Kinect Sports World Records for June
Could it be that the Kinect Sports World Records for May 2011 will stand as the zenith of our sporting skill? Those incredible results have proven stupidly hard to beat, with just a handful toppled over the past few weeks.
Since the release of Kinect Sports last November, the Xbox LIVE community alone has run a mind-blowing 10,682,799 Sprint races, which is roughly the same distance as running around the world 40 times. You could also run to the moon and back twice!
Players have also chucked the Discus more than 33 million times, played more than 14 million games of Boxing and spent more than three million hours Bowling online.
So without further ado, here are the excellent new World Records for June. There may not be many, but they’ve definitely pushed the envelope until it ran off crying. Don’t forget that the Kinect Sports Facebook app can help track your progress if you’re on the hunt for a record, but if you need some friendly advice, check out our YouTube channel for hints and tips straight from the team.
[Cheers Ben, you'll be missed, despite your freakish disapproval of chocolate cake – Leigh & Mike]
Jun 2011
Top 5 Rare Characters Who Improved With Age
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Many returning characters, in both lead and support roles, have ambled in and out of Rare franchises over the years. Sometimes their appearance remains the same, sometimes they change drastically; sometimes they have the same MO as always, sometimes they snap and go a bit mental. We’ve picked out some returnees who grew nicely over time (or shrunk, in one case).
TOP 5 RARE CHARACTERS WHO IMPROVED WITH AGE
According to… Ben Talbot
1. Sabrewulf
Being stricken with lycanthropy isn’t all bad. Sure, you might end up accidentally devouring your own family in a fit of bloodlust, but on the plus side you get a really hairy back (perfect for the winter), plus some kick-ass fighting skills.
Despite having the same name, Killer Instinct’s furry blue bad boy isn’t the same beast who appeared in the 1984 Speccy classic Sabre Wulf. He’s actually the cursed alter-ego of Count Von Sabrewulf, an unfortunately named man who probably should have seen it coming.
The scoundrels at Ultratech tempted him into entering the first Killer Instinct tournament with the offer of a possible cure, but only if he won… unfortunately, he ended up being beaten half to death and experimented on to the point of madness. In between this and Orchid accidentally sending everyone back in time in Killer Instinct 2, Ultratech somehow had time to augment him with two cybernetic arms, giving him an approximately 4% better chance of winning. At the end of the saga, he ended up drinking some strange blue gunk that didn’t really do anything. Some people are just born unlucky. Still, the arms did look pretty cool.
Top insider fact: he was also called Cyberwulf for a while, which was probably where the whole idea came from.
2. Dr. Caroll
Sabrewulf might have had both arms hijacked, but that’s nothing compared to Dr. Eustace Caroll who lost all his fleshy bits and became a floating laptop.
In Perfect Dark Zero, Dr. Caroll was working aboard dataDyne Corporation’s Trinity Research Platform, using Neurodrive technology to suck all the cool secrets out of people’s heads. This was particularly handy when Jo Dark dropped by, needing to remember some spoilerific secrets that Jack Dark mentioned earlier in the game. Unluckily for the good doctor, he ended up being shot in the stomach and ‘put on ice’ by end boss Zhang Li.
Jun 2011
E3 Road Trip 2011: Part 2
Most people go to E3 to pick up free branded T-shirts and take pictures of booth babes, but Steve Brand and George Andreas assure us that they were doing nothing of the sort. They were there on Rare’s behalf to demonstrate Kinect Sports: Season Two‘s Golf and American Football games, and to spend a lot of time on camera talking to the likes of G4TV and The Gadget Show.
As the Microsoft press briefing revealed Season Two on the big stage, the team back at Twycross was living it up at an on-site family BBQ and watching the presentation on a giant projector screen. Upon his return, George found time for a quick round-up of this year’s experiences at the Los Angeles Convention Center…
This year’s E3 was typically noisy, exhausting but ultimately hugely rewarding. Kinect Sports: Season Two was finally announced and was brilliantly received by all who played it. Plenty of people were encouraged by the Rare and BigPark teams to have a go at either Golf or American Football, and we even invented challenges to keep them coming back for more.
