Kinect Sports Rivals Megathread

[Derb]

“Kinect Sports Rivals” is in Germany this week at gamescom and serving up the first chance fans get to playing some of the game's new sports: Wake Racing and Rock Climbing. We sat down with Rare Ltd.’s executive producer, Danny Isaac to find out more about “Kinect Sports Rivals.” Also, we have the trailer - From Science to Experience – released earlier this week right here just in case you missed it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz-k9frtPaU

What are you showing at Gamescom this week?

We are giving fans their first-ever hands-on experience with “Kinect Sports Rivals” this week at gamescom in Germany. Attendees will be the first to try Kinect scanning to create their in-game Champions, “Kinect Sports Rivals” new generation character creation that puts YOU in the game and compete in two all-new sports: Wake Racing and Rock Climbing.

Tell us about these new sports – we haven’t seen them in previous “Kinect Sports” games.

Correct, these all-new sports are only made possible with advanced Kinect for Xbox One technology. Wake Racing combines the fun of a wake racer with the precise and intuitive movements that only Kinect for Xbox One can detect. Wake Racing is playable seated or standing, and closely tracks body position and hand movements, something that wasn’t previously possible. Rock Climbing lets you scale the side of a mountain in a cut-throat race to the summit. You’ll need to carefully plan your route and use your hands to grip and release rocks as you ascend.

This is the first time “Kinect Sports” franchise brings strategy into play, so you’ll need to watch your back because Rivals from other teams will be close on your heels, trying to pull you off so you lose time.



How do the technologies in Xbox One’s new Kinect take “Kinect Sports Rivals” to a new level?

The new Kinect for Xbox One delivers 10x more power and is incredibly advanced technology. It can track even the slightest motions and gestures with pinpoint accuracy, like the simple squeeze of your hand to give your wake racer some gas in Wake Racing. Kinect Real Vision technology expands the field of view, meaning it can detect more players and track the flick of a finger from almost three meters away. The new active IR camera enables Kinect to see in the dark. In other words, it’s truly a next-gen Kinect experience.

Tell us more about the “Champion” concept. How does that play a role in “Kinect Sports Rivals?”

Xbox One’s all-new re-engineered Kinect will scan your face and form to create a stylized, digital, super you – your Champion. Your AI character lives in the cloud looks like you, learns to play like you and competes like you against your friends and rivals, even when you’re not around. Champions are unique to “Kinect Sports Rivals” and take motion sports competition to a whole new level.



How does your “Champion” compete when you’re not playing?

Your AI Champion can continue playing when you’re not online through Xbox One’s Living Games technology. It’s essentially social gaming in the cloud, meaning there is always someone to compete with; you never have to wait for someone else to get online. “Kinect Sports Rivals” sophisticated matchmaking prompts you to compete with someone of matched or slightly higher skill level to ensure you continue to advance in the game.

What sports are in “Kinect Sports Rivals”?

We have six sports in the game. We’re bringing back three of the most popular “Kinect Sports”– soccer, tennis and bowling – in re-imagined ways, and we’re introducing three new sports – rock climbing, wake racing and target shooting – that simply weren’t possible with the previous Kinect technology.

How did you choose which sports to include?

Every decision was made with the hope of making our fans excited to play “Kinect Sports Rivals.” Soccer, tennis and bowling are “Kinect Sports” fan favorites so it was natural we’d include them in Rivals with a new and unexpected twist. With the power of the re-designed Kinect sensor, we were also able to design new sports that simply weren’t possible in earlier “Kinect Sports” games thanks to the new, more powerful Kinect sensor. We’re excited to have fans play them all and tell us what they think.



What is your favorite sport on “Kinect Sports Rivals” and why?

My favorite is Wake Racing. For me, it really shows the fidelity the new sensor brings to the sports. Whereby, in previous motion games, I never really felt truly in control. With Wake Racing I can really strive to shave that last fraction of a second off of my time by standing AND leaning into the curves or by taking ramps with a flip. Also, the environment the team has created is amazing – the harbor looks beautiful, and if you look closely in the water, you can see dolphins, manta rays, tuna and even a shark. It’s clear that you’re part of a special gaming experience.

