Project Natal

[Vyacheslav]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qlHoxPioM

It's the next-generation X-Box... no controllers, you control everything with your hands, feet, body parts, voice, etc. Has face recognition too, apparently it uses cameras... slated for 2011 or so. In development right now.

[Tunco]

I saw this the day I bought my PS3 -a few months ago, times when the lite was out-, I was astonished. :( Anyway, what do you expect about it's price? I'm sure it will be more expensive than XBox (Elite, Arcade, doesn't matter), probably expensive as the times when PS3 first came out. The domination of Wii is over, finally.

But I can't predict much about it, it looks fastinating. Probably the best thing Microsoft ever did, and ever will. And I'm very afraid that it looks like people will get bored from it pretty quick, however if the game variation of this console turns out to be amazing, then it will be fun. And I don't like the voice control that much.

E: I wonder the controls of WWE games. :D

[Slayr]

its predicted to be about 200 dollars.

[SlappyMcGee]

I'm not ready for Next-gen at all.

[Mute Monk]

How will it work with RPGs and FPSs?

For example, I know of a person who, on the release day of Halo 3, sat down with it for 8 hours and beat the game on Legendary. That's quite a feat, but think of the distance that Master Chief runs in the game...you'd have to run in place for at least that long, that's not considering dying and having to redo portions. "Oh no, there's an enemy behind me!" Do you actually turn around and face away from the T.V., or do you simply shift your weight in the direction you want to turn? The former would annoy pretty much everyone, and the latter could introduce control problems. Plus you end up looking like a dork.

Also, this pretty much excludes anyone living in an apartment, because all that jumping around and shouting at your T.V. is likely to annoy the neighbours.

[smartalco]

1) it is not a new console, it is a ridiculously expensive peripheral for the 360 (which most people are betting will be bundled with every 360 at release, as well as sold individually)
2) this is going to replace controllers about as well as you can replace water with vodka This analogy does not hold for russians

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

think of the distance that Master Chief runs in the game...you'd have to run in place for at least that long, that's not considering dying and having to redo portions.

Maybe the Navy will incorporate Halo 3 + Project Natal into their SEAL training.

Also, this pretty much excludes anyone living in an apartment, because all that jumping around and shouting at your T.V. is likely to annoy the neighbours.

There's this flash game I like to play every now and again. It's one of those helicopter games where you hold a button to accelerate upwards, and the point is to go as far down a narrowing tunnel filled with obstacles as you can. What makes this game different, though, is that there is no button to make the helicopter rise. Instead, you scream into the mic.
My neighbors must love me. Or else they're afraid of what happens in my house. :p

2) this is going to replace controllers about as well as you can replace water with vodka This analogy does not hold for russians

True story:
A few years back, my dorm held a Mario Kart tournament. Because my skills were legendary, I was required to take a shot every time I won. Nine shots in, I was still beating everyone by half a track, and bowed out a few shots later when I could no longer walk without falling.

[otters~1]

A few years back, my dorm held a Mario Kart tournament. Because my skills were legendary, I was required to take a shot every time I won. Nine shots in, I was still beating everyone by half a track, and bowed out a few shots later when I could no longer walk without falling.

The shit I miss because I never check the gaming forum.

[Tunco]

How will it work with RPGs and FPSs?

For example, I know of a person who, on the release day of Halo 3, sat down with it for 8 hours and beat the game on Legendary. That's quite a feat, but think of the distance that Master Chief runs in the game...you'd have to run in place for at least that long, that's not considering dying and having to redo portions. "Oh no, there's an enemy behind me!" Do you actually turn around and face away from the T.V., or do you simply shift your weight in the direction you want to turn? The former would annoy pretty much everyone, and the latter could introduce control problems. Plus you end up looking like a dork.

Also, this pretty much excludes anyone living in an apartment, because all that jumping around and shouting at your T.V. is likely to annoy the neighbours.

For FPS's, you could make your hand like a gun [1] and just vibrate it to shoot. Instead of turning your face away from T.V to look back, you could shift your weight to back for a second, then return to normal position, the opposite to turn to front. You should be able to mute or turn off the voice control option because not everybody's voice nor accent is same and yeah, it's likely to annoy neighbours. Also intead of running for a long time, you could actually run for a few seconds and your character will run forever if you just don't do a 'stop' sign with your hand or act like stopping instantly to actually make your character stop. RPG's, well, I don't know, good luck to them. Also because you could end up being exhausted at the end of a level, I can't think of 'Olympic games' game to be on Natal. I'm sure companies will find a way to solve control problems, but a lot of games are going to end up being grotty because of the horrible controls. :/

Also, not-so-hot-news: Activision, Blizzard, Capcom, Namco, Square, EA, Ubisoft, MTV, THQ, Konami & Disney. All these companies are working on natal right now. I'm not surprised that much though, they think natal is going to be a very interesting console and will have a so wide customer community ( 95% - 99% percent of these will people are going to be casual players, I can bet with you about it for 10$ ) , so they end up investing money for it. Which is actually nice, because most of the people won't realize what we [by meaning this community] realize. Ahahah.