Xbox's 'realistic avatars' sneaked into public domain. Did you notice?

After all the speculation as to what the new 'realistically-proportioned' Xbox avatars would look like, it turns out they've been in plain view all along. Rare has quietlyslipped a note into their blogthat the Kinect Sports screenshots contain the new avatars. So, take a look - are they that much different?


Above: Now we look closer, these are clearly more realistically proportioned... heads aside, of course

The way that rare has got round the 'uncanny valley' problem of having realistic human proportions on a very cartoonified version of a human's features is simple. They've kept the head big. The only problem people had with the avatars when using Kinect was hand-eye co-ordination troubles due to the avatars' stumpy appendages being nothing like real limbs. A realistic body with a massive head is apparently all fine. Unless all their beta testers had inflated egos which meant that was realistic too. Har har.


Above: We just assumed Kinect Sports had more realistic bodies like some Wii games give Miis properlegs

Thank goodness they didn't end up looking like ourartist's impression. That thing was hella scary.

25 Aug, 2010

Source:RareWareArchives

Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.