| Lord Flashheart said: And you forgot that Halo was originally an RTS. Mike. I don't know what you're reading but you seem to be part of the group that's giving a knee-jerk reaction to Natal. Don't feel so insecure about this. No-one is suggesting traditional controls will be replaced other than this group of knee-jerkers. It's funny how scared people are of moving forward or simply having an extra choice.
Also it's not just the 360 crowd that was dissmisive of "waggle" or even the most dissmisive. I hope you'll be as critical of other rivals motion controls as well. |
That Halo was originally a RTS is kinda immaterial.
I am very knowledgable in the field of computer vision, and I have some pretty sincere doubts about Natal's usefulness, frankly, as well as the price of the technology they claim they are using (depth cameras), and its future. If they revolutionize computer vision, by utilizing a cheap consumer-grade camera set, and markerless motion detection, it'll be awesome, don't get me wrong. I just have my doubts.
I'm sure it'll work for some basic input and gesturing, but recognizing individuals without markers (i.e. co-op) and trying to combine regular controller input with it just don't really seem to click (unless the controller has a marker, like the Sony wand). Its usefulness in a game with as complicated a control scheme as a shooter seems questionable. I just don't think it can provide enough raw, or accurate, input to replace the Wiimote, or upcoming Sony wand, as decent input mechanism.
Btw, are you referring to me, with the "Mike" thing? Is that some British way of referring to someone you don't know? Not sure, but I thought I'd respond anyway. I think my reaction could be construed as "knee jerk", but the truth is that I know so much about it, that I have some pretty sincere, valid doubts about this markerless wondertech MS claims will revolutionize gaming. They're going to have to show it to me -- talk won't cut it, because so far, all the talk (and premade marketing videos) is basically inflated marketing-speak without anything sincere to back it up.
I will applaud heartily if/when they pull it off. In a sense, what they claim they're doing is a portion of my own research dream -- it would make my own research ambitions much easier, if it works as well as they claim it will. Until then, I'm going to sit in the doubter camp, because that's basically my duty, as an academic and a scientist. Think "cold fusion", and you might see where I'm coming from.
