Microsoft E3 Discussion

[pfunk880]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

I remember how great MAG looked, and that game is still no where near seeing the light of day.

Nowhere near seeing the light of day? Ummm... not exactly.

[GSW]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

Now this is cool and should have been part of the presentation.

For me hearing that Crackdown 2 is a reality, a new Metal Gear, and Halo Reach is excellent news. I think the motion stuff has a lot of potential and very neat.

We can't count out Nintendo or Sony till tomorrow, but I fear that MS today stomped on both of them unless Sony has a wild card. I just don't feel like Nintendo is going to bring much to the table, but maybe they learned their lesson from last year's lackluster conference.

Natal.

/end show

thx for playing.

[AtlantaFalconFan]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

seems like metal gear is not a exclusive to xbox360

http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6210734/mgs-rising-ps3-pc-bound-new-psp-mgs-revealed

[bkfount]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

seems like metal gear is not a exclusive to xbox360

http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6210734...p-mgs-revealed

that's fine. Just getting the franchise is a win for MS. The more Sony exclusives they get to go multiplatform hurts Sony. Especially when the ps3 has the larger price tag and the majority of the big games this generation are sold on both consoles.

[Flawless]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

Time Magazine goes hands-on with Natal

The Xbox 360 is a great machine. Hard-core gamers like it because it's got decent graphics and a great online service and it's developer-friendly, so there are lots of good games for it. But to compete seriously with the Wii, the Xbox has to expand outside the hard-core gaming scene too. It needs casual gamers, and that's where it has a problem. Non-hard-core gamers have trouble using the Xbox controller. It has two joysticks, two triggers, two bumper buttons and a bunch of other buttons besides. It takes time to learn. Their little thumbs get all confused. The Wii isn't like that: you just wave it like Harry Potter and you're golden.

What they came up with is a kind of self-contained module that you add onto your Xbox 360. It has a video camera in it that tracks where your body is and what you're doing with it. It also has a monochrome camera (it works with infrared) that reads depth — how far away your body and its component parts are — and a highly specialized microphone that can pick up voice commands. Along with all this hardware, it's got a ton of software that tells the Xbox how to find your body's various joints (it tracks 48 of them), how to keep track of multiple players at the same time, how to tell your Hawaiian shirt apart from the colorful wallpaper behind you, and so on. Microsoft even did an acoustic study of living rooms, so Project Natal can tell when you're talking, when your buddies are talking and when somebody in the game is talking, so it knows whom to take voice commands from.

Let the games begin. I had a chance to play a simple dodgeball-type game called Ricochet, in which you just punch and kick and head balls at a three-dimensional wall. It's weird to be playing a game with nothing in your hands — if you've ever played a theremin, the sensation of playing with Project Natal is not dissimilar. It's spooky. But it's also very immersive. When a ball comes bounding at your head and you butt it back with your forehead, you can almost feel the smack of it against your skin.

Kipman also showed me a version of Burnout that had been set up to work with Project Natal. Burnout is a serious game, not just a tech demo — it's a polished, fast-paced racing game with high-end graphics, and I happen to have played a lot of it. With Project Natal, instead of using a joystick, you steer by holding your hands up in the air like you're gripping a steering wheel. To hit the gas, you move your foot forward along the floor. To brake, you move it back. To trigger the turbo boost, you do a gear-shifting, fist-pumping movement with your right arm. Awesome.

It takes a few minutes to get the hang of it. You tend to oversteer, since you can't quite believe this thing is going to pick up your movements, so you exaggerate them. But soon you start to trust it, because it does actually work. I couldn't detect any significant latency. And there's definitely an extra edge to playing a game with nothing between you and the screen but your clenched, white-knuckled fists. I'm a hard-core gamer, so I'm not the person Project Natal is targeting. I love my controller as it is. But the appeal of Project Natal is real. You could compare it to the difference between regular movies and 3-D movies: it puts you in the action in a way that nothing else could.

Of course, the success of Project Natal ultimately depends on whether developers embrace it and write decent games for it. Today game developers all over the world have got their little Project Natal starter kits, and it's up to them to figure out what this stuff is good for. I saw a demo cooked up by Peter Molyneux (Black & White, Fable) in which you chat with a realistic-looking little boy. He recognizes your face and what color your clothes are, and he follows you with his eyes. If you walk over to a pond, you can ripple the water by moving your fingers across it. If you lean over it, you see your reflection. Freaky. "I think it's the next step after Wii," Spielberg says. "The Wii platform is totally engaging and awe-inspiring. But this is one step beyond that."

IGN: Project Natal Meets Burnout Paradise

With Microsoft unveiling the potentially revolutionary Project Natal during its press conference today, we've already considered how games could be changed with such accurate motion controls. At a Microsoft event, we had the opportunity to experience Project Natal as it has been implemented into a pre-existing game: Burnout Paradise.

The game controls surprisingly well, with your hands controlling the steering and your feet controlling the car's acceleration. Stepping forward gives your ride some juice and stepping back hits the brakes.

Although this is just a minor taste of what's possible with Project Natal, it's great to see that the system will be possible with previously released games that might not have been designed with motion control in mind.

