XBOX Project Natal

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Microsoft might have cracked the Holy Grail of game control - by having
none at all.

Today it unveiled a new technology that allows gamers to use their own
bodies to control on screen action, under the name Project Natal.

A small device containing cameras and a microphone not only can recognise vocal commands, but can 'see' players' movements in 3D, tracking gestures and converting them to in-game movements.

A demonstration video showed a player using a fighting game without a controller and another gamer using only her hands to turn an invisible
steering wheel in a race game. Early days yet, sure, and could be quite
some time before the technology could mimic the deft touches possible
with a controller, but promising progress nonetheless.

The massive media contingent introduced to Project Natal today was
stunned by what could be a game changer for the industry. Head and
shoulders above Sony's aging EyeToy technology and solidly beating out
Wii's motion-sensitive controllers, Natal is still solidly in the
development stage, but is already in the hands of serious Xbox partners.

One megastar to come out singing its praises today was director Steven Spielberg, who was introduced to the ground-breaking technology just two months ago.

"The gamer in me went out of of my mind," he said. "It's not about reinventing the wheel, it's having no wheel at all."

Creative director for the project, former general manager of Electronic
Arts' Chicago studio, Kudo Tsunodo, came on stage and the Natal-toting
console recognised him and loaded his avatar instantly. He manipulated
pages in the Dashboard and danced around a bit, aped (albeit a bit
shakily) by his avatar.

An assistant came on stage and played a block n' ball game, Ricochet, quite effectively without even touching a controller. Even a paint program was used with only vocal prompts to change colours on the palette and to save the resulting image (no Van Gogh, just for the record).

Fable 2 creator Peter Molyneux was next up, introducing the crowd to Milo - a digital character that responded to voice commands to such a degree that his behaviour changed as he detected different tones of voice.

The Lionhead studio employee used in the live demonstration even drew a
picture on a piece of paper and 'passed' it to Milo. The gadget had
scanned it and the paper appeared in his hands. This final stage of the
demonstration came across as hugely contrived and heavily scripted, but
closer-quarter demonstrations will take place throughout the show, so it
will quickly become clear just how close Microsoft's Holy Grail actually
is to game-time reality.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10576010

cant wait to try it :eek:
 
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It'll be interesting to see how it deals with the press hands-on session. The Milo video at the E3 conference just felt... scripted. By that i mean that the game was following a preset course with key moments chosen for the user to interact with him. If it is indeed as good as Peter claims (which, given his previous history i find hard to believe) then it's a ground breaking moment for gaming, if it's as i said above, it's just Eyepet with a different skin.

The interaction technology as a whole is clearly superior to the Wii though imo.
 
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The live demo of this yesterday evening was awesome.

Do you mean the one at the MS press conference? If so that was prerecorded, not live. Or is there a live one i don't know of? If so i'd love some linkage :D

[EDIT] Duuuur, didn't realize the whole thing was Natal, i thought just the kid was the project.
 
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I want to know when this will be coming out and how much this little gadget is going to cost.

Prices and timing weren't available, but it won't be available until 2010 at the earliest and will probably cost around $200. Microsoft has already given game developers tools to start building games that uses the device.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ht...009286427_microsoft_xbox_throws_down_gau.html

I anticipate around £130 in the UK if the US price is correct. Though i can't tell whether he's based that on insider knowledge or just pulled the figure out of his ass.
 
Whilst this is all good, I really don't think it'd beat the experience of a controller/joypad for certain games.

Just like the Wii IMO, motion sensitive games have their place - but for me others I feel so much more at home with a keyboard/mouse or joypad.

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I dunno, it seems quite cool and they apparently have a demo of Burnout Paradise running with it.

One thing though, playing a driving game holding your arms out with nothing to rest them on hurts. Wasn't bad with MK on the Wii as your arm position didn't matter, but with this it might.
 
The problem is, i bet someone with a pad would always beat someone using Natal, so why bother using it? It's like mario kart, if you wanted a chance of winning online you had to use a gamecube pad/the joystick on the nunchuck. For me (and i'm sure i'm not alone) i get enjoyment from playing a game as well as i can, not in a silly manner.

It'll be great for the casual market on that front, but isn't that what the Wii did too? Attract the casual market.
 
Fable 2 creator Peter Molyneux was next up, introducing the crowd to Milo - a digital character that responded to voice commands to such a degree that his behaviour changed as he detected different tones of voice.

I want to see how milo reacts when the voice detection software doesn't understand my fen billy accent just like their phone line and I have to keep listening to 'sorry we didn't get that, please say again'

Then I'm raging at milo and calling him a little ****. Lets see his behaviour change then :D

Imagine how slow a game like this will play out. Nice technology as a show piece but I can't see me playing a driving or football game using it and I sure as hell won't be pacing my front room playing an rpg.
 
It'll be great for the casual market on that front, but isn't that what the Wii did too? Attract the casual market.

And I think that is the sole purpose of it, to attract the casual/family market. Me and misses think it looks great, will be a good one to play when we have friends over at the weekend.
 
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ht...009286427_microsoft_xbox_throws_down_gau.html

I anticipate around £130 in the UK if the US price is correct. Though i can't tell whether he's based that on insider knowledge or just pulled the figure out of his ass.

Im sure they said in the conference that the camera will ship with every console sold in the future, so if its over £100 then microsoft will have priced themselves outside of the console race again. It must be cheaper. :)
 
The Milo vid IS going to be scripted because the hardware is still in development.

No one, let alone an industry veteran, is going to enter the arena and talk about a product and throw random parameters at it otherwise the clueless knobs, sorry, the opposing fanboys, will snub the hardware before it's had chance to fruit.
 
Im sure they said in the conference that the camera will ship with every console sold in the future, so if its over £100 then microsoft will have priced themselves outside of the console race again. It must be cheaper. :)

I remember them saying it is compatible with all SKUs of 360, but i don't remember them saying it would come with every 360. Doing that would also seem strange to me; the 360 has always been about the console coming only with what you need and then the user choosing which peripherals to have. To include an expensive niche item like that in the bundle but not, say, play and charge kits (something nearly everyone with a wireless pad wants/has) would be a little strange.

The Milo vid IS going to be scripted because the hardware is still in development.

No one, let alone an industry veteran, is going to enter the arena and talk about a product and throw random parameters at it otherwise the clueless knobs, sorry, the opposing fanboys, will snub the hardware before it's had chance to fruit.

For starters the hardware has finished development, it's the software that's in development. The hardware is only a couple of cameras and a couple of microphones, it's the software that's the really clever part of Natal.

Nobody would be criticizing the fact it was a scripted demo if Peter hadn't tried his damn hardest to talk about it as if it was a real demo. As the article in the op says it came across as 'hugely contrived'; it was, as usual he was just singing praises about something he most likely will be unable to deliver to the standard he promised.
 
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I don't see the big deal about this. Its not going to change how we play games, its just another way to play games. Everything you can do in a game can already be done with a controller. Its just the Wii all over again.
 
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