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Denver, 11:55 AM
Mon Nov 30
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/25/09
Also, playing "Space Invaders Extreme" with this interface is likely enjoyable from a "look at me make a fool of myself" angle, but it would not be an ideal solution for obtaining the highest scores possible. It could be fun in multiplayer, though.
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I think the tests these games bring to the table involve lateral movement and extended recognition of arm movement. There are a ton of questions that can be born from these, and I hope Microsoft can find a way to make unique titles worthwhile beyond replacing button presses with movements.
09/25/09
I'd also like to see what happens if somebody else walks through the room while you're playing. In my house, they'd have to cross in front of the TV; how does Natal handle that?
The Katamari tech demo sounds like it could be fun, although I'm still not sold on the lack of tactile feedback. Space Invaders sounds...less fun. Definitely not something that'd be fun for long periods, at least.
Microsoft still has work to do to convince me that Natal won't see the neglect that the Eyetoy did. Or, maybe for a better comparison, that the Vision cam has seen - Viva Pinata is one of the only titles I can think of that's used Vision for anything other than video chat or one of the handful of titles that's attempted motion control or face mapping; who's to say Natal won't see the same lack of support.
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09/25/09
How do you pause the game?
:S
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09/25/09
Stop! Hammertime.
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09/25/09
With regional accents that could easily be a problem.
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It's too easy a source of money for them to pass it up.
09/25/09
Nintendo already has the community and reputation. Sony and MS are late into the party even if their techs are better. It's like Facebook trying to be like Twitter, you may implement every twitter-like feature in facebook but it'll be very hard to get its community to use them.
And for the record I think both Sony's and MS technologies are very impressive. I'm still on the fence on whether I'd like to play games with Natal but it's certainly very impressive (geeking out style) tech.
09/25/09
Wait, Facebook trying to be like Twitter?
Anyway, they don't need to substantially increase their market base or 'steal the motion market' from Nintendo to offer a different means of playing a game. It's an evolution of the 360, like NXE^10, and much like NXE a way to re-launch the system several times in the same generation.
Sony aims to do the same thing. Give the PS3 features that make aspects of it new again.
It's not a matter of stealing Nintendo's spotlight, although that would be ideal for them, but a matter of proving how long this generation can actually go, and providing a means for it to do so.
09/25/09
Remember just a few years ago when everyone said MySpace was untouchable and Facebook was also going to be niche? That turned around pretty quickly, no?
Now I don't think that Natal will topple the Wii, by any means, but that doesn't mean it won't be a big deal. The console "relaunches" next year will be interesting to say the least. A $199 Xbox with Natal will be a pretty compelling package if they are able to execute a couple decent games between now and next summer.
09/25/09
I think both companies are betting big on this. Even more so MS who has invested big money on acquiring the Natal tech and will spend a lot in marketing the device.
I did the analogy between Facebook and Twitter because during this whole year Facebook has been slowly incorporating Twitter's features. They've added "@ replies", universal search and recently launched a very twitter-like "facebook lite". They are obviously trying to become the media darling that twitter is and want news stations to quote Facebook users instead of Twitter users in their news.
@Yossarian The thing here is that neither Natal nor Sony's tech are "new" services. Facebook was able to beat MySpace because it was a new service with a completely new community. Sony and MS already have their communities built. Did MySpace gained many new users by trying to be more like Facebook? No, even though they added a cleaner interface, photo tagging, friend's news feed and so on people had already moved on and didn't want to go back to MySpace.
In that sense, Sony's and MS's motion tech will sell very well to its already existing community but they won't make the grandpas, grandmas, soccer moms and police officers who play the Wii abandon their system in favor of a PS3 or 360.
and that's the thing here both Sony and MS (more so MS) are betting their projects will exponentially increase their user base. I have a feeling that they will sell well but not as they expect them to sell.
09/25/09
Interviewer: "So, this is the third time we've demoed Natal in a brightly-lit room. Will it work in low-lighting conditions."
Kudo: "Absolutely! Why, you could even play in total darkness!"
Interviewer: "That's great! Could we try that?"
