PROGRESS UPDATE

I have made some significant progress this past week.

First of all, I was able to complete Fighters Uncaged. This was quite entertaining and better than the reviews would give it credit for. The achievements in this game are more time consuming than difficult, but still require a decent understanding of the games mechanics to unlock. I should have a review/tips and tricks post up later this week.

I also downloaded the free DLC for Dance Masters. It includes an additional level difficulty (Master). The great news here is that the new difficulty includes 5 additional secret ripple per song (150 total). These additional secret ripples do in fact count towards the secret ripple achievements. This means that you won't have to find every single secret ripple on Stealth (which is a pain).

Finally, I received Kinect Sports in the mail today via Gamefly. The game is quite entertaining and superior in its production value to other Kinect titles. I am having a blast with it so far. It may pose a handful of difficult achievements which I am dreading yet looking forward to.

GAME COMPLETED #3: GAME PARTY: IN MOTION

This game is the easiest 1000GS I have played thus far for the Kinect and certainly one of the easiest 1000GS on any Xbox 360 title I have played. However, it is also the worst Kinect title I have played and one of the worst 360 games I have had the misfortune of playing.

GAME: Game Party: In Motion

REVIEW SCORE: 3/10

The concept is very appealing. You have Skeeball, Whack-a-mole, Air Hockey, Bean Bag toss, Darts, Billiards, etc. I was super excited when I saw this game available for the Kinect. Unfortunately, the excitement lasted for about 3 minutes after booting up the game.

The problem isn't the game's contents, but the game's execution. The game controls are a jumbled mess. Nothing works as it should. I have spent enough hours on my Kinect to know that my sensor is set up and working fine and that I have proper play space. The problems that this game encounters reach far beyond these rational mishaps.

First of all, most games require throwing of some sort. I have done my fair share of throwing in Kinectimals to know that Kinect can handle throwing. Game Party: In motion in particular however, does not. You can make a throwing gesture with no result, only to have you avatar make a feeble throw as you bring your hand back for another attempt. It all feels very random.

Multiplayer was a complete disaster. The game seems to have an extremely hard time telling who is playing. It isn't even so much a Kinect ID issue, as the game even forgets which profiles are signed in. During a 30 minute multiplayer session, my wife and I had to sign in and receive facial recognitions over a dozen times. The game would constantly tell us that we were not in the play space although we clearly were. Which is confirmed by the fact that the game clears us moments later without us even having to move.

I would love to see a game of this variety arrive on Kinect and work properly. I can't help but to feel that this particular title was rushed in order hit shelves by the time Kinect launched.

With any luck, the game will see a patch that can make this game enjoyable.


FITNESS SCORE: 2/10

To be honest, the games involved in this title don't really focus on activities that would be associated with fitness. What you will see here is mostly stepping from side to side and a lifting of an arm. Ironically, you probably get more of a workout due to the game not working properly, as you find yourself flailing around in hopes of getting the game to react the way you want it to.

TIPS AND TRICKS:

-The game is extremely glitchy when it comes to achievements. This is due largely to the fact that the game tends to forget who is playing. You have to make sure when you are in an activity that the game recognizes you by your profile (as opposed to "Player 1"). If you are signed into an event as "Player 1" and meet an achievement requirement, it will not unlock. In addition, you may find it glitched from unlocking when you do get signed in. To avoid these complications, use Kinect ID to recognize you. It should cause the game associate you with your profile before the start of each match. If you do find yourself having glitched an achievement, try to clear the cache on your console (see xbox.com for tips on clearing cache).

-For many of the perfection achievements, you may want to play with a second person. It is certainly possible to get the achievements in single player, but it is hard to reach perfection when the controls are far from it.

PROGRESS UPDATE

This week I have been focusing heavily on Dance Masters. I am faring much better in this game than I had originally thought I would. All I am missing now are a handful of achievements for discovering Secret Ripples (hidden objects scattered throughout the songs in the game) which will probably be more time consuming than difficult, and one achievement that I am not really sure how to unlock, although it is supposed to be easy. I just need the proper info i suppose.

