Project Natal

[trick02]

Just wondering what everyone thinks of it and how it will affect sports gaming.

Assuming it works . I really like the promo vid but i think it will take a few years for games to fully work. Like hitting and pitching in baseball could be easy but i don't see how you cover ground, dive or slide.

[Kaanyr Vhok]

The technology is out of this world. The E3 presentation was kinda silly though. Painting Elephants and breaking bricks was too exhausted on the Wii. Natal could really turn the action adventure genre upside down.

[Timmay]

I thought the E3 demo was great. Looks like a fun game to play with no controller, and the paint thing looks like something awesome to do with my daughter when this is released.

For sports games, I think it could be awesome for something like playing a Goalie in an NHL game. The first person view is perfect, and being able to actually do your own animations for the saves... It would be amazing.

[trick02]

Yeh it sounds really good for all ages and should bring something new to superstar mode.

[Survivor]

I'm in the process of sending emails to developers encouraging them to adopt Natal for new RPG releases. The first person perspective that could be incorporated into an RPG would be legit, and fighting would be awesome.

You could still use a controller or some sort to walk around but fighting motions and communicating with others in the world would be mint.

[Eski33]

I thought the E3 demo was awesome. Voice and facial recognition is unreal.

Can you imagine playing a football game and being the ball carrier? Spins, jukes, stiff arms...The immersion would be limitless...However, I would still want a controller option in case I pull a hammy....

[Survivor]

lol, with many games, I think some sort of controller will still have to be integrated into it.

With a football game how would it differentiate between running up field and a simple stutter step? In shooters how would it know when you pull the trigger? I know that this technology is amazing, but some games will still need at least one button.

[Timmay]

Quote: Originally Posted by Survivor

lol, with many games, I think some sort of controller will still have to be integrated into it. With a football game how would it differentiate between running up field and a simple stutter step? In shooters how would it know when you pull the trigger? I know that this technology is amazing, but some games will still need at least one button.

Because apparently it's sensitive enough to track just a finger moving; so it would know. Just like people who got to try it said it's smart enough to pick up on your foot pressing downwards to speed up a card - or your hands turning to move the steering wheel.

As for the running, stutter step - pretty easily if it can do the above. I think that someone in a running/jogging motion looks quite different from someone doing a stutter step.

[StormJH1]

To be honest, I hadn't really thought much about a sports application for Project Natal. As a former hockey goalie, I did like the one idea above about shots coming at you on the screen and you responding to it with Natal. Even if there weren't enough there for a full-title, that could be a cool mini-game within NHL or an interesting XBLA title. (Similar to what Wii tried with that stupid Hockey Shootout game, which was terrible).

But generally speaking, I'm pretty skeptical that the technology really works as well as E3 would have you believe. When the Wii was about to come out, the gaming press pretty much assumed that it did work like it was advertised (which was that the controller sense the position of your hand in space and translated that to the game...which it didn't in a 1:1 sense), and still thought it would be lame! So when we found out that the Wii controller was basically just an IR pointer with an accelerometer in it (waggle waggle!), it wasn't much of a surprise that sports titles on the Wii sucked. MotionPlus has some promise for Tiger and Grand Slam Tennis, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

I reject the premise that the way to make games fun is to make them more and more like the real-life activity. Ever since the Wii blew up (and probably even before, with things like analog Swing Stick in baseball and hockey games), there's this assumption that if I make the control input mimic real life motion in even the most subtle way, that's going to result in something more fun.

Except that's not why games, and especially not why I play sports games. I don't play NCAA football because I think can throw like Tim Tebow, nor do I think I can skate like Alex Ovechkin (or pretend to). But I do think it's fun to grab a controller and assume that persona within the context of a game, if the game is well-designed.

If you handed me the same NCAA 10 game I could play with a controller, but told me that it's cooler now because I can drop back and pretend to throw a ball like Tim Tebow (left-handed nonetheless), I'd tell you to get out. Sometimes games are just games, and "playing dressup" by pretending to actually do the thing on the screen just reminds me even further that IT ISN'T REAL.

Project Natal certainly is an interesting piece of technology, but in terms of trying to jam the square peg of video motion controls down the round hole of sports gaming: no thanks, not interested.

[OpusX910]

This would be cool if it worked as well as they say it does....but on the flipside, i like being able to plant my *** in my recliner and only move my thumbs lol