E309: Microsoft Project Natal
Well, E309 seems to be starting with a bang. Highlights of Microsoft's E309 press conference include confirmation of the rumored Metal Gear Solid game, Forza Motorsports 3, Halo: Reach, and the Zune Video Marketplace, but undoubtedly it will be best remembered for its wrap-up where, with the announcement of Project Natal, Microsoft stepped into Nintendo's Wii ring to duke it out, motion-a-motion.
Most of the presentation was an awkward combination of punches that did little to put points on Microsofts card. Even with Fight Night's Kudo Tsunoda helming the project, I saw little to get enthused about. The project has potential up the yin yang, but showing overly-animated actors "playing" games that have them performing ridiculous actions, I felt MS didn't demonstrate the right kind of creativity. From driving in for a pit stop and having your family work as your pit crew, to scanning in your skateboard, and "air-tricking" with it in a game, to browsing through clothes and virtually trying them on your own visage, they showed a lot of stuff can be done, but really, how much of that would we actually want to do? Racing games aren't that great for spectators to sit around you on the couch, and it'd be even worse if they're just chomping at the bit waiting for you to decide you need a fresh set of tires so they can get some play time. The Wiimote can be deadly with people swinging about with no regard for their surroundings, but when you've got somebody doing olleys in the living room without a skateboard, pandemonium will ensue. And I just can't see the fashion mall stuff taking off unless they intentionally split the market and start selling a separate Xbox 3-Chicksty SKU.
One of the most interesting applications, which I hope the Natal camera will be capable of, is 3D facial scanning in the style of AMD's Cinema 2.0. 3DV's depth-sensing ZCam, which Project Natal is presumed to be adapted from, have a ring of LEDs around the lens that seem to emit pulsing invisible light, which the camera can pick up reflecting on objects and use to map their depth. AMD's Cinema 2.0 works in exactly the same way, only with the lights completely surrounding the subject for a full 3D scan. With several "Natal cams," a similar effect could be achieved, but just one might be enough to literally put your face in the game and onto your player's character.
But facial scanning is not terribly inventive. It's been done on other platforms with varying levels of quality, but with the Natal cam, the difference is that your face could be continuously scanned and mapped in realtime during gameplay. A nice evolutionary upgrade that would be, but for revolutionary applications, Microsoft gave the stage to Peter Molyneux. The "Milo" demo his company, Lionhead, has been working on is like having a real person inside your TV with whom you'd naturally converse and interact with.
Here the "no controllers in hand" aspect was demonstrated in the most magnificent, yet easily digestible way. You don't speak at the camera with generic commands - you talk to the person in the screen. You don't select objects from an on-screen inventory and press a button to hand them to him - you present your real-world objects to him and he takes them into his world inside the TV. The hokiness of the other demos is completely forgotten when you see the interaction between the virtual Milo and his real world friend, Claire. Of course, Peter Molyneux has been known to promise the world and only deliver the state of Pennsylvania, so we may not get to interact with Milos of our own. We can still hope that other developers will have such grand visions for Project Natal, so that it can become the next revolution in gaming.