Very positive impressions of Kinect Sports: Season 2

Eurogamer has some new impressions of Kinect Sports: Season 2 up, and they're very positive. From their preview it really seems like Microsoft's Rare Studios understand how to use Kinect's motion controls to create an intuitive & fun game. In their summary that say

"Each event, quite simply, works as you'd expect it to without your brain having to enter "video game mode". This is a much more eclectic line-up of events, each with its own unique feel; that so many of them feel "right" the moment you step in front of the sensor is quite an achievement, the sort of invisible design work that is easily taken for granted."

 I've posted some of Eurogamer's impressions on each sport after the jump.

New trailer for Kinect only Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor is set in 2082, in "a world devoid of semiconductors, where war is waged with rudimentary weapons as new superpowers for dominance. In a twist of fate, the U.S. army has been forced to begin major landing operations on what was once its own soil."

The trailer seems like a mix of Saving Private Ryan, and giant mechs. Steel Battalion for the original XBOX used a pretty kick ass controller and foot pedals. It used this setup, along with a great presentation, in order to create one of the most realistic mech games.

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor for Kinect, according to new reports, uses a combination of XBOX 360 controller for "VT movement, aiming and firing of the main guns" & Kinect for things like "from starting the engine to operating the scope or manning the turret-mounted machine gun". If the trailer is any indication, we're in for a treat sometime in 2012.

The Gunstringer for $40, but wait there's more!

Twisted Pixel Games & Microsoft really want to make sure you pick up their upcoming Kinect game "The Gunstringer" when it hits shelves on September 13 in North America, Australia, New Zealand and Asia, and everywhere else on September 16. They want to sell the game so bad, that they're doing everything they can, which includes coming in at $10 under what other Kinect games sell for. But that's not all.

Tim Schafer Pitches a New Video Game

Tim Schafer of DoubleFine Productions writes: "Some of you have asked what it's like to pitch a game to publishers, so we recorded an actual pitch for you to see!". You can view that video below, and be sure to check out a related video after the jump.

Kinect - Robotics & Shrinking

 Eetimes is reporting that Microsoft Robotics is updated their services to allow users to plug the Kinect hands-free hardware, intended for gesture control of its Xbox gaming console, directly into any robot. This would add Kinect's gesture recognition software, depth cameras, and microphone arrays to robots running on an embedded Windows based computer.


Kinect mounted to iRobot

In addition, Eetimes also reports that with the acquisition Canesta Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), last year, Microsoft will be able to downsize the foot-long Kinect to about a square centimeter. This would enable tiny robots and other mobile devices, such as the Windows Phone, to perform sophisticated gesture recognition for natural user interfaces, autonomous navigation and many other tasks.