from what we've seen thus far, its simply an updated and better supported eyetoy. that's not taking anything away from Natal, as eyetoy was ahead of the curve in many ways, but sony just chose not to pursue that path.

I just dont jump into the idea of using (or consider) Natal as the new standard of gaming control. MS needs to focus and stop spreading the idea of using Natal for everything or it will flop.

After I finished watching MS's big E3 show with natal, I felt a huge feeling of best described by the word "meh." Especially with that milo thing. I don't want to talk to my tv and stuff like that. I don't care what Steven Spielburg says. This motion sensor stuff, if used right like some Wii games, could be cool though.

I did like Sony's motion sensor thing's use in LBP. That was cool. But that's it. Everything else just looks too gimicky. I don't know how anyone can cling to any company's gamble into motion sensors.

It's not like it ever did us any good. Look what motion sensors did to Nintendo. Very nearly ruined their image (to us at least). Would we want these to become successes and have MS and Sony flock to the casuals like Nintendo and leave us as the forgotten bunch that gets about 2 games a year?

I just don't see how anyone could like it. Yet, the media's feeding everyone to love it. I don't get it. I'm not alone, am I?

Yes, of course it is. It's nothing but a glorified, more advanced version of the PSeye.

I mean, the people excited about it can't even say how it would actually work. How would FPS work on Natal? How would you run, move, aim, shoot, jump etc?

People know nothing about it, yet for some reason they see Natal as the next best thing and I think that it will come and it will go. After launch it will be forgotten as yet another failed peripheral (I think the same of the PS motion controls)

Unless you have a wall-sized display, I don't see how Natal can be compelling. All the demos show very large screens. The only way to alleviate this is if Natal can respond to subtle hand gestures and finger motions while sitting down.

Maybe if you have a room with all walls, the ceiling and the floor as displayes (like a holo-deck), then Natal would work the way we imagine it.

Like shooters (Inaccuracy, no buttons), RPGs (No way to walk around, no buttons for advanced commands), Hack-n-Slash (See RPG problems)......but I can see it being fun for little things. Enough for the price? Considering the pricing history of Xbox accessories, I wouldn't count on it.

People say you can use a controller with it, but then it makes 1/2 of your hands unavailable for advanced interaction with the camera. And without straps on the controller......
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Its a nice gizmo but im not interested in purchasing it until they show me how it they are going to implement it in proper games, not just stupid mini games and sport games.

I got rid of my Wii as this it where it failed for me. I got bored of prancing round my living room real quick.

It's that simple. You can shake, hop, dance, wave, shimmy, flop and flounder but in the end it's all the same dumb controls. Natal will gets its own exclusive motion control games that will suck and the PS3 motion controller will get Wii ports that will suck.

Natal is way over hyped.
Ive heard nothing about the wand but so much about Natal.
Articles saying how it will revolutionize gaming and crap.
I saw very.

I don't really see hype. I only see uncontrollable excitement, anticipation and support from developers not to mention the onslaught of attacks from SDF.

Developers saying they will support Natal and then later on announcing they have games in development for Natal isn't what I would call hype. So what if Natal was covered by top media around the world(CNN, Fox, BBC, MSNBC etc)

The only people hyping Natal are SDF tracking Natal news to debunk it or downplay it.

Sony's Wand has been hyped way more when no one is excited for it, that is the difference and why SDF is looking to downplay Natal with comments and articles like this. There is a difference between hyping something *vs* something grabbing everybody's attention.

In Sony land and on N4G, when something is over hyped it means what the majority prefers isn't getting "natural attention" and the enemy/competition is.

MSFT will simply not be able to keep 360s on the shelves next holiday, the consumers will be fighting over 360's at retail I promise. This is what bothers SDF so much about Natal. Wii casual gamers and non gamer adoption will look like warm-ups in comparison.

I bet you can find the same PS3 fans in all the recent Natal articles, I mean come on why do they say it looks "meh" or they like what Sony has better every time they get a chance. No one cares about the other motion option on Sony's console and no one reads articles about it, it's forced on people because of SDF.

See, this is where it's all going wrong. When you have mongs like wewon confusing marketing with genuine anticipation, then it's easy to see how the corporations are able to manipulate the masses. At best you should be interested in the technology, but for fuc*s sake, see past the smoke and mirrors, and question what it can or will do. Stop blindly lapping up 'released' information - viral leaks are all part of marketing campaigns, and watching that skull faced clown molyneux banging on about being to 'interact' with virtual pre-teens had me all kind of creeped out. This isn't about microsoft specifically, but this whole motion thing smacks of 'the emperors new clothes'. They're telling you it's wonderful.....so it must be!!
WAKE UP.

edit: Based on what we won was saying I now believe that we have evidence that this SDF was involved in the kennedy assassination, faked the moon landings, and were involved in sabotaging the copenhagen environmental treaty! Those evil shadowy puppet masters! :D

Big time over hyped.

