Kinect Games - Dance Central

If you are looking for a dance game this one is pretty good but if you are a good dancer this can be frustrating... Everything has to be done the way the game wants it done.When talking freestyle dancing I find this defeats the whole concept of "freestyle".

If you are a newbie or are willing to do things the way the game demands this is actually quite fun. However you can't just jump into the middle and expect to do well. You have to learn the moves that the game knows in the way the game wants them done.

If you want to learn to dance this can actually show you a lot of moves as you get further into it. Another good game for small groups of 2-4 people.

I did not review the other dance game so I have no reference if this is the best one. I have found it to be fun once I realized I had to start from the beginning... I had thought I could start in the middle with all my dancing experience... I was wrong ;)

If you like line dancing or following someone elses lead or you just wat to learn this is a great game. If you like to dance "freestyle" this will not let you... You must dance the way it says to do the move. 

Kinect Games - Motion Sports

Of the 3 sports games I reviewed this is probably the most adult version. In all these sports games I fnd they are at best limited but are very good for group play. These games are great for getting 4-8 people together and having friendly competitions.

You need a lot of room for these games because they involve a lot of movement. The first time I played this game I hit my foot on my metal framed bed when playing soccer... It recorded the video of me hopping around after kicking the bed ;) Quite humerous.

I was not impressed with any of these all in one sports games as each game is limited. If you want sports games go for ones of the specific sport you are interested in. For example Fighters Unleashed is a fighting game that has over 70 different moves and is very complex and full featured.

These all in one versions really stand out in groups. They are easy to get started and do not take a lot of training. Virtually anyone can do well right away. Games like Fighters Unleashed take some time just to learn all the moves that are available.

If you are thinking of the all in one sports games for adults this is probably the best choice. If you are looking for kids this is good but Kinect Sports is better.

Internet TV.... Not yet

I have been waiting forever for Internet TV but it still isn't quite there yet. Sure you can watch TV via the web now but the infrastructure is not there to support all of us watching web TV.

Just look at bandwidth limitations currently in place.... Even the high bandwidth providers limit bandwidth to around 60gb per month which is fine for most current users but if you are watching basic digital TV you are looking at approximately 600mb per hour of TV... Watching 2 hours per day on one TV will take up more than half your bandwidth... If you watch 4 hours you are going to be paying overage charges... If you have 2 TV's get ready to pay big time even if you watch the same shows. If you are like me and are on wireless highspeed you haven't got a hope... It costs a fortune for anything higher than 10gb per month on wireless. My house runs 3 TV's at least 4 hours per day so even with the best available options I would have to pay a lot for bandwidth. What if we talk about HD quality with 7.1 sound.... the bandwidth goes through the roof.

The infrastructure is not in place to support all of us getting on at 9pm to watch our favorite show. Just think of the bandwidth required for everyone to watch something like the Superboal in full HD? The entire system would collapse under the strain. We can't handle anything close to the required bandwidth yet but that is just a technical problem that will be resolved.
There is also the issues of content quality, availability and management. However, all the big players are setting up their own systems for content at a furious pace.

Whether we like it or not the web is merging all communication mediums. Soon we will laugh at the way people used phones and had to be home to watch a TV show. How did they do it...  ;)

Just think, YouTube users are apparently posting 31 minutes of video to the web every minute... and that is just one video content system... Many more are coming soon. Question is do we want to watch it?

XBox360 Kinetic - What the WII should have been

If you think the WII or Playstation Move were cool you really need the new XBox360 Kinetic. I just got one yesterday amd got exercise and dance games at the same time. Now this is the way gaming should be for most games... You really are in the game now.
I started with the exercise game and quickly worked up a sweat. Found it really forces you to not only keep up but also to do the exercise properly. It corrected me when I didn't squat far enough, step in beat with insstructor, or raise my arms far enough when required. That is a huge advancement from the WII and Playstations that only detect the controller movement. When I was doing exercises I did not know it would show me on screen and voice confirmation when I got it right. Talk about a game changer. This game in itself made the Kinetic controller worth it... Great exercise tool.
When I played the Dance game I was not as impressed with the game...Although I dance a lot I found they really presume you pick things up very quickly and since the system monitors your entire body you can have the entire move right except one arm and it will show you everything except the arm is correct(arm will show in red). Found this to be quite complex and if you didn't know any dance moves this could definately make you feel like you at least know how to dance ;) I will have to play this game a little more before I reject it. It might get better with a bit of practice.
The Adventure game that comes with Kinetic is not the best but it is kinda fun for kids. Again I haven't had time to try the whole game but what I have played has been fun.
Voice recognition seems to work fairly well but I did have to repeat a few things for it to work but I think that was more me getting used to the interface.
It detects different people so you don't have to change players... The system knows who is playing ;)
If you walk away from the game it pauses automatically. When you come back it automatically continues.

