4. New Ways to communicate: Imagine playing a survival horror co-op shooter that only allows players to communicate when they are within virtual earshot of one another using the Natal microphone. In doing away with the headset entirely, this mechanic could serve to both to heighten the immersion as well as encourage more teamwork. That’s just one new way that players can potentially communicate using this new technology. Hand signals to communicate silently in games where the enemy could potentially hear you, writing out messages PictoChat style to friends, or simply integrating video feeds of players into the communication screens of a HUD are just a few potential avenues that would broaden the way players talk to each other over Xbox Live. It just seems that if users are going to invest in a high-tech camera/microphone peripheral, then they should expect to be able to use it in a wide variety of ways.
5. Original Gameplay ideas: While all of the previous uses for Natal would be neat and fun because of the way they build onto existing forms of Xbox technology, the most exciting potential for this device comes with the ability for developers to get really creative and come up with completely new games that we’ve never seen before. Sure, the Ricochet and Paint Party demos were certainly impressive at Microsoft’s E3 press conference, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Forget clones of Breakout and MS Paint, Natal is capable of creating new experiences like Peter Molyneux’s Milo experiment and more.
The way games that have been made for the Xbox have been worked around the basic idea that players will be controlling it with a piece of plastic in their hands, so it’s understandable that clones of existing ideas are cropping up to help players wrap their mind around the technology’s power. But, there will need to be a point at which completely new game ideas start taking over Natal. Otherwise, Microsoft’s new tech will seem more like a luxurious add-on rather than the gaming revolution it is supposed to be. Only time will tell exactly how the gaming population will accept a technology such as this, but the fact that so many high-profile developers have already pledged their support is nothing but positive. Stay tuned right here to PlanetXbox360.com as the hardware comes to reality sometime in 2010.
