Maybe if you had read the whole comments you would have understood. I dunno why I need to repeat my opinion when it’s all in this thread. Will it be read this time? TL;DR?
3D tracking for the wand(s) is very precise and has been displayed many times with 3D objects moving and interacting in 3D space with no issues whatsoever, right down to using the wand to precisely draw and write as if they have an invisible canvas in front of them (so, not with pointing, you can’t draw with a laser pointer type technology, it would amplify movements too much to keep it in full control, whereas the opposite is true for weapons aiming functions). It’s full body tracking that’s not been shown.
So, it doesn’t have to be just pointing and selecting as that precice 3D motion tracking can be used in tons of genres alongside a normal type controller. For example, a game like Red Steel 2 on Wii but with more 1:1 type motion control over the sword (on Wii it’s still mostly gesture based, unlike say, Wii Sports Resort’s swordplay, which also isn’t as precise as Move can be), while keeping full character control with an analog stick.
At the same time the player would be able to use pointing for use of ranged weapons and use buttons on both the left hand controller and the Move wand to replicate the actions everyone expects to have in FPS and action adventures these days, such as shooting, alternative fire shooting, iron sight/scope aiming, crouching, sprinting, sneaking, taking cover, changng weapons, grenade type and gadgets, climbing, initiating conversations, picking dialogue options, and all sorts of context sensitive actions, maybe wall running and other stunts and types of jumps, most done simply and intuitively with button presses while leaving only the “good” action stuff people will want to do as motion based control, ie, the sword fighting and the weapons aiming, and maybe a few more gestures here and there, like chucking or rolling grenades and reloading weapons which may not add much but aren’t obstrusive either, and would free up buttons for different uses that need more precision in terms of timing.
Of course it doesn’t have to be a sword either. It could be a physics enabled whip, flail, or whatever else. It doesn’t even have to be a weapon, anything you can hold in your hand like you hold the Move wand can be used in a game. It may not do full body tracking, but the wand Move itself is tracked perfectly accurately so anything your character holds in his hand can behave like the Move behaves in yours, in full 3D space.
Will the Kinect be precise enough to replicate sword fighting like that while you sit down and hold a regular Xbox 360 controller on your left hand to maintain character control in complex 3D space (rather than 2x2 that your room area or whatever is)? We don’t really know, I’ve not seen evidence of that so far but I won’t say it’s not possible for sure. Will it be precise enough to have pointing based weapon aiming? We don’t know that for sure, although Child of Eden’s videos show it’s not quite there, not yet (much like the dance games quote from Sony you were looking for?). Will it be as comfortable and intuitive to only press buttons on the left hand to initiate all those types of actions I mentioned that exist in pretty much every modern action adventure or first/third person shooter? Not really, that’s why we have buttons on both hands with standard controllers.
Will it be better to make many of those actions full body motion based so that players crouch to crouch, jump to jump, sprint to sprint, speak to initiate conversations, speak to respond, etc? Not in my opinion, that would sure be a workout for games designed to immerse you and thus play for a few hours at a time. And would simple gestures be a good replacement for many such actions? Not beyond things like reloading and chucking grenades as I mentioned for Move, otherwise it’ll be both abstract and unintuitive.
At most, for such “core” games I only see Kinect having normal gamepad control and maybe offering gestures and headtracking on top for things like giving orders to teammates, hand signal style, while lacking everything else Move could offer in such games (and Move with its pointing could at least give orders with some kind of interface as in Rainbow Six 3 on the PC or the visor selection function in Metroid Prime 3).
Hence, for the type of games I play (and let’s not forget that such action and shooting elements are increasingly more common in more genres as time goes by, such as RPG type games) and the type of games I see being popular for gamers (hey, I also play Wii Sports Resort and the occasional music game with company, but that’s not the type of gaming I call my hobby), Move type technologies are in my opinion more versatile in offering them with substantial enhancements, while keeping most of the comfort and intuitiveness gamers want (outside under blanket gaming I suppose) and only really fail when it comes to conventional/retro things like Street Fighter, which the Kinect would also not do well, since they’re experiences designed for complex button combinations.
Maybe Microsoft will release a Kinect controller down the line that will fix a lot of what I see lacking in it. Maybe they won’t. This is what I think currently and if games and other products that show different potential show up I’ll change my mind. Maybe Gears of War Kinect that they’ll be showing soon will have worked magic. I’ve not seen it yet.
PS: I forgot to mention much about voice commands, but voice commands have little to do with Kinect’s new technologies. All you need for such a feature is a decent quality microphone, available with headsets or other hardware for all systems out there (and quite popular for things like online gaming, many 360 owners already had a headset), yet they haven’t been used much beyond novelties like EndWar because people just don’t want them, for the most part. Recognition and implementation is simply up to the software so if Kinect ever offers voice based experiences people want, nothing stops the other companies from doing the same, as they have the hardware capable for it.
