Project Natal - I don't get it!

slowlydownwards

Ok, this is the scenario... you come home from work (school), bit tired and irritated. All you want to do is sit in your comfy armchair and shoot some people in the face, without too much effort... The last thing I'd want to do is jump around my sitting room like an eejit trying to get few frags... Letting go of your controler to reach for the cup of tea is enough effort as it is. Or am I missing something here?

Btw, nintendo wii is not my thing... unless you are at a party and trying to avoid talking to annoying cousins.

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

For me it's not a direct replacement for the existing controls. They will still be there. ( there will of course be some titles specifially geared up for it ) Look at it as an addition for an appropriate time that you do have the energy etc to play that actively. I'm personally really looking forward to it.

Penn

slowlydownwards wrote: »

Ok, this is the scenario... you come home from work (school), bit tired and irritated. All you want to do is sit in your comfy armchair and shoot some people in the face, without too much effort... The last thing I'd want to do is jump around my sitting room like an eejit trying to get few frags... Letting go of your controler to reach for the cup of tea is enough effort as it is. Or am I missing something here?

I agree. I can see why they're doing it (success of Wii), but so long as it isn't forced into games, I'll just avoid it. I remember when the PS3 came out, nearly every game had you use the motion sensing in the controller. Now I can't remember the last game where I had to use it. And even then, I just go to the options and turn it off. Same with Project Natal.

I play my games lying or sitting on my bed. Like frig am I going to move my feet to emulate an accelerator in a driving game or something. Move my own body parts? What is this? The 60's or something? I play in a way where I'm most comfortable. Forcing me out of that comfort zone defeats the purpose of playing the game.

They'll never come close to emulating the Wii because the Wii is the benchmark, and it is cheaper and probably more user friendly. Project Natal will just be a quick flash in the pan. If the Wii is Rock Band, Project Natal will be DJ Hero. Similar concept, but will never reach the same heights

amacachi

slowlydownwards wrote: »

Ok, this is the scenario... you come home from work (school), bit tired and irritated. All you want to do is sit in your comfy armchair and shoot some people in the face, without too much effort... The last thing I'd want to do is jump around my sitting room like an eejit trying to get few frags... Letting go of your controler to reach for the cup of tea is enough effort as it is. Or am I missing something here?

Btw, nintendo wii is not my thing... unless you are at a party and trying to avoid talking to annoying cousins.

I couldn't agree more, if I wanted to play football I'd go out and play football. If I want to play a video game then I want to play a video game.

Jako8

It'll be a novelty for a while and will probably have a few gimmick games. This will be marketed for familys and stuff I sense.

I don't think it will cater for serious gamers and it'll probably lose it's appeal after a while.

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

Jako8 wrote: »

It'll be a novelty for a while and will probably have a few gimmick games. This will be marketed for familys and stuff I sense.

I don't think it will cater for serious gamers and it'll probably lose it's appeal after a while.

I'd agree with you that it's not aimed at serious gamers, it is microsofts continued expansion into Wii territory and if you compare it directly with the Wii for similar type family games that market will embrace it.

It's also designed to be used for more than gaming, tv and media controlling ( without even having to reach for that remote OP )- shopping online with clothes previewed onto a life like avatar of yourself etc. It's an additional function to the existing console.

slowlydownwards

On a side note... saw "The Gamer" recently (cr4p movie btw). But the display setup that the young lad has in his flat... :eek::eek::eek: It'd be worthed seeing the movie just for that bit... Again, everything controlled via body parts motion (little bit like in minority report only way bigger and better). The main problem is (for me anyhow)... I just can't see myself putting in that much physical effort to play video games. Like the previous poster said maybe it'll be a niche market, an addition to existing controllers.. or just for those special moments when you're in a mood for punching/kicking air.

<edit>As for it only being a "niche" market: http://www.trustedreviews.com/video-games/news/2010/01/13/Microsoft--80--of-Publishers-Signed-Up-For-Natal/p1

Lands Leaving

I had a wii for a while and liked the movement for some games. Swinging a sword around in Zelda and throwing the ball in madden were fantastic fun, but they released sweet f.a. for it besides fitness games after launch so I'm pretty happy to see the same kind of thing on grown up consoles. It's hardly going to interfere with other games, it'll be a seperate entity, or an option in new games with some specific titles catered to it. It'd be fun to have the bowling and such without having to have a wii gathering dust when you don't have friends over.

