Official Microsoft E3 Conference Thread

[NJ5]

JaggedSac said:

NJ5 said:

JaggedSac said:

No they did not.  Nothing like what I am describing.  That was just a person writhing around while balls knocked off of her.  I am talking about something needing precision.  Actually make the movements to catch a ball.  A ball is rolling along the ground and you have to walk over, not just side to side, and pick it up.  Then throw it at another person.  The game could read how fast you threw it and everything.  The only problem might be determining when to release the ball.  Perhaps grunt or something.

See, now you're starting to realize why buttons are all but required for most games. What you mentioned is about as likely to take off as speech-controlled computer programs ("maximize window" "move window left"... yeah, there's software which allows that, but no one cares).

That and we haven't even talked about games requiring meaningful movement in a 3D world (hint: virtually all first-person and third-person perspective games... not just shooters).

 

Sure, buttons are required for things we are doing now.  But I just thought of something that I would enjoy after about 3 hours of seeing what this thing can do.  Give devs time to come up with neat stuff.  The ability to read hand and feet movement at the same time can definitely offer some interesting options.  I agree with you that genres and game types that we play now will be hard to force onto Natal.  But perhaps we should be wanting something new.  This isn't mapping hardware that ou are carrying into 3D space.  This is mapping you into 3D space.  I think that is quite neat.

It's definitely neat, but as far as practical game development goes I don't see developers faring any better than with the Wii controls, actually worse. The main advantage over the Wii Remote is that it tracks all of your body, the disadvantage is that any action has to be done through movement or speech. IMO that will really limit developers.