THQ: Natal to launch late next year News

I think everyone is expecting Natal late next year (aka Christmas (or "holiday" if your a damn colonial)). The predicted price cuts will depend heavily on the economy, particularly how strong the Yen is compared to the dollar, pound and euro.

Good on you THQ, alongside EA, for pulling yourselves out of the mire instead of releasing the same old licensed shit every five minutes!

A PS3 price cut would surprise me as they've stubbornly refused to cut the price so far. It'd surprise the hell out of me.

Pleasantly though.

This just in: THQ surprised that good games sell.

I have finally come up with a geniune good use for Natal within a game!!!!

Downloaded a flight sim, second world war dogfighting game earlier, and gave up pretty soon after because it's difficulty to look around within the cockpit mode because the controls set by the makers are so bad. So here's my idea...

When in the cockpit mode of a flight sim, by moving your head up and down, left and right, the view pans around the cockpit allowing you see around the plane (obviously would work in a helicopter or perhaps any vehicle sim for that matter!). Your head movement couldn't exactly replicate the full movement you would use in real life as you still need to keep your eyes on the TV screen, so perhaps the in-game movement is the equivalent of twice the movement of your head ie. 10 degree head movement is the equivalent of 20 degrees in-game.

The advantage this would have over using a thumbstick for looking is 1. the thumbstick is still free for controls (obviously), and 2. (far more importantly) you're far less likely to get confused and mess up the direction you're travelling in. The same principal applies in reality of course... where we keep our hands on the steering wheel or flight stick, and they remain steady, or make a gentle turn unhindered by the angle of our heads! And 3. You have a third controller, your head movement to work alongside your hands.

As a precaution, and to save the screen moving around all over the place as your head naturally moves, the head movement need not allow the 'virtual viewing' to come into effect until a button is pressed. The only problem I see with this idea is it means I won't be able to lay down on the sofa and play games that incorporate this... assuming I even bother with the Natal gimmick in the first place!!

@JensonJet

This is exactly the sort of thing that Natal will excell at, but it can be taken further: See all those switches and dials in the cockpit? Just reach out and tweak them, no need for pesky button presses.

Used as an extension to exisitng controls it will take game interaction to a whole new level. Used as a controller replacement it will fall flat on it's face.

The technology is superb, but it's all about the application.

I'm not convinced about Natal being useful for cockpit switches and knobs. I think the best use will be big sweeping movements tracking arm and head movement. If you were able to manipulate a control panel, there would have to be some real-world, wireframe (possibly!) reference. But even so, with tiny switches and buttons so close to each other in an aircraft, I think it would be too much. I can see it working for a game where you reach onto a desk to pick something up. But in all honesty it sounds like the games would be gimmicky. For me the only worthwhile and logical use would be to expand on looking around in an environment where absolute speed and precision isn't too much of an issue.

Back to the game that started me thinking about this in the first place... there's two very simple controller solutions, had the developers thought beyond their first idea! 1. Allow the gamer to remap the keys so that the aircraft controls that share the same controls for looking around inside the cockpit could be moved to other buttons/keys! 2. If the same controls for aircraft and looking are to be used... have a one click option that switches from one to the other... holding down the thumbsticks is by far the most awkward thing to do on the controller. The thumbsticks should only ever be used for a one click use, not for continually holding down.