So Microsoft just announced something called Project Natal at their press conference which is basically an eye toy on crack combined with voice recognition software and the ability to scan real life objects.

In the worst case scenario this could end up just like the aforementioned eye toy: a little gadget that you can only use with some little minigames (like the 3D Breakout or the Godzilla-style town-wrecking-monster-game from the press conference) and get bored with after a few hours and after that only really use when friends who have never seen it before come over.

However I see some potential in it, because there really are some cool things that could be done with it, and not only in minigames but also in real games if they support natal as an option. And I cant stress option enough here: don't make it mandatory.
Let me give you a few examples of what I have in mind:

- The possibility to pick up on-screen objects and move them could be used in rpgs or games like RE5 to manage your inventory. Pick up the broadsword and drag it to your character to equip it or flick it away to drop it. I realize it's not necesarilly easier to manage it this way but hey it still might be pretty nice.

- The voice-recognition could be used in a lot of ways. Endwar showed that it can go wrong if you base a game entirely on that idea, but it could be a nice addition if you offer it as an option. Like simply announcing the weapon you want to equip in a shooter or the building you want to build in an rts instead of scroling through a whole menu to find what you are looking for.

Of course I don't know if it will even be possible for Natal to interact with future games that are not strictly designed for it, and I'm almost sure stuff like this won't happen, but I think this way it can be a nice addition to the gaming experience without being something totally seperate from the "old" way to interact with games.

I realize my examples might not be the best ones to describe the possibilities of Natal I have in mind, so why don't you come up with some ways Natal could improve core-gaming?

Hey guys!

let's start with some basic information about me:
My name is Marvin and I'm an 18 year old student from Germany getting ready for his last year in school.
I guess it's kind of crazy for someone like me to try and poste some (hopefully) elaborate blogs on an english website whose members like to critisize newbies, but hey I learn english for 8 years now and reading sites like dtoid and watching dvds in english can't hurt either, so I'm pretty confident about that (feedback about my grammar and such is still appreciated though).

I've been visiting dtoid for quite a while now, propably about a year and a half or even two years now, I suppose,but I've never been a part of the community and just very rarely posted comments.
After checking the site pretty much daily lately and also listening to podtoid and the podcastle ( just 18 years old so no retroforce go for me) I thought it was time to finally move my lazy ass and introduce myself.

So.... gaming:

Gaming Preferences:
I would say rpgs and action games/shooters are my favourite genres but I like to play other stuff too. Just no sports games, those are just... boring.
Something else I've somehow never really gotten into is online gaming. I would say the reasons for that are first that i most of the time just don't understand the people on xbox live properly (english+bad microfones) and if I understand them it's often something I wish I would not have understood...
I'm sure playing online can be a lot of fun but since only one of my friends has an xbox and live I just didn't have a chance to get into it yet. I would like to though...

Gaming History:

I think my first gaming memories are playing the first tomb raider together with my father at the pc (yeah he let me play that with like 6 or 7 years...which is awesome- and did not ruin my brain or something) and the first pokemon games on the gameboy.

stuff like that did scare the shit out of me though...

My first homeconsole was the n64 that I got for christmas or something, after begging my parents for years. And boy did I love it, especially games like ssb, zelda:oot and the shockingly underrated dk64.
When the next generation of consoles came I first got a xbox but despite loving halo I was pretty disappointed with it for some reason and sold it to get a gamecube. The purple box then satisfied my needs and I sticked with it eventhough I often looked at my friends' ps2s with jealousy everytime I came over to play some gta or something...

The current generation with a little help of the internet really made me a hardcore gamer then and I'm loving the heck out of both my 360 and my ds.

Current gaming status:

I got a ps2 a few months ago to catch up with all the games I missed last generation so I'm working myself through a couple of those games. I've already finished persona 3, shadow of the colossus, and mgs2 and I'm playing trough ff X right now. I still plan to buy the god of war games, mgs3, ff XII, persona 4 and some other smt games maybe, the silent hill games and propably some other stuff too...
So with me having no money at the moment and still having to catch up with last year's holiday games (especially fallout 3 nd far cry 2) and titles like prototype being right around the corner I'm just pretty much fucked right now.


Soo I hope we'll get along, leave comments, eventhough I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to respond right now since it's already past midnight right here and I have school tomorrow so I'll propably sleep now.

P.S. Besides gaming I also like sport (starting with tennis this summer) and of course drinking with my friends. Lots.

P.P.S I won't suck. Promised.

P.P.P.S. Cocks.