Project Natal

Wow! Project Natal. It's incredibly exciting. It's like looking into the future. It's like Tom Cruise waving his hands about on the Star Trek holodeck while munching on virtual candy floss he stole from a Tamagotchi baby.

Yeah, I don't know what that means either, but here's the promotional video in case you missed it:



The most important part of that trailer is right at the start, where it says "product vision: actual features and functionality may vary". In other words, it's a load of pie-in-the-sky nonsense. And aside from the technological difficulties, I don't imagine Microsoft encouraging young kids to try karate kicks in their living rooms after the trouble Nintendo had with just their wrist straps.

Far more interesting is the feedback coming from those journalists who actually managed to try out the technology. Giving Time magazine the exclusive first look at the Wii did wonders for Nintendo, so it was no great surprise to see Microsoft pulling exactly the same trick. They will undoubtedly be pleased with the write-up, and even just the headline "Microsoft Whacks the Wii" must have put a big smile on Bill Gates' face.

The specialist press seem equally impressed. Here's the mostly trustworthy Ellie Gibson, giving Microsoft some quotes they'll love while writing for Eurogamer:

"There's no denying this technology works."

"Even an ancient game seems new and fresh when you graph Project Natal on top."

"In fact, I don't realise quite how much I'm getting into it until I hear [a Microsoft employee] warning a bloke behind me to stand back."

Now, perhaps it's because I've been playing too much Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games recently, but the whole throwing myself around to play a game thing isn't the part of Project Natal that gets my juices flowing. For me, Peter Molyneux's prototype character Milo is the most intriguing thing of all, even if poor old Pete sounds even more deranged than usual while introducing it:



Now, Peter Molyneux is the king of the over-statement, and you'd have to be very naive not to realise that a lot of that conversation was scripted. Yet Milo talked to a load of journalists too, and while he wasn't so good at answering questions, his ability to read the emotional intonations of someone speaking, intentionally make and lose eye contact, and repeat back a name he's just been told in his own voice is impressive. You might worry what kind of creepy world we'll be living in when people are making friends with their xbox, but as forums all over the videogame world were quick to realise, at the very least this could be an exciting new era for pornography.