| Helios said: Exactly. Natal is interesting, and it certainly will find its uses, but it will never be able to play 'traditional' games - not without some kind of controller interface. Nintendo realized that with the Wii, but Microsoft apparently did not. How will Natal enable you play a first person shooter, or action game, or just about any game where you move in a 3D space? It simply won't. By itself it will only be truly useful for simulations and quirky little minigames, like the ones they showed at the conference. Granted, I assume it will be able to function in tandem with the Xbox controller, and then things might get interesting, but doesn't that defeat the point of the so-called 'interface-revolution'? Nintendo's biggest fear is, in other words, a loss of PR, rather than the Natal itself. This particular article is so poorly written and obviously biased that I will not comment on it, but if this sentiment prevails among the press (and, ultimately, the public) it might mean something, though frankly I don't anything can change the outcome of the 'console war' at this stage. |
It doesn't need to let you play a FPS, or other 'traditional' games. Microsoft isn't doing away with controllers anytime soon. Every FPS fan is going to want to keep that in their hands.
Also bear in mind, that unlike the Wii's motion controls, this technology gives the freedom to add a peripheral independent of the motion controls. Maybe not a traditional FPS, but add a gun peripheral to a shooter, and you could play it much like the old arcade games - but it could factor your movements in to dodge attackers or duck for cover. Or better yet, the peripheral shoots, but you can use in-gane melee attacks by striking out with the gun. How many people's favorite thing to do in Halo is to charge someone shooting them and finish them off with a melee attack? Now imagine getting to actually swing the gun yourself. Nice.
