Kinect

E3 2011: Nyko says it's solved Kinect floor space issue

LOS ANGELES--One of our biggest gripes with Microsoft's controller-less motion system was the fact that it required quite of bit of real estate to function properly. A minimum of 6 feet from the camera seemed to be the sweet spot, but even at that distance we've experienced some nags with gameplay.

Small apartment living rooms like the ones we're used to in New York may now be able to accommodate Kinect with Nyko's Zoom for Kinect accessory. Thanks to a series of what we'd describe as an arrangement of wide-angle lenses, the $30 snap-on accessory sits over the standard Kinect array and drops the space prerequisite by 40 percent. That's a bold claim, so we had to try it out for ourselves.… Read more

Xbox gets Live TV, more ways to use Kinect

LOS ANGELES--A year after introducing Kinect, Microsoft used this year's E3 press conference to show how it's integrating its motion-capture console add-on to Xbox Live and games, and pump up the non-gaming entertainment experience.

EA Sports, EA Games, and Ubisoft announced baked-in support for Kinect in their 2011 Xbox 360 games. Tiger Woods, Madden, FIFA, Mass Effect 3, and Ghost Recon Future Soldier will support the Kinect. Forza 4, Microsoft's racing simulator, will also support Kinect. All Tom Clancy titles from now on will be integrated with Kinect, according to Ubisoft.

We saw demonstrations of how Kinect integration will work, including players taking the reins of a horse-drawn carriage, and firing guns and reloading ammo in games using only body and hand motions and no controller. Voice integration will also be woven into many games, including Madden to call plays. A demonstration of Star Wars with Kinect showed how a player can say "lightsaber on," and then using motions, swing away with the lightsaber.

Microsoft cleaned up the look of the dashboard, and is bringing a host of new features for Xbox Live. … Read more

E3 2011: The Microsoft exclusives

LOS ANGELES--Microsoft began its press conference with some gameplay demos of Modern Warfare 3, Tomb Raider, and Mass Effect 3. Though these titles certainly impressed, they'll be available on multiple consoles.

But at E3, it's exclusives that count, and Microsoft finally showcased a number of titles that will only be available on Xbox 360 and Kinect:

Xbox 360:

As we suspected, an intense Gears of War 3 demo delighted the crowd with Marcus Fenix battling a skyscraper-size alien. The game will be out in September.

Next we saw a teaser-trailer for the ancient Rome inspired Ryse that looks to feature Kinect implementation. There wasn't too much information here--just that it's being developed by the team behind the Crysis franchise, Crytek.… Read more

E3 2011: Microsoft angles for toddlers

LOS ANGELES--Kids and games. When Tim Schafer of Double Fine stepped onstage to demo his Sesame Street-branded Kinect game today, he explained how he had his 3-year-old daughter in mind when he developed the idea.

Sesame Street, Disneyland, and more: It looks like younger and younger kids are being targeted for gaming. Both Disneyland Adventures and Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster are Microsoft exclusives for the Kinect. Add in Kinect Fun Labs, a series of interactive toys and camera-based art apps on a single disc, and you have a clear-cut strategy for attracting the toddler crowd.

Call it the iPad Effect, or whatever you'd like, but the hands-free gaming that Kinect represents looks like Microsoft's new fertile ground for the youngest gaming set. The question is, will parents want their kids to play? … Read more

E3 2011: What was missing from Microsoft's press conference

LOS ANGELES--Microsoft's E3 press conference was packed with new software and services, from Kinect-enabled games to the promise of live TV. But, at the same time, some Xbox staples were missing in action, as were some hoped-for hardware announcements.

The biggest omission was the lack of a new Halo game coming this year. After Halo 3, Halo ODST, and Halo Reach, there has been a new Halo game each of the past three years. However, Microsoft couldn't go cold turkey. Instead we get Halo: Combat Evolved: 10th Anniversary Edition, a remade version of the original Halo game with … Read more

E3 2011: Kinect integration coming to wide variety of new Xbox games

LOS ANGELES--While last year's Microsoft E3 briefing focused on the Kinect as debut hardware, this year seems to be about integrating the Kinect more deeply into mainstream games.

EA Sports, EA Games, and Ubisoft are among the first to formally announce baked-in support for Kinect in their 2011 Xbox 360 games. Tiger Woods, Madden, FIFA, Mass Effect 3, and Ghost Recon Future Soldier--along with, according to developers, many more--will support the Kinect in unspecified ways. Forza 4, the latest iteration of Microsoft's racing simulator, will also support Kinect.

It looks like there will still be standalone Kinect games, … Read more

E3 2011: Live TV comes to Xbox (live blog)

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates, along with commentary from our readers and CNET reporters. For those of you who just want the updates, we'll be including them in regular text here. In the meantime, here are some of the main points from today's press event.

Before the Electronic Entertainment Expo officially starts Wednesday, the three big console makers will hold their own highly produced press … Read more

E3 2011: A photographic history of the Electronic Entertainment Expo

Looking back at previous coverage of the annual Electronic Entertainment Exposition, I found several photo galleries of images cobbled together from as far back as 1999.

For the past few years I've largely left the photographic duties to our able staff photographers, who have done an excellent job of chronicling the show, but I thought it might be fun to round up some of the slideshows of personal pics that we've run previously.

E3 2011: Our predictions

With the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo happening simultaneously with the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference this year, those in the habit of making technology-announcement predictions have a big week ahead of them. We've put our collective heads together to make some forecasts, and you're welcome to play along at home and score us on how we do.

To be fair, many of these have been so reliably leaked or telegraphed that they're virtually sure bets. Others seem likely based on corroborating clues we've seen or historical precedent. We've also thrown in a final list of E3 … Read more

Kinect, 2011: Where art thou, motion?

I haven't plugged my Kinect into my Xbox 360 in nearly six months.

The reasons are, to some extent, mine. But not mine alone. Still, whatever excitement I might have felt during the Kinect's debut has withered. It's not essential, not compelling. It's not why I play my Xbox 360. And if I don't have mine plugged in, I'm wondering how many other Kinects are suffering the same fate.

The Kinect's motorized movements get annoying. The Kinect camera is meant to sit under my TV and be innocuous, but it isn't. The … Read more