With all this great stuff there are some negatives...
1. You need at least 6-8 feet between you and the Kinetic and at least 6-8 feet in width to play. It will not work if you are in a small room and anything blocking the view between the controller and you will have adverse affects.
2. Requires a brightly lit area to play. Dim areas can cause the game not to recognize you or your movements. However, too much direct light can also cause problems.
3.Some games seem to have a little delay but that was a very rare occurence. Most times there were no delays.
4. Requires games that support the Kinetic. This controller will not work with games not built for it so you have to buy a bunch of new games.
5. Changes the XBox primary screens which takes a little getting used too but no big deal.
6. It is definately not for the couch potato... You really are in the game and several times I broke out in a sweat so expect a workout for most games.

All in all this is an awesome advancement in gaming and I strongly recommend getting one for your XBox360. This might even be enough to justify buyig the XBox360 if you don't have it. If you are thinkig of buying the WII or Playstation Move don't waste your money on them... This interface is so much better than either of them. Once more games get released I expect the Kinect to become part of the basic XBox360 but don't wait... Get yours now!

Cleanups Update Sept 2010

Well the summer was going along great and both Avening and Glencairn parks seemed to be very easy to maintain this year... Until mid August then the only party this year was held. They cleaned up all the beer bottles and cans(they are worth money) and at least a lot of the garbage. Unfortunately the park was at a level where there was hardly a speck of garbage. Just the bottle caps from way over 100 beer were a pain to pick up. I have really come to hate the labels on beer bottles. Why does everyone tear them off then rip them into little pieces and throw them on the ground. Then the cigarrett butts of course and a bunch of other tiny peices of garbage. Although there only ended up being 5 small bags of garbage each bag is full of hundreds of small pieces of garbage. I am happy to say that Glencairn is almost back into shape... I ran out of garbage bags so there are a few pieces left to cleanup... and of course there will always be tomorrow.

I did a little experiment of my own after the party... I did not clean the park up intentionally. Why? When I go to the park and am cleaning I run into people and many proceed to tell me how they clean the park all the time as well. So I thought I would give them the chance... Plus there is a group from the community that publishes that they maintain the park so I figured surely these people could at least pick up the bigger garbage that was left before I do the rest... Of course I was dreaming, I new that ;) .... After 3.5 weeks I couldn't stand it anymore and cleaned the park a few days ago. Not even the most obvious garbage right on the main path was picked up(pop bottle and McDonald's junk), nothing, nada. Please, when you see someone else cleaning don't tell them how you clean that unless you really do. You might run into someone like me who knows you are lying.

Of course Avening has been a dream. Sometimes I wonder why I bother since there is so little garbage. At Avening I can clearly see the community(at least a few people) realy take pride in making their park a beautiful place. I go to the remote sections if I want to cleanup anything because everything else is a already so clean. No beer bottle caps, not even cigarrette butts. It is quite amazing. Avening should get an award for the way they maintain their park.   

Electric Cars...Are we really ready?

Although I think electric cars are the future I have some major concerns.

1. What happens to dead batteries??? Right now we don't manage this well. What are we going to do with these monster car battery packs? What about the spent lithium? Is there any environmental issues?
2. How much supply of lithium is there? Can it support the current/future demand? To go all electric will require a lot of lithium.
3. We are experiencing electric brown-outs now due to high usage. What happens when we all want to charge our cars? Surely the current infrastructure can't handle the load. A more distributed design MUST be in place to support electric cars.
4. What about the fine metal dust from the generators? The friction wears the pads which creates dust that floats in the air or cakes to machinery.
5. Does the electric noise or battery discharge affect animals/humans?
6. Is there any affect having all that electricity surrounding us? 

You would think with all these concerns I would be saying slow down... but I am NOT! Athough there are issues with electric it is still far superior to the fossil fuel choices. I want to make sure we don't just switch to a different pile of crap. We need to do this for our descendants and it has to come quickly to ensure we actually have descendants.

Park cleanups 2010 update

Well I have been cleaning both Avening and Glencairn parks this year and there is quite a difference between the two. Glencairn requires much more of my time for cleaning. Each week this year the Glencairn park has built up a garbage bag full of crap plus at least one large item(like tires/metal). Avening on the other hand requires picking up 10-20 small peices of garbage each week with no large items. Although Glencairn is a busier park the problem seems to stem from only a very few people. There is at least one person that smokes at least 5-10 cigarrettes per day in the park. At least I pick up that many butts of a specific brand almost daily(plus other butts). Another lets their dogs(multiple large dogs) crap all over the park. Fortunately this year there hasn't been any major dumping going on and there has been a few people actually picking garbage up. Glencairn does not seem to be having any major parties this year(usually there are 5+ already) so the garbage has been dramatically reduced this year.
No matter how I look at it the parks are cleaner and easier to maintain this year than previous. The amount of garbage I see is noticably less than previous years. Especially butts and beer bottle caps. However since the outhouse has been removed from Glencairn some people have used the park as a bathroom and left toilet paper in several places(not nice).
Oh well, there will always be something that could be improved.