Microsoft sigue comprometida con el desarrollo de su sistema de captura de movimiento Kinect, que parece una parte clave del futuro de sus plataformas de videojuegos y permite al usuario interactuar con sus consolas — y con sus ordenadores — de modos distintos a los habituales. La compañía sigue inmersa en desarrollar nuevas utilidades para Kinect, y ha lanzado hoy mismo la última de sus creaciones, Kinect PlayFit, una aplicación para Xbox 360 anunciada por primera vez en el mes de mayo que permitirá monitorizar el número de calorías que el jugador quema mientras juega a títulos compatibles con Kinect, mientras saltan, se agachan, bailan o menean.
Kinect PlayFit, que parece salido de las oficinas de la mismísima Nintendo — creadora de Wii Fit y la Wii Balance Board — llega hoy mismo como descarga gratuita para todos los subscriptores de Xbox Live, Gold o Silver. El sistema es sencillo y se basa en la tecnología que también permite monitorizar los movimientos del usuario, calculando las calorías consumidas en títulos específicos como Dance Central 2, Kinect Star Wars o la serie de juegos de fitness de Ubisoft, Your Shape Fitness Evolved. La utilidad permite además mantener un control continuo para conocer nuestra evolución según pasa el tiempo, además de, curiosamente, mostrar el número de calorías quemadas con Kinect por toda la comunidad de jugadores.
El curioso sistema de Microsoft permitirá además a los más abiertos compartir las estadísticas generadas por PlayFit con otros jugadores permitiéndonos incluso comparar el "consumo" de calorías con el de otros miembros de Xbox Live, habilitando para ello tablas de puntuación que medirán los logros conseguidos con la aplicación. Sin embargo en el tintero se han quedado otras posibles implementaciones de Kinect PlayFit mencionadas en el pasado, como el uso de un monitor cardiaco de cinta que guardaría más información sobre nuestra evolución, estado y ritmo mientras jugamos. Por el momento Kinect PlayFit está disponible desde hoy mismo en los Estados Unidos, y se irá expandiendo al resto de regiones durante esta misma semana.
Con PlayFit, Microsoft hace la competencia a Nintendo y su Balance Board, y también a las "Third Parties" que desarrollan juegos para Kinect en Xbox 360, como EA Sports, cuya serie Active Personal Trainer también guarda un registro de las tablas de ejercicio de sus usuarios. Una vez más se hace patente que cuando un formato funciona, hasta las más grandes terminan recurriendo "reinventar" para poder hacer frente a la competencia.
The xbox 360 Kinect with 4 GB. is what the original arcdae version should have been, and is definitely worth its $300 price tag. 10 new features of this model are: 1. New Valhalla chip hopefully improved design to prevent RRoD issue, but tech. reviews noted that the Jasper chip in the older Elite model runs cooler 2. WiFi N this is the newest wifi standard that is 12X faster (up to 600 Mbits/ sec) than wifi G; you'll need a Wifi N router to get the max. speed 3. digital optical audio port (if your sound system is separate from your TV, then you'll need this to get full 5.1 surround sound) 4. 4 GB of flash memory (although 1.1 GB is used by the game system, but 0.3 GB can be reclaimed by deleting 4 game demos) 5. 5 USB ports (2 in front & 3 in back) 6. slimmer design with side vents (to prevent overheating) 7. dedicated port for Kinect with demo game (also $50 cheaper than buying Kinect separately from Xbox) 8. only 1 year of warranty (the only negative; older Elite models had 3 yrs.) 9. USB flash drive support (this was a xbox software update released in April 2010) 10. ESPN video streaming (will be included if you are a Gold member, $50/ yr.; should be available about Nov. 2010) Slim 4 GB vs. 250 GB hard drive: I bought the 4 GB system over the model with 250 GB hard drive because the xbox now supports game saves/ installs/ downloads and pic/ audio/ video downloads to USB flash drives. It supports 1-2 USB flash drives with 1-16 GB memory (using a 16 GB drive, 1.6 GB is used for formatting). Saving games and media to the USB drives is recommended since loading games and media will be much faster (reading memory is faster than reading hard drive) and more reliable (flash memory rarely fails, unlike hard drives); even the xbox live director recommended using USB drives for storage. If you have such a huge appetite for videos downloads and game demos that 32 GB can not accomodate, then you can always upgrade later with the 250 GB hard drive that will be sold in November; note that the older xbox hard drives are NOT compatible with the slim models. Installing xbox 360 games and game demos on the flash drives is no problem; xbox will ask you which drive to install the game. However, I can not verify if you can install older xbox games like Halo on the flash drive. The only xbox game I have is Halo 2, which does not install on flash. This problem may be specific to Halo 2 because even xbox live does not have Halo 2 for sale, which means Halo 2 is not supported without a xbox hard drive. I'm suspecting that any older games listed on xbox live is enabled for flash installation, but if they're not listed then you'll need a xbox hard drive. This is annoying but not a big issue since there are only a few older xbox games that you may want to play. While the concept of natural body movements translating into character's actions sounds intuitive, the implementation of this idea in games has eluded many game developers. Too much motion will tire out the gamer, repetitive motion will bore the gamer, and complicated motions can not be successfully detected by the controllers. I'll compare motion controllers for all 3 systems below. Usage Comparison: The Wii was wildly popular when it was released due to its novelty, however 4 years later, few Wii game innovations have appeared causing Nintendo to lose market share in the past year. The PS3 Move is more accurate than the Wii since the Move tracks motion in 3-D space while the Wii tracks motion in 2-D space (2 dimensional, like paper) and analyzes that data to interpret 3-D movements. The light globe on the PS3 Move looks cool initially, but the bright light becomes glaringly annoying soon, especially in a dark room. Both the Wii and PS3 motion controllers are less integrated to the console's navigations and functions than the Xbox Kinect. The Kinect allows users to say commands and motion gestures to navigate menus, browse online, interact with avatars, and play media content. Winner: Xbox Kinect. Price Comparison: The Wii system ($200) includes the 3 controllers (Wiimote, nunchuk, & motionPlus) needed for 1 player, but costs another $40-80 per player, depending on the accessories that you buy. The PS3 Move retails for $100 for 1 player and the XBOX Kinect retails for $150 for 2 players, but both are accessories so they require the original game system. Also, the PS3 Move requires $50-100 more per player, depending on the accessories that you buy, while the XBOX initially supports 2 players but is capable of tracking 6 players for future games. All 3 motion systems include a game to showcase the controller's features. For 2 players, the Wii is the cheapest system and the PS3 is the most expensive; but when the Xbox supports 4 players (probably via a software update in 1 year), it will be cheaper than getting a Wii. Winner: Xbox