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By this point, everyone in the nerd-speaking world has seen the footage: A tall drink of water with shades and stubble steps on a stage and a machine immediately recognizes him. Enthusiastic staffers hit balls at walls, splash paint on canvas, and make a surprisingly well-rendered shadow elephant. A young woman with a pleasant English accent shows a drawing of a fish to a young boy, and a late night talk show host giggles like a schoolgirl as he drives a car like he’s in the Land of Make-Believe. It’s not science-fiction and it’s not marketing fantasy – Project Natal is real, and it’s coming.
But does it matter?
When I first watched Microsoft’s E3 presentation, I was enthralled. Gesture-based controls without having to buy controllers? Facial and voice recognition? Full-body awareness in all three dimensions? Where can I sign up? But, like the sets of a play built to dazzle at a distance, most of Natal’s flash does not stand up to closer scrutiny.
If there’s one thing the Wii has taught us, it’s that imprecise gesture-based gaming is all well and good for weight-conscious soccer moms and senior citizens, but has not really been welcomed with open arms by those of us who take our gaming a bit more seriously. So far, everything Microsoft has shown us with regards to their touted “full-body recognition” seems to be continuing that trend.
Ricochet, the E3 stage demo of “Breakout with your body as the paddle,” is a perfect example of this – the smiling staffer who took the role of the paddle at E3 wasn’t performing purposeful movement as much as she looked like she was doing jumping jacks while hooked up to 40,000 volts.
The painting demo would have likewise been more impressive had it allowed for actual *painting* motions as opposed to turning the demonstrator into an upright version of Jackson Pollock.
Let’s be honest here…are there any sane people out there who are actually looking forward to spending 30 hours playing a racing game with their hands on an invisible steering wheel and doing the Hokey Pokey with their right foot? Gesture-based gaming is destined to be a novelty – enjoyable for roughly 30 minutes at a time, perfect for parties – but ultimately unsuitable for doing any serious gaming.
Nintendo captured that market perfectly with the Wii, and it’s obvious that Microsoft is hoping that a) there’s still some oil left in that well, and b) that the lure of the advantages that the Natal system has over the Wii – HD graphics, the use of the whole body, no extra controllers to buy, and no need to worry about batteries, wires, or hurling a solid object through your TV screen – will be enough to persuade the teeming millions to make the switch.
But that still leaves us hardcore gamers high and dry…unless, that is, developers figure out how to take advantage of the features that can make the most difference to hardcore gamers – voice/facial recognition and the ability to scan real-world objects and import them into games.
When I watched the E3 presentation for a second time, the only demo that still held my attention was Lionhead Studios’ Milo. The concepts demonstrated there are the ones that made me sit up and take notice: the fact that the demonstrator was able to have what sounded like an honest-to-goodness conversation with a character, as well as interact with that character by handing it objects in the real world, fascinates the hell out of me.
What if you could play an RPG like Mass Effect or Fallout by actually talking to the NPCs and asking them questions instead of following a dialogue tree? What if a Natal version of Scribblenauts existed where your avatar could put into use objects that you had lying around your house?
These are the sorts of things that I’m looking forward to when Natal eventually hits, and I’m certainly hoping that Microsoft and the rest of the development community don’t forget about us in the mad rush to sail on Nintendo’s Blue Ocean.