Now that internet coverage of Gamescom 2013 has drawn to a close, and the Rare reps have packed up their Kinect Sports Rivals builds and lurched exhaustedly back to the airport, allow us to present… the best bits. (Disclaimer: best bits are entirely subjective.)
KSR was at the show with playable versions of two events – Wake Racing and Climbing – along with the opportunity for attendees to be scanned by the Kinect sensor and transformed into in-game Champions. As Microsoft kicked things off a day early for the press, a whole host of journalists, bloggers and enthusiasts stepped up to get to grips with our latest game, IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey among them as he tackled both Wake Racing and Climbing and left us with this very fetching image of himself alongside his dapper Champion printed on a T-shirt.
Ryan was far from the only one: the press of people itching to see themselves as a Kinect Sports Rivals Champion didn’t let up all week, with Xbox rep Major Nelson quick to jump in while Aoife of the OXM UK team and Marte from Norwegian outfit NRK captured the results of their own transformations on video.
Official material released to accompany KSR’s presence included the very first screenshots which you can see on our Kinect Sports Rivals page, an in-depth From Science to Experience trailer giving a great insight into the game and the tech that powers it, and a Rivals Q&A with executive producer Danny on Xbox Wire. This fine shot of a head-to-head Climbing contest also appeared on the official Gamescom Flickr stream as the show rolled on.
By the time the curtain fell, The Guardian, Metro, Videogamer.com, X360 Magazine and even NeoGAF (!) were among those with encouraging things to say about the new Kinect sensor and Kinect Sports Rivals – see below for highlights. Thanks to Mike and Bjorn for the pics and to all the other Rare staff on demo duty on the show floor, who in turn would like to thank organisers Envy and the Xbox support crew. Good times!
GamesCom 2013: Kinect Sports: Rivals – The (Actual) Arrival Of Kinect (Videogamer.com)
Kinect Sports Rivals Proves Kinect 2.0 Actually Works (IGN)
Kinect Sports Rivals: By Jove, I think they’ve cracked it! (X360)
Kinect Sports Rivals videos show next-gen sports tech (Polygon)
Kinect Sports Rivals and Fighter Within hands-on previews – it actually works! (Metro)
Kinect Sports Rivals preview: Becoming a champion in a hands-on session (Pocket-lint)
Kinect Sports Rivals video shows off fancy Xbox One tech (Shacknews)
Gamescom 2013: hands-on with the best games (The Guardian)
Next gen, now: hands on with the Xbox One (GQ)
Social media and forum commenters were liking the look of it too:
“Quote me on it, Kinect Sports Rivals has my interest. Love how it looks, how accurate it seems.” (@clanMOH, Twitter)
“I’m actually shocked at how impressed I was. Visuals are amazing.” (TriGen, NeoGAF)
“Not going to lie, I had a blast playing Kinect Sports on the 360. Definitely going to pick this up when I buy the Xbox One.” (ManMadeGod, Giant Bomb)
“Kinect Sports Rivals looks awesome! Very surprised it wasn’t even on my radar until today.” (@GreenPowerBrick, Twitter)
“It cannot be said enough how good the water looks. Truly next gen graphics here” (flamingotripod, NeoGAF)
“Kinect Sports Rivals on the #xboxone has all the making of a family hit….the rock climbing especially…very well done!” (@GameChanger_K, Twitter)
“Graphics look great. Scanning stuff looks incredible. Wasn’t planning on grabbing this thing, maybe I will now. Having everyone uploaded is pretty cool too.” (JaggedSac, NeoGAF)
“I can say with confidence there’s no lag. I did three laps of that wave race mini-game and it was spot-on.” (SimonMiller, Videogamer.com)
“Looks ace. Should have a blast playing with my friends when they come over” (Lebron, NeoGAF)
“@RareLtd KS Rivals is by far the best Kinect title to date. I’ve checked it out and it’s just awesome. congrats!” (@xboxsonic, Twitter)
“That avatar tech is ridiculously impressive. I want one!” (ColoradoCNC, Shacknews)
“Now that developers know everyone will have Kinect they’re really putting the effort into showing off what it can do and I have to say it looks incredible.” (ShowbizRope7, TrueAchievements)
“I wonder who’ll be the first person to stick a cat in front of the scanner in @RareLtd’s Kinect Sports Rivals… #gamescom” (@maxpowley, Twitter)
