Skip to main content

Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Natal "not quite there yet" - J. Ross

But "sky's the limit" if lag is fixed.

British comedian Jonathan Ross has, after a celebrity playtest last night, concluded that Project Natal needs more work.

"OK. Before bed. Natal on Xbox impressive. Not quite there yet I think but they have 'til october and if they get it right... sky's the limit," Tweeted 'Wossy'.

The flamboyant chat-show presenter was filmed at a london event swatting balls away in one of Natal's previously exposed mini-games.

Of note is the fraction-of-a-second difference between Wossy's actions and those replicated on screen. A video caption assures us this will be trimmed as we get closer to the device's autumn launch.

"They say that be release all lag issues will be resolved and response time should be nearly instant," the pop-up read.

MTV Multiplayer had a similar experience but approached Natal with a more scientific brain, analysing five play-tests and recording the results.

"I had a pretty large sample size, sitting through 5 demos, capturing about 40 different movements from a variety of journalists. Across those 40 movements, the fastest life-to-screen transition was .08 seconds, while the slowest was .12 seconds. A tenth of a second was the consistent average, though," concluded MTV Multiplayer.

"What that means is that, in its current state, Natal is not instant, one-to-one motion capture."

Nor was it at gamescom last year, when Digital Foundry produced extensive analysis of Project Natal lag and its implications in a variety of scenarios.