When the Vision camera came out little over a week ago it was met with mixed reception. Some saw it as an opportunity to 'funk' up their console further, whereas others saw it as a rather pointless gimmick.
So let's get down to business. Is the Vision camera a gimmick? In short, yes- but a bloody good one. The camera itself bares similar resemblence to the Sony Eyetoy camera for the Playstation 2. Microsoft never really released a fully pledged camera for it's debut console- although they did release a camera in Japan, that I would say was more of a prototype or test for the camera we now have available on Xbox 360.
Chances are you're reading this review because you are so far unconvinced by this camera malarkey, otherwise you would already have one- right? Therefore if I must convince you, I'd better explain what the camera actually offers and why you should part with your golden coins.
The first thing that struck me when I hooked it up to the rear USB port was that you're dashboard's backround immediately changes to a sort of washed out mirrage. You can also see the image of yourself very faintly, where moving causes this 'mirrage' to splash about a little.
Moving on to video chat I was very impressed. It must be said that it is one of the best quality cameras that I have seen. It gives a good sized, clear, crisp, and lag free picture. Currently each video chat lobby caters for 2 people only, but there is potential there to increase this at some point. Holding the trigger buttons on your controller also causes the other person's to vibrate. Think of it like a sort of, virtual hand shake.
Another fun feature is that you can take photos, then send them to your friends or create your own personalised gamerpic! There's a nice touch in that you can edit your photos with a variety of weird and wonderful designs such as black and white, sketch style, blurry, and so on.
Probably the biggest reason for owning the camera is for in-game use. It's great to play Uno with 4 players, each with a camera. It really adds a new dimension to the game, and it's great to see different player's reactions to being handed out a draw 4 card. At the moment there are relatively few games that support the camera, but they are coming. One example is in the forth coming Rainbow Six game where it will feature face mapping technology, allowing you to put yourself in the game. Totem Ball is also the first game to utilise player's movement in order to navigate the levels.
All in all, the camera is by no means essential- or atleast not for the time being. It is however, a very fun accessory to have- and for £34.99 is good value. Xbox Live Vision unlocks new potential for the Xbox 360, and allows for new and intuitive features to appear in games. Microsoft always needed an answer to Sony's incredibly successful Eyetoy, and this is it. Go on- give your Xbox 360 some eyes!
9 comments:
I suppose you also get the bonus of a months free XBL Gold and a code for the full Uno game. I'm still thinking that this is perhaps one for the future when more games will use the camera function.
I think a lot of it may boil down to if you have a lot of friends on XBL. I imagine it would be an essiential purchase for say an ex Uni student catching up with old mates who live in different counties now.
Have you also noticed the higher levels of abuse in Uno now people can see each other? Let's just say that a fat kid was shown no mercy the other night. Presumably this wouldn't have occured when we were all faceless.
That was one thing I was worried about. Unfortunately there will be some people who will single others out because of how they look. It's just not right and there's no need for it. However the majority of users are very friendly and I so far haven't seen any abuse taking place.
I bought a camera on Wednesday by the way. Tesco are selling them for £29.99 - and then I sold my headset at GameStation for £5 - so it wasn't too expensive.
Just a pity I can't get on XBL to use it!
Nice! The thing about the camera is that it is so relitively cheap- it's worth it- and will be a must have eventually when more games utilise it. Also don't forget the face mapping feature in R6 Vegas! When I kill you online, I want to see what you look like! Lol :)
Incidently, I was messing about taking photo's earlier and setting my favourite to my personal gamer picture. Is there a way to set your own photo's to your public profile?
No, only your friends can view your gamer picture that you have taken yourself. I guess it's to stop any unappropriate stuff being viewable by all.
Speaking of which - is your user name on XBL 'Dreams Are dead'? If so, do you mind if I add you to my friend list?
Yes it is. Of course it's alright. :)
By the way: add my other account aswell which is 'Immortal Dream.' The reason I have 2 accounts at the moment is because I needed to change something on my main account but couldn't remember the password to my network account linked to Dreams Are Dead because I don't use that email address anymore. Therefore when the year is up on my Dreams Are Dead account (Feb) I will continue to use Immortal Dream instead at which time the change will be represented on the site too. :) Hope that's not too complicated- lol.
Ok. I'll add both. My XBL name is 'JTPJedi' by the way.
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