Other than that, i started Game Party: In Motion, which is by far the worst game I have played thus far on the Kinect. It is a easy 1000GS, but I need my wife to stand in for a couple of achievements that are too hard to do in single player (well, not really too hard in the sense of difficulty, but in the sense that the motion detecting is crap on some of this game).

I am also pecking away at the calorie achievements in Your Shape: Fitness Evolved. I can net about 200 calories every 20-30 minutes. I know that I can pump up my in-game weight to help speed the progress along, but I plan on keeping the integrity for this game as I am interested in the fitness aspect. No rush to get this done.

In other news, I have upgraded my Gamefly account to the 2-disc plan. It doesn't look like Dance Masters will keep me occupied as long as I had planned, and it seems to take about 3 days to get a new game from Gamefly once it is shipped. Next on my Gamefly queue is Kinect Joyride.

GAME COMPLETED #2: DANCE CENTRAL

This is by far one of the proudest 1000GS I have earned on my Gamercard. As of now, it appears that only a dozen or so people have completed this feat (Reference: mygamercard.net). I found the game to be very enjoyable, and easily the best Kinect game I have played thus far.

GAME: Dance Central

REVIEW SCORE: 9/10

The concept is simple, but executed phenomenally. The game has varying difficulties and dance types that cater to anybody. The tutorials are excellent at teaching you how to play the game, and the execution is flawless. There is also a fairly wide variety of music that is sure to satisfy most music lovers. This game makes being active very fun, and quite addicting.

The game doesn't really need to rely heaving on graphics, as it is a dance game, but it still is able to deliver stunning visuals. The game portrays dance moves as specific as possible, as to teach them to utmost accuracy. And believe me, the game will hold you to it a lot of times when scoring you.

The sounds and music are great, as to be expected for a music game. I am not a fan of all the songs/genres, but I am aware of my biases.

I was a little disappointed in the lack of proper multiplayer. I am generally more a single player kind of guy, but I felt this game would have benefited greatly from multiplayer option. The game does offer a local multiplayer "Dance Battle", but it is essentially two people taking turns dancing to the same routine.

FITNESS SCORE: 7/10

The game really had me moving around and sweating. The game isn't advertised as a fitness game, nor is it really designed as such. However, you will be getting a lot of lower body exercise. I would find myself sore in the legs and feet from day to day. Be sure to wear socks tough! I found out the hard way when I got blisters on my feet.

TIPS AND TRICKS: 

- The game is a little buggy as of now. If you are going for achievements, be sure to first play through the game on Easy. The game only registers your highest ranked performance on the Song List data. The game ranks "Hard" performances higher than it ranks "Medium" performances, and so forth. Makes sense, but achievements that focus on stats specifically focus on your highest ranked performance. For instance, there is an achievement for getting 5 stars on a song with flashcards off. For the achievement to unlock, you not only need to get 5 stars on a song with flashcards off, but the posted score would have to be your highest ranked performance. If you played a song on "Hard", you would have to get 5 stars on "Hard" without flashcards to get the achievement, as any progress made on "Easy" or "Medium" wouldn't be accepted. Hopefully there will be a patch.

PROGRESS UPDATE

I have pretty much been playing nothing but Dance Central this last week or so, and it looks like I will be wrapping it up in the next day or two. The only achievement I have left is to score 5 stars on all songs on Hard mode. I am currently two songs and two challenges away from completing that goal.

Once I have finished Dance Central, I will be focusing on my new Kinect strategy. I have just created a subscription with Gamefly with the 1 disc plan. I will use this service to receive Kinect games that I should be able to complete quickly and easily.

In addition, I will be purchasing games that look to take more time and offer greater challenges. This way, I should always have at least 2 games going at once, and I don't hold up my Gamefly account.

I just purchased Dance Masters and have Game Party: In Motion coming via Gamefly.

I hear that Dance Masters is quite the beast, and looks to be my biggest challenge thus far.

Until next time....