Kinect Hacks and Modding Potential
Who would have known that a motion controller ad don for the Xbox 360 would turn out to be such a hit in the hacking community? I think I have heard more about the mods than the actual game play with the Kinect. It's also good to see that Microsoft has changed it's initial hardliner stance on hacking the Kinect and will hopefully embrace the goals of the modders with some official XNA support.
The best part is that it only took a week for hackers to break down the Kinect's security and offer it up on a silver platter to everybody to enjoy. I went from thinking it was going to be another dumb motion control gaming gimmick to seriously considering picking one up to play with. It may not be as a gaming device, but as an artist it would make for a cheap way to work into a fairly sophisticated interactive art piece. It's great to see that something like the Kinect has much more use and potential outside of being an Xbox gaming peripheral and that modding can be very beneficial to the community. The community also comes up with some pretty interesting things like the Minority Report interface for your Windows 7 computer. Would befun to control your computer like that for a little bit, but I'm not sure it would be all that comfortable after awhile.
If you are looking at the nuts and bolts of how to hack the Xbox 360 Kinect, Endgadget has a pretty good writeup on it. Make Magazine also has a neat article on how the infrared camera works in the Kinect. Now I've just got to convince the SO that I NEED a Kinect for my Xbox S, If only she would let me buy this one.
Burnout Paradise: Big Surf Island comes with a surprise
So you want the sweetness that is Big Surf Island, but don't want to pay the big $12.50 for it? You need more than just the new muscle cars, the big racing enviroments and the new license? You just can't be happy.. always wanting something MORE DAMNIT! (we all do).
There are nine new vehicles that can be unlocked in Big Surf Island; five of them are the big muscle cars and dune buggies. As an added bonus, the other four unlockables are the cars from the Legendary Cars pack from a couple months ago. They come back now as little toy cars; little adorbale cars that will smash your face into the guardrail when you least expect it.
So if you were too cheap to pay for the Burnout Paradise Legendary car pack, you had better pony up the cash for the Big Surf Island DLC. Pay up Scrooge McDuck!
- Toy Jansen P12 88 Special (Time Machine) - Hit all 45 Island Billboards
- Toy Hunter Manhattan Spirit (Ecto-1) - Hit all 75 Island Smashes
- Toy Hunter Cavalry Bootlegger (General Lee) - Jump from all 15 Island Mega Jumps
- Toy Carson GT Nighthawk (KITT) - Complete all 24 Island Road Rules (Timed & Showtime)