The name project Natal has been floating round the gaming universe for some time now. Back at E3 last year Project Natal was shown as the Xbox 360′s new 3D camera which would take gaming to a whole new level. A bit like the Wii Project Natal brought the idea o getting physical with Video games, basically jumping around the room like a look while playing your new favorite video game. But Natal was different, it didn’t require a controller to operate, it simply picked up every movement the player was doing and in putted it into the game, basically like a PS2 eye toy but ten fold. You could play the likes of burnout paradise just by pretending you had a steering wheel. It was defiantly something to behold.
Now E3 2010 is here a year later and Microsoft have now revealed the full name of Project Natal and then some. We now have a definitive list of what games will come out with it and what to expect from Microsoft’s new creation.
Now Dubbed Kinect the Microsoft uber camera from the future will come with games such as:
Joy Ride
If you ever wanted to take your Xbox LIVE avatar on a tour of the world in a mixture of vehicles and flying machines, well here is your chance to do so. Joy Ride is a game where you hold an imaginary steering wheel and take your Avatar for the ride of its life, in a mixture of planes and automobiles, even full on flying cars. I have been told that if you shift you body and wave your hands, you vehicle will do a host of crazy stunts in the air. True Story.
Dance Central
Just Dance on the Wii is no match for this game, Brought to you by MTV Games (the lovely people who bring you Rock Band) Dance Central lets you dance till your heart’s content. By following prompts on the screen you are free to dance the night away. Kinect will pick up every single move you make and grade it, if you do rubbish the music will slow down and a voice will help you apparently. I can just imagine the voice to be like the Gate Keeper from that really old board game which you had to play with the Video tape… “DANCE BETTER MONKEY!!! YOU CALL THAT NIGHT FEVER!?”
Kinect Disney
there will be some sort of Disney game coming out of this. All we know is that it involves Tinkerbell and Cinderella’s castle…. You never know it maybe a new kingdom hearts game, or Microsoft showing off again. Only time will tell.
Kinect Star Wars
Now this sounds damn exciting, Microsoft showed the people of E3 an interesting demo where a Jedi was fighting hordes of enemies. Each light saber movement was controlled by the player, and we are talking some intricate stuff here, also there was a force push motion where the player would thrust his hand forward and push enemies out-of-the-way, much like Star Wars force unleashed. Then the player confronted Darth Vader in an epic light saber duel. If this works smoothly it will be one hell of a title. I’m keeping my eyes peeled for this one.
The ability to do this on Kinect? Yes Please!
Kinect: Adventures
Another one of the quirkyer titles. You are put through a series of Indiana jones style adventure scenarios and you job is to survive them. It’s an on the rales game where you have to grab certain targets infront of you in order to progress. You also have the opportunity to strike awesome poses and get your photo taken. Sound a bit odd and crazy but oh well.
Kinectimals
The name says it all. Think Nintendogs but with better animals. Kinectimals is basically another virtual pet game where you get to interact with your new pet. Yes it is tamagotchi of the new generation, you can feed it, pet it, throw it a ball. Even teach it new tricks. You get to have pets like Tigers, Lions and Bobcats. Could be ok, maybe not my cup of tea though.
Kinect Sports
Need I say more? Yes this is Wii sports for Kinect, sports shown were football, track and field, volleyball and of corse bowling. I don’t really need to go into too much detail here as we have all played Wii sports sometime in our lives. Just think that without a controller and you mimicking all of the sports. Got it? Good.
Kinect Yoga & Tai Chi
If you’re looking for the perfect yoga and tai chi gamer you have found it. A female instructor will take you through the moves all you have to do is mimic them. There is a silhouette of what move you should be doing on-screen, if you snap to it then you get the points, or whatever it has.
Kinect Apps
Microsoft also showed off its new kinect dashboard, where apps can be selected by just pointing at them, things like Facebook and netflix were there at the point of a finger. There was also a new photo sharing app where you can show photos to other party members in real-time while video chatting. Nice.
Kinect to me looks like it has a couple of new features over the Wii. And to be honest I am really excited about that Star Wars game if it works well. Be sure to stick around Plus XP for some more E3 news as we get it.
Garv
