Basil Fawlty
Player Valuation: £35m
And UO wouldnt have exsisted with MUD gamesits all about evolution as you rightly said Final Fantasy 7 changed the way RPGs where seen by the gaming public becuase of its big budget cinematics and the like,i dont really class Zelda games as RPGs really more of an action game but thats as maybe.
I never got into WOW i did try it but was drawn into a vastly superior game (imo) called Everquest 2 but i can see its impact on the way games are played and its influence will be seen for many years to come.
Games mentioned here in this thread for the most part have changed gaming but now the question must be asked where next for new ideas? thats the big question for me at this moment in time theres little to no new inovation happening in gaming,yes the Wii has changed the way we use contollers but honestly are there any great games for that console? i think the honest answer is no to that one.
At the moment we're stuck in an endless cycle of 3rd person shooters,driving games,mindless shovelware that shouldnt be see the light of day at all(mostly endorsed by those hardcore gamers the Redknapps) there's very little new and exciting on the market at the moment,hell even my genre of choice has suffered the JRPG seems to be dying out mainly becuase of the cost of making them i suppose.
Project Natal
This article contains information about a scheduled or expected future product.
It may contain preliminary information that does not reflect the final version of the product.
The Project Natal sensor device.Project Natal (pronounced "na-tal" (IPA: [naˈtal])) is the code name for a "controller-free gaming and entertainment experience" by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game platform. Based on an add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, Project Natal enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller through a natural user interface using gestures, spoken commands,[1] or presented objects and images. The project is aimed at broadening the Xbox 360's audience beyond its typically hardcore base.[2] Project Natal was first announced on June 1, 2009 at E3 2009. Microsoft said that over a thousand software development kits began shipping to game developers that same day.[2]
Though Microsoft has not officially announced any price or release date projections for Project Natal,[2][3] it is expected to be released in late 2010.[4][5][6][7][8] Project Natal will reportedly also serve as the basis for a "new" Xbox 360.
Sensor
The Project Natal sensor[1] is an approximately 9-inch (23 cm) wide horizontal bar[15] connected to a small circular base with a ball joint pivot, and is designed to be positioned lengthwise above or below the video display. The device features an "RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone, and custom processor running proprietary software",[1] which provides full-body 3D motion capture, facial recognition, and voice recognition capabilities. The Project Natal sensor's microphone array enables the Xbox 360 to conduct acoustic source localization and ambient noise suppression, allowing for things such as headset-free party chat over Xbox Live.[1]
The depth sensor consists of an infrared projector combined with a monochrome CMOS sensor, and allows the Project Natal sensor to see in 3D under any ambient light conditions.[1][16] The sensing range of the depth sensor is adjustable, with the Project Natal software capable of automatically calibrating the sensor based on gameplay and the player's physical environment, such as the presence of chairs.[17]
Project Natal is reportedly based on software technology developed internally by Microsoft and hardware intellectual property acquired from time-of-flight camera developer 3DV Systems.[5][11][18][19][20][21] Before agreeing to sell all its assets in March 2009,[22] 3DV had been preparing its own depth-sensing webcam controller, known as the ZCam.[23][fn 2]
Described by Microsoft personnel as the primary innovation of Project Natal,[11][21][26] the software technology enables advanced gesture recognition, facial recognition, and voice recognition.[19] The skeletal mapping technology shown at E3 2009 was capable of simultaneously tracking up to four users for motion analysis,[11][16][19][27] with a feature extraction of 48 interest points on a human body at a frame rate of 30 hertz.[17][27] Depending on the person's distance from the sensor, Project Natal is capable of tracking models that can identify individual fingers.[16][19]
Technology demos
Three technical demos were shown to showcase Project Natal when it was revealed at Microsoft's E3 2009 Media Briefing:
Ricochet – a Breakout-like game in which the entire body is used to bounce balls at blocks.
Paint Party – where the player can make throwing motions to splash or draw with paint onto a wall. He/she can choose colors using speech recognition, and can pose to make stencils.
Milo and Kate – a game in development by Lionhead Studios[29] in which the player interacts with a young child (Milo or Milly, selected by the user at the start) and his/her dog Kate by performing real-life actions. In an interview after the demonstration, Lionhead founder Peter Molyneux confirmed that the demo was in fact the long-running Dmitri Project. Interaction was demonstrated only with Milo at this event.[30]
A demo based on Burnout Paradise has also been shown outside of Microsoft's media briefing, which allows the player to use an invisible steering wheel to control the vehicle.
Code name
The name Project Natal follows in Microsoft's tradition of using cities as code names.[1] Microsoft director Alex Kipman, who incubated the project,[27] chose to name it after the Brazilian city Natal as a tribute to his country of origin,[1] and because the word natal means "of or relating to birth", reflecting Microsoft's view of the project as "the birth of the next-generation of home entertainment".[11]
Notes
Though it is rumored that the launch of Project Natal will be accompanied with the release of a new Xbox 360 console (as either a new retail configuration, a significant design revision,[9] and/or a modest hardware upgrade),[10] Microsoft has dismissed the reports, and has repeatedly emphasized that Project Natal will be fully compatible with all Xbox 360 consoles. Microsoft indicates that it considers Project Natal to be a significant initiative, as fundamental to the Xbox brand as Xbox Live,[11] and with a launch akin to that of a new Xbox console platform.[12] Project Natal was even mistakenly referred to as a "new Xbox" by Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer at speech for the Executives' Club of Chicago.[6][13] When asked if the introduction of Project Natal will extend the time before the next-generation console platform is launched (historically about 5 years between platforms),[14] Microsoft corporate vice president Shane Kim reaffirmed that the company believes that the life cycle of the Xbox 360 will last through 2015 (10 years).[11]
^ Though most pre-announcement speculation surrounding the device focused on the depth sensor, information on the general architecture of Project Natal was leaked a few weeks before E3 2009 with the publishing of a patent application by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.[24][25]
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