Exclusive: Eurogamer plays Natal

Published 20 August, 2009 Duration 4:37

Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda supplies the chat as Tom and Keza test drive the future of Xbox.

Comments (57) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • DT-525 #1 3 years ago

    i love this but its a same that is only for xbox. seams that xbox is trying to beat the wii.

  • asphaltcowboy #2 3 years ago

    Kudo never stops talking, does he? :)

  • Triggerhappytel #3 3 years ago

    Hopefully MS are working on more substantial games than this. Though it looks like it will be silly fun in a Wii Sports kind of way, it'll probably wear thin very quickly.

  • striker #4 3 years ago

    The delay between body movement and in game movement is pretty clear, unfortunately.
    Kudo just knows how to compensate it better, and so gives a false sense of playability...

    The blond girl on the first game example shows the delay pretty clearly.

  • makeamazing #5 3 years ago

    Theres definately a time delay... and this is only a simple game. Not sure people are going to like that delay.

  • smelly #6 3 years ago

    same delay as e3 demo.. but at e3 she was moving so quick it was hard to see without slowing down the video.

  • dr_zoidthrob #7 3 years ago

    Is he wearing the sunglasses because the room is so well lit? What about in 'normal' lighting conditions?

    Also... how do you change view or start the nitro in Burnout?

    Still, I'd LOVE to have a try.

  • Triggerhappytel #8 3 years ago

    I was going to comment on the obvious time delay, but to be honest the hardware has over a year before it launches, and I'm sure these issues will be sorted out or at the very least improved upon by then.

  • schnide #9 3 years ago

    How the hell will this work with an FPS?

  • Droch_Feola #10 3 years ago

    my god that chick was useless.i wanted to smack her...in a non violent way

  • Stepharneo #11 3 years ago

    uhhhhhhhhh.....is that a Bravia?

  • bad09 #12 3 years ago

    Ah the future of gaming. Not a great future but the future regardless....


  • Lukree #13 3 years ago

    Oh my... I'll admit that this technology will have surely it's applications, but I wouldn't like to drive any driving games longer this way...

  • Widge #14 3 years ago

    Only extra damage when hitting the balls hard?
    Surely next gen has seen the advent of MASSIVE DAMAGE?

    I'm impressed with the recognition of player change though, thats nifty.

  • peterfll #15 3 years ago

    It still looks clever but doesn't show us anything we didn't already see during the E3 demos.

    And please, sunglasses indoors = moron.

  • busboy33 #16 3 years ago

    @dr. zoidthrob:

    "Is he wearing the sunglasses because the room is so well lit?"

    No -- he's wearing them because he's Kudo. He always wears them. Think "American Itagaki".

    Natal runs off of IR, so the lighting of the room is irrevelant. Allegedly, it can be played in pretty much complete darkness, since the hardware generates the IR itself.

  • Arwin #17 3 years ago

    I'm not sure Natal works on IR alone though. I think it may be there only for depth perception.

    The lag was horrible in the breakout game, but there wasn't much lag in Burnout, so there is hope, but if they don't fix it, then the full body thing is going to be near useless for me (though maybe it could still be cool to record avatar animations or stuff like that ;) ).

    However, if they do fix it, then I think Natal could be pretty sweet. Then it's "just" a matter of developing cool software for it. Which, to be honest, I'm not too convinced we'll see MS deliver on that front, but by this time third parties will have had a lot of experience with Wii, WiiMotion Plus, and even the Sony Motion controller, so there's a fair chance third party will come up with something cool if MS fails at it.

  • Darren #18 3 years ago

    The tech is impressive and it seems to detect movement straight away with no noticeable lag.

    Personally, I'm not sure I'd want to play games like that. The one where you're hitting the balls must feel bizarre minus any sense of actually hitting them. The racing one where you mimic holding a steering wheel just looks plain bizarre - surely it would work better if the person was actually holding a wheel and the camera was detecting the movements of the person holding it?

    Natal looks to me like its more suited for things like dancing games, exercise software, navigating interfaces Minority Report-style, the Milo stuff and that sort of thing. I think other types of games require some kind of peripheral to give feedback in the form of audio or vibration (like the Wiimote) so maybe Sony's wand will prove to be the better option of the two?

  • Darren #19 3 years ago

    Stepharneo - Going by the onscreen display I'd say that's a Samsung. Microsoft usually demo their stuff on Samsung's as far as I've seen.

  • Creasy #20 3 years ago

    So incredible fucking great it's unbelievable.
    All those patheric people talking about the lag and so on.. Who the fuck cares. First of all this is beta (or alpha or whatever), second of all, this is nothing which will replace a controller, this is to show the future of gaming. And it's fucking awesome... Of course I don't want to play a racing game all the time like this... SO WHAT?
    THis is awesome... to see how well it already plays.

  • Widge #21 3 years ago

    Yes, its that mimicing which I think negates his "you can ask anyone to play and they will understand it as driving a car" argument. You're not getting to learn a controller, you're getting to learn an absense of controller and its quirks of sensitivity and input. Both require adaption, both aren't like driving a car.

    I see the direction. Look, you can do this in a 'hardcore' game, implying this isn't just for party/instant fare, but its still where its best suited.

  • Xerx3s #22 3 years ago

    This stuff would be really awesome with stereoscopic games. I reckon that it would become a lot more "natural" as you actually see the balls coming towards you in 3d.