With American Football, we had many great touchdown moments that people enjoyed. In our Golf demo a few players scored a hole in one, and we also witnessed of the most spectacular Eagles I think possible on the par 4 Eagle Falls hole. The ball was hit from the rough, through the trees, bounced off one and landed right in the cup! Amazing! It’s fair to say that the guy playing was rather pleased with himself…
The excitement generated by moments like this was fantastic and the crowd really got into the moment –which was great to see and experience first-hand, and bodes well for the upcoming release of Kinect Sports: Season Two. – George
Jun 2011
Kinect Sports: Season Two E3 Roundup
E3′s done for another year, and everyone now knows exactly how we’ve been spending our time since shipping Kinect Sports last November. You’ve seen the trailer, but what do those who have played it think of Season Two? Here’s our handy media roundup for your reading/viewing pleasure.
First up is an appearance by our Creative Director George on the E3 live show over at G4, co-hosted by the mean girl from Jericho who’s surprisingly good at American Football. Yes Mr. Sessler, we said American Football, what are you going to do about it?
Jun 2011
E3 Road Trip 2011: Part 1
Lead Producer Steve Brand is at this year’s E3 in LA, representing Kinect Sports: Season Two and keeping this special event diary for us under only mild duress.
Well, what can I say. Kinect Sports: Season Two, nominated in IGN’s Best of E3 Awards for Best Motion-Controlled Game and Best Family Game! Not too shabby…
George Andreas, Scott Henson and myself have been over in LA now for a few days now. Following on from a late-night press event on Monday, we shuffled our way past the assembled throng, flashed our exhibitor passes at the burly security types and made our way onto the show floor.
The Microsoft booth is pretty much the same as last year, with the fish bowl Kinect booths attached to the main structure but with some added Kinect external real estate this year. George and I were positioned outside and Scott manfully took on the press and media within one of the fish bowls (he did have A/C in there though, which shouldn’t be forgotten).
I took on Golf while George stepped up to show off his guns with American Football. Our location, right on the corner of the Microsoft booth, gave us great exposure and there was a crowd spectating for most of the day.
I had control of my audio setup with Golf, and as such enjoyed pumping up the volume to give people an earful of the ’80s classic Gold by Spandau Ballet when playing the victory stings.
The day seemed to go very well, being capped off by the award nominations above. I’ll be doing what I can tomorrow to make sure the judges vote in the correct manner.
What better way to finish the day than to go out for a meal of George’s favourite food, sushi… he actually hates it. I’m reliably informed the sushi we ate this evening was pretty top-notch. I also ate some raw cow, which was a first…
Mr. Andreas is on the early shift tomorrow, so I’ll be spending some time checking out the competition. – Steve
Jun 2011
May Twitbook Miscellany
Well then. June has been eventful so far – Kinect Sports: Season Two, we are absolutely looking at you – but just for a brief moment, let’s cut loose our corporeal bodies and drift backwards through the timestream to revisit some of the things that happened during May. On Twitter and Facebook. Specific Twitter and Facebook pages, i.e. ours. Move on.
Back at the start of May, Kinect Sports picked up a trio of Develop award nominations, and during the month news sidled in of the 3m sales barrier being broken and ongoing dabblings with the UK charts. We supported the Calorie Challenge DLC with a performance-boosting guide and some preconception-challenging concept art, while elsewhere in the internet multiverse, Kinect Sports Superstars Amy Williams and Louis Smith were interviewed by RWD mag.
P. Brosnan’s polygonal head also reared its… head a few times throughout May, with N64 GoldenEye cropping up in three notable places: as an Art of Video Games category winner set to go on display in the Smithsonian, in a Making Of feature posted online by NowGamer and in 1UP’s selection of the 60 Most Influential Games. It was also mentioned in a slightly less illustrious rundown of Rare toilets along with spiritual sequel Perfect Dark, which also topped a separate list of video game cheese. Other lists revolved around games to play before the world ends (Kinect Sports for zombie-outpacing purposes), reinvented games including Conker and Banjo, chase instigators including DKC‘s Croctopus, the most satisfying Rare achievements and our own investigation into Rare eggs.
Tweet #2500 saw an old Twitter face briefly reappear, vanishing again long before E3 deadlines swamped us all. There was a chance to catch a cheeky glimpse of the new Fazeley Studios wall art, while our own underwear-themed photography featured Pants in a box and pants on cans. As always, we addressed some of the important issues of the day head-on, this time including Dastardos, Soul Calibur and Kinect Sports‘ tutorial lady. There may have been some flippancy and/or misdirection.
As is traditional, we now invite you to follow us on Twitter and Facebook (Rare and Kinect Sports) if you want to keep up with the latest Rare news, including updates on Kinect Sports: Season Two and those unlockable Battletoads in Gears of War 3. No, not really.
Jun 2011
