PS3 Motion Tracking System

If Project Natal is what we are hoping then this helping from sony will just be another wii-mote for the ps3.

I have seen the videos of natal being used by celebs and considering it isn’t finished, I think it will invite more gamers into the market unliek this ‘ball on a stick’

I think Natal has interesting possibilities but thinking about the idea of having a physical object to interact with rather than nothing, and not being a fanboy in any sense of the word, trust me – I can see Sony’s offering being slightly more gamer friendly. Plus it’s a genius move that could see them producing a lot more bolt ons and peripherals than the ball on a stick (gun shells, other add ons for the wands).

For them it makes good economic sense, because it means they’ll always have something new to sell you. For MS – Natal is a one off deal, you buy the system and then spend the rest of your time interacting with empty space.

Much as I was also impressed with Natal, I don’t like the idea of it used for certain game types. For instance, driving games. Have you ever tried keeping your hands held out in front of you for a couple of hours without something physical to interact with? Or your foot at a level where you’re accelerating braking?

What annoyed me most about Natal was Milo. If you want to get people excited about your upcoming tech, then at least produce something a bit more game-like than a virtual pinocchio

Personally, i’d place Sony’s offering as second in the most interesting stakes. The idea of holding two coloured wands doesn’t make me feel like it’s any major advance over the Wii at all. Time will tell I suppose, and Sony has a good track record on the off-the-wall casual market.

As for Natal – I agree Milo was annoying – nothing more than a next generation seaman – but that’s just Lionhead’s offering, which got good coverage due to Molyneux’s new role at MS. And don’t forget that you CAN use peripherals with Natal – you just don’t need to.

All i’m hoping is the combination of both will break Ninty’s current stale stranglehold.

Definitely agree on the “breaking Nintendo’s stranglehold” stakes. Not that convinced that their new widget offers that much more than the Wii should’ve offered at launch, and as for the balance board and the heart rate monitor – er, no ta.

I think the Sony peripheral might well have a few evolutionary changes to go through before the finished product. Bear in mind the original Eyetoy team are working on this, and they’ve stressed that the coloured balls / wand have already been designed out of the loop. So we’ll see.

One thing that did impress me about Natal was the PGR4 demo I saw using it (Milo can get bent!) Someone was more than able to do a seriously quick lap using the Hairbearbunch “invisible car” control type dealio. So maybe it works a lot better than I’d hoped.