Are Rare’s Champions in the game? Are they recognizable?

Yes, in fact many of the Rare development team have Champions that can be found in “Kinect Sports Rivals.” Kinect for Xbox One technology is so advanced it scans your whole body an even your face down to millimeters of accuracy, and creates a “super” version of you - your AI “Champion” that lives in the cloud. If you look closely as you navigate the “Kinect Sports Rivals” living world, you may recognize members of the Rare team. Playing against characters that are people you know in real life, up the competition. I can’t wait for the world to get to create their Champions and compete with the people that matter to them.



http://news.xbox.com/error.html?aspx...orts-rivals-qa

[ReverendSlim]

http://majornelson.com/2013/10/28/ki...unches-nov-22/

I wanted to let you know that you can be among the first to play “Kinect Sports Rivals” this November and discover the power of the all new Kinect, in “Kinect Sports Rivals” Preseason. Starting on Nov. 22, Xbox One’s launch day, you can download a free trial experience of “Kinect Sports Rivals’” wake racing, unlock exclusive in-game rewards and get ahead of the competition before the full game launches in spring 2014. Players can get information on upcoming challenges, rewards, and Xbox One news in the “Kinect Sports Rivals” Hub, also available to download starting on Nov. 22. The “Kinect Sports Rivals” Hub will be the best way for players to track progress across the monthly challenges and stay on top of their competition.

The “Kinect Sports Rivals” Preseason will run from Nov. 22, 2013 until March 2014, and throughout this time, players will face monthly challenges with the chance to earn points and unlock rewards only available in Preseason. See below for details:

Download the free trial experience anytime from Nov. 22 thru Nov. 30 and start earning points to unlock the special “Founder” player title, an exclusive “Kinect Sports Rivals” wetsuit and a “Kinect Sports Rivals” wake racer to commemorate the launch of Xbox One.
Players will compete against familiar faces – including a fully digital version of me and my good friend AceyBongos who will step in as tough competition.
New monthly challenges with unique objectives and rewards will become available within the “Kinect Sports Rivals” Hub – some will be personal, some will be co-op, and some will pit nation against nation in a global battle for international fame. Each challenge will deliver its own exclusive rewards that will carry over to the full game when it launches next spring.
Complete every player challenge given and expand the fun by racing against a friend in the same room in split screen mode.
Enjoy an all-new track by rising musical group Youngblood Hawke. They recorded “Collide” just for “Kinect Sports Rivals.”

Launching in spring of 2014, “Kinect Sports Rivals” is the next generation of the best-selling Kinect franchise, “Kinect Sports.” “Kinect Sports Rivals” brings favorite sports back in re-imagined ways, and delivers new sports and events made possible only with Xbox One’s revolutionary technology. “Kinect Sports Rivals” puts players in the game like never before, tracks their movements and expressions with incredible accuracy, and offers never-ending competition with friends and rivals.

So at least they're giving people a way to try Kinect for free other than just the dashboard at launch. And honestly, since the wake racing is the only part of the game that I'm interested to try, I'm pretty happy that they're using it to demo things.

[-Freedom-]

Well, are you?
I know Xbox 360 had a lot Kinect games but those were bad. Only game i loved was Kinect Adventures!
Now Kinect Sports Rivals looks very interested. It´s going to be high quality game for sure.

A whole new rivalry. Kinect Sports Rivals' next generation social matchmaking pits you against other Champions within your social sphere and/or skill level. Kinect Sports Rivals' sophisticated matchmaking prompts you to compete with Champions of matched or slightly higher skill level to ensure you continue to advance in the game. With Xbox One Living Games technology, the game learns how you and your friends compete, creating an ever-evolving network of rivals in the cloud so there is always someone "real" to compete with, not an artificial AI character. Now you never have to wait for someone else to get online. This is truly YOU versus the world.

Earn fame and glory. Multiple sports, events and online tournaments means there is always a new competition to enter. Every victory you have adds to your skill and fame level. Progressively master sporting events by levelling up, gaining fame and unlocking rewards.

