So... I bought Kinect!

I've only used it for about 2 hours at this point, but I can give you the long and short of it right here!

Good:

• It works!
• Its fun!
• Its easy to set up.
• Voice and Motion controlled console navigation

Bad:

• Launch titles are a little weak
• cost
• space requirements

It took about an hour of rearranging furniture to give Kinect the space it needed for "Best" configuration. It actually isn't the first time I've done this (I had previously used a similar arangement for DDR). That said, Kinect does need its 6-8ft of space, but if there's a will, there's a way. It seems to handle poor lighting pretty well, since we're running it in a basement with only one lamp on the side.

The controls for navigating the Xbox are very cool, but feel a little half-baked at the moment. You can only control things in there new Kinect guide. So, while I can use voice commands to tell it to go to "ESPN", I can't tell it to go to "Games Marketplace" yet. You also can't turn the system on or off with voice yet. All the console navigation can be done sitting or standing.

I have played Kinect Adventures and Kinectimals, and I like them both. Kinect Adventures is well polished and fun, especially with 2 people. Kenticimals is really a smart game. Its intriguing because it plays like a tech demo in many places. The one thing Kinectimals proves though is that there needs to be a voice command for skipping cut-scenes in Kinect only games. I fully expect future titles to include this feature.

So, there you have it. If Microsoft continues to support the device, I wont regret buying it. It is smart and fun and active. It isn't a guaranteed hit right now, I don't know if other people will buy it, but Microsoft put out a competent product that does have potential to provide many unique gaming experiences.