Episode #76, Will Project Natal Bring It?
Project Natal made what many consider the biggest splash at E3 this year. Kudo, Microsoft and all the Natal heads were definitely in a groove as they put their latest “creation” on display. With a mixture of paint and moving body parts, Project Natal descended upon the crowd to usher in a new era of gaming. (or so they hope) You are the controller. You will do more than half motion or slight motion with this. But is there a problem with going full motion?
Danger and I put Project Natal to the test in this episode. We also get into homophobia and the challenges that gamers face today that were not so visible in the days before online gaming.
Format:
43mins 08secs, 19.8MB, mp3
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July 18th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Super awesome professional show yall!
I feel like Microsoft can pull this off as long as the natal has the ability to track objects as well. Some games really would need a physical object to feel more natural and it should be an option for company’s to bundle with their games or a standard object for each genre. If the natal could track objects it could just be a plastic thing without any tech in it so it would be dirt cheap. I have an idea for FPS games but I’ll tell you all after Microsoft gives me my million dollars lol. I’m gonna start tracking Microsoft employees emails and harassing them with my ideas now brb…. XD
July 18th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Bleh! Expect a lot of crap to come out for this thing, & I will be proven right. = Boring Ball Hitting, Stupid bland Painting, Play interaction with a little kid.
It’s all stupid!
July 18th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
@USB, you rock…Mike, not so much
July 18th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Yeah I saw the Natal is racist story, in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Mike who gave a link on here (nice quote of what he would say about Natal too, spot on
)
Hmm, if I had to pick a game out now for Natal… I’d probably pick Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The Wii version was better with OoTP, and now with Half Blood Prince (if you’re not a graphics whore). Just for the level of immersiveness the Wii remote brings, it makes you feel alive in Hogwarts. So let’s go beyond the remote and incorporate Natal into the 360 version of it, you now get the interaction AND it’s all in HD
I can think of loads of things I’d love to do. First off there could be live action duelling. You can dodge spells, cast your own, all from your own movements or voice commands (except for non-verbal spells you know). How about some Quidditch too. It could easily detect your stance to direct Harry in a game of the magical sport. For those who really wanted to get into it, you could even hold a real broom I guess – I would never do this
So that’s motion sensing and voice recognition, how about some scanning? Maybe you could scan yourself into the game, to become an NPC student. That would be cool, walking past yourself whilst traversing the corridoors as Harry. Perhaps even put yourself on a Chocolate Frog Famous Witch or Wizard card.
To summarise, there is a LOT to interact with in the world of Harry Potter, and Natal will make that possible. Now if all of that could be done in the small environment of a fictional school, then I can’t even think about what could be achieved with something like Bioshock…
Whoa I had a lot to say lol, sorry for the wall of text
July 18th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Geez, in all that I forgot to say – good show
July 18th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
great comment nanakai ;0
July 20th, 2009 at 6:58 am
Great show. What was funny was when you asked Danger what game would be the best with Natal, my first thought was Track and Field.
Oh and it was the Nintendo Power Pad that you were trying to think of. Wiki says it wasn’t played with Track and Field but a game called, World Class Track Meet. I swear it was Track and Field. Maybe they were just very similar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Pad
July 20th, 2009 at 7:32 am
lol @ Track & Field. yeah…but i don’t know if i want to run in my living room these days.
July 28th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Hey, my friends. Another great show. Please do excuse me for not commenting sooner, but just listened to the episode today.
Natal: I agree that not all the games will be (and should be) available for Natal. Microsoft should allow all developers to have both “controls” available on each game, if it has a Natal-supported scheme. That way the won’t get angry calls and e-mails from gamers that will only stick to the xbox traditional controller (come to think of it, althought we have so many complains about the 360 itself, the control is waaaaaaaaaaaay better than the classic black controllers – I still have the original one that came with the Pro I bought 2 years ago!).
What they could venture on is physical development games that can take full benefit of a body scan, and thus, full body movement recognition. Tae Bo, NFL campus, I mean, there’s so many games they could develop for this environment. The key is that they should have activities that don’t need you to keep working out more than what a doctor will tell you based on your weight, body mass and such factors.
That’s why I don’t see Natal fully used on an RPG, c’mon just imagine how it would be to play Oblivion only using Natal!
As for the homophobia factor present on internet gaming environments (be it Live, Home, you name it), it does not apply only based on your sexual orientation. Have you played GRID? If you’re a foreigner on a session played by people from other nationality, most of the time you’ll get kicked out!
Love the show. Take care.-