Natal Project Videos

The E3 2009 event was a blast with plenty of new games and hardware coming from all the major contenders of the console wars and some impressive titles for the PC. One of the companies that enjoyed the limelight is Microsoft because not only did they introduce new features to Xbox LIVE and announced excited FPS titles, but they introduced a new, but powerful accessory codenamed Project Natal.

Individuals that attended the E3 event where the first to view the project and its capabilities, if you were not able to go, you can watch the Xbox Natal video at home as well. The substantial collection of Xbox Natal videos began with an awesome teaser where a person interacts with a virtual character indicating that voice recognition will be one of the features. Then it moved to the game play where the player was using his body as the controller to move his virtual self.

The scene shifts to a scene where people are watching as the player plays a racing game where the player assumes a drivers position holding an invisible steering wheel to control the vehicle. The other person watching unexpectedly becomes part of the game as the player pit stops by tuning up the car highlighting the unique form of cooperative multiplayer.

Half way through the video shows a person shows an object in front of the Project Natal's sensor and it scans it so it can be used in the game enabling more customization to be made. Near the end, facial recognition is showed where players can interact with a virtual character and have a conversation.

The next Natal Project Video shows Steven Spielberg in front of an ecstatic audience as he explains how interactive entertainment can be more approachable to the forms of other entertainment that everyone can embrace. He adds that making the technology invisible is the best approach to that which is exactly what Project Natal is meant to do.

Other Xbox Natal videos show several prototype games being demonstrated in front of a live audience including games like Ricochet that is similar to breakout, but uses the entire body as a controller. A painting game was also shown where players could use their body and their voice to show their personal forms of visual creativity. These demonstrations present the simple new capabilities for games that will come in the future.

Many other individuals shared their thoughts of the project and were enthusiastic to sample the demos themselves including some famous personalities such as Brittany Snow, Incubus, Sugar Ray Leonard, Paul Rodriguez and others. Some people played a Burnout Paradise prototype where an imaginary steering wheel is used to control the vehicle. Overall, the reception of the project was very good, which shows that when Project Natal finally launches it will be a hit with gamers of all ages.

Perhaps one of the Xbox Natal videos that made the most impact was the "Milo" demo where Peter Molyneux creator of Populous and Black & White shows a demo of a person using Project Natal to interact with AI controlled virtual being. More videos including an interesting video on how this technology can be related to online dating can be found at http://xboxnatal.net.