Features// E3 '09: The First Day

Right about the time these sorts of things would normally end, however, MS decided to whip out the big guns and introduced the world to Project Natal. The Wii-killing motion control so long rumoured.

Now, some would say (in fact, some have, and to give balance so will I) that this is EyeToy on steroids rather than Wiimote. However, Sony's not the target any more... and to be brutal, this early view of Natal kicks the crap out of EyeToy.

Yes, Microsoft must be giving credit for not taking the lazy way out. Xbox 360 is – let's face it – the Number Two console right now in the West at least, so simply releasing a Wii-a-like controller would probably have sufficed from a FUD-up the pool point of view.

However, Microsoft chose to take it one step, possibly one leap, further with full-body sensing... as a tech demo. Not that I want to in any way undermine any company showing off innovation in a tech demo, but folks, let's just keep in mind that, all talk of “dev kit at developers” aside, this is a tech demo.

It's an impressive one though...

Natal uses a bar that, from a distance at least, looks fairly similar to the Wii’s motion sensor. However, it is much more. Combining what I assume to be a very hi-res cameras, a microphone, and some sort of 3D sensing technology, Natal is able to identify a person in 3D, recognize their face, and do rather accurate real-time motion capture.

Only time will tell if the game play aspect of Natal is at all worthwhile, but I for one would happily pay upwards of $100 just to be able to control the xbox dashboard with voice and gesture. Not to mention the face recognition / auto sign-in feature.

Finally, for the grand, GRAND finale, Peter Molyneux was brought out to reveal a special project Lionhead had been working on for a few months with Natal dev kit. Though short, the demonstration of an interactive boy – the terrifying/cute Milo - who would speak to you in a natural way and interact with you via the sensor bar was quite impressive. I’ve seen and interacted with a lot of chat bots over the years and I’ve never seen anything even remotely close to this thing.

He's like an entire planet of Uncanny Valleys all lined up, but sort of suggesting an exhilarating hike into... I'll leave that analogy there.

A few select people will get a chance to try out the demo over the next 3 days, here’s hopping I can make myself one of them.

See it in action right here.

As I said, a very impressive, but puzzling, reveal for the grand finale. I know we are moving into an age where video games aren’t just for the hardcore any more, but I can’t help thinking Halo: Reach or the new Metal Gear game would have been the way to go for a closer.

Up next was EA’s shindig. The Knights of the Old Republic MMO look’s pretty sweet. Dante's Inferno manages to turn the epic poem into a decent-looking hack'n'slash that looks like a better job than Beowulf (not hard) but not quite as inspiring as Lord of the Rings... history, schmistory. You can see it all here.