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"  You can&amp;#039;t blame us for not being surprised at the Microsoft&amp;#039;s announcement of Kinect, their new gesture-controlled gaming system at this year&amp;#039;s E3 video game conference. After all, it&amp;#039;s been a long journey for the much-anticipated device, spanning one year, one name change (you might remember it as &amp;quot;Project Natal&amp;quot;) and one appearance at PM&amp;#039;s Breakthrough Awards (where we honored its inventors last year). But there was something else in the air at Kinect&amp;#039;s E3 launch: nervousness. After all, once you get past the fact that the interface is nothing short of a breakthrough from a technological perspective, you are left with a clear sense that its target audience is the type of casual gamer who has kept the Wii in short supply for the past four years. Microsoft&amp;#039;s E3 challenge: convincing the hardcore gamers in attendance that Natal was for them too. This reviewer got to give it a spin to see if Kinect is family fun or the next big thing for all gamers.  When you first play Kinect, it truly is a new experience. Despite the radical difference of Nintendo&amp;#039;s Wiimote from previous controller designs, using it for the first time still felt like a controller. What Kinect provides is a completely new experience that incorporates one&amp;#039;s entire body and voice. I first got to play Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, made by Ubisoft. I step into the site of the camera, and appear onscreen as falling flower petals that form the shape of my body within 2 to 3 seconds. There did not seem to be any sort of lag time for the XBox to determine that a user has entered the frame. Kinect then measured my height, waist, hips and arm length\u2014all within about 10 seconds. Various filters show my body in different colors, as well as an exact replica of the way I look, clothing and all.  After it scans my measurements, prompts for different modes of the game appear to the left and right of my face, as well as to the left and right of my waist. I first choose Gym Activities by placing my hand over a red dot near the title&amp;#039;s text. When I push my arm forward, a button on the screen gives way and I find myself in-game, punching and kicking green and blue cubes on the screen. I didn&amp;#039;t have to ask questions about game play\u2014the rules were obvious and the game intuitive. I then turn to Personal Training and Fitness Classes. In both of these modes, I copy the movements of an onscreen avatar. When I pose according to green lines that appear on my actual body, the game tells me I am correct. Next, I played MotionSports. The only sports available to play were football and skiing, but I was told there would be over 40 challenges in the final game, including hang-gliding. Again, a menu lists the different game modes and I place my hand over one and push it forward to start. In both skiing and football, your character automatically moves forward so you don&amp;#039;t have to control your feet. It&amp;#039;s up to you to move your body left or right, as well as guarding yourself from attacks. In both games, there was a short lag time, but it was a fraction of a second and barely noticeable. The real criticism I&amp;#039;ve heard from E3-goers is that the launch titles are for casual, family-friendly gamers. People want their first person shooters and their Mortal Kombats. Likewise, it&amp;#039;s still unclear as to whether you need to stand up to use the system. While the technology is surely a breakthrough, it will be interesting to see how Microsoft adapts Kinect to hardcore gamers and people who want to plop down on the couch. Kevin Butler, the vice president of Sony Playsation, may have said it best: &amp;quot;Who wants to pretend their hand is a gun? What is this? Third grade?&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/a5875/microsoft-kinect-review-at-e3/>