GamesCom: Project Natal hands-on

‘A controller for everyone and a controller that offers more fidelity for its core gamers’ – this is how Kudo, creative director, describes the remit for Natal, Microsoft’s ‘science-fiction-now’ control system. But is it really the stuff of science fiction? Well, judging by our brief hands-on with Natal, it’s a bit early to tell. Potentially, it’ll revolutionise the way we play games – not just tempt casual gamers to the 360 – but, like Kudo says, offer new and never-before-possible ways of controlling and interacting with the virtual world.

We played two demos. The first was shown at this year’s E3: a kind of 3D breakout where the player is the bat and you have to hit balls to destroy segments of wall. Natal did a pretty good job of matching the on screen action with the movement of body parts but suffered from some delay and failure to map some movements. It wasn’t perfect but surprisingly fun and, to be fair, only hints at what might be possible.

The second demo used Burnout Paradise to demonstrate a driving game. Burnout’s complicated controls like the e-brake and boost button weren’t mapped – this was purely for demonstration purposes – steering was done by what we can only describe as ‘pretend driving’ with your hands. To accelerate you stepped forward, to brake you stepped back. It was surprisingly accurate and steering wheel manufacturers should be slightly concerned.

What really impressed with Natal though was seeing its guts. Kudo showed us a technical screen, that showed an RGB camera, infra-red tracking, 3D ‘pin tracking’ and skeletal tracking – the four ways Natal ‘sees’ the player. The way it visions the skeleton of the human body and distinguishes between player and something that is not the player is truly remarkable; Microsoft has clearly got some great technology here.

So the verdict? It’s hard to draw any real conclusions. The technology is impressive, the potential is massive but we’ll need to see more practical applications before we know. Now, let’s see what Molyneux has up his sleeve for Fable III.