Xbox 360's Project Natal

[linkspast]

I like sitting and playing video games... I dont have a huge room to move around by myself let alone with others. . .

[Rozovian]

I'm with sephfire on this. The wii was supposed to be the ultimate motion sensing tech... but it runs on batteries, and it's only useful for wii sports, and then came the new and improved wiimote that does all the things the original promised. The most important thing I've learned from the wii is that while waving your arms around is fun, a solid controller feels so much better for all the other games. linkspast is right. There's only so much space in front of the TV.

Watched the demo with my brother, laughed at it. It's a toy, a tech demo, packaged in a few tons of hype.

[Kiyosuki]

It wouldn't be fair to judge it yet, though things like it released in the past and ultimately ending up as forgotten gimmicks is a sort of tough history to prove itself against.

In my opinion, video games won't lead into Virtual Reality. Radical control methods like this will never be fully integrated into traditional video games as we know them today no matter how hard its tried. If something like Virtual Reality happens and potentially becomes accepted, it's going to spawn from a completely different area rather than video games.

[ChrisTheWriter]

I honestly think it's a great idea. I've been waiting for an E3 announcement to really perk my interest over the past couple of years and Im surprised Microsoft did it. It'd be neat to see some cool games pulled off by this neat little toy. Who knows? It may just change the face of gaming. At the very least, it'll be another Virtual Boy. But honestly, you can tell a company was on to something when EVERY OTHER company copies off it (i.e. Nintendo to Microsoft and Sony). I remain optimistic. If nothing else, I either get a good workout or I sit back down and play on the controller... win/win I say.

[LuckyXIII]

At the very least, it'll be another Virtual Boy.

Well, Milo certainly is.

[The Damned]

*Drum roll and rim-shot*

He's here all week! Good night everybody!

[JCvgluvr]

Because Natal is not just a WEBCAM which is what the Eyetoy is. It's an entire system consisting of facial/body recognition, voice recognition, and motion-sensing in 3D space. Eyetoy looks at the picture and says "there is an amorphous blob here;" Natal looks at the picture and says "there is a person standing here and he's wearing a 3-piece suit and a duck mask and he's standing about 5 feet away from the TV with his right leg forward and his left leg about 2 feet back and he's also holding a sword. Oh it's MIKE! I'll sign him into his gamer profile."

Just for one second look beyond the hardware and try to realize what happens when you put all the pieces together. Whether the software developed for this system will appeal to you or not, there's no denying that the technology in and of itself is brilliant.

Somebody's overenthusiastic. >_> Surely you don't really think Natal's gonna do all that! All this is coming from Molyneux (sp?), the king of hype and over-inflation! Haven't we learned to not trust him? This is gonna have hang-ups and glitches galore, just like the Wii-mote does.

Now, in theory, if everything went exactly as you're saying, with no glitches or over-inflation dragging it down, then I'd be just as giddy as you seem to be. But I think doing so would be rather naive at this point. The technology just isn't there yet, despite what the industry would have you believe.

[Bleck]

actually pretty much all of that stuff was confirmed before molyneux took the stage

molyneux only hyped Mylo

[I-n-j-i-n]

Uh. That's because it's a target video. It's fake, those people are just acting along with the TV, not vice-versa.

Also, voice recognition LOL. Every voice-recognizing software I've heard of takes bloody ages to train, and God help you if you have two people who sound a lot alike in your house (my brother, father, and I all sound almost exactly alike).

So, I'm keeping an eye on it, but not expecting them to deliver on half of what they have shown.

Except I wasn't talking about the target video... I was talking about the actual tech demonstrations.

Milo is a nice concept and the target video shows what might be possible, but don't patronize me. I know it's not real.. God.

I was talking more about the actual demonstration they did with the simple games they showed off. It simply looked a lot more responsive than any motion control and the body control recognition honestly looked downright next generation compared to what we've seen in the past. Then again, the company developing the technology was aiming for that to begin with.

As for the space, it looks like it's made for living rooms or maybe even a small part of a room with at least some open space. They could probably do something with a smaller space. Hopefully. And hopefully not a stupid waggle again. Anyway, I'll probably let the idea on the shelf until someone actually does something amazing with it. The technology, again, looks really good. As for the whole gaming moving away from controllers, I do think we won't lose controllers, ever, but it looks like motion controls of some sort will be integrated anyway.

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

I don't think we'll ever move away from controllers in traditional video games. We're not gonna see Street Fighter/Tekken/Soul Calibur without fight sticks. That shit would get tiring/impossible, although I can imagine how a fighting game like that might motivate someone to keep their current training up. I can imagine companies like Bethesda and Bioware using this tech effectively in their RPGs. Imagine being flip through your magic menus at lightning speed, then making a certain hand gesture to fire off the spell at an enemy, and then swinging your sword/mace/lance or firing off your bow by just using hand movements. We wouldn't need any AI like what they were goofing around with Milo, but imagine if you could engage in speech with NPCs in Oblivion by actually talking to them, and based on your voice/fame, they would respond in a meaningful way to what you said.

One thing the Wii doesn't have is all the media functionality that the 360/PS3 has, so using this new sensor for all the dashboard features like flipping through and selecting things would be a very valid and convenient use.

Of course I'm talking about pie in the sky stuff, although I don't think any of this is impossible and I'm sure plenty of developers have thought of this. The only problem I do foresee is the workload.

The possibilities for this are endless.

[DarkeSword]

Somebody's overenthusiastic. >_> Surely you don't really think Natal's gonna do all that! All this is coming from Molyneux (sp?), the king of hype and over-inflation! Haven't we learned to not trust him? This is gonna have hang-ups and glitches galore, just like the Wii-mote does.