What i love most is that you can play this game online, it has cloud system matchmaking. The better player you are, the harder games gets and the better players will play against you.
It has also scanning system.

Looks awesome?
Game has also 3 different clans.


There will be 6 different sports.

1)TENNIS


2)BOWLING


3)SOCCER


4)TARGET SHOOTING


5)CLIMBING


6)WAKE RACING


Some gifs too

[ReverendSlim]

Meh... The wave race stuff is just OKAY. That said, if the bowling was good and it was like $30, I'd probably pick it up. So for now, that's a MAYBE for me.

[-Freedom-]

Originally Posted by ReverendSlim

Meh... The wave race stuff is just OKAY. That said, if the bowling was good and it was like $30, I'd probably pick it up. So for now, that's a MAYBE for me.

Well they will have different kind bowlings, wave races. Every level is different, classical gameplay, power-up gameplay. I think Climbing and Tennis are best. Tennis online = awesome.
Played Wii Resort? I wish it had online. It could have been so good.

[Tony208]

kinect tennis? sounds promising

[owa]

I may pick it up just to so I can say I have a Kinect game. For the most part though, if I can't sit down and play, I'm not all that interested but I would like to check out the bowling and tennis games that are part of it. It'll be interesting to see if you can spin the ball in bowling or do top spin in tennis, for example. It would be really cool if the Kinect could pick up that sort of thing from your motion.

[sukraj]

I'll pick it up for the kids.

[ReverendSlim]

Picked it up yesterday, but didn't get a chance to try every event thanks to Comcast being here to fix our cable/internet. I'll break it down based on what I tried:

Character scanning - If you have your Kinect down low, prepare to have to squat into an awkward position to line your face up with it. The body scanning part was pretty easy, but I actually had to get a chair and perch in front of the Kinect like I was dropping a deuce to get my face to scan. That said, the resulting character was a pretty fair representation of what I look like! Almost makes me wish they had ditched the avatars for a system like this.

Wake racing - I didn't care for it in the demo they had out, but it does seem improved now. There are still times where it gets a little touchy, but once you realize you're having to make precise moves instead of broad flailing like the 360 Kinect, this actually wasn't bad.

Wall climbing - I had feared that this would just be repetitive grabbing motions with no actual on-screen equivalent... but you actually do have to place your hands, reach to the side to shift position, etc. Not a fan of the way you jump to clear gaps, but it works. This one is actually pretty cool!

Bowling - I skipped the tutorial thinking I knew what I was doing... but it's clear there's a far greater precision here than on 360 Kinect. It seems to actually be paying attention to when you release your grip, since the Kinect can detect three hand states - closed hand, open hand, and pointing. Needless to say, I managed to toss a ball at the wrong time and crack the lane. OOPS! Pretty impressed with how well it works so far, but I'll play the tutorial tonight. Kinda' stumped that the bowling mini-games like dual-hand bowling and Space Invaders seem to be absent here, but Rare has said they'll be adding stuff over time, so maybe that will come back (or maybe it's there and I just didn't see it).

Other than that, general thoughts... The new Kinect's field of view does seem more suited to getting 2 people in, but we didn't try anything 2-player yet (and I'm not even sure if they have 2-player modes so far, but it would seem silly if they didn't). The act of selecting buttons on-screen is still mildly flaky but generally works. Dragging the island menu around by grabbing it with your hand works fairly well, though instantly reminds you that you can make slow movements, not just fling it about. Voice commands to choose events seemed to work okay. The "story" (if you can call it that) that plays out during the game is annoying as hell, but the narration by David Tennant is good. And other than when you're trying to scan your face in, you don't need the lights on to play this time (which was a problem for me on the 360 considering I play on a 120" projector screen and light = the devil).

Overall impression - Not a revelation by any stretch and still not the "killer app" justification for Kinect they might have hoped it would be... but not a bad start and worth owning to me just for the bowling.

