Xbox Iso Download 360 Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect Review: Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect
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xbox iso download 360 Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect review: Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect. The Good Fantastic fun; simple, accessible gameplay; easy set-up; impressive motion-tracking technology. The Bad Demands plenty of space; tracking is often glitchy; two player maximum at launch; expensive. The Bottom Line You'll need plenty of space to use Microsoft's Kinect motion-gaming system, but it's just about the most fun you can have with your hands free. It's not accurate enough to win over hard-core gamers, but it's simple and hugely entertaining. Review Sections. Remember console controllers? Those old things you used to make games work? Microsoft is hoping that you'll forget all about them this Christmas, as it's unleashing Kinect, a controller-free motion-gaming peripheral for the Xbox 360. The Kinect sensor bar plus the Kinect Adventures mini-game bundle will set you back £130, or you can buy Kinect bundled with a 4GB Xbox 360 Slim for £250. Is it worth splashing out? Get up and set up. The Kinect sensor bar is a black, glossy affair that sits under your telly. The bar itself measures around 284 by 70 by 70mm. In case you're having trouble visualising that, just take our word that it's reasonably chunky and, while it'll hardly dominate your AV set-up, it's not the sveltest piece of kit we've ever stuck under our telly. Set-up is simple. Depending on how old your Xbox is, you'll either have to attach Kinect to your console via USB and hook the sensor up to the mains too, or -- in the case of the new Xbox 360 Slim -- just plug the sensor into a proprietary socket on the back of the console. Cabling for both options is packaged with the sensor bar. There are three separate cameras housed inside the sensor bar. The central camera is an RGB affair that will identify anyone standing in front of the unit, and it's able to distinguish them from objects in the background -- your sofa, houseplants and so on. Kinect is able to identify 20 separate points of articulation in each person stood in front of it, so it really can build up a fairly accurate picture of where your various limbs are and what they're up to. The other two cameras flank the RGB camera, and work together to build up a 3D picture of the room and your position within it. The idea is that Kinect knows how close you are to the sensor bar, and that sense of depth lets it judge things like whether your hands are behind your back, or whether you're kicking your legs out in front or behind, for instance. The standard method of menu navigation is to use your hand as a cursor, selecting from on-screen options by holding your arm still for a few moments. It feels odd a first, but we quickly got used to it. Flail wail. It's clever stuff, but we should warn you that there's a limit to how sophisticated Kinect can be. It didn't take much effort for us to confuse the sensor, and, during our testing, we noticed numerous glitches and moments of weirdness when the sensor had lost our position or wasn't registering our actions. Kinect is broadly capable of figuring out where you are and what you're doing, but only broadly -- don't expect to make a virtual cat's cradle or do anything else particularly fiddly with this system. Based on the smattering of launch titles that arrived with our review unit, we predict the best games for Kinect will be those that recognise these technical limitations and ask players to perform easily measurable and basic actions, rather than fiddly manoeuvres. So that's how Kinect works. But is it fun to play? Leave your dignity at the door. In a word: absolutely. In more words: absolutely, so long as you don't mind sacrificing all of the dignity you've spent your whole life accruing. We've spent several days playing our way through the launch titles and concluded that it's impossible to maintain any sense of self-respect while playing. Although different games will vary in how physically demanding they are, most will have you leaping, ducking, waving and kicking invisible opponents in the shins. It's embarrassing, but that's a big part of the fun. Similarly, watching your friends flailing around like loonies is a treat not to be missed. Microsoft Xbox 360 Review. The Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system places you at the center of the experience. Available this holiday season in Europe, Japan, and North America, Xbox 360 ignites a new era of digital entertainment that is always connected, always personalized, and always in high definition. Xbox 360 gives you access to the games you want to play, the people you want to play with, and the experiences you crave—when and where you want them. For those who’ve ignored the pre-launch marketing blitz – including an MTV special hosted by Elijah Wood, journalistic rendezvous in Amsterdam, and on-site appearances by Bill Gates – here’s a quick recap on the tech specs. The console features a unique IBM PowerPC-based CPU unit complete with three 3.2 Ghz cores, each sporting two hardware threads. Also included in every device: A custom 500Mhz ATI graphics processor capable of supporting 48 pixel shader pipelines and pushing four times as many polygons as the original Xbox. All systems further feature an impressive 512MB of RAM. In English, rough calculations reveal the Xbox 360 to be anywhere between eight and ten times as powerful as its predecessor. Craving high-definition, cinema-quality content? Look no further: All games are 720p minimum and optimized for 16:9 widescreen viewing. (Note: Options for switching into 1080i are also offered). Even on the low end, you’ll still enjoy 480p visuals. Can’t stand most current titles’ piddling audio output? No sweat – virtually every piece of compatible software’s designed to support Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Still, the facts, figures and feature lists don’t tell the whole story. In the end, any console – even the most functionally versatile – is ultimately defined by the hands-on experience. And, for that matter, the caliber of content users can expect from it. Which, ironically, is where Xbox 360 differs from all digital diversions that have come before: A scant few hundred dollars essentially buys you not a children’s toy or passing amusement, but honest-to-goodness high-end PC. Fitting the all-white or “chill,” as designers call its frosty iPod-esque color, system into any entertainment center is easy enough. Capable of resting on its side or standing vertically on end – although, seriously, why bother – the unit’s smaller, albeit just barely than its boxy, black forerunner. Measuring 3.3 (H) by 12.2 (W) by 10.2 (D) inches and weighing in at 7.7 lbs as opposed to Xbox’s 8.8 pound girth, it’s a slightly more attractive acquisition in terms of pure aesthetics. Then again, face it – cream isn’t exactly a hue that fits instinctively with most home theater setups. Detachable faceplates, available in blue, silver, and woodgrain (each priced at $19.99) are also available for sake of system individualization. A dazzling array of further patterns and designs from Microsoft and its partners will be on offer soon too. We’ll take a disaffected stance on the topic; whether the option of popping off your console’s front and tricking it out with painted-on flames or looping swirls adds any value is entirely subjective. Two memory card slots are present on the front of the machine. Ditto for a pair of USB ports hidden behind a hinged flap, through which you can connect to and communicate with MP3 players, PDAs, digital cameras, laptops and other portable gadgets. (Another, primarily intended for use with the wireless networking adapter, which clips right on, can be found around back.) Oh, and lest we forget, given that this is a next-gen console and all: The front-mounted ports are also used for attaching controllers. Connection buttons and an infrared port also make it easy to synchronize with wireless gamepads and remote controls in seconds flat. Good news for couch potatoes too. You needn’t use the gigantic O-shaped button (a ring of light around which coincidentally designates which of one to four controllers are connected) on the Xbox 360’s front to turn the unit on/off either. Powering it up or down can also be accomplished directly from the controller: Simply hold down the big X button in the center of the gamepad for a few seconds. The only other major item worth mentioning in terms of physical/spatial details is the power supply itself. Holy crap – the thing’s so big and heavy you could use it to brain a cat. Systems seem to generate a lot of heat while in use as well, so be careful what you’ve got stacked on top of them. Although, in fairness, we’ve yet to see scorch marks on our desk (or assault the neighbors’ kitty) so take such impressions with a grain of salt. Moving right along, setup’s a breeze – the system auto-detects wireless home networks and wired broadband connections, although you can also configure IP addresses and encryption settings manually. You don’t necessarily need high-speed online access to use the device either, but to deprive yourself of such options is to miss out on many of the Xbox 360’s most impressive features.