Unveiling Project Natal at E3

During E3, at Los Angeles, in June of 2009, Microsoft revealed the latest innovation in gaming and arguably the most exciting advancement in gaming technology for many years. The popularity of Nintendo’s Wii, has ensured that motion-sensing gaming is part of the future. However, Microsoft has taken things a step further with whole body interface, meaning that the control pad or Wiimote is redundant.

Microsoft’s creative director, Kudo Tsunoda, impressed the assembly at E3. Demonstrating the possibilities of Natal with a ball game, in which players had to bounce red balls off any part of the body to destroy a 3D brick wall. This game proved to be much more physically demanding than any Wii game thus far and, subsequently, there are great possibilities for sports games and fitness software for Natal.

In addition, Tsunoda unveiled two games that have been adapted as working demos: Burnout Paradise and Beautiful Katamari, the former was found particularly remarkable, because players are performing the actions to drive a car by miming the movements necessary, such as steering and pressing the accelerator pedal.

What’s more, Tsunoda illustrated the advanced graphics, with Natal’s lifelike avatars, that are designed to look exactly like the player. This is another aspect of Project Natal that is said to supersede the Wii and it is believed that once consumers have experienced the technological advancements of Natal, expectations will be greater for other consoles and games.

Therefore, it is entirely feasible that Project Natal, when it is released in 2010/2011, could have a massive impact on the gaming industry as a whole. Despite the fact that motion-sensory gaming is not to everybody’s taste, the popularity of the Wii and the buzz surrounding Natal looks set to change gaming forever.

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