Now, in theory, if everything went exactly as you're saying, with no glitches or over-inflation dragging it down, then I'd be just as giddy as you seem to be. But I think doing so would be rather naive at this point. The technology just isn't there yet, despite what the industry would have you believe.

Except that they showed off tech demos of the technology working as they described it. The technology was there, right up on the stage.

[Native Jovian]

This is gonna have hang-ups and glitches galore, just like the Wii-mote does.

Wiimote has hang-ups and glitches galore?

I must have missed that memo.

[sephfire]

It did strike me as funny that they involved Molyneux in this.

: "Hey, I'm worried the public is going to think Natal is too 'pie-in-the-sky.' We ought to bring in a developer or two to back up our claims."

"Let's get Molyneux!"

: "Perfect!"

Man, I hope this technology takes off. The Wii-mote has lots of potential, the possibilities for tech like this really are endless.

[Pavos]

This stuff is very promising, but they should also be very careful how they handle it. I'm not sure about MS' approach here. They know 70% of the people think it's fake, no matter what they say or show (they learned from the CGI Sony trailers), so I was a bit surprised they showed Natal this big.

I don't know if this will seriously impact gaming, but I had the same scepticism about the Wii and I was painfully mistaken on that. I think the best think for us "core" gamers is that natal can work complementry with your controller. Control + motion detecting opens up new possibilities without losing important stuff (like rumble and something filling up the empty feel in your hands)

I hope this is a success and that the next round of consoles (from all 3 parties) will have something like this built in. Let's just wait and see

[The Derrit]

They know 70% of the people think it's fake, no matter what they say or show (they learned from the CGI Sony trailers), so I was a bit surprised they showed Natal this big.

Who thinks this is fake outside horribly HORRIBLY stupid people? They clearly did the demos up on the stage, and they worked just the way they were supposed to, minus the hiccup with cujo's avatar being funky. Even that proves they were doing it real time, you don't put a mistake into your presentations just for shits and giggles. Even the PETER MOLYNEUX project was on display for real people to use later in the show, and while it didn't have an enormous vocabulary, it did everything else it was supposed to admirably. IGN called it very impressive.

So how would this be fake in the least?

[lazygecko]

The way they presented the Milo tech as some sort of self-sentinent AI was misleading, and most journalists who saw the private demo have debunked it as smoke and mirrors by now.

[RocketSniper]

Pikachu! Get the ball! No, not the stick, Get the ball! Pikachu, Pick up the ball!

No! Goddammit I'm out of time

... Oh, now you get the ball. NO DON'T DROP IT YOU YELLOW FAILBAG

[Pavos]

Who thinks this is fake outside horribly HORRIBLY stupid people? They clearly did the demos up on the stage, and they worked just the way they were supposed to, minus the hiccup with cujo's avatar being funky. Even that proves they were doing it real time, you don't put a mistake into your presentations just for shits and giggles. Even the PETER MOLYNEUX project was on display for real people to use later in the show, and while it didn't have an enormous vocabulary, it did everything else it was supposed to admirably. IGN called it very impressive.

So how would this be fake in the least?

Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's fake, but there are always people that do. Some people are sceptical, most just don't seem to want to believe. Just browse the internet to see what people think of Natal and you'll see that no matter what proof you smack in their face, they will always think it's fake. Untill they can play it themselves (I guess it just switches to denial).

And never underestimate the quantity of horribly stupid people

[I-n-j-i-n]

What they need to do is incorporate Natal's technology with a Halo game, Gears of War game or some other big property (Modern Warfare 3? Or even doing something with Modern Warfare 2?) and package the whole thing together. I think people really are just waiting for that killer ap that uses it really well. Honestly I can't really say the same for the Wii about it except for a few games (the new Wii Sports game looks like it's actually going to use it in a big way). I just hope they're serious about the higher-fidelity controls for core-gamers thing they keep talking about.

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

I don't know if we'll see that fast of an adoption of Natal functionality into core gaming just yet. Right now I see a lot of simple menu interface and "casual" stuff coming out of the gate, although there could be simple things like being able to toss a grenade in Halo with your hand motion or using military signs to coordinate with team members in Call of Duty(both examples not mine).

They've already had the press use it in Burnout Paradise at e3, and for the most part everyone thought that it was a solid idea.

[sephfire]

All I know is that every time a new gaming interface is introduced, my first question is always: "What will this mean for lightsaber games?"

And if Natal works properly, it could lead to one kick-ass lightsaber game.

[Bleck]

there will never be a true 1:1 lightsaber game until they somehow invent a force-feedback system for your entire arm

[Vivi22]

there will never be a true 1:1 lightsaber game until they somehow invent a force-feedback system for your entire arm

Agreed. Without the physical feedback it will always feel strange since clashing blades on screen will never fully correspond to what you're doing (by simple virtue of the fact that you won't hit anything). If anything, I think Sony's motion controller would actually be much better for this since it could at least have rumble and be somewhat hilt shaped.

[I-n-j-i-n]

Just went to a GameStop and strangely enough, some misinformed customers (actually teenagers..) wanted the 'Xbox Sensor' and a rude employee said 'we don't have them' and 'go play the Wii'.

I can sort of see this becoming pretty popular if it's within the $100 mark. And I saw a lot of these weird, out-of-touch casual gamers go for the Wii when it first came out. Especially when it was all out of sale or in preorders. Snarky Gamestop employees versus misinformed customers. lulz

[Toadofsky]

Does this not concern anyone?

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/no-video-allowed-at-natal-e3-showcase

Granted, secrecy can be one thing, but to not be allowed any cameras? Something is fishy here....