[Flawless]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

IGN: I've Played Natal and it Works

The first demo I tried was what Microsoft was calling "Burnout Natal." Though it isn't a real game in development, the mixture of Burnout Paradise and the Natal camera was meant to provide proof that you could use the device's technology for practically any genre or software. How quickly I was recognized into the Natal's body identification system (just a few seconds) was surprising, and in a matter of moments I was controlling Burnout paradise with my feet and hands.

Most of the people around me during the MS press conference were groaning when they showed how a racing game would control with Natal in the aforementioned marketing footage, but truth be told, it's a lot more fun than it looks. Though I did miss the bit of resistance that a controller or steering wheel normally gives me, I was shocked to see how natural it felt to drive a car without actually being in one. How easy was it? To accelerate, I simply moved my right leg forward; to brake, I moved it backwards, and to pop it into a neutral position, I just stood straight up (or as straight as my spine would allow me to stand after 12+ hours of E3 spelunking). Driving was just a matter of pretending that I had a steering wheel in my hands, and every subtle movement I made was picked up by the camera allowing me to drive pretty well (and pretty straight) for the few minutes I got to try it out. As an added bonus, the motion for going into Burnout mode was an appropriate Top Gun Volleyball fist-pump. The whole experience was surprisingly fun and I walked away with nary a bad thing to say (which is quite an accomplishment, because normally I complain a lot).

My second go at the Natal was with the game highlighted specifically in Microsoft's press conference by former Fight Night father, Kudo Tsunoda, known as "Ricochet." Admittedly, Ricochet isn't my type of game. I'd rather sit on the couch hitting remote control buttons instead of virtual dodgeballs (which probably explains why I've reached the point where I get winded doing simple things like chewing and talking). Nonetheless, Ricochet provided a small dose of fun as I did my best to break targets with an increasingly-prolific supply of balls. The response here didn't seem as sharp as it did with Burnout -- but to be fair, there did seem to be a small learning curve with the aiming system. Though again, it's not my type of game -- but the good news is that, when speaking with Tsunoda about things in the works down the line, that there are plenty more games -- much more ambitious ones, in fact -- in development that we're going to see in the near future.

All in all, I found Project Natal to be quite refreshing. It's nowhere near the gimmicky device I originally took it for and the fact that it works already on a retail Xbox 360 (Burnout was running on an "out of the store" model, no debugs or special systems required) says a lot about its current stage of development.

To say that I'm anxious to see where Microsoft, and it's horde of third party developers, takes this next is an understatement.

[Miles_Yuhas]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

I gotta say when I heard the rumors that Microsoft was going to come out with a motion camera to compete with the Wii crowd, I didn't think much of it, but this Natal is the real deal. Everything I've seen and read today (and I'm sure there will be more to come in the next few days), has truly impressed me. I don't see myself throwing buckets of paint, but the tech of this camera is amazing.

[DaveDQ]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

Time Magazine goes hands-on with Natal

That TIME article is a bit silly. Kids in no way have an issue with learning how to use a controller. My son is 5 years old and the only limit he has is his hands are too small. Other than that, he's all over the 360 controller.

Sometimes the mainstream can be so lacking in depth. They are completely mixing up "hardcore" and "casual."

[DickDalewood]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

Yah... I'll definitely be adding a 360 back into my collection.

[spankdatazz22]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

I thought the Microsoft conference was excellent. Especially when compared to the other two conferences of the day it really stood out (although those were 3rd party). Outside of some of some of the awkward stuff (Ringo & Paul, Tony Hawk game desperately trying to be relevant again) I thought they did a good job keeping the conference zipping along at a good pace, was very entertaining. Some of the highlights for me:

- Modern Warfare 2
- Splinter Cell Conviction
- Alan Wake
- Project Natal
- new Metal Gear game
- Crackdown 2 announcement
- Forza 3

[LingeringRegime]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

When is Project: Natal, no longer a project? When will it be released?

[jmood88]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

No one knows.

[GSW]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

I thought the Microsoft conference was excellent. Especially when compared to the other two conferences of the day it really stood out (although those were 3rd party). Outside of some of some of the awkward stuff (Ringo & Paul, Tony Hawk game desperately trying to be relevant again) I thought they did a good job keeping the conference zipping along at a good pace, was very entertaining. Some of the highlights for me:

- Modern Warfare 2
- Splinter Cell Conviction
- Alan Wake
- Project Natal
- new Metal Gear game
- Crackdown 2 announcement
- Forza 3

MW2, Splinter Cell, Alan Wake, and P: Natal.... Bananas

thank heavens i rebought a 360.

[bigfnjoe96]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

Just watched the Press Conference. Microsoft definitely knock that-1 out of the park. The Project Natal info had my hairs standing-up. That ish is crazy. Glad to finally see some Alan Wake game play also

[AtlantaFalconFan]

Re: Microsoft E3 Discussion

i think this press conference showed that MS is here to stay in the gaming business for a very very long time probably forever and takeing it straight at sony i think they see a weakness and wanna hit it as much as possible to get as many gamers on there bus as they can to see what they offer.