If you've been near a games shop, or turned your Xbox 360 on recently, the chances are you'll have heard of Microsoft's motion sensing add-on for the Xbox 360, Kinect. With 10 million sensors already having been sold, many of you already own it, but for those who don't, you may understandably have some questions. What's it like? How much room do I need? What are the games like? If you're the sort of person that likes getting answers for yourself, and you live in, or in an easily commutable distance of the London area, you may be interested to know that Microsoft have recently opened a Kinect centre, where you, and your family can drop in, grab some breakfast, and have a go on Kinect Sports for yourself.
As part of the official opening celebrations for the venue, which goes by the name Kinect Sports Presents: Summer Saturdays, and is held at Rough Trade East, on Brick Lane, the clever bods at Microsoft decided to invite Britain's No. 1 and 2 Table Tennis players down, to see how the virtual thing compared to the real deal.
An artist's impression of the showdown.
With a crowd of onlookers on hand, Kelly Sibley and Joanna Parker duked it out in a heated game of Kinect Sports, before making way for the crowds of families to get stuck in for themselves. By tracking your body, with Kinect there's no need for a controller, as you merely pretend you're holding an invisible table tennis bat, bowling ball, or boxing glove. Like Wii Sports, but on the Xbox 360, we thought Kinect Sports was quite a lot of fun, and gave it a solid 7/10 in our review. The two table tennis champs seemed to like it, too:
They seem to be standing quite a way away from the sensor, if you ask us. A bit far away, even for Kinect.
If you fancy popping in for yourself, Kinect Sports Presents: Summer Saturdays will be running every Saturday until the 27th August, with families able to tuck into some breakfast (the store opens at 10am on a Saturday, so you'll have to make sure you're fairly early), get their hands-on Kinect Sports, and enter a competition to win an Xbox 360 and Kinect. Make sure you check it out.