  • miiiguel #23 3 years ago

    I'm, probably going to say something silly again, but maybe, just maybe the reason it is not out yet, and it wont be for ar least one year is because is not ready yet ?

    Or maybe waht I said it is silly, and it is ready and what we saw is the finish product (ahah! that is not a beta!). Take a pick.

  • prettyboytim #24 3 years ago

    Take your shades off. YOU ARE INDOORS.

  • #25 3 years ago

    This wont replace a controller nor augment one imo. Looks shit IMO.

  • udat #26 3 years ago

    It's a Samsung TV :)

    I was quite impressed at the accuracy of the posture recognition. The outline of the character looked like that girl when she was playing it, between points you could see a kind of defeated "i'm going to look crap on the internet" aspect to her posture ;) There did seem to be a bit of input latency though, which could be a deal breaker.

  • curtlikesmeat #27 3 years ago

    Not really interested in Natal, if I was I'd have bought a Wii.

  • knightmt #28 3 years ago

    No handbreak turns?

  • Xerx3s #29 3 years ago

    About the sunglasses: Maybe he gets headaches from the brightness of sunlight and any light stronger than a dimmed Incandescent light bulb. I know I do (but instead of sunglasses I just close the blinds).

  • Tonka #30 3 years ago

    Looks shit

  • el-bandito #31 3 years ago

    Regarding the lag, there were some users complaining about the delay in turning the wheel and what showed on screen in the Forza forums after the E3 showing, the guy playing said it fine in real life, the delay only appeared when the video was encoded.... could be the same here me thinks

  • LeSpank #32 3 years ago

    Welcome to Cosmic Smash. Have a blast!

  • MilkYMoO #33 3 years ago

    Hopefully games companies will release patches to make some older games compatible with it.
    If microsoft have a huge advertising campaign for this, it'll be a huge success. They need to let people try it out in places like shopping centres"malls", like nintendo did with the wii, aswell as tv adverts.
    Unlike the wii, I think I'll wait for a year after natals release to see if its living up to its potential. I dont want to be dissapointed again.

  • davymackie #34 3 years ago

    natal, ps3 wond and wii, No thanks.

  • Cannibal #35 3 years ago

    Now THIS would give you "total punch control" in Fight Night.
    Edited by 1 at 21/08/09 @ 14:51

  • Rodchenko #36 3 years ago

    Impressive, and certainly good for some applications (like browsing menus) but I prefer to get some tangible feedback on my actions (like a button that resists a certain amount of pressure, or a shake of the controller when I hit something). It only works on visual cues and I think that this will feel awkward and too 'unsubstantial' in the end.

  • chronom4n #37 3 years ago

    i can see all the mime artists just loving this!

  • Calgon #38 3 years ago

    For those saying "wouldnt it be better to have them actually hold a wheel", if you are going to do that or expect them to pack props like that in, aren't you better off just getting a racing wheel with footpedals complete with force feedback? I think you could easily hold a plate up as he said its smart enough not to be destracted by other objects moving about.

    Give devs some credit I say, they will use it if it works better in their game not just use it for the sake of it(in which case the game will probably flop and it will be their own doing).

    I dont think MS have tried to say this is a replacement for controllers, its another option(in some cases it could just be used to supplement the experience already given with the controller with neat extras... head tracking, gesture commands ect), for some things controllers will always work better and they know this.

    Edit: Btw if you notice there is next to no input lag on the first game when Kudo is playing it, notice how when the wee blonde girl comes on, she stands all arkward and opts not to stretch her arms as wide as you'd expect(like swinging a bat or tennis racket... wide swinging motion, get it?) in a game like this. She basically bats the balls straight forwards with her arms almost swinging out infront of her, so it might be that the game itself is designed to pick up the correct movements rather than the hardware which didnt seem to show lag at all apart from when she used it. Most of the complaints of input lag are coming from people who are commenting on the videos and naysayers.
    Edited by 3 at 21/08/09 @ 18:28

  • Xerx3s #39 3 years ago

    Selling cheap, tacky and useless plastic crap like the "wheel" hasn't done nintendo any bad.

  • LetsGo #40 3 years ago

    looks really laggy... i hope they fix that up.

  • abracadabracan #41 2 years ago

    This is stupid (in its current form). What number am I holding with my hand at the back of my head? The machine can only guess.

    In action games latency is a no-go and this technology is currently unfeasible (at least in mainstream hw) with zero latency using just body morphs. A combination markerless and marker technology is recommended since there has to be a user consent control in the process.

  • Jos #42 2 years ago

    It will be great to engage in stuff on-screen that is just about a body doing stuff. But if you have to pretend you are holding a physical object (steering wheel) then it falls down quite a lot. Yes you could hold a substitute but why bother - a controller can take that role very well already...

  • Lankysi #43 2 years ago

    Yeah I agree, the Breakout game looked laggy but I was impressed with the Burnout demo. As people say, there's still time to develop it. I was dying for someone to ask how to boost or handbrake turn in it............useless journos! lol

    First time I get one of these you KNOW I'm gonna be doing a Minority Report on the dashboard :) :) :) or at least trying it anyway!!

    And Natal is BEGGING for a Rave Hero game now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D
    Edited by 1 at 15/06/10 @ 07:06