Editor’s note: Devin is the latest member of the SG writing taskforce. He spent long enough annoying us that we figured we’d give him a shot and hey — whaddya know — he’s pretty damn good. Devin’s Gaelic for “poet” or “bard” and so we’re hoping this bodes well for the future. Be nice to him!
One year ago today all the young whippersnappers were asking for an Xbox 360 for Christmas. PS3s were far too expensive, Wiis weren’t hip enough or hardcore enough, so everyone and their brother wanted a 360.
Today, everyone is going to be asking for Modern Warfare 2, Mass Effect 2, and Assassins Creed 2. This is the year of software.
Next year at this time, everyone will be adding Project Natal to their wish list. Well, listening to a podcast the other day brought to my attention the similarities between Project Natal and the EyeToy. One thought led to another, and well, prepare to have your mind blown.
History is doomed to repeat itself. We’ve all heard that before. Those of us from America may be looking at a Roman Empire-style fall from glory. On a slightly less profound scale, videogaming seems to be going back in time, technology-wise.
I mean, I remember when the EyeToy came out, and it was pretty cool for a while. But after a bit everyone went back to their controllers and mainstream games. All that the EyeToy ever could’ve been was a gimmick. Now, Natal hopes to break this mindset and remove the need of a controller for just about anything.
That’s so cool…just as cool as Fred Savage in The Wizard. If you aren’t familiar with it, it was basically a movie with the sole purpose of advertising the Power Glove. If you’ve never used or seen a Power Glove, imagine a Wii Remote attached to a glove that you put on your hand, with about a fifth of the precision. Yeah.
What I’m getting at here is that we are revisiting technologies from decades ago (not that long for the Eye Toy, but for dramatics sake, let’s just say it is) and slapping on modern day improvements and selling it with the same gimmick. There was a time when video gaming took a turn toward Virtual Reality – but that was before everyone realized that the virtual reality helmets sucked and that it wasn’t realistic enough.
I’m calling it now: the next step in video games is a few steps back to revisit virtual reality with modern technology. Maybe we’re stuck in a massive time loop and in 50 years time everyone will become bored with their fancy immersive worlds that tap into their brain to project the image as their reality, and want to just sit down with a controller and play some CoD16 (we can only pray it won’t be another World War 2 sequel).
Maybe in the distant future, our controllers will be a technological revolution. Call the patent companies now, reserve something for fifty years.
Game on.
Popularity: 1% [?]
YAY! imma go play play sum ps3.
Enjoy your six axis while you can lol
you forgot to mention FIFA 2059 delvin! This basically means that microsoft are doomed to invest tons of money into a device that’ll screw over their company ounce XBOX gamers realise how annoying playing using natal is, play eye toy then try telling me project natal’s going to be any good.
Hehe, its just Devin
But anyways, I agree. The concept of Natal has been explored over and over in the video game industry… and frankly, it’s just a gimmick. It can be occasionally fun, but I really believe controllers are a core part of the gaming experience. Maybe someday virtual reality will be technologically viable and fun, but for now, I don’t want to hold my hands up in front of the TV for hours trying to drive my car in burnout, lol.
I’m gonna laugh when Natal has it’s own RRoD
I wish Mass Effect 2 was coming out this Christmas. Great first article.
Aw crap..mass effect got pushed back..my bad. Left for dead 2 then:p. And DevinSG is my forum account..still trying to get this all figured out. Thanks for the feedback tweep
As Mark Twain put it: History doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme.
I completely agree with you, Devin. Being the lazy American that I am, I don’t want to have to stand in front of my TV and wave my arms around every time I want to play a game. Even if it’s as simple as scrolling through the menus to start up a game.
Natal seems like its novelty would wear off fast, just like the Eye Toy, or the Wii.
LAZY AMERICAN! Jokes. I played eye toy and after a while it just gets tiring and annoying though the PS3 is just as annoying releasing the motion controllers, i hope the PS3 dosen’t go the same way as the wii and have sony just making casual games,
somehow i don’t think Kartos kart has the same appeal as mario kart.
I’m just hoping they don’t plan on making natal a substitute for a next gen console. Because that could ruin microsofts lead over Sony in the console wars.
Honestly, I will most likely get natal to play around with. But I don’t think anyone believes that it will become a serious portion of the gaming platform.
I think its just Miscrosoft shot again back at the casual gamer (just as avatars were, as well as some of the arcade titles peggle etc).
Who knows maybe Microsoft will surprise us all and it will work really well? It looked pretty far along at E3.