Xbox Features in Retro Gamer

On the front cover of this months Retro Gamer is the original Xbox baring the trusty controller S. Looks like Retro Gamer aren't a fan of the trust Duke eh?

The feature includes Seamus Backley and Ed Fries who shed some light on the history of the Xbox, as well as some words from some UK devs who strongly supported the Xbox such as former Bizzare Creations, Oddworld Inhabitants and Rare developers.

Now the history of the Xbox is well documented and this special article doesn't really tell you what you already know. Though I did learn some new info here and there such as a mention of a few Age of Empires prototypes running on Xbox hardware and Blitz was in the process of making Fusion Frenzy 2 for the Xbox before being cancelled.

I won't spoil too much because it's a nice little article that condenses the history of the Xbox into a neat 10 page section. It's nice to see new interviews with former developers who haven't publicly shared their opinion on the console in some time or ever before. These sections are easily the best parts, shedding some light on some truly interesting development stories.

It's good to see the original Xbox get some love from Retro Gamer which has been criminally overlooked since the magazines inception with the PS2 and even the GameCube having their fare share of special overviews.

The issue is on sale now, so check it out before December issue roles out!

Xbox Kinect | Its time is up

After nearly 4 years of being on the market, the Xbox Ones Kinect is finally being discontinued. The writing was on the wall years ago wasn't it?

It started when the Xbox One S came out and users had to buy a bulky adapter in order to use their Kinect. Every month the new OS slowly phased out Kinect compatability with an ever changing UI that favoured controllers over voice and motion control.

Then there's the games. The Xbox 360's Kinect had some neat games, most of which could be played with a controller anyway. Games like Steel Battalion showed promise with a phenomenal presentation but being limited to motion controls only made the game damn near impossible. Damn shame...

We thought things were gonna change with the Xbox One, but it didn't. The only game of note is Kinect Sport Rivals which has some surprisingly good games packed in such as the Jet Ski racing which will forever be shackled to the Kinect.

I'm gonna be honest, I've never liked the Kinect. Don't get me wrong, as a piece of tech, i really do admire it. Recently I visited a medical exhibition where the Kinect was used to monitor the Doctors posture during their surgical training. Examples like this is why the Kinect is still utilised for a whole host of non-gaming projects that show just how good the tech is.

When it came to gaming however, it was a bit of a dog. The Quick and accurate responses required by games meant the Kinect could never really keep up and you end up just wishing you could play the damn thing with a traditional controller. I could make some tiring gesture to get something to happen which I may have to repeat a few times to work, or I could press a button? Which would I rather do?

Despite its demise the tech will live on thanks to the IPhone incorporating the technology in its front-facing camera which is doing some neat things for face recognition. Oh and Ubisoft with the next 10 years of Just Dance games.

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/9/17/16315510/iphone-x-notch-kinect-apple-primesense-microsoft