So we've heard that the next Gears of War game will have Natal support, but I have to question exactly what that will entail.  You certainly won't be able to play the entire game with it because how would you move?  This has been my largest question from the start with Natal.  How do you handle character movement?  Walking in place?  You could walk around the room providing it's big enough and you don't trip over furniture, but what do you do when you reach the perimiter?  Plus, how do you see the screen if character movement is 100% 1 to 1 with your movement and you need to have your character turn around?  You need a directional input for movement, period.  That brings up the possibility of holding the 360 controller while using Natal.  However, doesn't this defeat the entire purpose of Natal in the first place?  Namely, playing with only your body and ditching the controller.  The 3rd possibility seems the most likely.  I suspect you will play most of the game normally with the controller and at some points you will put it down and do something with Natal.

As much as some people are thinking Natal will take over the industry and become the new interface of the future, I have always believed it will be great fun only for certain types/genres of games.  There are certain things that will always require a button or control stick input.

They could always put Gears on rails :P

I don't get Natal in general. I get what it's trying to do, but I don't get the point of it. I don't want to play games controller-less. But I guess we'll see what happens.

I don't think he said that it would be in Gears. I think he said they are adding Natal support in UE. And even if it was in Gears, I imagine it would be as tertiary features such as grenade throwing, voice recognition, or facial recognition.

That's kinda what I'm saying.  The intent of Natal was to get rid of the controller, but this is how I see it mostly being used aside from some specific games/genres.  It's just something that adds to the experience a bit while you still sit there and play the game normally with your controller.  Is this worth the rumored high price tag?

"The intent of Natal was to get rid of the controller"


I don't thing any video game company believes that. There is a huge potential for games without controllers and that's what Natal is intended for.

There will be a few hardcore games like racing sims for example which will allow players to use Natal instead of a pad, but that's about it. Natal for hardcore gaming will never get
further than being an option.

Worth is relative.  I for one would be more interesting in a Natal tailored experience, but having things like Gears or Halo utilize some of the tertiary aspects of Natal definitely not a negative.  I think it is great that developers can choose to utilize whatever portion of Natal's capabilities that they want.

That would be soooooo funny :D

Maybe Gears 3 will ship with a Styrofoam Chest-High-Wall, that you can use to take cover? :D

Agreed.  That's why I personally see more value in the Sony motion control.  Best of both worlds.  Combine Wii-mote functionality with the PS Eye.