If Tony Hawk Ride has taught us anything, is that simulating Gestures opposed to doing the real thing just doesn't work.

However, Wii Sports is the exception because it's simplified and works for what it was designed to do.

So unless someone really designs their game from the ground up for Natal will we really know if it's a gimmick or not.

Personally, I could care less for Natal or the PS motion controls, but if either shows us anything that we haven't seen before then I'm willing to try it out.

So in short, Natal IS overhyped, but who knows? Maybe when it releases it might actually meet expectations.

Nice back and forth, I seriously LOL'ed a couple times, bubbles to weazel.

@wewon - just so you know, corporations do control consumers. I've worked high up in a couple of them as well have friends who are in marketing and graphic design. It can get as bad as having some psychology thrown in to play off your emotions.

Small example, a graphic designer knows what colors evoke emotion that's why McDonalds is orange and red, because those colors invoke hunger subconsciously.

Take a couple of classes and prepare to get your mind blown. A corporation will go to a well known celebrity (such as Patron) and say "He Mr., in your next rap/song/video, Promote our drink and say it a couple times and we will pay you handsomely. What happens is kids/fans of that artist will then think "Wow, Patron must be a good drink if he drinks it" It's sad but it's true now look at Patron's status now. That's corporations at work.

Don't be a lemming/sheep and realize that there are a lot smarter people than you who have degrees in manipulating the masses such as weazel pointed out.

On Topic: A lot of my experience with marketing and over-hype-ded-ness comes from the Music industry and I can tell you this. When you promote songs too early, people like them and will buy the album if it's released strategically. But if you play it too many times on the radio, eventually some will get tired and pass. I believe the same can happen to ideas and products *Looking at Home*. As of now, Microsoft is doing a very good job at getting the word out early, now they need to back off just a bit and hit hard again 3 months before it releases for massive success. /bookmark this thread/comment and watch what happens.

Of course it's overhyped. It doesn't mean it isn't good or won't sell, mind, but right now noone knows if it even works let alone how well-and trhe same goes for the Sony MC wands. Frankly I fail to see how either will be ANY cop without ripping off the Wii's nunchuck for getting about gameworlds and, no Sony, using a DS3 in one hand doesn't work for anyone.

It's funny seeing 360 fans who previously eschewed motion controls as a gimmick for gran and baby to be latching onto a peripheral they haven't even used yet as the second coming of gaming though! And equally daft seeing the Sony zealots doing similar-personally I still harbour some of the excitement sat the possibilities that i felt when the Revolution was revealed so long ago. i STILL want 1:1 light saber fights and want a FPS control scheme to hammer mouse/keys-why wouldn't I? But I want it done well and still don't think it can be the end of controllers and wouldn't want it to be-sometimes a trigger or button is always gonna be the best way, t'know and if they force Natal controls into games for no great reason MS will ffail and fail hard-same for Sonyu too, imo.

It doesn't need to be a gimmick IF it's used well and at the right moments for the right actions-but using Natal as a TV remote? Why? My zapper works realm well and I don't want to have to wave my mits arounbd to change channel-it needs refining in terms of target activity and what it can be best used for and that won't include things that buttons already do perfectly well. Swinging a sword, though, is something an action should always give you more comntrol of and therefore makes sense to me as long as we can move around as well.

So, yeah, it's overhyped but qwhat isn't? the funny thing is who's hyping it and why.And it's even sillier when none of us have even tried the damn things yet! but will we have flamewars over it?Oh yes, you bet we bloody will because people are lined up behind their corporation of choice like the suicide bo,mbers of gaming whether they'll actually use the thing when it comes out or not. you really couldn't make this up, honestly.

That's without touching on price or the fact that mid gen periphnerals always sink without trace-both Natal and the Wandas have a lot of history to buck even if the softwares good and the price is right AND they both work as promised AND they find good ways of moving around in game. So yeah there's too much hype all round when we don't have much of a clue about any of it except a failed, staged demo at E3 for Natal and a sterile one for the Wands. Don't sytart me on how little we know about bloody Milo and why anyone would want something so terrifyingly creepy to start with-it's given me doubts about PM that's for sure.

Its difficult to say if something is being hyped unless you see what the device is capable of. So far we have seen tech demo's on a 1 year old unit with software 1 year away from launch and a supposedly leaked half life 2 video. The idea behind the technology is solid and has definitely inspired a lot of devs and has generated a lot of support. If it works as well as promised (I personally think it will) then id say no it hasn't been over hyped. A full 3D motion capture unit for my living room deserves a little hyping I think

A product that's been around for many years, "MAGICALLY" winning best invention of the year or some similar award, from supposedly prestigious publications. Nevermind that NATAL hasn't yet delivered on its promise, the fact that it is winning awards and merits based on suppositions and a few demos, that left many heads scratching and none impress, has gone way beyond ridiculous.

