“The only experience you need is life experience.”
In the biggest surprise of E3 so far, Microsoft announced a brand new gaming experience at the tail end of its press conference: something called Project Natal. This new controller-free device is part of the Xbox 360 and tracks a person’s full-body motion in real-time.
UPDATE 1: Check out celebrities playing Project Natal
UPDATE 2: Check out Peter Molyneux's "Milo" interactive character demonstration:
UPDATE 3: Here's the video from the E3 press conference:
Basically, a person stands in front of their Xbox 360 and Project Natal will scan your face or other objects, recognize your voice, and, literally, mimic the movements of your body as you just stand in front of the console. At the press conference the demo looked pretty staggering. The fact that all of this is done with no controller in the hand or no crazy peripheral on the floor is pretty impressive.
A few tech demos were shown, including Ricochet, in which the player takes the role of the paddle in a 3D Breakout clone, and Paint Party, where the demonstrator starting painting things on screen using nothing but his arm movements and gestures.
All in all, the reveal was shocking and actually pretty amazing. I don’t want to jump on the OMGTHISISGOINGTOCHANGEEVERYTHING bandwagon just yet, but this is genuinely the first thing that could give the Wii a run for its money in the casual department (and beyond!).
Check out our liveblog of the Microsoft press conference for more details on this truly surprising news.
Contest:
2:43 AM on 06.04.2009
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Holodecks are just around the corner!
Although, if I did get to interact with Milo, I'd just be fucking mean. Remember SmarterChild on AIM? I fucked with that AI, and I'll fuck with Milo.
Also, I think there's still some merit to having something in your hand. Driving with fists? Color me skeptical.
Separately, this will sell like gang busters. But I forsee a retelling of Collette's power glove story on a massive scale.
i was watching it commercial free on g4, the toid has about a 25 minute delay.
Oh, there will be a lot of loose controls and tons of shovelware. But the bowling grandmas will eat it up.
This isn't an answer to innovation and advancement in gaming, but it is a stepping stone.
Although the whole stuff you can do with it, I still don't like how the 360 will go to the Wii way 3 years later.
Microsoft does really like to pick fights having the PlayStation 3 as HD rival and now the Wii targeting the casual audience.
It certainly has the potential to change gaming as we know it, but it's up to Microsoft to implement this effectively.
then, a couple of sentences later
"Check out our liveblog of the Microsoft press conference for more details on this truly revolutionary news. Wow."
Revolutionary means it will more or less change everything, right? :) I'm just having fun, no offense.
But seriously, if this works as it claims to, wow. I'm going to be skeptic for now, because I just can't imagine something so ambitious working as flawlessly as this is supposed to.
also I'm concerned on price (this doesn't look like a 25 dollar add on) and software (MS doesn't have the internals that Nintendo and Sony have on things like this)...other than that...zomg AMAZING!!!!
But I fear that since it's announced so late in the lifecycle, it will not be supported that much. This reminds me more of a better EyeToy with dashboard integration. Fun the first weeks, and then it will die slowly, just a couple of AAA-titles will be supporting it, but the focus will still remain on old-fashioned controllers.
Time will tell though, if it works as smoothly as shown in the video, there is a great potential there!
Molyneux made me happy in the pants, with thoughts of a fully-interactive Black and White or Fable game.
Seriously, how fucking cool would that be?!
That's what I've been trying to tell everyone. But everyone seems caught up in the hype.
You've got to ask yourself: when has a tech demo ever really delivered?
Oh for sure, Milo's got to have a ton of prescripted responses and routines. But, if the tech is there, he's going to be hella fun to play an First Person version of Myst with.
This will be as good as the Eyetoy.
Which is to say, it will be incredibly crappy.
Actually, scratch that. I found the reason, I think it begin$ with thi$. Fools.
Hahaha. You are actually right. The word "revolutionary" was the wrong one. I updated it to not sound as contradictory. This is just pretty big news! :)