Natal Likes Devo & Lacks PS3Mote Accuracy
With all the hubbub about Natal there hasn’t been much mention of the lack of real time demos. Furthermore much of the demonstrations we have seen have not really proven the controllers alleged abilities. Tonight on the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon, Natal was demonstrated before a live studio audience. Oddly enough Jimmy and the other guys playing with the device were all dressed in orange jumpsuits.
Natal seems to have vision problems that requires the users to don prison jumpsuits. While demonstrating Burnout, oddly the boost was never used. The beauty of the PlayStation solution for motion is it’s ability to deliver near pin-point accuracy.
Here is the best Apples to Apples comparison we could come up with from what everyone has seen. I think you can see the stark difference between painting with “splotches” versus writing in thin air. Also the weapon mechanics demonstrated appear near ready for prime time. Which is a stark difference to the Xbox Avatar appearing to be in convulsions when you simply lift up your foot. BAM!
This is not meant to say Natal is doomed, but Microsoft rushed the 360 out of the door, Natal may have certain undocumented features when it hits retail. Keep in mind the non-realtime video showing off the Natal capabilities are prefaced with the caveat – “Product vision: actual features and functionality may vary.“
15 Responses to “Natal Likes Devo & Lacks PS3Mote Accuracy”
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June 11th, 2009 at 4:54 AM
ha. i started a thread about this….the one good thing I will say is that the driving worked better than I thought it would. Jimmy just jumped in and started controlling it, even though he had to flap his arms like a chiken to get the thing to work…….the main problem is the same problem the eyetoy had: if somebody walks behind you, the camera freaks out….so far microsoft hasn’t fixed this and they are pretending like natal is ready to be shipped out
June 11th, 2009 at 5:27 AM
I watched all of this and I actually have to admit that is pretty cool, but Sony’s definately seems to be more accurate.
After watching that I went and did a bit more research on both this and Sony’s stick, found one key advantage that Natal has over the PS3 tech. Sony’s device you have to use those wands, where as Natal would let you either go with no controller at all, or it could be used to compliment the regular controller.
Example I read was take a racing game like Forza 3. You could use a regular controller or your standard wheel to steer, brake, gas etc. and use Natal to “look” while in c***pit view.
We will just have to wait and see, but I doubt I will care much about either of them. Motion control will be left up to my Wii.
06/11/2009 at 6:28 PM
The fact that there is no controller at all is the biggest weakness IMHO.
What happens when your dog runs into the room? What if someone turns off the lights?
Natal shows promise, but they are showing it off like its going to be in the stores next week. You know how MS plays, they never release a finished product, they just patch the hell out of it later. Windows is an excellent example of their design arrogance. Why spend all that money on the final months of R&D, when you can release it half broken and let the consumers finish that R&D for you.
None of what you see on the studio quality videos is REAL. It’s 100% staged. If Milo worked at all they would have show it real time and really blown people away.
You know when I was a kid the Nintendo ROB looked AWESOME.
Richard Allen says06/11/2009 at 6:28 PM
The fact that there is no controller at all is the biggest weakness IMHO.
What happens when your dog runs into the room? What if someone turns off the lights?
Natal shows promise, but they are showing it off like its going to be in the stores next week. You know how MS plays, they never release a finished product, they just patch the hell out of it later. Windows is an excellent example of their design arrogance. Why spend all that money on the final months of R&D, when you can release it half broken and let the consumers finish that R&D for you.
None of what you see on the studio quality videos is REAL. It’s 100% staged. If Milo worked at all they would have show it real time and really blown people away.
You know when I was a kid the Nintendo ROB looked AWESOME.
Richard Allen says06/11/2009 at 6:30 PM
The fact that there is no controller at all is the biggest weakness IMHO.
What happens when your dog runs into the room? What if someone turns off the lights?
Natal shows promise, but they are showing it off like its going to be in the stores next week. You know how MS plays, they never release a finished product, they just patch the hell out of it later. Windows is an excellent example of their design arrogance. Why spend all that money on the final months of R&D, when you can release it half broken and let the consumers finish that R&D for you.
None of what you see on the studio quality videos is REAL. It’s 100% staged. If Milo worked at all they would have show it real time and really blown people away.
You know when I was a kid the Nintendo ROB looked AWESOME.