Side note - I would like to see them use the face scanning type thing to do ACTUAL SCANS of your face for online play the way they did with the Live Vision Cam on 360 and Rainbow Six Vegas. That would be a very cool use of Kinect that would take off if it became a standardized feature, and storing your face in the cloud so that it would work across multiple games (so you aren't having to do it for each individual game) would be pretty amazing. They clearly have the tech to do the geometry detection and texture mapping. But I digress.

[ithrowawayslipcovers]

Picked it up yesterday as well, so far its about what i expected. The bowling is good, the shooting is fun. My only complaint is the rock climbing. Im 6'3", and my kinect had a hard time recognizing both my feet and my hands when i reached up, almost like im too tall to play that game. I tried stepping back far enough but then it had a hard time recognizing me opening and closing my hand. Still fun though.

[ReverendSlim]

Originally Posted by ithrowawayslipcovers

Picked it up yesterday as well, so far its about what i expected. The bowling is good, the shooting is fun. My only complaint is the rock climbing. Im 6'3", and my kinect had a hard time recognizing both my feet and my hands when i reached up, almost like im too tall to play that game. I tried stepping back far enough but then it had a hard time recognizing me opening and closing my hand. Still fun though.

Yeah, I'm 6'2"... but so far, no problem. I am in a fairly open room with a high ceiling though, so I can stand far enough back for it to work well. I hope to get more time in with it soon.

[ithrowawayslipcovers]

My issue is most likely the room i play in, its a mixture of lighting and available room i think. I have figured out a way to make it work though. So thats what matters.

BTW i just added you on Xbox Live, hope you dont mind

[ReverendSlim]

Had time to try the other game modes:

Target shooting - I had more fun with this than I thought I would. Takes a little getting used to, but works pretty well. Definitely more fun with two players though.

Tennis - The timing on this feels weird, but it works well enough once you adjust to it. There were a few instances of it not tracking correctly though, making people miss their shots. Of all of the game modes, this one is the flakiest to me.

Soccer - I've read a lot of complaints about this one, but I kinda' dug it! Definitely tracks your kicks nicely, letting you curve them around defenders when you need to. It took a few times to figure out how to make the goal kicks go where you want them to, but I got pretty good at it. Not an ideal way to deal with soccer (and feels more like foosball), but I can't think of any other way they could have done it. I see me having fun with this one.

As I noted in target shooting, me and two friends played this together in the living room. Two players is the way to go with this game for most of the modes, and taking turns bowling will be fun for parties. I gotta' say... I don't regret the purchase. I'm hoping they add back some of the mini-games they had with the original, especially for bowling, but they have said they'll be adding content over time so fingers crossed that they bring back fast bowling and space invaders modes.

Friended you back, BTW. If you need an invite to the preview program, let me know and I'll submit your GT.

[Derb]

I thought about this but I returned 3 Xbox One Kinect games for store credit. Also returned some original Kinect games from 360 & saw I had Kinect Sports. Wow, I think I played that twice since it released whenever.

Not my game but prob fun for the children's.

[ithrowawayslipcovers]

Its a fun party game for casuals, thats the main reason i have it.

[ReverendSlim]

A buddy of mine learned that you can totally do the electric slide in KSR bowling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyLR8...ature=youtu.be

And then while he was squatting and doing a pimp-slap motion... accidental strike!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn7W2...ature=youtu.be

[sukraj]

I think i will wait until its a bit cheaper before i get it.

[ReverendSlim]

Originally Posted by sukraj

I think i will wait until its a bit cheaper before i get it.

I would agree. It would have made far more sense for them to release this game at $40.

[Snake_XRS]

Bummer-what happened to these guys? They went from being one of the best developers to churning out mediocre shovelware.

How about another Banjo Kazooie?

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...ts-rivals.aspx

[detective392]

Originally Posted by Snake_XRS

Bummer-what happened to these guys? They went from being one of the best developers to churning out mediocre shovelware.

How about another Banjo Kazooie?

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...ts-rivals.aspx

Rare just layed off 16 workers and many suspect it was due to the poor sales of KSR and there other kinect games.

Maybe now that MS knows that kinect games sell like shit they will let Rare go back to the good old days and we can get Banjo Kazooie 3 or something along those lines.