls, only a fishing title was on tap for demoing. It was noted that the phone required "vigorous shakes" in order to get the job done, and unfortunately, critics were less than enthused by how the game actually looked. Nevertheless, it's probably worth a visit to see if SE's next shaker has the chops to earn a spot in your handset collection.
Sony Ericsson makes good on Motion Gaming F305 and S302 Snapshot handsets
We'll make this quick since we've already given you all the details related to Sony Ericsson's Motion Gaming F305 and S302 Snapshot. The F305 quad-band GSM/EDGE slider relies upon a motion-sensing accelerometer (pictured bowling), dedicated gaming controls, and stereo speakers to create the gaming experience -- an experience hampered by a wee 2.0-inch, 176 x 220 display. It ships with a standard 8-hour battery with an optional CPP-100 backup battery pack to extend play. The quad-band GSM/EDGE S302 Snapshot is just a regular ol' candybar with 2 megapixel sensor, photo light, video recording, and plenty of build-up trying to position it as a camera first, phone second. Both hit in Q4. %Gallery-25340%Read -- F305 Motion GamingRead -- S302 Snapshot