Kudo: "No."
Interviewer: "Oh. Uh... Could we at least draw the curt-"
Kudo: "No."
Interviewer: "And I have to wear this red jumpsuit?"
Kudo: "You don't HAVE to. But, yes."
Interviewer: "Can I at least take off all these motion tracking balls, GPS and neon arrows that point to my various extremities?"
Kudo: "No. But, to be fair, that's less to do with Natal, and more to do with me enjoying making you look like an ass."
Interviewer: "Now I know how you feel."
Kudo: "BAM!"
09/25/09
09/25/09
The Wii is grossly profitable, what makes you morons think that Natal will be any different (for the record I believe the Wii is a useless gimmick).
If all it does is allow me to navigate the system menus with a wave of my hand then MS has scored a major point over the competition.
It's entirely irrelevant if in your opinion playing Space Invaders without a controller is dumb. Plus, once you all learn to read, you'll discover that they were just tech demos with absolutely no plans for release.
09/25/09
Project natal isn't a controller included at launch - therefore its install base is tiny. To get devs to invest any real time in the tech, the install base will have to be bigger. Until then, its probably going to get XBOX live arcade sized dev teams.
09/25/09
LEARN TO READ before you spread your idiocy to the rest of the internet, morons!
09/25/09
It won't reach Wii numbers, but the install base will end up pretty big I'd wager.
09/25/09
Then again, no one will know until its release. Personally if I had a choice between a relaunch of the 360 for $199 with the Natal, I'd be curious to find out how to get the 360 by itself without the Natal for cheaper.
09/25/09
09/25/09
Can we see that tech demo then?
I don't need total darkness but the jury is still out on this until I see is a Natal demo in an average lit room filled with darker or earth toned furniture. Throw in a dark carpet too, then lets see how it holds up. I think the idea is great the only demos shown so far are either in very brightly lit rooms or with people wearing brightly colored jump suits.
I'm hopeful though - just show us a "real world" example.
09/25/09
What's going through your head is: there is a five percent chance that I'm the guy who took the risk that turned into the disaster that became the youtube clip that becomes the image used on every future Kotaku story about Natal, the first comment on every story about our system on every blog for the rest of time.
You thnk about that and, no matter how good the technology is, you turn on every light in the room and whitewash everything. And then you hire somebody to beat up the engineers.
09/25/09
And my goodness does Space Invaders sound like an extreme chore to play. seriously, way to complicate one of the worlds simplest games.
Natal better start showing something really practical that really changes how we play games otherwise it's just silly for silly sake.
sigh* but i"m sure people will still buy it.
09/25/09
09/25/09
Plus, it looks like it has a lag of 4-5ms, which is huge.
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Perhaps because Natal is always demoed in clean white rooms with no furniture or other people in the direct field of view
Yeah, those clean white rooms at E3 and on Jimmy Fallon were a sight to behold.
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09/25/09
A button or analogstick gives both exact control and direct feedback of interaction. Natal lacks both. So I doubt you will play an FPS or another complex hardcore title anytime soon with Natal.
The best hardcore use for Natal would probally be custom Avatar animations in a MMORPG, but control itself would still be something to do with a controller.
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Things similar to that (which they might be working on) would sound more convincing. The level of recognition for different players is decent from the description. (Nothing like how they advertise but that's to be expected, a more perfect spatial recognition requires 3 cameras or 1 camera+2 sensors)
The whole Katamari ball rolling thing, it honestly sounds like a recipe for injury. Because more people would try to play without a controller (purely because that's what they expect), there's something about when you have no physical device grounding you to what you play and you try to do actions that aren't really yours but virtual that you'd end up confusing your sense of balance.
Also the actions for Katamari sound like the whole 'need light brown, more brown' paint thing from E3. Still Katamari sounded better than Space Invaders. Space Invaders honestly doesn't sound like it'll be fun from the description but perhaps it'll look better.
09/25/09
Just make real games, damn it.
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/troll
ontopic:
seriously though, how many people play games while standing?
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09/25/09
and 90% of arcade games require you to stand.
09/25/09