Also, it's kind of weird that I have to vote in my own polls.

I played Forza 5 in the free week end... it's a great game no matter what people say. Just a little too "cold". I think Horizon 2 will probably be more up my alley. I really like my kinect, for many reasons. I think most people whining about it are focusing too much on what it doesn't do instead of what it does. Too bad this promotion ain't running up when the Sunset Overdrive Bundle comes out in a few week... you would get 2 new games and a console for 400$.

I like my Kinect and I think it works well, but, yeah, I'm not too sure what the future holds for that thing either. We just got DC Spotlight, but aside from that and I guess Fantasia (serious question: is this game still a thing?), Kinect's future looks pretty barren.

Honestly, unless you want to control the Xbox with it or plan to do a log of twitch streaming or something, I say just get the Kinectless bundle.

Forza 5 is great. But my reasoning for picking the cheaper one is...you don't really need the Kinect, and I think Forza Horizon 2 is going to be better than 5.

If I were to pick any bundle, i'd go with the CoD bundle for that 1TB hdd.

The kinect is worth it to me for the voice stuff. It's pretty cool to switch between games/movies/apps on the fly, auto sign-in, etc.

Get the Kinect bundle and pick up Dance Central Spotlight. Its got a fantastic fitness mode and there is also Xbox Fitness that requires Kinect.

Kinectless bundle

If I were you I would get the Kinect version. The guys I know who have one say that the console becomes a treat work with when you have the Kinect. On the other hand, I don't know anyone with a Kinectless X1 so I don't really know what the deal is there.

@caesius6: We have a few Kinects floating around at the office I work at, but I don't have one at my desk. I'll talk to a coworker and see what they say about it. You actually have me leaning toward the Kinect bundle now.

If I were going to buy an XBox One I would easily pay the extra 100 bucks for Dance Central and the other random Kinect tidbits. I know it's not for everyone but the handful of things that the original Kinect did right (calibrated and in a suitable room) more than covered it's cost and left me more than happy to pay 100 bucks for the next version. Now, they just have to convince me to spend the first 400 :)

Plus I'm not a Madden fan so Forza is a more appealing pack-in on top of that.

(Oh I also have to add this: If you have kids and a properly set up Kinect, one Happy Action Theater style release will also pay for the Kinect over and over at birthdays, family get togethers, etc)

Despite only using is a handful of times I'm really glad I have a Kinect this time around. Even though it isn't a key piece of hardware the improvements are really impressive. Since it still is rather early in the console life cycle it's better to have a Kinect and rarely use it than not have one down the line and really want to use it imo.

I <3 using the Kinect for random menu navigation. Also, when I walk in my room and shout at it to turn it on, it's pretty cool. Or as I leave to shut it off.

Forza is beautiful and a good racing game, and if you are available on Thursdays at 9:30pm Est to about 11-11:30 check out the Giant Bomb Race Night. Although, in 2 weeks we are switching to Horizon 2.

See here, Serious racers need not apply, we have fun. http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/forza-motorsport-5-622521/giant-bomb-forza-race-night-thursdays-9-30-pm-et-1461356/

Any questions feel free to ask.

Based on my experience with Kinect I wouldn't get it if $100 is a lot of money for you (If you are actually Mark Zuckerberg then sure, what the heck?) It hasn't worked great for me, but even when it has been working I don't find voice command particularly more convenient than controller support. If you really want to play dance central or use Xbox fitness then sure, go ahead, and Fantasia looks cool, but there isn't likely to be ANY software after this year.

I am really disappointed by how Microsoft handled the whole Kinect thing with the XBONE. I was looking forward to interesting software and cool applications but all I got was the ability to pause TV by shouting at it and the lackluster Kinect Sports Rivals. I have a friend who likes to Skype with it and use headphoneless chat, so it's cool for him I guess.

@hatking: I feel like if you're gonna buy the XB1 you should probably get it with the Kinect. While not as essential as they claimed it is a piece of hardware that differentiates it from the competition.

In my opinion the single greatest reason to have the Kinect at this point is Xbox Fitness. If you work out at all, or have any interest in working out, it really is a great program and works well. Also, if you Skype, it's great too. Not sure about it's future on the gaming front.

The voice integration is nice, but not necessary. The October update that is being released adds some nice navigation functionality to the console without the need for Kinect.

Overall good choice on the purchase, these past couple of updates have made the console leaps and bounds better than it was at launch and there is more to come.

Go with the kinect. I love the voice commands for easy navigation without the controller or for navigating while you are looking for or powering up the controller. I also use it to change channels and pause the tv. Also, we use the kinect for xbox fitness and it works pretty well. Well enough in fact that it forces me put a bit more effort into routines I have done off of disks for years such as insanity or p-90x plyometrics. Also, the woman started doing the brazillian butt lift routine, so thats cool.

@mernmern: Have you tried the new P90x workouts created specifically for Xbox Fitness? They are intense and the moves are tracked really well by Kinect.

If you will actually use the fitness stuff, get the kinect one.

otherwise Get the Madden bundle, sell the copy of Madden you don't want and now you have $125-140 to spend on games.

@slag: That was the original plan, but it's all digital copies of games.

Also, a big part of this relies on what bundles are available when I get around to doing this. I suspect this week is probably going to create quite the demand on stock.

@hatking:

Curse our all digital future!

In that case if money is not a significant object, I'd go kinect. It is arguably what makes the system what it is. Without the Kinect the X1 is basically just a slightly underpowered PS4.

@r_coles: No, but thanks for the heads up. I currently just enjoy the insanity workouts when my schedule lines up and I am at home on the correct schedule days. I may try the p90x ones when they start scaling back the available free workouts. I only have two friends that use the fitness feature, so add me, mernmern, so that it can pull your data for the challenges and such.