Natal and MILO Games Part 1: How Will Natal Work With First Person Shooters?

We've seen Microsoft's Project Natal work with their own apps, as I call them, but how will Natal work with our favorite games? My favorite game genres are first person shooters, role playing games, music games, and to a lesser degree, sports games. After experiencing E3 2009, I've compiled a short list of games I would love to use Natal with, starting with first person shooters.



First Person Shooter: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (Nov. 10th)
RPG: Star Wars: The Old Republic (release date unknown), or Dragon Age: Origins (Oct. 20th)
Sports: Madden NFL 2010 (Aug. 14th)

Since Natal's projected release date is mid to late 2010, I would be surprised if it works with any of the above games right off the bat, but a guy can dream, can't he? Who knows, given Natal's perceived stage of development, maybe fan input will have some impact on how it should work with our beloved pastimes.

First up, the first person shooter. Being over thirty, and a few years older than the kiddos raised on Halo, I still prefer mouse and keyboard controls in first person shooters. Natal could be a happy median to those who don't feel comfortable with either console controllers or mice and keyboards, and it might be perfect for the old hands like me that find console controller thumbsticks to be a sloppy and less precise mechanism for delivering headshots and untimely death to the enemy.

By now we've all seen how Natal can scan real-life objects for use in their apps - like the paper drawings in the MILO demo, and the kid's skateboard deck (1:47) for Tony Hawk's RIDE. I would love to see similar functionality come to first person shooters, especially the Call of Duty series, since that's mah favrit. I'm not calling for a meatspace arms race here, with kids putting grenade launchers and anti-tank rockets on their Christmas lists. Really, who has an HK SL8-6 rifle laying around? Now if we could scan pics of our favorite weapons in, that would truly be something...I can think of few more awesome moments than pistol whipping someone with my NES Zapper gun.

What about about arm patches, uniform colors, new camouflage patterns and the like? What better way to identify yourself as a member of a 1337 clan than by wearing its uni and armor? Scan a camo pattern in with Natal and off you go!

If you believed Pete Molyneux when he described Milo's abilities, you know that Milo, through Natal, can recognize facial expressions and detect emotion through them. Further, one's tone of voice can affect Milo's response to the player. When playing through a first person shooter's single player campaigns, would your tone of voice and facial expressions betray frustration, anger, any other emotion for that matter, and affect your game? Would the AI respond to me cursing at a stupid jumping puzzle and suggest alternative routes? I would love it if I was pinned down by enemy fire if my NPCs (non player characters) would help me figure out the best course of action.

Last but not least, in-game movement and interaction. This is a puzzle that certainly baffles my little brain. Crouching would be easy, as would going prone, and getting up, but how would one walk back and forth, and side to side? Natal detects when skateboarders "kick" for added propulsion; would it be as simple as walking/running in place? That could prove to be quite a workout, and it would be a great motivator for gamers to get in some semblance of shape, not to mention the benefit guys like me might have over the 400-pounder-living-in-Mom's-basement strain of gamers (nothing against you guys, but your arrangement, which brings with it a dearth of dignity, gives you the inverse in gaming hours, and I tire of your Comic Book Guy cackling when you headshot me for the nth time).

Aside from movement, how would one tell Natal that you want to pull the trigger? Running around going "BAM!" "BAM!" "BAM!" all the time? The licensing from Emeril Lagasse alone could cost millions. I think this would be a situation whereby a sort of gun controller would be required. It could actually be fun if such a controller made one simulate changing magazines, and raise it to look down the sight. Maybe they could sell a controller pack for FPS games that includes two controllers -- one rifle with a sling and one sidearm with a belt holster. I would spend as much for that as I do for Guitar Hero/Rock Band guitars; the visceral feel of using such "realistic" controllers would be worth $70 to $100 in my mind, and it could spawn a much larger peripheral industry for video games.

What do you think? Have I missed the mark on how Natal could work with first person shooters? What other aspects of gameplay could be enhanced with Project Natal?

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