Are You A Child Of Eden?
This week saw Microsoft finally announce the price the price of its Kinect product, but this may not be the news you’re looking for. No Jedi mind tricks are going to fool us that $149.99 is cheap, that’s for sure. And of course, here in the UK we get the supersize-me price of £129.99, which is around $198.99. Industry analyst, Michael Pachter, says this is too high and I’m inclined to agree.
The delay on this announcement means that it’s no surprise that Kinect was going in high, when it comes to price. The general response to Move and Kinect has been firmly in favour of Sony up until that point. Of course, Sony announced the magic $49.99 price point, which falls easily on the wallet. However, this only works if you already own a PlayStation Eye camera and of course a PS3. If you don’t, it’s a whole different story.
Forgive me if I’m being slow, but Sony’s Move has about three different bundle options and involves three pieces of kit. Buy the Move controller, a camera and a Blu-ray game for $99.99. However, for some games you may still need to buy a Navigation controller for $29.99 (£24.99), but for most games you won’t need to. Confused yet? Huh!?
The one thing that Kinect has in its favour is that it costs £129.99 and when you buy it, that’s the end of it. There’s no extra thingemy bob that you may or may not need. No fuss, no nonsense. Stump up or shut up.
Microsoft’s one stumbling block is the price. Busting way over the 100 mark is quite a bit for gamers to chew, but if the games were there, it would make things a whole lot easier. Of course, Microsoft isn’t interested in us, it’s chasing the Holy Grail, that magical race, akin to the unicorn and known as the non-gamer. They are magical beings just waiting to be turned, if only the industry can find a way.
The only thing is, I’m not convinced that they, the non-gamers, are willing to fork out £130, if they didn’t even bother to get a Wii. I know, I’ve said all this before, but the price announcement makes this ground worth covering again.
Now let’s look at Sony’s package, which is £50 for a Move controller, Eye camera and demo disk. Not even a full game. The games are £40 each and then there’s the unknown quantity that is the Navigation controller for another £25, which adds up to a total of £115. This is significantly closer to Microsoft’s offering now.
Reviews of both systems seem to favour the accuracy of the Move, but I’m still enamoured of the controller-free Minority Report style gaming and at last there’s a game that looks set to show it off.
That game is Child of Eden.
I don’t know what happened, but I’ve only just caught up with this one (I blame Glastonbury Festival). Oh, my God, why wasn’t this game part of Microsoft’s Kinect-focused keynote at E3?
Child of Eden is being dubbed Rez 2 and it’s easy to see why. If you haven’t already drooled over the trailer, I urge you to do so now (well, after you’ve finished hanging off my every word, of course). From Rez designer, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Child of Eden is like a homecoming for fans of the original.
The wireframe figure of Rez is no more. Instead you are the central figure, thanks to Kinect’s motion capture capabilities. The player conducts their way through the pulsating, writhing and glittering images that explode onto the screen, supported by a gently pounding soundtrack. The E3 trailer shows the player silhouetted against a vast screen, which is awash with bioluminescent jellyfish and a translucent whale. It’s as if you are wading through the Avatar world, with no need for the annoying 3D distraction.
The weird, flowering machines and disco ball bosses will be familiar to Rez fans and jaw-dropping for newcomers. Rubik’s cube-style objects build up and then shatter into a shower of pieces before you, as you use hand gestures and arm movements to determine what happens on screen.
In short – this is what Kinect was made for. At last we have a game that can bring the hardcore and the casual gamer together. It could be a thing of beauty dear play chums. The only thing is, £130 is a lot to pay for one game. I think I’m going to have to wait for a price drop before I fork out. I’m hoping the rumours are correct and we’ll see the price come down sooner, rather than later.
Our other option is to hope Child of Eden inspires other developers to create something more than lame Wii-ware clones, but I’m not holding my breath on this one.