Xbox 360 250GB Console with Kinect

I only found out about Kinect a couple of weeks ago. After reading some of the preliminary reviews, I was intrigued enough that I pre-ordered it almost immediately. Being a gadget nerd, I ordered this bundle despite already having an Xbox360, because I wanted the larger hard drive, the quietness of the new console (whisper quiet!!!!!), and the built-in wireless. The new design is pretty sweet too. Overall a fantastic console. I'd recommend upgrading.Kinect? ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!!!! I have read countless reviews on Kinect. And the more I read the more leery I was getting about my pre-order. Most of the reviews complained about lag, or the space requirement, or that the games were nothing more than regurgitated Wii games, and how every game title ever developed wasn't re-developed for Kinect on launch day. WTF?Unplugged the old Xbox360, plugged in the power supply to the new 360, plugged in the HDMI cable (no more adapter required), plugged in the digital audio cable, set the Kinect under my tv, plugged it into the Xbox, turned it on and it's go time. A few minutes of setup was all it took, setting up the wireless connection, entering your Xbox Live info, and a few update downloads. Very painless process.We moved the coffee table out of the way and moved the couch back a couple of feet. Sorry, if you're living in a $2,000 a month, 400 sq. ft. NY studio, this isn't the game for you. But fortunately for Microsoft, most people think having to use your kitchen sink as your nightstand isn't acceptable living conditions, so I completely dismiss the space requirement "problem". The front of the couch is normally right at 8 feet from the TV, but because two of us were going to be playing, we moved it back a couple of more feet so that we would be standing at the 8 foot mark. It worked perfectly, and actually for some of the games we played we moved as close as maybe 3-4 feet from the TV. So I think you could easily cut the 8 feet down to 6. 6-8 feet is recommended in the documentation.We played Kinect Adventures first, the game that comes in the box. Wii-like? Yes. Fun? Soooooo much more fun than any Wii game I've played. That Kinect can track your every move -- your hands, head, arms, feet, hips, EVERYTHING -- is just amazing. No controller can detect whether you're moving side-to-side, or backwards and forwards, or squatting or jumping while at the same time moving your arms. It's just brilliant how well Kinect works.One game in particular really shows the potential of this thing. You're in an underwater tank and crazy fish keep poking holes in the glass. You have to plug these holes to keep the water from coming in. In some cases I had to use both hands, both feet, and my head to plug all of the holes...yes, all at the same time. The girlfriend and I had a blast with it. The other games were just as fun.I think Your Shape best highlighted what Kinect is capable of. You are an infrared replication of yourself on the screen. The shape of my body was precise (unfortunately) and it even picked up the logo on the t-shirt I was wearing. There are numerous exercises you can do and you follow along with an instructor. You have to stay in sync with the intructor to earn points and advance to higher levels and the Kinect does an amazing job of following your every movement and comparing it to the instructor. Not spreading your feet far enough apart? It'll tell you. Not keeping the right rhythm? It'll tell you. It is so much more immersive than anything I've played on the Wii and I can now actually see myself doing Your Shape instead of going to the gym. It's really fantastic.A lot of the reviews complained about lag, meaning it takes a bit for the Kinect to detect your movements and get them on the screen. Is there lag? Yes, as measured in fractions of a second. Is it noticeable? Only if you're specifically focusing on it. But it's not noticeable during actual game play because you're focusing on the game. And just like with the Wii, you quickly learn to compensate for that fraction of a second difference. It's an absolute non-issue!!!!!All-in-all, having played three titles (Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, and Your Shape) over a span of a couple of hours, the girlfriend and I were exhausted, exhillarated, and amazed at the experience. My girlfriend, being a typical girl, whose life isn't defined by gadgets, even posted on FB that the Kinect really is AMAZING! It more than exceeded our expectations and I couldn't be happier with the purchase. And I am absolutely ecstatic about what Kinect means for the future of gaming. Fully immersive Call of Duty? Yeah, it's coming!

Both the xbox and the kinect get my highest rating.I have an original first gen Xbox 360 I got when they first came out, that's still kicking. That was in my bedroom to extend my media center PC there.I had a newer Elite hooked up with my PS3, wii, and mac mini that runs windows 7 media center, all going to my TV in the great room. So this new slim Xbox replaced that bulkier Elite, that Elite went to my bedroom, and my 7 year old is thrilled since now I'm buying a TV for his room to hook up the old first gen white one.So the Xbox - love the redesign, but the packaging really ticked me off. rather than just some static cling type protective film over the disc tray, they used something with annoying tacky junk on it. And of course it did NOT come off nice. So I spent about 30 minutes getting it all off without messing up the finish. Usually you can use some part of that protective cover that still has some tackiness to it to "blot up" what remained behind, but this stuff was just a nightmare to remove.Also can't believe in the era of HD TV's they still give the lowest possible version of the cable to hook up to a TV. I mean come ON, how many people are still using nothing more than one video cable and a L/R sound input on an old non HDTV? I get that they want to make money, but after ponying up $400, at LEAST give a usable cable... Fortunately for me I was replacing an existing one so just used the HDMI cable already in place. But this leaves me with nothing to use for my son's room when I get his new TV, so another cable purchase needed.Sound - this new slim xbox is dead silent. No more turbofan engine sounds when you fire it up. I'm about 18 or 20 feet away from where my TV and all these other boxes sit and I can't hear it when it's running. It's just as silent as the PS3 if not more. Great job after the years of jet wash sounds the previous versions created.Brick *is* smaller but hardly by much... Uses the same plug to the AC source, but it's a different plug coming into the unit now. So you can swap the brick but don't have to swap the AC cable coming to it if you're replacing an existing one like I did.I had no problem using one of the several hard drive transfer cables I have laying around the house from the days when they used to ship them free to people on request. Transfer went fine, didn't even need to use the CD, was built into the xbox OS evidently now to recognize the cable and just do the transfer. Everything went except the actual files of the games I installed from the discs to help speed up load times. Then I hit the [...] site to move licenses to the new box, and all is working nice and easy.Pretty AND quiet, could not ask for more.Then there's the Kinect unit. One USB plug on the built-in cable, and you're off.I was amazed at how well it worked, I had lower expectations for a first gen piece of equipment like this. But it DOES work, and surprisingly well. It's fun to use, and me and my 7 year old enjoyed playing with the bundled game. Slight delay between your actions and it's representation on the screen, but it IS just slight, much less than I had expected. I wish selecting things was a "hold your hand so you're 'covering' the button, then PUSH towards the TV to push the button" but it's a 'hold your hand so you cover the button then hold the hand still for 3 or 4 seconds to select it" type of action. I also wish I could skip the intro to the kinect game that always warns you to move furniture out of the way and such. That gets old after a while.Video chat and ESPN requires a gold xbox live membership though. I had let mine expire after 6 or 7 years since I hadn't done anything online with anyone for the last three or so, but looks like I'll have to get that gold account again to try out the video chatting.All in all, a great purchase and a wonderful value. Xbox is same price I initially paid for my Elite when it came out, and has larger drive, more USB ports (even though I don't use them for anything other than the Kinect now), and built in 802.11n wireless (my add-on wireless for the Elite only did 802.11g so was useless here after I upgraded my wireless network). Too bad they didn't offer this unit when I was looking last year and got my Elite...