Kinect Milo Review

UPDATE: The makers of Milo have said that they will not be turning Milo into a full game.  Instead, it was only meant as a tech demo, and aspects of the Milo demo will be used in other Kinect games.  Read more here: http://kinectgames.com/milo-will-not-be-a-kinect-game/

Kinect, Microsoft’s forthcoming gaming technology, promises to revolutionize the world of gaming, by introducing technology that will allow players to play video games without the use of controllers.  As part of the introduction of Kinect (previously called Project Natal) at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Peter Molyneux from Lionhead Studios introduced Milo, an artificial intelligence character that interacts with players using the Kinect gaming system.  Here is my Kinect Milo review:

The video is a very impressive and savvy piece of marketing that shows some of the revolutionary potential of Kinect, particularly in terms of being able to interact with a character who recognizes your face, calls you by your name, and can even recognize your emotions and smile and laugh at your jokes.

In the video a young woman named Claire walks up to her screen and says hello to a boy named Milo.  He looks to be about ten years old.  What unfolds is you see Claire and Milo interacting in what seems to be a fairly natural conversation.  Milo is standing on a pier with fish in the water.  He tosses Claire a pair of goggles and she grabs them and puts them on.  She moves her hands through the water and Kinect recognizes her hand movements.  Throughout the video, Milo and Claire continue to chat as if they are long lost friends.  Towards the end of the video Claire sketches a fish on a piece of paper and then holds the paper up to the screen.  Milo reaches for it and instantly has a piece of paper of his own and recognizes the shape and color of what Claire has just drawn.  That was very impressive!

The video keeps going back to Peter Molyneux, who points out what you just saw.  Although some of the information is valuable, it’s a bit annoying at times.  I’d rather just watch Milo and Claire interact.  The video is a great demonstration of the tremendous promise of Kinect.  The interaction between Claire and Milo seems almost effortless and very natural.  What Milo can do when he’s in our own living rooms and away from the controlled demos, only time will tell.

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