If NATAL isn't overhype, then I don't know what is?

I wouldn't say nobody was impressed, in fact the media and awarding bodies went crazy over the tech as you just said so it must of impressed somebody or did the awards and the press just coincidently happen. I will however agree that Natal has yet to deliver on its promise (Because its due for release Late 2010), the question you have to ask is does natal merit the hype it gets if what it has promised comes true and the technology works as well as proposed? Remember hype usually comes before a products release not after.

Natal won best invention of the year from Time Magazine-

Since time immemorial — or at least since Pong — one barrier that has stood between gamers and total Tron-like immersion in their video games has been the controller: the joystick, trackball, mouse, light gun or whatever. This year Microsoft demonstrated a technology, code-named Project Natal, that enables players to control games using only body movements and voice commands, no controller required — the gamer's body becomes the controller. Project Natal uses several cameras, plus a highly specialized microphone and a lot of fancy software, to track the gamer's body and interpret his or her voice. You move your hand, and the Master Chief (or whoever) moves his hand. It's that simple. And that cool.
http://www.time.com/time/sp...

Here's another from Popular Mechanics-
Now, Microsoft is going even further with Project Natal, a yet-to-be-released peripheral for the Xbox 360. Instead of mashing buttons—or even swinging wands—players can use their entire bodies.

This sorcery relies on some standard technologies: a Web camera and a near-infrared depth sensor that track movement even in the dark, plus sophisticated microphones. Natal recognizes your voice and face, interprets your gestures and translates everything into an avatar that interacts with onscreen objects. The implications go far beyond gaming. The technology could help smart houses monitor their owners’ health, or allow engineers to sculpt 3D shapes with their hands. Some day, such computer interfaces could seem as ordinary as the PC keyboard does today.
http://www.popularmechanics...

How come the Eyetoy and other cameras, that's been doing this way before NATAL, never won anything and yet Natal won through just supposition and demos?

As for the NATAL demos, I find it hard to believe that anyone would be impress with that. Every video we've seen is either laggy or unresponsive. Another thing is, we've yet to see anything concerning the voice commands, everyone is assuming it'll work as advertised, just because it's there.

There's a distinct difference between being impress with the actuality and being impressed with the idea. These awards were given to NATAL, "in the hopes that it would deliver", instead of meriting it through actual realization and that's what concerns me. Ever heard of the saying "LOOKS GOOD ON PAPER". so far that's what NATAL is. There are a lot of inventions out there that's being develop by small joes, that deserves this distinctions more, and they are getting robbed outright, because a mega-corporation with tons of money needs to get the word out there, that their product is the second coming and the best thing since slice bread.

I agree with Sarcasm over there ..
we want to play .to have fun , not to simulate ... that's why the simplfied controls of the wii are popular and loved by the masses

not natal. People want to say natal is another eyetoy but they forget the live vision camera is just like eyetoy without the mic built in.

Those that are whining about sony doing it first also forget that they didnt market it and put more effort in its use. That is the difference between MS and sony. MS WILL market and advertise this thing and make people take notice where as sony didnt. Eyetoy or not...MS will make it a success unlike sony.

Answer:

Is Natal a Microsoft product?

IMO I feel it's more media and websites going on and on about it. I own a 360 only, I will not buy into any hype until I actually see it in action, probably at this E3. I know they showed some games last E3, but i mean REAL games, that average gamers and hardcore gamers would like. Until I see some concrete evidence that it's actually going to be cool (like a hybrid model), than I don't want to get hyped.

Does it matter? They showed Forza Kinect that looked amazing working with Kinect real time!

i was at the engadget show and kudo showed its 3d tracking and when two people where on screen......one person would be red while the other would be green.......but as soon as a third person steped into the camera view two people automatically turned gray and it couldnt read their movements well.

what i took away from that event is that the kinect is pretty kool but for right now it can only work with two people(they could still be working on it)

I saw it full of lag. The girls was standing there and her character just started twitching out of control.

Plus you can clearly see the game is full of Lag. Regardless though i don't care...its a piece of tech directed to casual gamers so kudos to MS for this. Unfortunately i don't fall into the casual crowd so this does not interest me one bit.

What does interest me though is a cheaper 360 slim with a hard drive and wifi capablities for 50 or maybe 100 bucks cheaper

It needs buttons. There is only a limited a limited amount of things you can accomplish through gesture recognition.