Microsoft’s Project Natal unveiling at their 2009 E3 press conference showed Burnout with the player placing his hands on an imaginary steering wheel, and that’s just what we saw this year in a live demo of Kinect support for Forza 3. The demo man put his hands at 10 and 2, and was off to the races. It looked pretty damn good, but we’re not sure if this was a Kinect-specific game or a new mode coming to Forza 3.
The next segment of the demo was something really cool: an in-game model of a 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia that you could interact with using Kinect. The guy used hand gestures to “zoom in” on different parts of the car and obtain information about them, such as the headlights, and then he actually “got into” the car. In the driver’s seat, Kinect tracked his head so that if he moved, it would look around in the game. I don’t know what kind of in-game applications that could have, but it was pretty bad-ass to see.
Check out our E3 hub for all the latest news from the big show!
[Update: We knew it seemed strange that the Turn 10 guys didn’t actually give a name for what they showed on stage. Now we have a clearer picture of what it was: the Forza website calls it “Forza Motorsport Preview,” and it was meant as “a select peek at one aspect of the future of the Forza Motorsport franchise.” Whatever the next Forza game is, it will “[utilize] some of the ideas presented in this demo, [and] will ship in 2011.” Hit up the gallery to take a look at the future of Forza yourself in eight screenshots.]
