Forza Dev: "We're just at the tip of the iceberg with Kinect"

While Kinect continues to appeal to the same audience it attracted a year ago, with upcoming titles such as Kinect Sports: Season 2 and Dance Central 2, the response from hardcore gamers has been a mixed bag. With games such as Child of Eden, The Gunstringer and Rise of Nightmares available now and upcoming support in traditional franchises such as Mass Effect and Forza, Kinect is becoming increasingly relevant.

Talking to CVG, Forza 4's creative director Dan Greenawalt believes that hardcore Kinect acceptance will take time.

"I remember a time ten years ago when everyone was saying 'A first person shooter can never be done on console because of the controller. It'll never work.' Everyone was certain of that and then we had Halo. Now we all expect the best first-person shooters are played, it seems, on console.

"Kinect is the same thing - it takes time," he continued. "You should be charging us as the innovation engine of the industry; the big franchises, the big teams, the creative powerhouses. Players should be charging us to surprise them."

Of course with limited time on the market, developers have still had little time to really get to grips with what Kinect is capable of. Greenawalt believe that devs shouldn't shy away from it, and embrace the new opportunities the technology offers.

"I think most people think, 'Well I haven't thought of anything and so therefore there's nothing that can be done.' That's just silly, our job is to come up with new ideas and surprise people.

"We're just at the tip of the iceberg with Kinect. As a creative industry, this is fairly new to us still. I know it seems like 'Wow it's been out a full year.' But it's only been out a full year. There's a lot more time to go.

"If you look at Ubisoft with Ghost Recon, you look at BioWare with Mass Effect, other triple A large franchises that are known for innovation - for pushing - are picking it up and saying 'Yeah we can do something really cool with this. Not because we have to but because this is an awesome creative challenge and we want to surprise our customers with cool new experiences.'

"I think it would be incredibly naïve of me to say that I know where Kinect is going. Because it's so new, there's no way I can know where Kinect is going. But honestly I'm nothing but excited about where Kinect can go."

Forza 4 is perhaps the best example of a traditional game incorporating Kinect controls yet. Without impacting on the core experience, players have the optional ability to use head tracking, drive controller free, control menu's with voice and interact with and explore a variety of vehicles using the new autovista mode.

Forza 4 launches October 11th in the US and the 14th in Europe. A demo will be available October 3rd.

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Forza 4 Kinect Video Demonstrations

Turn 10 have been busy show off Forza 4 at E3. The lengthy demonstrations show off all facets of the racing game, including Kinect features such as head-tracking, the car showroom, controller-free driving and voice control.

The car-showroom, an idea specifically created for Kinect, lets players walk around a virtual car; opening doors, looking at the engine and even getting inside. It is full of narrated facts and information and unedited commentary on each individual car written and recorded by Top Gears' Jeremy Clarkson specifically for the game.




Head tracking works during races, not only for subtler head turns, but for tilting and leaning of the head and body, resulting in a much more immersive experience, and genuinely helpful hands-off camera control.




Kinect steering might not necessarily improve on a wheel or a controller, but it makes the game instantly more accessible. As an option, it opens the game up to a much wider audience -- those that own Kinect who might be otherwise intimidated by such a deep racing sim. Breaking is automatic, but you can override it if you feel the need to break by putting your foot forward.



If you want to see more, Gamespot have put up a fantastic 24 minute long video must-see video demonstration with Turn 10 game director Dan Greenawalt, detailing and demonstrating traditional and Kinect control. It also shows off a bit of the voice control for menu navigation, which is particularly useful as it allows players to jump to deeper hyperlinks rather than just the options available on the screen, letting them dig deeper or back up a few steps with one voice command instead of multiple button presses.

It really seems like Turn 10 have thought long and hard about Kinect and implemented it where they genuinely feel it can expand the game. It can complement or replace the most complex and simple controls, and offer completely unique ways of viewing some of the best cars in the world. It's brilliant to see such brilliant developers approach Kinect with such enthusiasm.

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Forza 4 Head-Tracking Briefly Demonstrated

On today's Major's Minute Inside Xbox segment on Xbox Live, footage is shown of Microsoft's Major Nelson briefly demonstrating headtracking for the upcoming racing game Forza 4.

 As expected, the game is going to have a big presence at E3 next week, with its own 4 hour event taking place on Wednesday the 8th of June.

Check out the footage below, and check back for all the latest news from E3

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