Forza 4 and Kinect

It sounds like to get the full Forza 4 experience, one will need to get the Kinect. I know some of S7 has it, but I was wondering of those that don't have it, how many that were gonna pick up Forza 4 and the Kinect? I'm probably not going to pick up the Kinect myself, rather I'll wait for someone else in the clan to put the two together and give some feedback. It sounds pretty cool though how you can use the Kinect to open and close the doors/trunk/hood of your cars in showroom mode and that you'll be able to play without a controller, but I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to justify it with my wife until probably Christmas. I was just wondering what everyone thought.

I don't have Kinect and don't plan on getting it for Forza 4, ME:3 or any of the other new games. My bro does have it so I'll try it out once the game releases to see if it's worth it.

S7 SockPuppet wrote:It sounds like to get the full Forza 4 experience, one will need to get the Kinect. I know some of S7 has it, but I was wondering of those that don't have it, how many that were gonna pick up Forza 4 and the Kinect? I'm probably not going to pick up the Kinect myself, rather I'll wait for someone else in the clan to put the two together and give some feedback. It sounds pretty cool though how you can use the Kinect to open and close the doors/trunk/hood of your cars in showroom mode and that you'll be able to play without a controller, but I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to justify it with my wife until probably Christmas. I was just wondering what everyone thought.

Well, here are my thoughts on the subject. First off I would like to state that I do own a Kinect and while it is neat, it is not without flaws. Most notably and frankly the biggest problem with the device is the input lag. It is a flaw with the technology in general and the main reason motion devices will never take over a standard controller from the hardcore gamer. (This includes the Wii and the PS Move as well.) The problem in simple terms is when you "move" the device has to record that movement, apply that movement with a command and then send that information to the game. All of this processing takes time and the result is laggy response times. It is not that big of a deal in a boxing game as you are flailing about wildly or even when you are just out to have some fun. But in a serious game, where precision is key and every millisecond is needed for success, motion controllers have no place. You need 1 to 1 responses.

That is not to say that Kinect can't enhance the experience. It most certainly can and will but the point I am trying to make is this. Do you need to buy Kinect to enjoy Forza 4? No. Do you need to buy Kinect to play competitively with the rest of the clan? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Will Kinect make the Forza 4 experience better? Probably, yes but only from a cool factor stand point. Yes, the car showroom will definitely be cool with Kinect. Being able to look around, open up stuff and start the car by waving your hands will be cool. But you can do all that stuff with a controller too. You not missing out, you just have a different set of inputs. Driving the car with no controller? No thanks. Laggy input will make this all but useless for anything other than drunken fun with your friends. No way you will be competitive online and I can promise you that I will be using a controller 100% of the time to drive the car.

And that brings us to the one really cool feature Kinect brings to the table. Head tracking to move the camera in the cockpit view. I must admit this looks cool as well as useful but I still wouldn't buy the Kinect just for this alone. If I didn't have a Kinect, I wouldn't buy it just for Forza 4. My bottom line advise? Get Kinect because you want Kinect for what it is, fun, casual games bullshit. Then you can possibly benefit from it's other application too. Don't buy it for the hardcore. It all marketing BS.

P.S. I will report on it once I get Forza 4. As stated, I do already have Kinect. I'll let you know if I was wrong in my post here. Or if I was spot on.

This is the kind of discussion I was hoping to spark. I currently have no plans to get the Kinect because I have a Wii and can get in my aerobic gaming using the Wii. However, if the benefits drastically outweigh the problems it might be something that I consider, especially if it's going to enhance other games like ME3.