I think it'll be a bit of a laugh, a fun novelty. If it's anything more than that, great. If not, what's the harm?

thorbarry

its not really for us is it? its for the very casual gamer, they type that buys the wii and stops playing it after a few weeks

quad_red

they will lose.

The Wii is pitched perfectly. It is easy to understand and use.

MS are incapable of delivering something so seamless and simple. They would consider it too basic.

Now, maybe it'll introduce a whole lot of new features. But I just don't see it taking off..

(could be famous last words).

Still, it's taking them a ridiculous amount of time to develop. It won't be out till next Christmas.

Rev. Kitchen

The problem with the Wii is it doesnt work. I got one played a little bit but every game had the same flaw the controller picked up movement and initiated an action on the screen but that movement could be huge or tiny i went from playing tiger woods standing up to sitting down just flicking my wrist and got the same effect. With sword fighting games you could want the on screen character to do 3 or 4 quick slashes so thats what you do but all that happens is it registers movemnet then does one slow slash !! It actually made you feel even more detached from the game.

Now natal looks to be much more impressive and that it can do 1:1 movement but i just fear that the games will be rubbish. That dodge ball demo looks good for about 10 seconds then im all ready bored with it.

They are going for the Wii market and its serious gaming that will suffer. Think if they took all that money they spent on Natal and wasted on Halo hype they could have made a good game.

Korvanica

quad_red wrote: »

Still, it's taking them a ridiculous amount of time to develop. It won't be out till next Christmas.

Thats true, but it probably means they are trying to do it right, that is give you full control, not preset waggles.

Id say it'll be the same as the wii, that being only households with kids will use it on a regular basis, there will be lots of fitness games, and the vast majority of people will only play it partys/sessions when drinking.

spooky donkey

From what i have seen in the vids it looks already developed. I think they problem they are having it is getting sortware ready for it. It can take up to 2 years to make a game so I think we may just be waiting on the software to catch up.
In the early days of the Xbox 360 there were a lot of XBOX1 games ported to the 360 so they could have a bit libary up when it launched. They cant do this with natal.

grimm2005

the thing that interests me the most about it is being able to turn on and navigate menus with my hands, no need to pick up the remote, now thats ultimate laziness

Sabre0001

Jako8 wrote: »

It'll be a novelty for a while and will probably have a few gimmick games. This will be marketed for familys and stuff I sense.

Just like the Wii...and just like the Wii, the 'Project Natal' will be left to gather dust by many...

rizzla

Sabre0001 wrote: »

Just like the Wii...and just like the Wii, the 'Project Natal' will be left to gather dust by many...

If that's the case I'm sure MS will be happy. They'll sell alot of Natals and 360's, their attach rate will plummet.

Rev. Kitchen

What worries me is that in all the videos the lighting is impressive, either on stage or in the other video there is massive bright lights around the user. Are we going to need a whole new lighting system is it going to be like the eye toy where it cant pick you up if its too dark or too bright !!

Ive allready heard problems about it not being able to pick up black people not sure how true that is though.

quad_red

Rev. Kitchen wrote: »

Ive allready heard problems about it not being able to pick up black people not sure how true that is though.

You sure you're not mixing it up with HP webcams?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4DT3tQqgRM

Spastafarian

I'm fairly certain it will be a lot better than the Wii. Cos lets face it, apart from a few games (that use only a minimum amount of motion control), the Wii is utter crap. But it'll still be just a "hey look what this can do!", party type thing. I can't see it having any games that you'd play for 100's or even 10's of hours, but it's probably going to make a lot of money and I'll be interested to try it. Not interested enough to buy it for more than €50 though.

Raze_them_all

Skip in to 4:52

rizzla

Raze_them_all wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5DAokeGXW8

Skip in to 4:52

Fixed it for ya.