June 11th, 2009 at 5:49 AM
how are you s’posed to use an XBOX controller and flap yer arms around at the same time? that makes no sense. that’s why Project Natal will end up being more limited than the Wii. Sony’s on the right track with actually having buttons in your hand(s) and still allowing you full motion in all directions at any time. sure, the 360 has voice recognition but i’m sure most of us know how buggy and limited that can be. hope XBOX fans like wearing orange. lol
June 11th, 2009 at 6:51 AM
Does this guy have cataracts or something? he seriously needs to lose those glasses.
Him and Itigaki are both in the lead for douche of the week
June 11th, 2009 at 7:49 AM
i cant view the natal video :-\ ????? somebody outta post this on youtube
June 11th, 2009 at 10:31 AM
I wish sony would get their product out there like this.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:42 AM
@Trexman,
Another problem is that Xbox WILL dump it on their consumers with all the problems the ps2 eyetoy had in an attempt to beat Sony to the release date. As usual, a release date will be more important than operational hardware to Microsoft.
with their luck, their non functional sensors will mesh with the red ring of death and actually injure Xbox users. sounds sad, but I’d never stop laughing if that happened.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:58 AM
there goes MS marketing campaign.
i think theres a reason why they have to use those jumpsuits. maybe for detection ? also you gotta admit, natal is cool but not as accurate.
06/11/2009 at 6:36 PM
Seriously man, did you even read the article? LOL…
“Natal seems to have vision problems that requires the users to don prison jumpsuits.”
I hope you guys do more then look at the pretty pictures here. Sometimes we have something valid to say.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:36 AM
I watched that last night and this is what I got from it. It seemed that during the dodge ball whatever the hell it was Jimmy and all of them had troubles getting their little avatar to do what they were doing. It seemed really un-coordinated how the balls would fly back at the character and they would make their best guess where the ball was going to hit but most of the time it just hit them in the center mass area and just bounced back. Jimmy had to swing at the ball a few times before he could get his avatar to hit where he wanted it and trying to time his hand movements with when the balls arrived at his character seemed hard to predict and very tricky.
The burnout demo was not impressive what so ever. As mentioned in the article they didnt boost, also the accelerator control/motion didnt even have them at full throttle. Their cars werent even spinning the tires when they stepped on the gas, they took off like a 60 year old at a green light, which I dont understand how anyone could race without being able to control their throttle to the most minut detail or the brakes for that matter. I admit the steering was responsive but whats the point of having superior steering and no speed?
To accelerate they made a simple forward step with their right foot which was very neat but here’s my issue with that. after you step forward your foot had to be planted on the ground leaving no room for varying amounts of pressure being applied to the gas or brakes. So its either full throttle or no throttle, which also makes no sense. As i said earlier their cars were also taking off slower than they should have so even after you have your foot on the gas and its pinned down, natals sensors didnt seem to pick up that the car was supposed to be full throttle.
From what I got out of it theres alot of work to be done with this project natal, its a great idea and people have wanted a feature like this since the dawn of games, I admit its very impressive but theres alot of room for improvement from this little demo.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:54 AM
Oh and also, Look at the Microsoft developers glasses, only an uptight arogant microsoft a****** would show up on a late night television show wearing the latest fad in sun glasses…what a duesch bag, he thinks he’s something else.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:58 PM
remember to compare how nervous the sony tech demonstrator (narrating, not the other guy) was, as opposed to Orange-Man McSunglasses. I admit i appreciated the Sony guys more, they didn’t come off nearly as “i know how f***ing sweet i am”.
June 11th, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Don’t think motion control will ever match up to a responsive time that you have with a control. you can do a lot more with a control than you will be able to do with a camera without it going crazy on you.
June 11th, 2009 at 3:08 PM
Yeah, Natal comes off as being gimmicky where the PS3 motion tech has actual gaming application. Yeah, you can talk to your Xbox and you can get hit in the nuts with a ball. But I don’t see Natal adding much more than what little devs made use of Sixaxis.
Don’t get me wrong. It does look like it could be fun. But I think it will be like the Wii where you buy it, play it for a week and get bored. I haven’t even plugged my Wii in for over a year since I let my mother-in-law borrow it.
June 11th, 2009 at 4:06 PM
I think the jumpsuits are due to the studio lights, they’d screw with the camera like crazy
June 11th, 2009 at 5:27 PM
Natal looks like an eye toy that had sex with an alcoholic